HI011 Sunrise Experimental

Harlem & Irving is proud to release the definitive remastered edition of Sunrise Experimental, the 1995 debut full-length from Chicago spacerock pioneers Star Phase 23. This release serves as a meticulously restored time capsule of a moment in music where the boundaries of "rock" were being pushed beyond the known realms.

Following the 1994 breakup of the band Shift, members Dan Dace, Trey Hills, and Brian Kelly committed to developing a sound driven by traditional instruments but stripped of traditional structures. Seeking to document their new sound-vision, they approached Zach Stellberg (guitarist for Sidekick Kato), then a student at Elmhurst College to engineer the recordings.

The recording sessions for Sunrise Experimental began in April 1995 at the Elmhurst College studio. During this initial spring phase, the band tracked the song Flo and completed the recording and mixing for How Do You Say Rainbow?, Silence, and Everything’s Outside. Access to the university facility ended along with the spring semester, leaving the album only half-finished with several ideas still requiring development. To complete the project, Star Phase 23 reached out to local recording engineer Bryan Mitchell. This second phase of production began in the summer of 1995 and involved mixing the previously recorded instrumental Flo, as well as recording and mixing three new tracks: Rising and Falling, Ebb, and Astroglide. These final summer sessions were successfully concluded in early September 1995.

From the initial synth gurgles, to the delayed, distorted, and reverb soaked crescendo, Rising and Falling provides an ideal introduction to the sonic world of Sunrise Experimental. It’s the perfect balance of harmony and chaos, restraint and excess, building up to come back down, gently. Second track Flo leans into the ambient-drone-space rock sound permeating throughout pockets of the midwest at the time, adding a powerful element in the siren-esque, layered backing vocals of Jenny Peterson. After a brief rhythmic and vocally driven interlude, the album moves on to How Do You Say Rainbow?. Landing somewhere between the ‘make a guitar sound like anything but a guitar’ ethos of shoegaze and the spaces between the music highlighted by quieter strains of post-rock, the track demonstrates the power of pulling back and working in sonic greyscale to great effect.

Built from outtakes of a larger composition, Silence marks the midway point for the album, providing a sonic shift from the austerity of How Do You Say Rainbow? to colorful, dense, multilayered guitar work. While only a minute in length, it serves as a welcome segue to the second half of the album. Everything’s Outside finds the band hitting their stride. A tour-de-force featuring Zach Stellberg on bass and Jenny Peterson’s ethereal backing vocals, it blends all the band’s influences into a wide-open, cinematic arrangement and captures a feeling of total immersion. This gives way to another guitar driven, dreamy interlude built from the same outtakes as Silence. The interlude flows into Ebb, the sonic counterpoint to Flo. Built around found sounds (e.g., cicadas, metronomes, typewriters) and complemented by Deanna Varagona on cello, it’s a somber, deeply emotive track that somehow leans into excess and minimalism at the same time. Finally, the guitar swells of album closer Astroglide arrive and the track builds into a towering example of 90s spacerock ambition, pushing 2”, 24-track tape to its limit with interlocking guitars and relentless drive.

Listening back to the Sunrise Experimental 30 years on, it’s a time capsule of a moment in music where anything seemed possible, because it was. It’s the sound of young musicians seeking out something new through tired, albeit proven means - guitar, bass, drums, vocals. They drank the Kool-Aid and believed in something bigger, and perhaps most importantly brought everyone else around along for the ride. Walk into the music.

Available as digital download/stream.