New Review of Celestial Zen from Daily OM

We got at real kick when we read this new review from Daily OM.  They really got where we were coming from back in the 80's when it was first released.  It's a very entertaining read, check it out. – Steve

"David
and Steve Gordon have recorded a vast array of world, trance, loop, and
meditation-based music since they formed their Sequoia label, but Celestial
Zen goes way back in time to the early ’80s, when they recorded the tracks as
part of their Visionary Environments series. The analog synthesizers squiggle
and shake with resonance thanks to digital remastering, but the old-school
space cadet glow is all there. The retro-futurist aspect gives the album an
’80s sci-fi soundtrack vibe, reminiscent of then-futuristic acts like
Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. It’s music meant for big, fuzzy headphones
and deep third-eye visualizations of Andromeda and the Pleiades while
sprawled on beanbag chairs or perched on meditation blankets.

Tracks vary
in style but the mood is always cosmic. "Starshower – 1st Movement"
opens on tinkling cascades of chimes and low, rolling synthesizer melodics
that rise, fall, and slowly swirl into life like a distant galaxy in
midbirth. "Parallel Lives" burbles with shooting meteors and
Vangelis-style synth pads while "Galactic Alignment" opens on
cycling acoustic guitars that echo and bleed into washes of echo. The
centerpiece of the album is the 24-minutes-plus opus "Origins – Winds of
Time." Here, an ominous three-note chord progression (reminiscent of
Wendy Carlos' music in The Shining) rumbles below formations of echoing
guitar and pitch-shifting synthesizers.

A deep foray into the landscape wherein macro
and micro and inner and outer merge as one, Celestial Zen is a trip behind
your eyelids back to a galaxy that's as familiar as an old friend from
childhood dreams. Remember to check your baggage so you can float into the
outer cosmos without being dragged back down to the earth's gravitational
pull, and surrender the ship's controls to David and Steve Gordon. As a
record of a time when electronic synthesizers were all analog and yoga and
meditation classes were impossible to find outside major cities, Celestial
Zen is like an old space captain who knows tricks the youngsters don't. Close
your eyes, put on those fuzzy headphones, and let the bonds of space and time
dissolve in a wash of chimes and gurgling Moogs." – Daily OM