Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #183

09-24-15   “Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #183 begins with the lazy, hazy strains of Mariam’s “Sunshine Drenched Day” played by the Gaea Star Band with Mariam on vocals and baritone ukelele, Craig Harris on marimba and Robert Sherwood on piano.  Recalling a hypnotic summer reverie, the piece drifts from theme to theme like a bee to flowers before coming to rest on a lovely, energized piano figure.  We drift into “Waiting For The Moon To Shine”, another drifting, hazy piece that rises up around a never-changing piano ostinato from Bob, and features another beautiful celebration of summer from Mariam.  A cunning series of reharmonizations from Bob turn this pretty piece in on itself one last time and we float away as if on the mist.  To celebrate the life of Wayne Dyer we offer “Intention”, a new song from Mariam that binds a veiled and hypnotic groove from Craig on congas and Bob on piano to Mariam’s inspiring requiem.  A disciplined, Minimalist cycle yields to wild exploration and a gradually quickening pulse until we restate the original theme with gypsy-jazz abandon and conclude on a conspicuously grounding major.  After the break we return with “Along the Conway River” and quickly leave grounding majors behind in a swirling, harmonically ambiguous miasma of driving sound that gathers to storm intensity around Mariam’s drop-D acoustic guitar.  We settle into an electronically treated raga, a musical cloud covers the sun and the maelstrom gathers into an echo-laden piano that leads the way slowly back to the sunshine.  A haunting native flute solo from Mariam introduces a shift into a breathless minor samba until the inevitable drift into the distance.  We conclude with Mariam’s pretty, playful “Aloha Summer”, an island-soaked and ukelele-driven song that powers along with Craig and Bob on congas and marimba respectively.”