11-20-14 “The Gaea Star Crystal Hour #140 begins with the mystical, querying “Ready” with Mariam choosing an unusual pivoting key structure for her melody as she and Tom Fair lay a carpet of acoustic 12-strings and Bob Sherwood develops an intense, polyrhythmic percussion groove. We search out the intense center of the piece and find it in a double-time shift before stripping away all but the heartbeat. Next up is Mariam’s “Always The Same Inside”, an island-inflected ukelele-driven folk rock number. The floating, somber “Oh, May I Fly” follows, built around Mariam’s dueling flutes, Bob’s piano and electronics and Tom’s trancing 12-string. Overdubbed “Cloud” guitar adds a touch of uneasy sky to the climax of the piece, a tension that is broken by a backbeat from Bob and Mariam’s harmonies.
After the break we present Mariam’s “Feels Good To Know You” a reverie driven by piano and guitar electronics. A series of shifting keys and major/minor ambiguities resolve to a majestic downward motif that frames an unfolding love monologue from Mariam, spoken and sung. A Beethovenesque build from Bob on piano prepares the ending and we move into Mariam’s new “Jessabelita”, the latest entry into the gypsy song category. Following a driving gypsy jam we close with the floating, acoustic/electronic improvisation “Hello, Hello, Hello”, an affecting greeting to the newly-born. A Beatlesque double-plagal chord scheme suggests a sun always rising, of new life always being born. To the underpinning of Mariam’s steady acoustic guitar and Tom Fair’s lush electronics, Bob sets up a metronomic chordal piano figure that veers in and out of common time. One of our finer sets this year.”
