Radiance (1986) — Dream Waves

Before Errol G. Specter (aka Dream Waves) released Radiance II and its now-legendary surf harmonics, there was the original Radiance, recorded in 1986 beneath the redwood canopy of Ben Lomond, California. By this point, Specter had already established Phantasma Sound and was becoming one of the most prolific Sagegazers in the Patchoulilight, surrounded as he was by his Oberheims, Blue Crystals, duplication decks, meditation subroutines, and a rotating fellowship of elves, hill dwarves, wandering synthesists, and calm Californians. Yet despite the apparent serenity of Ben Lomond, the Progbarians continued their slow reconnaissance of the western Patchoulilight. Specter understood that the forests alone could not conceal the harmonic signature of his Blue Crystal forever. . . . Radiance emerged during this uneasy interval. The cassette carried the warm glimmering tones Specter remembered from the fallen terraces of the Glimmerlight, braided together with his imagined visions of the distant Offworld Colony where so many of his fellow Synthesists had fled. The music drifted through the redwoods perhaps too much like a beacon. According to later Dream Waves subroutines, Specter began to suspect that the Progbarians were slowly triangulating the frequencies emanating from Ben Lomond. Their weakness, however, was that the Progbarians possessed almost no understanding of oceans, relaxation, surf culture, or why anyone would sit on a beach for six hours doing absolutely nothing. Specter concluded that by embedding surf and seagull field recordings into the harmonics, he could confuse Progbarian detection systems entirely. Thus, later that same year, Radiance evolved into Radiance II, where the added Pacific surf acted not merely as atmosphere, but as cloaking technology. . . . The Sagegazer knows that the Progbarians can analyze frequencies, map stars, and infiltrate civilizations, yet they still remain utterly baffled by waves rolling endlessly onto the shore.