Unique form of ambient electronic & analog music, an organic soundscape of subtle and not so subtle influences, evoking a contemplative otherworldliness, massively visual and layered, ambiguously blended deepness, offering much to consider......

7 MP3 Songs
ELECTRONIC: Ambient, ELECTRONIC: Soundscapes



Details:
The road that has led Kurt Michaels to the creation of "Inner Worlds, Pt. 1" has been a long and winding one; a circuitous route that has taken him through a thousand one-night stands.

Inspired as a child by a baby sitter who reminded him of Happy Days' Fonzie, Kurt would sit through makeshift concerts in lieu of bed time. Later, fueled with a stack of 45's and a transistor radio, Kurt became immersed in the Top 40 hit makers of the early sixties: Chuck Berry, Spencer Davis and Otis Day (yes, the fictitional R&B singer from Animal House), to name a few. When the Beatles came to America, Michaels' destiny became irrevocably cast to a future involving music.

Michaels' thirty-five year musical career has allowed him to share the stage with many of his jukebox heroes, including Berry, Davis, and Day, not to mention Wolfman Jack, Badfinger, Bobby Vinton, the Marvelletes, and the Chiffons. "[It] was a surreal, cartoonish experience, like scenes out of some Fellini movie. But in the end, what I got out of the experience was just that; out."
"Out" meaning the development of a harmonic palette that unabashedly defies conventional parameters.

Though Michaels would at one point turn his back on his first love to pursue what some would consider a "more practical lifestyle," he would eventually return.

The gift this prodigal son offers is "Inner Worlds, Pt. 1." And what a gift it is.

Described as "Olias of Sunhillow meets The Prisoner," Michaels provides a roller coaster of sensory delight, ranging from audio adrenaline to the strangely sublime. Michaels refers to his creation as "music by accident".

In creating this CD, Michaels tapped into a muse that in turn tore into his brain with a vengeance. He built a laboratory of sound within his Chicago-based headquarters and set himself loose upon it. Michaels describes his venture into "Inner Worlds Pt. 1" as a "schizophrenic mess that turned into a happy accident".

One track, "The Village," is a quantum visit to the Orwellian realm of the sixties controversial hit television series, "The Prisoner," where a British Secret Service Agent is incarcerated in a nightmarish psychedelic detention center. Michaels captures the flavor of the show and brings it into the now with flourish.

"The closest thing I can compare ["Inner Worlds, Pt 1"] to is something like Revolution 9 or Tomorrow Never Knows - you know, the phase when the Beatles were experimenting with the technology of the time, creating a collage of sounds and looping them together. "

When asked about his philosophy of "music by accident," he simply responds with the flippant aphorism: "[Music} is a force of nature - and if you are a musician, you are compelled to serve it."

And indeed, he does. If "Inner Worlds Pt 1" is Kurt Michaels in his "learning phase", Part Two is going to be out of this world.

"Happy accident," indeed.