Emerald Web was an American musical duo, made up of the husband-wife team of Bob Stohl and Kat Epple. Founded in 1978 and active through the 1980s, Stohl and Epple were pioneers in

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

, ambient, and electronic music.

History

In the early 1970s, Bob Stohl and Kat Epple met at a

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without ...

at the University of Florida. They relocated to Connecticut and established Emerald Web in 1978. Both Stohl and Epple had trained as keyboardists and flute players before learning how to program, patch, and play synthesizers to incorporate into their music. After purchasing an Electronic Music Labs SynKey 2001, the duo began to provide feedback and consultations to the synth manufacturer. The albums ''Dragon Wings and Wizard Tales'' (1979) and ''Whispered Visions'' (1980) were both produced in Connecticut. In 1980, the couple relocated to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

to be closer to the growing New Age music scene and set up their own home recording studio in the hills above Berkeley. They also established their own record label, Stargate Records, to release their music on cassette tape. In the 1980s, Emerald Web gained a growing audience and were often featured on the influential New Age radio program ''

Hearts of Space ''Hearts of Space'' is an American weekly syndicated public radio show featuring music of a contemplative nature"When you listen to space and ambient music you are connecting with a tradition of contemplative sound experience whose roots are an ...

''. Due in part to their friendship with scientists, the duo performed at non-traditional music venues such as the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

, Morrison Planetarium, and Chabot Astronomical Observatory. In 1990, the duo relocated to Fort Myers, Florida. The partnership ended with Stohl's accidental death by drowning in March 1990, at the age of 35.

Musical style and influence

Emerald Web composed and recorded music in the New Age and electronic genres. They were known for innovative synthesizer orchestration and created a unique blend of "electronic space music" made by using synthesizers, sequencers, and acoustic instruments. Both Epple and Stohl were also flautists; their flute-dominated music achieved a distinctive sound among New Age artists. Stohl was also noted for his musicianship on the

Lyricon The Lyricon is an electronic wind instrument, the first wind controller to be constructed. Invented by Bill Bernardi (and co-engineered by Roger Noble and with the late Lyricon performer Chuck GreenbergIngham (1998) p.184) of Shadowfax, file ...

, a woodwind/synthesizer hybrid. Their recordings featured electronic instruments such as the

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

, an Oberheim sequencer, and the

ARP 2600 The ARP 2600 is a subtractive synthesizer first produced by ARP Instruments in 1971. History Developed by a design team headed by ARP namesake Alan R. Pearlman and engineer Dennis Colin, the ARP 2600 was introduced in 1971 as the successor to ...

. Many of their records were composed and recorded in their own home studio using a 4-track reel-to-reel and released on Stargate Records, their own home label. Thematically, their work was influenced by hard science and technology (including astronomy and early computing) as well as science fiction and fantasy. In addition to recording their music and performing in concert, Emerald Web composed many television soundtracks, including National Geographic,

PBS Nova ''Nova'' (stylized as ''NOVΛ'') is an American popular science television program produced by WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, since 1974. It is broadcast on PBS in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries. The program has won man ...

, CNN,

Apple Computers Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, and Carl Sagan's documentary films. They won several

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

s. They also composed music for a wide range of other applications, from films to planetarium shows. They received a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

nomination in 1986 for their album ''Catspaw''.

Kat Epple solo career

Epple continued to compose and record under her own name as a solo artist and with the ensemble White Crow (1997). She also played flute and other instruments on

Devin Townsend Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

's records ''

Ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

, Z²,

Casualties of Cool ''Casualties of Cool'' is the debut album of Canadian country rock duo Casualties of Cool, consisting of Canadian musicians Devin Townsend and Ché Aimee Dorval, released on May 14, 2014. It is a musical departure from any of Townsend's previous ...

, The Puzzle and Snuggles''. On her own and as part of Emerald Web, Epple has won eight Emmys and ten

Addy Awards The American Advertising Federation (AAF) is the nation's oldest national advertising industry trade association. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AAF has 15 district operations, each located in and representing a different region of the nat ...

for work in composing music for television.

Discography

* 1979 - ''Dragon Wings and Wizard Tales'' * 1980 - ''Whispered Visions'' * 1980 - ''Sound Trek'' * 1981 - ''Valley of the Birds'' * 1982 - ''Aqua Regia'' * 1983 - ''Love Unfolding'', with Jay Scott Neale * 1983 - ''Nocturne'' * 1984 - ''Lights of the Ivory Plains'' * 1986 - ''Traces of Time'' * 1986 - ''Catspaw'' * 1988 - ''Dreamspun'' * 1990 - ''Manatee Dreams of Neptune'' * 2013 - ''Sanctus Spiritus'' * 2013 - ''Garden of Mirrors'' * 2013 - ''The Stargate Tapes: 1979-1983'' * 2014 - ''Whispered Visions (re-release)'' * 2019 - ''Sound Trek (remastered)'' * 2020 - ''Valley of the Birds (remastered)''

References

External links