Quasar Cycles is the live-looping extension of Chris Turvill’s experimental The Living Planet project, moving away from the limitless confines of the studio environment towards a guitar/bass-only palette more ready for live performance. Slap bass rhythms creating a foundation for hard rock riffs and washes of ping-ponged harmonic ambiance make up the framework of a typical Quasar track. Besides the rock instrumentation guardrails, a reluctance to stay put in any particular genre takes this foundation to countless new territories.
Quasar Cycles started to develop it’s vision with the release of the 2015 debut, ‘Quasar Cycles of the Living Planet”, which curated a mix of psych funk (‘Royal Pudding’), space country (‘Foreign Elf Pt. II’) and punk metal (‘Zoo Riot’).
In 2018, “Outside Standard Time” featured the new wave dystopia of ‘Cyberwire’ and the layered prog funk of ‘Space Maze’, crystallizing a unique style while still leaving room for hard rock with ‘Marsocracy’ and ‘Casino Court’. The album ends with two tracks completely improvised on the spot.
The third album “Coasting the Solstice” was released on December 18th, 2020 on Bandcamp before making it’s streaming debut the following month. It showcased the project’s most complex loops to date with the dissonant prog fusion of ‘Nuclear Dimension’, the gothic groove of ‘Suspended Arboretum’, the metamorphosis of the title track from ambient chill to thrash, and more psych funk with ‘April 2012’ and ‘Atom & Venus’.
As of early 2025, a new album has been recorded and is due to be released later in the year. A jazz standard album is also in the pipeline.
Chris resides just outside of Austin, where he works as a music teacher, both teaching private lessons and subbing with the school district. Quasar Cycles regularly live streams performances on Twitch, Instagram and YouTube, while sometimes also streaming classical guitar sets performing the Suzuki repertoire and finger-style interpretations of classic rock, jazz and VGM.