Pauline Anna Strom - Tears in Sunlight (Clear / Red / Yellow Marbled Vinyl LP)

The first new material from beloved Bay Area new age composer Pauline Anna Strom since 1988. Gamelan-esque rhythmic experiments, mind-expanding cosmic drones and smudgy tropical ambience - all the good stuff. In the early 1980s, Bay Area-based composer Pauline Anna Strom released a series of beguiling synthesizer albums under the moniker Trans-Millenia Consort. But as the decade drew to a close, she sold her equipment and concentrated her energy on spiritual practices, becoming a Reiki master and counselor and putting the music on hold. That all changed in 2017, when RVNG compiled Strom's early catalog on the anthology release "Trans-Millenia Music", suddenly allowing a wave of new fans the opportunity to hear her inspiring sounds. This surge in interest prompted Strom to start recording again and "Angel Tears in Sunlight" is the result - a transportive collection of hazy ambience and blissful experimentation that picks up exactly where Strom left off in 1988. In 2020, we're hardly short of new age music, but the mood Strom recaptures here reminds us how unique her sound is. Icy shards of sparkling FM synth cascade over gamelan-esque rhythmic sequences that remind more of Maggi Payne or Laurie Spiegel than Steve Reich; head-frazzling, blurry spiritual ambient tonal work that's only a few paces from Steve Roach's essential early material; and fascinating tropical dreamscapes that sit comfortably alongside Andrew Pekler's sonic universe.