{"id":971,"date":"2025-03-26T14:55:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T14:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/?p=971"},"modified":"2025-06-15T09:57:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T08:57:04","slug":"album-saint-ex-an-electronic-odyssey-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/26\/album-saint-ex-an-electronic-odyssey-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Album: Saint-Ex \u2013 An Electronic Odyssey\u00a0 &#8211; Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Although released a few of years ago, I thought it might be good to provide some background to the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Wind Sand And Stars<\/em> <\/strong>is a wonderful and poetic book by the enigmatic author and pioneering aviator, Antoine de Saint Exup\u00e9ry and was the inspiration for this album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is one of my all-time favourite books which I have ready several times \u2013 not least during the time I myself was learning to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.&nbsp; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is a taster of the opening track:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"720\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1280 \/ 720;\" width=\"1280\" controls src=\"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Saint-Ex.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Saint-Ex &#8211; An Electronic Odyssey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Saint-Ex<\/em> was conceived as a single recorded work but in five defined sections.&nbsp; In the opening <strong><em>Wind Sand And Stars<\/em><\/strong>, we take off on our flight and face the three elemental divinities: mountain, sea, and storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once airborne and with the aircraft trimmed, there is time for reflection in the peaceful air of <strong><em>Dawn Flight<\/em><\/strong>, memories are stirred of an idyllic childhood at Saint-Maurice in Southern France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jumping ahead to the often-dangerous flights delivering mail over North Africa and the Sahara towards the staging post of <strong><em>Cap Juby<\/em><\/strong>, we experience mirages and sandstorms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Black Pebbles On A White Plateau<\/em><\/strong> opens side B of the vinyl album.&nbsp; We find Saint-Ex in desolate north Africa having put down on a high \u2018mesa\u2019 of white stone.&nbsp; With its hundred -foot near vertical sides it cannot have ever been visited by man.&nbsp; On walking around the landing area he discovers first a single shiny black pebble and gradually more similar pebbles.&nbsp; <em>\u2018A sheet stretched beneath the stars can gather only stardust\u2019<\/em>.&nbsp; We are dwarfed by the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(This is my favourite episode in the book!):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/B1-Black-Pebbles-On-A-White-Plateau.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Side B, Track 1 Black Pebbles On A White Plateau<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Saint-Exup\u00e9ry went missing over the Mediterranean on a routine reconnaissance flight in <strong>July \u201844<\/strong> \u2013 neither the aircraft nor his body were ever recovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/williegibson.bandcamp.com\/album\/saint-ex\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">The album is available on 10\u201d vinyl and CD. (Each comes with a badge and beermat(s)) and can be found here<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reviews<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>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\u2019<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Electronic Sound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018Lovers of electronic music and soundscapes will find much to delight in on Saint-Ex\u2019<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Penny Black<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/St-Ex-comp-image-1024x641.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1071\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Electronic Sound magazine review &#8211; Issue 52<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 Exup\u00e9ry and was the inspiration for this album. It is one of my all-time favourite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,8,13,57,15,58],"class_list":["post-971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-electronic-music","tag-eurorack","tag-modular","tag-saint-exupery","tag-synthesizer","tag-wind-sand-and-stars"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1072,"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions\/1072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williegeemusic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}