The Stargazer’s Assistant – Remoteness of Light

Dive a kilometre into the ocean and you leave all surface illumination behind.

Descend another ten and luminous forms flicker and burst through the endless black.

Lures and decoys in their millions – lovers and liars, the hungry and the hunted – drift, swarm, seethe and dart, creating a carnival of light in this kingdom of darkness, though many are too delicate to be seen by eyes that have glimpsed the sky.

Ascend now, one hundred kilometres up, surfacing into the darkness at the edge of outer space.

Here vast forms, born of lightning, illuminate the superheated thermosphere, like luminous jellyfish, some fifty kilometres tall and wide, colossal projections of their microscopic kin below.

And here we are, somewhere in between, believing we have seen the light.

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David J. Smith’s The Stargazer’s Assistant continue their exploration of worlds beyond earthly light with this new four-track* full length album.

Remoteness of Light reveals an expanded line-up for the group, featuring:

David J. Smith (Guapo, Cyclobe)

Percussion and sampled atmospheres

David J. Knight (Shock Headed Peters, UnicaZürn)

Treated guitars and FX

Michael J. York (Coil, Cyclobe)

Pipes, FX and field recordings

As with previous Stargazer’s releases Remoteness of Light eschews and subverts genre identification, instead drawing the listener into an unfamiliar, richly atmospheric, and elemental sound world populated by bursts of freeform percussion, spectral melodies and seething, haunted airs.

The album is produced by Antti Uusimaki (Panic DHH, Circle, Tindersticks etc.) and The Stargazer’s Assistant and was mastered by Helge Sten (Supersilent).

* Track 4, “Birth of Decay” is a live recording only available on the double vinyl edition, or as a download for people ordering directly from the House of Mythology web site.

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