The temptation to focus on minute details here is almost too much to resist. Like I’m situating into textures, the bark on M. Sage’s latest pine, there’s a lot to feel, steer my ears over. I think to approach “Planisphere” like that throws you off though, causing you to “miss the forest for the trees”, to borrow a cliche I’m ready to stop using any day now. Regardless, what is captivating about this track is the margins all over and together, the crevices worn away by a Roland with cosmic inclinations. It’s no less enamoring in this regard, scraping the wide swathes of “Planisphere” instead of focusing on the patches as if independent of one another. Organization without limitation, like constellations in relation by proximity, kindred only in the eyes that see them that very moment.
It might be a little too superfluous to point out the likeness to a star chart, as M. Sage does it more beautifully than I can in this writing. But as a cosmic combing, the parsing of sound closer to off-roadin’ drone (being as fun as it sounds), I can’t help myself with the affirmation of M. Sage’s star-born scribbles. “Planisphere” is the tangibility of the celestial, as best as we can manifest it. None being better than M. Sage.
“Planisphere” is only one part of this collage, the rest of Astrolabe by M. Sage is available on tape over at the esteemed Noumenal Loom.