"New Age Music", search and destroy.

Winston: Fascinating guy to talk to, and he's extremely talkative. Deeply encyclopedic in his musical knowledge when it comes to ragtime and New Orleans piano music, and completely dismissive of the "New Age" tag -- he prefers "folk piano," which is kind of silly (cue Tom Lehrer joke here). I've seen him live twice, and didn't regret it either time -- he spends more time playing interpretations of Randy Newman, Frank Zappa, the Doors, etc., than doing his own stuff. Pretty good guitarist and harmonica player in his own right as well. Easily the humblest platinum-selling artist around, and though he's a bit eccentric, there's nothing terribly New-Agey about the fellow.

At least early on, WH was a fascinating business -- they completely owned its market, and it got record stores to create "Windham Hill" sections, a remarkable accomplishment for any label, let alone a relatively small Bay Area indie. But the market got polluted with lots of Narada knockoff shit, and today Windham Hill drinks its own Kool-Aid, releasing junk like Lullaby that repurposes the mid-'80, Shadowfax-sick back catalog. There's some amusingly angry agitation against the label on its own Web site (www.windham.com), with old fans demanding the re-issues of the (good) old records, which the label or its BMG parent has refused to do.

ok, will keep an eye out.

http :// www.mgmusic. ltd .uk/default.asp

3,000,000 sales over the last 10yrs apparently. that's quite a lot! Who buys it? What's it like?

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Does Jarre count as New Age? I mean, his two first albums were obviously classic at least. And "Magnetic Fields", "Concerts In China", "Zoolook", "Rendez-Vous" and part two of "Oxygene" all have their moments too.

I taped a song off of the radio in 1991 from what I believe was a public radio station. I lost the tape a long time ago, but I keep hoping I'll find this piece of music again.

I'm not sure if it would be qualified as neo-classical or new age, but I'll try to describe it: Pianos. It had to have been multiple pianos. I believe there was also a harp, and possibly synth choir sounds down in the mix. Really fast playing, minor chord arpeggios, but gradual transitions between chord changes. It sounded like rain falling in notes. It was a powerful song, I suppose "uplifting" would be a good way to describe it. It was really blissed out, and very very full sounding. Nothing minimal about this song.

I can't expect anyone to name a song from that description, but does that sound like any artists you might know?

The closest I've heard to the overall sound is Enya and Yanni, but this was more mysterious and edgy than anything I've heard from Yanni, and Enya is unmistakable.

that description's pretty vague but there's a good chance you were listening to an episode of "music from the hearts of space"

good luck:

http://www.hos.com/php/programsByYear.php?copyrightYear=1991

Thanks man. Yeah sorry about the description, but it's been like 10 years since I've heard it.

this is a long shot, but that is the year Ingram Marshall's Gradual Requiem came out and it does sort of fit that description and it's the kind of piece you'd remember for 15 years

http://www.amazon.com/Tropes-Gradual-Requiem-Ingram-Marshall/dp/B000000R26

On some old rym list I wrote that Structures From Silence automatically saves "new age" from being bargain-bin cheese.

And I still think so! Great record.

Wizards has to be one of my favorite reissues of the year...

http://www.jdemmanuel.com/images/Wizards-800.JPG

http://www.jdemmanuel.com/images/Wizards-back-800.JPG

Has anyone heard anything else from J.D. Emmanuel?

Actually I think they've been reissuing it in runs for a few years now, to be fair

This is a highly entertaining primer for anyone who wants to dip into the new age pool. http://www.polyholiday.com/podcast/

This is nice...

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/1818249.jpg

Particularly the Windsurf remix of Hot Beach

can't link images from rateyourmusic

Bugger. Oh well, Interior - Interior (Windham Hill)

Why is Wendy Carlos always filed under new age at the store? This has always puzzled me, though I'm sure it's helped me find records of hers that would have sold otherwise.

Her album "Beauty in the Beast" is so fucking underrated.

Why is Wendy Carlos always filed under new age at the store? This has always puzzled me

Sonic Seasonings = one of the earliest ambient records on a major label, not that her other stuff qualifies. in the 80's a lot of stores simply consolidated their 'electronic music' sections straight over into the suddenly lucrative 'new age' bins, you'd see Conrad Schnitzler or John Cage 'Variations IV' right next to Constance Demby or Don Slepian's 'Sonic Perfume'

I need to re-read this thread, probably, but what about those Steven Halpern records that sound almost like the more meditative Return to Forever pieces? Some of those are pretty cool, if one has a weakness for Fender Rhodes indulgiencia.

One of the reasons that I like that Waxidermy website is b/c they address interesting examples of new age odds and ends that I imagine most people could give a toss about or would condemn in kneejerk fashion.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/donslepian

if you like Structures From Silence & Stearns' Planetary Unfolding, you definitely want Slepian's Sea of Bliss / Sonic Perfume. sometimes it's too light for me, but sometimes it's just perfect.

made on the Alles, the same synth Laurie Spiegel used for her 70's pieces

i just got these on vinyl recently and i've been digging them:

steven halpern - zodiac suite (soundscape II)

steven halpern - spectrum suite (soundscape I)

Yes, I have a nice gatefold copy of Sonic Seasonings with the poster. It's good... though I prefer her soundtrack work and the aforementioned Beauty in the Beast.

Also, love the Tangerine Dream (70s model), and Harold Budd. Some Vangelis and Tomita. I need to comb through here for more good ideas as I am WAY down with good New Age musics.

from that clusterfuck genre thread, my off the cuff new age recommends:

new age: lotsa Eno, early Deuter, Manuel Gottsching, Steve Roach, Gabrielle Roth, Robert Rich, O Yuki Conjugate, Liz Story, Harold Budd, Philip Perkins, Jon Hassell (especially Aka Darbari Java), maybe some Andrew Deutsch or Jliat if you wanna cross over into drone.

some of those may be debatable but I stand by it.

jon hassell has been suggested for at least three of these threads lately, and in each case it seems appropriate. really want to hear 'power spot' and ''aka darbari java'

My favorite new age records:

Graham Lambkin - salmon ron
Rafael Toral - Violence of discovery...
Aphex Twin - stone in focus

what about spectral music, like the Grisey partiels and shit. There's a thread about spectral music?

can't link images from rateyourmusic

Sure you can!

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s1818249.jpg

(click to enlarge)

i just got these on vinyl recently and i've been digging them:

steven halpern - zodiac suite (soundscape II)

steven halpern - spectrum suite (soundscape I)

Yeah, I remember Spectrum Suite being really great and having tracks devoted to balancing each chakra or some such.

I have this record by him called "Christening for Listening: A Soundtrack for Every Body" which includes these priceless liner notes:
...Christening for Listening is unique in that it is original music composed in a style suggested intuitively by the plants' own biorhythms, and is particularly sensitive and applicable to the needs of these serene green neighbors. Our recent research involving GSR polygraphs and Kirlian photography demonstrated that the most consistent, significant degree of postive affective response was found to relate to music that was in harmony with plants' slower tempo of movement." Put less scientifically, the plants dug this music-- and it showed up dramatically in the measurements.

It seems plants dance to the beat of a different drummer-- their own green beat as it were. They are able to respond to the fundamental element of music-- namely, tone-- without getting hung up in analytical interpretations. And in so doing, they participate in a viable "hear-and-now" musical gestalt...

what about spectral music, like the Grisey partiels and shit. There's a thread about spectral music?

there certainly should be -- there's these:
Gérard Grisey
Iancu dumitrscu and Ana Maria Avram: C/D, S/D

that's anything but new age though

Jon Hassell -- Classic Or Dud?
Steve Roach -- the endlessly meditative thread
Harold Budd - search and destroy

ok Iasos

Inter-Dimensional Music Through Iasos from 1975 is mostly flute-heavy drifty modal jazz, with a few 5 or 6 minute all electronic tracks that foreshadow real space music, but I just discovered the followup Angelic Music originally released on cassette in 1978, and I can understand his reputation now, this is distinct from most of the analog synth / space music of the 70's & looks forward to the good aspects of later New Age like Michael Stearns & Steve Roach. It follows on from side 2 of Vangelis' L'Apocalypse Des Animaux, but with two 30 minute long tracks that give you time to go a little deeper. This is exactly what I remember almost any given episode of Music From The Hearts of Space sounding like in the 80's -- back then I was on the fence about the whole genre but it's catching up to me now with a vengeance

http://iasos.com/detalist/angelic/

it's funny sometimes how threads get bumped on ilx and it happens to coincide with what you wanna read about at that moment. I overdosed on tangerine dream just last night and surely some of theirs is new age.

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), den 23 mars 2004 18:01 (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
did you ever find out what it was? I badly want to hear this.

it was this, but i still haven't bought a copy. and apparently my memory is of hearing only trombones, but there are other instruments involved as well:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LB2kaFcKL._SS500_.jpg

(actually, looking at this amazon page now, there are solo and group trombone pieces on the dempster album. those are what i heard. though according to someone up top on this thread he made later trombone recordings in his giant cistern, so i can't be 100% positive. i always forget to look for his CDs.)

this also looks cool and i wanna hear it:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4182WVXD1PL._SS500_.jpg

that is _the_ Dempster album. He took ten students into the cistern with 45 seconds of natural acoustic reverb, and had them stand in a circle around the perimeter. then he stood in the center, and played slow notes holding his horn up into the center of the room. whenever he wanted a note sustained, he'd lower the horn until it was pointing at one of his students, and they'd pick up the note and hold it. it's an amazing piece of music.

same cistern as the first two Deep Listening records were recorded. I can't believe more people don't record there, though a more abstract bowed metal improv was done there recently by the group Doublends Vert -- if you like bowed metal albums, you want a copy of that album

xpost In The Great Abbey is just as good, but it's a solo record so it is a little less epic, more about details and contemplation

& by 'that it _the_ Dempster album I was referring to Underground Overlays

you could put the abbey record on the shelf next to:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z3ER04RZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

paul horn got inside a lot of stuff. i like his taj mahal record too. he should make a record inside my basement.

haven't heard that one, always read about it. it's just echoey goodness w/ trumpet?

flute. he would sneak his tape recorder into places like the taj mahal and the pyramid and play very lovely and droney flute. sounds amazing.

now I remember seeing that album in the bins, when it had this cover: http://cdbaby.com/cd/paulhorn4

ok this is pretty spaced, this goes on the list

he's definitely one of the pioneers of new age! you know? as well as a well-respected jazz dude. i've never heard the later stuff or his collabs with asian/world musicians. stuff like this:

http://store.canyonrecords.com/media/ccp0/prodsm/7020.jpg

such a hip dude. where is his hipster renaissance!?

http://www.dougpayne.com/horn.jpg

I don't consider Dempster a "New Age" artist at all. His albums are all on New Music (that 80's term for minimalist influenced modern work by academic composers) labels, and all of his collaborators (Pauline Oliveros, Peter Ward, Ellen Fullman etc) all have similar backgrounds.

Speaking of Fullman (and trombones), Fluctuations her 2008 improv collaboration with trombonist Monique Buzzarte, deserved its place on the Wire Rewind main list. Available on emusic, and there's a good 10 minute sample of a piece here: http://www.rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=304