The Collective Star ~ USA ~ New York City, New York

Music of the Mantric Wave, Vol. II. (1974)

The Collective Star is keyboardist Paul Ramana Das Silbey's first foray into recorded music, while still a resident of New York City. Today, now a resident of the Californian Bay Area, he is known as a "romantic classical concert pianist". The Collective Star is what I'd call proto New Age music. Plenty of what we would now call "world music" presents itself, via eastern instrumentation and scales (hand percussion, sitar, etc...). Lots of period lyrics full of love and peace. Honestly music like this can be very interesting, and I think in the formative stages - as is the case here - it was. It sounds more authentic and heartfelt than the sanitized gloss we've been subjected to since the early 1980s. There's quite a bit of edge in the jam sessions (acoustic guitar, flute, piano, organ), which adds points. Maybe even a little anger that hasn't quite been purged from the soul yet. Not exactly Popol Vuh when looking for "higher key" sounds, but that's not a bad benchmark either. Also fellow New Yorker's Arica may have played an influence here.

No reissues exist as of 3/27/25.

12/28/10 (first listen); 2/4/20 (review / new entry)