Although released a few of years ago, I thought it might be good to provide some background to the album.
Wind Sand And Stars is a wonderful and poetic book by the enigmatic author and pioneering aviator, Antoine de Saint Exupéry and was the inspiration for this album.
It is one of my all-time favourite books which I have ready several times – not least during the time I myself was learning to fly.
For me there is some sort of similarity between operating a light aircraft and patching and crafting sounds with the modular, with precision handling and attention to detail. Indeed, I came upon both by much the same route as learning to fly grew out of MS Flight Sim, so my modular journey grew out of soft synths.
Here is a taster of the opening track:
Saint-Ex was conceived as a single recorded work but in five defined sections. In the opening Wind Sand And Stars, we take off on our flight and face the three elemental divinities: mountain, sea, and storm.
Once airborne and with the aircraft trimmed, there is time for reflection in the peaceful air of Dawn Flight, memories are stirred of an idyllic childhood at Saint-Maurice in Southern France.
Jumping ahead to the often-dangerous flights delivering mail over North Africa and the Sahara towards the staging post of Cap Juby, we experience mirages and sandstorms.
Black Pebbles On A White Plateau opens side B of the vinyl album. We find Saint-Ex in desolate north Africa having put down on a high ‘mesa’ of white stone. With its hundred -foot near vertical sides it cannot have ever been visited by man. On walking around the landing area he discovers first a single shiny black pebble and gradually more similar pebbles. ‘A sheet stretched beneath the stars can gather only stardust’. We are dwarfed by the universe.
(This is my favourite episode in the book!):
Saint-Exupéry went missing over the Mediterranean on a routine reconnaissance flight in July ‘44 – neither the aircraft nor his body were ever recovered.
Reviews
Evocative of the likes of Tangerine Dream, Harold Grosskopf . . . . . The crisp modular whirrs and shimmering arpeggiating tones of Saint-Ex are for any fan of electronic music proper’
Electronic Sound
‘Lovers of electronic music and soundscapes will find much to delight in on Saint-Ex’
Penny Black