To Sleep On Stellar Winds by Craig Padilla & Zero Ohms
Release date: September 20, 2024Label: Spotted Peccary Music
It’s been twelve years since Craig Padilla & Zero Ohms (Richard Roberts) have collaborated together after their 2012 release When the Earth is Far Away. Followed by their previous releases; Beyond the Portal and Path of Least Resistance. Looking up into the night-time sky and seeing the massive amounts of stars, waiting for people’s desires to go up into our solar system has been an adventure for them to walk into the substance.
The duo’s latest release To Sleep on Stellar Winds, takes us into the wonders of space with a cosmic atmosphere. Carrying the aspects of the Berlin School of Music that they grew up on, Ohms using his wind instruments and Padilla’s synthesisers; modular, digital, and analog ones, they carry the source material to walk down various planets that’s waiting for them.
‘Initiation, This Ship of Exploration’ carries that nod to the krautrock genre with sequences of the nebulae system, forming into different shapes and forms in which the planet itself has this massive supernova from Ohms haunting flute work, echoing the vibrations and Padilla walking into both Edgar Froese and Vangelis’ territory when it comes to investigating the scenery that’s happening, right in front of your very eyes.
Meanwhile, ‘The Momentum of Intention’ shimmers down into the nebulae system revealing its true powers, a complexity of unknown worlds. You feel as if you’re inside someone else’s dream, knowing how much of what’s happening in this foggy, yet surreal lullaby.
The track sets up this walk into the worlds the complex has given our two astronauts to see what’s happening beyond our own universe with this weird arpeggiated filter Craig creates. I can imagine he was using the Prophet-6 to create that midsection. How can you not ignore that sound?
Elsewhere, the opening track ‘Past All We Knew’ features Skip Murphy using a King Monopoly synthesiser, lending the duo a helping hand to prepare us with Zero’s wind instruments, setting up the ignition to take us to the stars. They arrive, right on time, to create this rising drone, exploring the edge of knowledge, knowing they have a big project down at NASA to get things done.
The 13-minute piece ‘A New Space Revealing’ references some of the sessions of the Phaedra album that comes to mind. You can vision the duo, picking up the pieces in where Tangerine Dream had left off, extending the closing track ‘Sequent C’ to reveal this whole other world that they’re witnessing.
It has some meditating vibes where you can close your eyes, clear your head, and look at a brand-new future in the 25th century that is beyond after we’re gone. They paint this caviar to come back home to Earth with ‘Asleep on Stellar Winds’ where everything has revealed all of the mysteries and questions the duo have finally have the answers to when they get back to NASA.
There’s almost a reference to the usage of ‘My Favorite Things’ for a brief moment the duo put in there, honoring both Julie Andrews and John Coltrane. I mean, that’s a nice little nod they put in once they come home to reveal all of the wonders and mysteries they found in the nebulae system.
This album is perfect to be played in planetariums for a matinee and get viewers an understanding on how much they’ve taken the time and place to create an album that is out of this world. But for now, To Sleep on Stellar Winds is the album that’ll speak for itself for its cosmic voyage that you have you ready to conquer the stars.
