Moon of Ostara/The Star Child

Earthling Society voyager Fred Laird pays pagan homage to the goddess Ostara on his outstanding solo odyssey The Star Child. Namechecking Ash Ra Tempel, Harmonia and Walter Wegmüller’s Tarot, Laird adds his own modern Spring rites taking The Star Child beyond a mixing or melding of prime touchstones, old and new, to summon a luxurious blend. Easter never sounded so tripped out, here or out there. Unquestionably tilling fertile soil, The Star Child literally blooms with hallucinogenic tendrils that coil, expand, writhe and encompass. Moon of Ostara take the 4 cuts and seamlessly intertwine and weave them into an otherworldly trek that may be grounded in early synth work, but aims, and hits, the cosmos with a wealth of tripped out guitar and sounds. For all the seeming lack of border ebb and flow, each cut offers up its own identity, and purpose, never at odds with each other, and in the context of the whole, never with itself. Part 3 is the most rock-based of the tracks, but never loses its connection to the whole soundscape and mission. None of them do. Self-described as ‘meditations,’ they indeed coax some serious pondering of the Old Ones and give expansive form to the ongoing continuum of sonic experimentation, and just as importantly, exploration…inner and outer. Part 4 closes with a gorgeous wash of synthed leg stretching that brings the ceremony full circle with no end in sight. This isn’t Earthling Society, but it is a brother and sister in spirit fully, with neither relying on the other for any kind of validation. Blessed by Ostara, The Star Child is a slippery one to nail down, flowing by at a perfect pace, morphing and shapeshifting deceptively like full-sail clouds…once you think you picked out a form to hang onto, it’s rolled into itself to offer up something else. This time around though, those Spring clouds are full-blown nebula.

The Star Child Part I :: Moon of Ostara :: The Star Child (2012, 4 Zero Records)

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