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The current alias Sam Stephens, a musician currently based in New Zealand, uses for most of his solo work. He is an instrumental performing and recording artist.... working with known, unknown, and experimental elements to create recordings of interest to those who are curious about the manifestations of sound. The Unknown Rockstar is at heart an improvisor, and the albums he releases are single or multi track improvisations, or assembled from improvisations.
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You Are Beautifulpmc089 - 2021 Reeds drone, string rattle, lines play past one another. Rattle and groan. Bombast and clank. |
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Delead Gitpmc088 - 2021 Gloopy, noisy, harmonic slabs of rich round sound roast and ferment. |
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Endless and Unrealpmc087 - 2021 Sounds build and mutate from scritch and scree, squeak and clank, to intensity, rupture and roar, whilst maintaining their enigma and inscrutability. |
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Bare Winter Treespmc086 - 2020 A longform guitar improvisation. Spiralling, steely, overtone rich guitar lines and loops create a variety of cold, metallic, but murky spaces. Emotions, sentimentality and the odd surprise arise. |
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Rotten Bunnypmc079 - 2017 A couple of guitar improvisations. Recognizably the guitar, but strange and detached, not always comprehensible. |
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Live At Audio Foundation and Aotea Gallery 2017pmc078 - 2017 Two live Unknown Rockstar sets, one noise and one ambient. |
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Ethereal Leap Overlordpmc074 - 2015 The sounds of circuits and strings layer, combine and mutate to calming and transcendent effect. |
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Another Year Older And Deeper Inpmc072 - 2014 Deeper in what exactly? Deeper enmeshed, deeper commitment to the consequence of decisions, deeper related to the world? |
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Found pianos of Capitol Hillpmc071 - 2014 "I was walking through Capitol Hill, Seattle one weekend, and encountered an abandoned piano at the side of the road..." |
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Let the Good Times Rollpmc069 - 2012 Some guitar playing, some drone. All very cheerful, of course. |
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Ambivalencepmc067 - 2012 A pair of raw guitar improvisations. |
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Untouched Mindpmc065 - 2011 Hypnotic, dreamy, confrontational, complex - the album travels through many moods and styles. An assemblage. |
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Pictures of Poodlespmc060 - 2008 The Unknown Rockstar continues his exploration of the drone and the echo, using guitar, keyboard and electronics to build rippled and whorled sound tapestries that distort and fragment around the listener. |
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Pickelpmc058 - 2007 Two contrasting tracks of live echo guitar recorded on the 28th of April, 2007. Potato Pickel is bluesy, and Rice Pickel builds shimmering overtones layers from echo blurring. |
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Deep Earplug Musicpmc057 - 2007 Recorded live at the first Deep Earplug Music at Happy on the 18th of June, 2006. This was a feedback piece for two amps, two guitars, a bass, a drum, some cymbals, and various effects. |
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Fake Ivorypmc041 - 2004 A double CD of improvised piano, influenced by classical music, jazz, and the avantgarde. Recorded on the sly in Massey Conservatorium of Music practice rooms on a day of September 2004. |
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Sound Boardpmc039 - 2004 an album of beautiful, relatively sparse instrumental playing, on acoustic and electric guitar and on clarinet. The instrumental methods and modes developed through the Tangent Precipitate era are bought to a more focused conception of improvisation and sound under the guise of this new persona. |