Who is Starcastle and what is Chronos 1?
Chronos 1 is a collection of songs taken from mid ’70’s demo tapes, work tapes and early recordings by Starcastle, a progressive rock band formed in Champaign, Illinois in 1972. Starcastle is guitarist/vocalist Stephen Hagler, bassist Gary Strater, keyboard/synthesizer wizard Herb Schildt, guitarist Matt Stewart, drummer Steve Tassler and vocalist Terry Luttrell. All were very talented musicians, and each was featured at various times in their music, with perhaps Schildt and Strater standing out most. The group’s “70’s state of the art” intricate vocal and instrumental harmonies are featured on almost every song. In a review of Starcastle’s 1999 live cd on Epinions, I’ve described Starcastle as a mixture of Yes and ELP, a cross between classical music and hard rock. Like that live album Starcastle released in 1999, the quality of the recordings on this cd is surprisingly good, especially when you learn they were taken from demo and work tapes made 25 years ago. Gary Strater appears to
