"New Age Music", search and destroy.

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― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Steve Roach and Robert Rich both make some pretty good music and they are usually consigned to the new age ghetto.

― earlnash, Tuesday, 23 March 2004 16:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, severe pity -- they've both released many excellent albums.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

where is the line between "new age" and similar euro-electronic stuff (later tangerine dream, jarre, etc) drawn?

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

downloaded this recently (vintage: 1978 italy) and am finding it unusually stylish and quite engaging for this sort of thing...

http://italianprog.interfree.it/automat.jpg

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

probably anything post-70's and of the windham hill/winston ilk is what most people think of now when they think of new age music.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

but that doesn't mean that i can't have my own definition and listen to the good stuff.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not a big Hassell fan. I love Jade Warrior. I've got 5 or 6 of their records. I really like the early Vertigo stuff too. It's not everyone's cup of tea.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned, I kiss you for bringing up Kitaro! : )

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

what's worth listening to of winston's?

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

it all kinda sounds the same to me. but i'm not an expert. don't know anything about liz story either.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

btw, thank you jeanne, i was beginning to feel self-conscious being the only girl posting on this thread.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Winston is interesting b/c he comes from the acoustic side of New Age, which at one time included people like John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kotke. If I am remembering right guitarist William Ackerman started Windham Hill and at one time was quite tight with Fahey. Been a long time since I listened to George Winston -- not sure if any of it would interest me now! But back in the 80s I used to like Autumn.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Autumn was a huge seller for Windham Hill. He helped put them on the map.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Here is something I wrote on New Age a couple years ago.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the popular new agey stuff now is all worldbeat-infused. those hybrid records of african/electronic/trancey things. My wife's father has all those cd's at his new age retreat in massachusetts. some of it is pretty psyched-out and droney and some of it is just kinda, i don't know, lame.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I bought a CD at a yard sale for $0.50 called Afrobeat Lounge. That title says it all.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

By some definition, it seems that I already have a bunch of "new age". Multiple x-post, b/c omg wtf I actually had a couple of customers to-day, but I got robert rich' album "bestiary" sent to me by the fellow who runs synthesis technology whose modular synthesiser I pwn. Rich has a similar synthesiser, though his has about 4 x more modules, and he is about 100000000 times better at using it. It is a very, very good album. Burmer, I only have on "western spaces" alongside steve roach and kevin braheny, but that's another really good piece, like nothing happens on it, but it's a kind of awe-inspiring wide-open space nothingness.

Those old Jade Warrior recs are so obscure, even among vertigo collectors, that it amazes me. They're really good, surely one of the few undiscovered little gems of their sort out there.

I tend to differentiate between synthesiser/electronic/space music (as was) of the sort I got into when I was first getting into music, when I'd buy anything w/a picture of a modular synth on the back cover, and a nebula or suchlike on the front, and yer actual "new age". I have NO IDEA why. What got me into asking the qn was I got stuck on hold to-day, and the hold music was tinkly piano music w/added (quite strange-sounding) synthesiser, and based on this suzanne ciani concert I saw at a dutch electronic music concert years ago, I found myself thinking snidey thoughts abt "new age music". Then I realised that I had absolutely no idea what I was on abt. ILE has not let me down, and I thank you all for the great responses!

Anyway, based on the definitions above, my candidate for "search" is kronos by michael stearns, which is a wonderful synthesiser music record.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone once wrote something like "Your parents like Windham Hill, you like Kranky," which I think is a bit glib but kind of amusing

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

"Chronos", not "Kronos", and on reflection, a better title is "Planetary Unfolding" anyway. Humour me plz, to-day has been teh sukc.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:43 (twenty-two years ago)

search: vacca and moran, whose best work, like the best new age, is like sitting on a country porch listening to the rustling wind, only the wind has some harmony going on.

search: codona. the trio of collin walcott, don cherry and nana vasconcelos, whose albums were simultaneously claimed by new age fans, world music fans and jazz dudes, and were pretty good if memory serves.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned, I kiss you for bringing up Kitaro! : )

*blush* Rah!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 17:53 (twenty-two years ago)

the new age stuff that i dig that i never know any names/titles of is all the stuff i've ever heard on the radio on new age radio shows that is just basically super-mimimal ambient electronic modern classical geometric drug/head music with titles like "raindrops parts 1-10". that stuff always gives me those good kinda acid flashbacks that remind me of the stuff i would hear in my head as a kid when i would try to go to sleep after tripping all day. basically anyone making music with computers/moogs who decide what note to play next only after consulting the tides/moon charts. whale music is kinda nice too. and i heard this beautiful recording once of nothing but droning trombones taped in some underground catacombs and i forget the title and it's been bugging me for years.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:01 (twenty-two years ago)

"And now, Music From Some Guys in Space."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Kitaro - duddy
Tomita - yeah!!!!! (The star hustler theme is by tomita, that's all you need to know!)

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

although, like i said on a thread last week: the over-the-topness of some kitaro records is kind of a hoot. when he's got all the bells, gongs, synths, and pomp going at once.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

what's the diff between ambient and new age (if any).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I just read pitchfork media mark's article linked above, and it's fucking good.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

agreed.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

on a similar tip of breaking down boundaries between electronic instrumental scenes

Star's End - 25 Significant STAR'S END Albums
http://www.starsend.org/25albums.html

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, i just read it too. it's good. and it does a good job of describing that fine line between ambient/kraut/electro/windham. Julio, read that article linked above.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

So what happens on the later Jade Warrior records? Because I like the Vertigo stuff I've heard a lot, but I guess I never liked 'em enough to go out and acquire the whole catalog or anything. The early stuff has some pretty rocking moments! Do they just go all faux-ethnic?

Also, seconding the Deuter recommendation. Codona too, if they count. I guess I don't think of those records that way, but they do walk a fairly fine line.

― Broheems (diamond), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

thanks, martian. i think part of the stigma problem is that all those 80's records have such shitty covers. re-do the covers and put them out on a hip label and they would sell like hotcakes to the kranky krowd.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

check out this pic ov michael stearns:

http://usuarios.lycos.es/audionautas/Paranoias/michaelstearnsmid80s.jpg

I mean, I'd pick up an album of his in the '80's, flip it round, and see that on the back, and I'd have to fucking buy it!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Aslo popol vuh related, does anyone have any of alois gromer khan's solo music? IIRC he did at least one album, thet I've never heard.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

i've never been much of a Hillage fan. maybe i never had the right records.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

now that i think of it, a lot of the hating can be layed on the doorstep of Vangelis. Some of his 80's stuff is just abysmal.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

and his early stuff rules, needless to say.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"Antarctica" IIRC is about the only good '80's vangelis.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

HIS album on Vertigo rocks the house. i love that record.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"Vangelis A. Papathanisou"? I used to have that one, if so.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I've listened to L'Apocalypse Des Animaux a hell of a lot over the years, oddly enough.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

that's not that odd, ned. it's a good record. and yeah, pashmina, that one.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, it is good, no question, it's just that I've never particularly investigated his early stuff beyond that! It provides my needed fix.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

one of the early titles for the latest M*untain G*ats album was "New Age Music Will Save Your Wretched Soul"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I was just looking at the vinyl copy of the new M.G. record at my local record shoppe here the other day but i didn't buy it cuz it didn't have that title.:) (you have a lot of fans here on martha's Vineyard, by the way.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Mark R., I always loved "Resonant Frequency" -- any plans to revive it, or write in that form elsewhere?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"what's the diff between ambient and new age (if any)."

Take the NPR shows "Echoes" and "Music from the Hearts of Space", there are times those two shows are great and there are times where I cannot turn it off fast enough.

I'll be the first to admit, I can't take the celtic or indian flute music other than as musak, but I tune in as there have been a few times those shows are fantastic. Echoes did a two hour tribute to Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh when he passed away and had an hour with Brian Eno a month or so ago that was great.

― earlnash, Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

See, that's the crux of the problem: the crap stuff takes good ideas from people like reich/eno/etc. and then adds a didgereedoo or soundbites of pygmies and calls it art. And sometimes you have to wade thru that stuff to get to something good.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Scott: re:

"i heard this beautiful recording once of nothing but droning trombones taped in some underground catacombs and i forget the title and it's been bugging me for years"

You might be thinking of one of the recordings by the Deep Listening Band:

http://www.pofinc.org/DLBhome.html

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Skipping 344 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I’d be surprised if that one had hip cred because it’s really ummmm 80s Folgers commercial-ish? Idk how exactly to describe it, just a really warm unpretentious un-cosmic vibe.

― brimstead, Sunday, 2 February 2020 02:06 (six years ago)

I’d be surprised if that one had hip cred because it’s really ummmm 80s Folgers commercial-ish? Idk how exactly to describe it, just a really warm unpretentious un-cosmic vibe.

― brimstead

you say "folgers commercial", i think "incest"

― you know my name, look up the number of the beast (rushomancy), Sunday, 2 February 2020 02:31 (six years ago)

three weeks pass...

William Aura ‘Half Moon Bay’ is a stellar Saturday morning listen

― justice 4 CCR (Sparkle Motion), Saturday, 29 February 2020 16:16 (six years ago)

I've been listening to this a lot:

https://soundcloud.com/soundsofthedawn/sounds-of-the-dawn-nts-radio-december-7th-2019

Has anyone heard anything else by Klaus Wiese? He seems to have released a lot of albums.

― toby, Sunday, 1 March 2020 19:15 (six years ago)

This is fabulous - perfect for Sunday evening.

― Ngolo Cantwell (Chinaski), Sunday, 1 March 2020 20:56 (six years ago)

I'm on my second listen though this. Terrific stuff. Who is this guy!? I'd never heard of him before this but his discography is massive.

― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 2 March 2020 20:26 (six years ago)

I've listened through a couple of times, too. Fantastic. Looks like Wiese was in Popol Vuh for a bit. Well, a year. Playing tambura, the massive hippie.

― Ngolo Cantwell (Chinaski), Monday, 2 March 2020 20:37 (six years ago)

"Popol Vuh" - check
"tambura" - check

OK I gotta hear this

― sleeve, Tuesday, 3 March 2020 00:23 (six years ago)

eight months pass...

I guess David Hykes fits in here? I can't stop listening to Hearing Solar Winds and, especially, Harmonic Meetings - both so enveloping and expansive. This year has been a cunt in so many respects but I'll remember it for being the year I re-learned how to sit still and listen.

― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 20:19 (five years ago)

This album is very quiet and subdued, but it is absolutely not New Age music:

https://wejazzrecords.bandcamp.com/album/superposition

And yet, it's nominated for a New Age Grammy. Bizarre.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 20:22 (five years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx8hTWyUrIs96PFEUecbRnXLzfOiuBh7c

― xzanfar, Tuesday, 24 November 2020 21:14 (five years ago)

I have a small collection of new age tapes that I found in a trash pile in Mt. Shasta, CA, which is a New Age destination. Anyway, I find myself putting this one on a lot: https://waterfallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/zen-waterfall-for-bamboo-flute-and-piano

― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 23:01 (five years ago)

Description: Improvisations for Bamboo Flute (Shakuhachi) performed by Eliot Joshu and Paul Lloyd Warner (Piano) Recorded in 1977 in Kula, Maui, Hawaii

― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 23:03 (five years ago)

two weeks pass...

Pauline Anna Strom has passed:

pauline anna strom, 1946 - 2020 ~
a companion across time, our trans millenia consort
heartbroken to say goodbye to paula so suddenly
at least now at one with a world beyond ours to which she was connectedhttps://t.co/bQPzHHJydJ pic.twitter.com/iLnwDA25ol
— RVNG Intl. (@rvngintl) December 14, 2020

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 14 December 2020 17:27 (five years ago)

Damn. RIP

― groovypanda, Monday, 14 December 2020 17:37 (five years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05hJWn4c--A

I have been really enjoying the new Clarissa Connelly album, it has very strong Enya energy.

― boxedjoy, Tuesday, 15 December 2020 12:17 (five years ago)

I'm no expert on New Age but I've been known to enjoy "The Mummers Dance" and "Tubular Bells" from time to time.

― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Tuesday, 15 December 2020 13:06 (five years ago)

eight months pass...

oh hell yeah

Morning Trip & Yoga Records are proud to finally reveal one of the ultimate lost masterworks of new age music: Alice Damon’s Windsong!

Gently propelled by Damon's haunting breath-of-life vocal winds reminiscent of Joan La Barbara underscored by field recordings and Damon's fretless bass sound calling to mind mid-70 Joni Mitchell, Windsong is traveling music, for the roads or for the skies. Instantly moving, it conjures vistas both romantically familiar and cosmically mysterious — waterfalls and wind, the voice of the earth, as heard through heavenly prisms.

― sleeve, Friday, 27 August 2021 00:45 (four years ago)

one year passes...

couldn't find a Joanna Brouk thread so posting here since she is mentioned upthread, this is highly riyl The Space Between:

https://vantzou-harrison-bennett.bandcamp.com/album/christina-vantzou-michael-harrison-and-john-also-bennett

― corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 13 December 2022 18:32 (three years ago)

This is lovely. Thanks for the heads up.

― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Tuesday, 13 December 2022 21:05 (three years ago)

one month passes...

Don't know where to ask this question, so I'm putting it here:

I guess this is new age-ish, but is there a more specific name for this kind of music?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF7W2Y0X4_s

It's usually made by a guitarist, with all other instruments (keys, bass, drums) being programmed. There was a ton of it around in the 1990s.

It's a little too "active" to be ambient or new age music, and while it hits a number of smooth jazz notes I'm not sure it's that either. (This is a 1999 solo album from Nektar's guitarist, and I'm pretty sure he never got played on smooth jazz formats.) It's too formulaic to be of much interest to a prog fan. It sounds like it should be the soundtrack to an Imax film.

― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Monday, 6 February 2023 23:02 (three years ago)

two months pass...

https://iasos.com/detalist/rol-dvd/#glimpse

I'm into https://vimeo.com/178121678

― official representative of Roku's Basketshit in at least one alternate u (lukas), Saturday, 29 April 2023 23:14 (three years ago)

two months pass...

Sad news about Wilburn Burchette, as featured on I Am the Center and so forth:

https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2023/07/10/brothers-ages-84-and-76-found-dead-in-blossom-valley-home-near-lakeside-identified/

Worth a deeper listen:

https://masterwilburnburchette.bandcamp.com/music

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 12 July 2023 15:44 (two years ago)

listening now in fact, thank you and RIP

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Wednesday, 12 July 2023 15:49 (two years ago)

Douglas Mcgowan with a remembrance:

https://numerogroup.com/blogs/stories/master-wilburn-burchette-1939-2023

Also Bill Perrine, who just published a book on 1970s San Diego experimentalism and included Burchette as part of it, is asking for anyone who might be able to help in preservation of his material to contact him at bill at billingsgate dot org

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 12 July 2023 18:55 (two years ago)

oh unbelievable. i love his music so much. i had no idea he was 1) still alive and 2) so close by!

his music means a lot to me, so it’s frustrating how hard it is to get in physical form. i particularly like the one with the giant flaming eye ball floating in space like a flaming eye ball nebula. i feel like it speaks directly to my innermost self

i am waiting for the new bill perrine book to show up at the brick and mortar, instead of mail order from massachusetts or whatever. very excited for this one!!

― the late great, Wednesday, 12 July 2023 20:31 (two years ago)

one year passes...

this is a really beautiful solo flute and voice tape recording. parts of it were recorded inside of an abandoned water cistern in washington state for maximum echo effect. also incredible mid-90s cover art lol.

Laura Sperling - Water Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0SCH--79hc

― donna rouge, Friday, 10 January 2025 23:32 (one year ago)

eleven months pass...

Heard this in a cafe, it’s quite beautiful, and I couldn’t get it out of my head for a while. Apparently she is, uh, one of Oprah’s favourite singers, and it’s got 12m views on YouTube, so I guess it’s big with whatever its audience is.

In a good way, it reminds me of “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaaP-hrUDFI

― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 8 January 2026 21:49 (five months ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGRWNjHVH3s

― Maresn3st, Sunday, 18 January 2026 18:08 (four months ago)

Andreas Vollenweider rules ok

― corrs unplugged, Monday, 19 January 2026 13:52 (four months ago)

^ Just picked up Caverna Magica for super cheap on vinyl.

Here’s a beaut from South Africa I just found

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn0IcB-ycwk

― Heez, Wednesday, 21 January 2026 03:04 (four months ago)

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