Among the Stars

Even smooth has its mysterious holy grails and Norman Evans’ Among the Stars is one of them. Sparkling, quirky, with plenty of star-gazing melodies, but also kind of murky and lo-fi, like smooth jazz for chillwave fans. Little is known about Norman Evans, as he only has two albums to his name. There’s little info about this album –much less cover art or a release year– self-released on Evans’ own Dis Who? imprint (not to be confused with his 1991 CD on the Who Dis? label). It sounds like a one-man show, with Evans writing, playing, producing, and programming a wide array of synths (Yamaha SY. 77, Roland JD-800, EPS 16 Plus Rack, Ensoniq SQ-1, Korg M-1, Kawai KI & K4 and Ensonig ESQ-1) and playing soprano and tenor sax atop it all.