Star Dust and Dreams is my fourth album release. I feel overjoyed to have the energy and creative chance to make more music, and, of course, to share my art for listening pleasure.
Stellar Mammals is a music project centered on reflective and mediative work music. If you are looking for music for focus and flow, I invite you to my latest instrumental “opus,” a lofi album centered on joy, resilence, hope and positive energizing. In short, dial up the vibes.
Whatever your doings or wherever you are journeying, enjoy some good sounding beats for your ears and your awesome.
🔮 Happy Listening 🌊
StellarMammals.com - 📻🎶 Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and other streaming platforms. Watch Videos on YouTube.
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Release Notes
Released on April 15, 2024. Written, composed and self-produced by Mark Koester Original Cover Design by Mark Koester using Generative AI Art Tools Stellar Mammals Production 2024.
Track List
- Sunrise
- Let’s talk
- Soaring Take-Off
- Solo flight
- Stay a moment
- Dreamscape awakening
- Panoramic soul
- Space Elevator
- One way flight to the great unknown
- Earth landing
- Ocean groove
- Upon opening eyes
- Roam in the forest
- Evening tea
- Copa birds
Liner Notes
About Stellar Mammals
Stellar Mammals (Mark Koester) is a Venice Beach-based Music Producer and Tech Creative. Making Flow music. Inspirational Soundscapes. Vibes to live by.
Find additional releases and album art at StellarMammals.com. Will be dropping a sample pack relatively soon. Contact me at stellarmammals@gmail.com to support, collaborate or just say “thanks.”
About Album: Star Dust and Dreams
Purely by hard work, one can become an artist - Robert Fripp
My name is Mark Koester. I make focus, flow and concentration music. I first jam out and make music for myself. I then take some of the good ones (at least to my ears), give them some polish and share a few of the best ones with the world. With you. Thanks for listening.
My current musical intention is to create inspiring songs that fit seamlessly in any part of your day, enabling and augmenting whatever productive, creative or relaxing doings you are tackling. It’s companion music for awesome doings.
Each song, each album is a journey unique. As artists we aspire to put out something. Sadly, the signposts on this journey to finishing and releasing music are largely internal, and no one can really offer a map to get there. All we can really do is take creative steps, then use our ears and our emotions to decide if it’s ready. Then let go. As musician Jerry Jeff Walker put it, “The only way to know how much is enough, is to do too much, and then back up.”
I strive to make and release music regularly. Forever a beginner, always becoming. Vault mentality.
I believe creativity is the act of creating a-new. To create the new and the novel you should replenish your knowlege and inspirations. Go exploring into the unknowns and stumble into happenstance.
On this album, the song writing process was quite diverse and eclectic. Many of the songs were written in some moment of inspiration and joy, spanning my time in Southern California and a few travels especially in Guatamala, Belize and Yucatan, Mexico. Bird sounds were field recorded and pulled for Central American jungle places.
I continue to listen quite widely (400+ genres yearly) and have been develop ing different ways to improve my music production skills and techniques. Though I firmly believe that the best way to get good at song writing and music production is by doing the thing: song writing and music production.
On this album, I was glad to have several collaborators in my Venice Canals home studio to nudge the creative process long and share in the community creation process. Each listener recreates the music a-new too.
My music production and technical approach to sound selection and design were quite similar to recently released music. I remain centered on Ableton Live as my DAW for Music Production and use a mix of sound sources and jamming flows to get started.
For detailed music production notes and creative enabling steps, check my Cosmic Coastlines liner notes.
I’m also sharing some of my music-related reflection journeys, goal setting templates and creative enablers at Stay Reflective.
More as a reminder to myself (though I hope it helps whoever), here are a couple tips for any music producer (or creative for that matter) should strive for:
- Show up. AKA “Do the Work”
- Aim at tangible creative outcomes.
- Play.
- Create and capture little musical magical worlds.
- Reflect regularly
- Track your time.
- Set goals.
- Seek feedback.
- Seed direction and inspiration.
- Find collaborators.
- Try journaling and just imagining.
- Finishing Phase: When you are ready embrace creative organization. Journal, make lists or maybe even a spreadsheet to help you navigate the work of finishing.
Play. Enjoy the adventure. Appreciate beauty. Make music.
Collaborators / Attribution
Collaboration is a gift. Thanks to:
- Jacob Burgdorf - trumpet and horn playing. Los Angeles-based. He spiced up Sunrise, Upon Opeing Eyes, Dreamscape Awaking, and Birds of Copa. Find on IG.
- Kris Cruz - music production assistance. Another Venice Beach-based Music Producer and Audio Engineer. Find him on Spotify and Soundcloud
- Jake Still - Electric guitar on Space Elevator and a few guitar samples. Find him at Open Soul Audio and Spotify.
Special thanks to…
Thanks to a host of named and unnamed supporters.
- Raleigh Tomlison - love, convos, food and enthusiastic dancing.
- Friends in Venice Beach who overheard my jams, smiled, and cheered for my bubble blowing.
Listen to full album on Spotify:
Got a comment? Send me an email.
AIDA (AI Disclosure Acknowledgement): Liner notes were written entirely by me without any AI assistance. I wrote and produced all of the music myself (of course with help and feedback). Album art and short videos were generated by me with the assistance of an AI-based systems (Midjourney, StarryAI, RunwayML).