"New Age Music", search and destroy.

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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)

yeah just did scott (I just read through the thread quickly at first, and didn't notice the link).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks, Nom! It might be. I'll check out the recordings. I love Pauline! I'm even quoted on her web-site somewhere cuz I wrote a review of the Ohm box that included her. And my wife, who is writing a book, has been getting a lot of help from Pauline's partner at the deep listening HQ. (the book she is writing doesn't have to do with music though.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks to those who liked the column -- if you read the Gas thread linked above you can see how it grew out of that.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

yes good article, especially the line to simply listen to what sounds good

in the early 80's, there wasn't really anything else like Stephen Hill's Hearts of Space program on the air... occasionally too much flute, but frequently it was just solid, bizarre electronic drone. also it was truly independent, he'd play weird cassette submissions you couldn't hear anywhere else.

>Deep Listening Band:

they made a few recordings in the water cistern. the debut album and The Ready Made Boomerang. (My favorite album of theirs is Non Stop Flight mainly for the last 50 minute track.)

Dempster returned to the cistern with 9 other trombonists for Underground Overlays, which is staggeringly gorgeous.

― (Jon L), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

(and if the record scott's thinking of was solely constructed from a trombone ensemble, it was almost certainly the Dempster record)

side 2 of L'Apocalypse Des Animaux. rules.

― (Jon L), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't Hearts of Space still going?

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Read a John Fahey interview where he said he knew George Winston when he was starting out and he rated him as a guitarist but he didn't quite know what went wrong with him. In a similar vein to Deuter and similarly proto-New Age, Peter Michael Hamel and Between (in fact Alois Gromer was in them too) - all quite pleasant, but the blandness and niceness of it all is a bit wearying, in contrast Popol Vuh were never remotely bland.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 02:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah - Fahey actually released Winston's first album Ballads and Blues, on his Takoma label.

― Broheems (diamond), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 02:23 (twenty-two years ago)

'Hearts of Space' is bitchin' in winter, as he starts making all of these really icy mixes of really minimal ambient music with titles like "dust of grain in winter ice flow". I like those shows.

Both of the shows I mentioned are still play some obscure, unsigned artists. I listen to both quite often, usually as I go to bed.

Someone that I heard on "Echoes" that I would like to hear an album is Cliff Martinez. He played drums with Beefheart and was an early member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and now he makes film soundtracks including many for Stephen Soderberg including Solaris, Narc, and Traffic. I've actually not seen these movies, but the music they played was interesting and had some really interesting sounds.

― earlnash, Wednesday, 24 March 2004 03:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I loves me some Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 04:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I always love when John and I can sync up on our Projekt catalog loves.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

Is George Winston really considered new-age? I mean its just piano compostions for crying out loud. I have most of his releases and they seem just right for me. I also like his cd of Peanuts music.

― Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Thursday, 13 May 2004 11:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, George Winston is considered new age. He's like the king of new age. And there ain't nothing wrong with that.

FYI - I got a great album in the mail. Eluvium - An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death (temporaryresidence ltd.)

Its solo piano by a guy named Matthew Cooper. Like Sate, Winston, and Budd all wrapped up in a big sad ball. Really beautiful stuff.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 13 May 2004 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Welcome to ... Bashovia
http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/dre800/e875/e87582v0u0n.jpg

― seyxDancer, Thursday, 13 May 2004 14:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Those boots need to come back in style.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The John Fahey-penned liner notes to the above comp are priceless.

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I was just thinking about George Winston. December, Winter and Spring are all fabulous. Spring was the one that opened me up to him when I got it for free back in college to review. I didn't review it, but found myself starting the day with it for months after. Also, Michael Hedges was Windham Hill and therefore "New Age". What a fantastic guitarist.

― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Don Ross - Passion Session as well as Huron Street are wonderful new age fingerstyle guitar albums.

― Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

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

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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