MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The band, Stars of the Lid, often made songs that developed very slowly without words. They were masters of what is known as ambient music.
(SOUNDBITE OF STARS OF THE LID'S "A MEANINGFUL MOMENT THROUGH A MEANING(LESS) PROCESS")
KELLY: For many admirers, the ambient music created by Stars of the Lid conveyed deep, emotional weight. Last weekend, the duo announced that one of its members, Brian McBride, had died. He was 53. NPR Music's Lars Gotrich told us about what composer Brian McBride helped to create.
LARS GOTRICH, BYLINE: Stars of the Lid started in Austin, Texas, in 1993. Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie both loved Brian Eno.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRIAN ENO'S "1/1 (REMASTERED 2004)")
GOTRICH: They loved the Estonian composer Arvo Part.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARVO PART'S, GIDON KRAMER'S AND KEITH JARRETT'S "FRATRES")
GOTRICH: They loved obscure film composers and the English band Talk Talk.
(SOUNDBITE OF TALK TALK SONG, "TOMORROW STARTED")
GOTRICH: And they wanted to figure out how to make that mishmash of ideas come together. They like to use guitars that didn't sound like guitars, so they would process them through lots of electronics and computers.
(SOUNDBITE OF STARS OF THE LID'S "TAPE HISS MAKES ME HAPPY")
GOTRICH: They would take recordings of household objects and manipulate them, whether it be a refrigerator or their pet dog, for example. And then they would mix these things all together very meticulously over months and even years to get a perfect place for you to sit inside of.
(SOUNDBITE OF STARS OF THE LID'S "CANTUS: IN MEMORY OF WARREN WILTZIE")
GOTRICH: Throughout the '90s, Stars of the Lid put out some pretty incredible records. But in the early 2000s they put out a pair of records that I think reshaped how listeners thought of ambient music.
(SOUNDBITE OF STARS OF THE LID'S "DON'T BOTHER THEY'RE HERE")
GOTRICH: In 2001, there was the "Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid," and in 2007, the album called "And Their Refinement Of The Decline." Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie, together, they started thinking back to the classical records that they grew up on, and they started thinking in terms of traditional composition as opposed to this dense layering that ambient music is known for.
(SOUNDBITE OF STARS OF THE LID'S "EVEN IF YOU'RE NEVER AWAKE")
GOTRICH: They're bringing in strings. Often, the melodies were slow and required a lot of patience. But if you spent time with these records - and these records are long - you're rewarded with this not only depth of sound but depth of emotion.
(SOUNDBITE OF STARS OF THE LID'S "EVEN IF YOU'RE NEVER AWAKE")
GOTRICH: I only got to see Stars of the Lid once in 2008, and everybody just sat on the floor and just let the waves of sound wash over them. And, you know, at a certain point, I think I turned around, and there wasn't a dry eye in the audience. And that was the thing. That's what Stars of the Lid was and still is. It's this idea that you can bring whatever ideas, whatever burdens, whatever joys that you have to this music that is wordless, and you can embrace your own narrative within it.
KELLY: That was Lars Gotrich from NPR Music, remembering Brian McBride, one-half of the ambient duo Stars of the Lid, who died at the age of 53.
(SOUNDBITE OF STARS OF THE LID'S "EVEN IF YOU'RE NEVER AWAKE")
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