The Stargazer's Assistant will be performing at the The Horse Hospital
Colonnade, Bloomsbury
London WC1N 1JD

Wednesday 12th March 2014

A NIGHT OF ASTRAL EARTH PLANE MUSIC SURROUNDED BY THE PSYCHIC PAINTINGS OF ETHEL LE ROSSIGNOL


DOORS 7:30PM
TICKETS £8 ADVANCE TICKETS (CLICK HERE)
FEATURING  THE STARGAZER’S ASSISTANT, ALEXANDER TUCKER AND JOSEPH LEWIS.
“In true hearing, the voices of the archangelic realm carry unimaginable ecstasies which overcome the spirit, revivifying springs of harmony within and without.”
From A Goodly Company (1933), received from the spiritual spheres by Ethel Le Rossignol.

The Stargazer’s Assistant – David J Smith, and Michael J York.  Eyes closed, ears wide open, we are given freedom to dream the void.
“Music of rare emotional power, of penetrating beauty, with the capacity to extend and enhance its listeners’ understanding; it is, in other words, the real deal.” Oliver Arditi

Alexander Tucker – “[A] mixture of the hauntingly familiar and the unaccountably strange… conjures [a] thrilling sense of disorientation and wonderment.” The Quietus

Joseph Lewis – “Joseph Lewis’ hurdy gurdies chart an alternative folklore of the British Isles. Produced through a rigorous study of ancient craft traditions and folk symbols, these instruments are nevertheless a celebration of an anarcho-democratic and carnivalesque tradition.” Pil and Galia Kollectiv


http://www.thehorsehospital.com/now/possessors-of-the-orb/

Oliver Arditi
News and reviews focussed on local, independent, leftfield, experimental, progressive or plain good music.
The Stargazer’s Assistant – Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids (dark ambient)
Posted on October 21, 2013 0

Utech Records URLP079, 2×10” & DD album
$23 2×10” $7 DD

http://utechrecords.com/Releases3.html
http://utechrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mirrors-tides-shivers-voids

There’s no easy categorisation for this music, no recognisable stylistic tag that readily contains it, but it evinces a coherent, clearly-stated set of aesthetic and creative values, an imagistic approach to the making of musical statements, that produces much the same clarity and precision of expression that can be found by working inside an established style. It’s obvious from the start that there is a rigorous method and a fully formed creative language informing the sounds, and part of the music’s fascination is the partial unveiling of that broad artistic vision, leaving the listener at the end of this album (or these two EPs) with the distinct impression that it has only scratched the surface; it is apparent that David J. Smith has a great deal to say. The Stargazer’s Assistant is a rubric under which he has said relatively little – or rather, under which he has made relatively few statements, as this recording is nothing if not dense with meaning; if you go looking for his pubic creative persona (in music at any rate, as he is also a sculptor), you will find it principally as the percussionist, and now sole remaining original member of the avant-rock ensemble Guapo. This music is rather different, certainly inasmuch as it doesn’t draw on the stylistic lexicon of rock music in any but the most tangential manner, but there are undeniable affinities as well. Its affective compass straddles darkness, mystery and beauty in much the same way, and it balances the cerebral against the visceral in a similar manner to the best of Guapo’s releases, its ideas both thoughtfully conceived and passionately expressed.
There are quite a variety of textural approaches in play across these two discs, but the effect is not one of disjuncture or even eclecticism; long sustained drones sound very much of a piece with percussive grooves, quite clearly facets of the same musical practice. The release as a whole consists of two vinyl EPs, Shivers & Voids, which was released in 2008, and the newly recorded Mirrors & Tides; it’s very much a single creative work however. There is a symmetry to the discs, each featuring its title tune as a relatively short work between two longer pieces, in each case a relatively complex exposition followed by a spare and simple piano epilogue. The compositions eschew the traditional sort of formal structure, being episodic rather than strophic or developmental, and all are founded around the gradual organic growth of relatively simple ideas and motifs. There is complexity in spades, but it comes in the form of textural modulation and timbral lamination, rather than in the discursive melodic-harmonic exposition that is still the normative practice of ‘serious’ music. These compositions are built in the manner of ambient or drone music, although they are too rich with detail and incident to fall into such categories, and invite a more active mode of listening. The most frequently encountered sounds are piano, a stringed instrument (or instruments) with double courses and a taut sound, like a bouzouki or saz, the singing of Mika Rättö on the more recent disc and an uncredited vocalist(s) on the earlier, and percussion. On Mirrors & Tides Smith makes use of the metal percussion collection of the late Finnish drummer Edward Vesala, but there are also metallic sounds on the earlier recording, whose opening ‘Night Soil’ begins with the sound of a gong. There are also synthesised sounds, and to be honest, a fair few whose sources I can’t identify; I like to work with whatever information is volunteered, so I haven’t asked for clarification on this, or on the working methods that produced the recordings, and I don’t intend to speculate.
There is silence at the core of this music; the silence from which it arises, and into which it subsides, but also the silence that frames it as it progresses. Each element is placed with care, and even at the music’s loudest, most active moments, there is always the sense that it is situated in one tiny corner of infinity; textures build with enormous serenity and a total lack of creative anxiety. Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids is not so much a statement, as a slow, deliberate unfolding. There are elements of consonant tonality, and of concrete non-tonal sound; there are rhythmic cyclicities and open ended sequences; long drones and short attacks. The common theme is the gradual accumulation of elements, the long slow dynamic build, and a somewhat unsettling, melancholy affective landscape. Sometimes the feeling is explicitly ominous, as in ‘The Dream Kingdom’, which also, it should be said, contains some of the most consonant, affirmational harmonies on the release; most of the time the music is more ambiguous. There are moments when the soundscape is openly representational, as in the woodland scene elaborated in ‘Night Soil’, or the jets and explosions of ‘Secret Kingdom Of The Swift’, but for the most part it is more painting than drawing, more colour than shape.
Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids is also sometimes simply, generously beautiful, with no hint of cold or dysphoria, as in the closing vocal episode of ‘Coral Butterfly’. This sensual aesthetic is a constant throughout the music, however, even when the affective surface is less inviting; the compositions are sometimes dark, threatening, disorientating or disturbing, but their subject, it seems to me, is the beauty of darkness, of fear, of being unsettled. To place a positive aesthetic valuation on the more forbidding shades of human experience, unless it is done with the celebratory glee of the slasher flick, is an extremely ambitious creative project; to do so in a way that embraces the complexity and contingency of life, and that effectively communicates its author’s take on the world, requires care, rigour, and most importantly some genuine degree of insight. David J. Smith has truths to tell us, and he’s gone to considerable lengths to share them with clarity. While his work as The Stargazer’s Assistant may steer clear of the discursive and technical intricacies that are usually valorized as the tokens of compositional and musicianly prowess, his work here, both in its conception and execution, is supremely accomplished. This is music of rare emotional power, of penetrating beauty, with the capacity to extend and enhance its listeners’ understanding; it is, in other words, the real deal. Hear it.

Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids Review

Lovely review of The Stargazer's Assistant LP here:

http://astoundedbysound.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-stargazers-assistant-mirrors-tides.html

Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids Ltd double 10" Vinyl

Now taking pre orders for The Stargazer's Assistant double 10" LP. It comes in a limited edition of 300 copies and includes a download card/code.

Release date is 27th July.
£20.00 post paid for UK residents
£22.00 post paid for rest of Europe
Paypal: stargazersassistant@yahoo.co.uk
or visit guapo1.bandcamp.com

LABEL
Utech Records
utechrecords.com
CATALOG NUMBER
URLP079
FORMAT
2x10”
Poster sleeve 20”x20”
Black vinyl + download
Edition of 300
TRACKLIST
Side A
Coral Butterfly
Side B
Mirrors & Tides
Secret Kingdom of the Swift
Side C
Night Soil
Shivers & Voids
Side D
The Dream Kingdom
ART
Patti Jordan
pattijordan.com
DESIGN
Keith Utech
ARTIST PHOTO
ASW & DJS
STREET DATE
July 27, 2013

A 2x10” vinyl release from David J. Smith, The Stargazer’s Assistant, incorporating 2008’s acclaimed Shivers and Voids EP on Utech Records and a new three-track EP, Mirrors and Tides, featuring “Coral Butterfly”, “Mirrors & Tides” and “Secret Kingdom of the Swift.”
Eyes closed, ears wide open, we are given freedom to dream the void. Sweeping, intricate, sometimes ominous yet always exuding a warmth and depth of emotion, The Stargazer’s Assistant produces pure cinema of sound.
For the new EP, David J. Smith is joined by Circle vocalist Mika Rättö’, who sings on the heart-breaking “Coral Butterfly”. David also had the honour of playing the late Finnish jazz drummer Edward Vesala’s Sound & Fury collection of unique metal percussion.
Ancient forests, vast plains, billowing clouds, rusted metal hulks, wet rock walls, lights flickering in darkness: these are the subtle visions of The Stargazer’s Assistant.
Born in Stourbridge, 27th August 1970, David J Smith studied fine art before gaining his BA at Cardiff in 1991. He moved to London in 1994 and concentrated on musical projects, including the avant rock group Guapo, which he co-founded.Smith has been playing drums and making music since 1986 and is regarded as one of the UK’s most spectacular and imaginative percussionists. As well as The Stargazer’s Assistant and Guapo, he performs with Cyclobe and the Amal Gamal Ensemble.

stargazersassistant.blogspot.com

THE STARGAZER’S ASSISTANT
MIRRORS & TIDES, SHIVERS & VOIDS

Mirrors & Tides Shivers & Voids Double 10" Vinyl

The Stargazer's Assistant artwork fresh off the printing press!!!
Forthcoming album Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids coming soon on Utech Records. Luxurious double 10" vinyl and download. Ltd copies will be available through the Guapo bandcamp site and via:
www.utechrecords.com

The Stargazer

The Other Side Of The Island - Horse Hospital Video