"New Age Music", search and destroy.

Bought the vinyl box yesterday. Nice packaging and filled with great music. Worth the $35.

love this comp. I was worried it just wouldn't work; it can be a challenge to make a compilation of immersive ambient music that still flows well, especially when so many of the pieces are so iconoclastic / strange. but this is just great. even in the cases of the artists I'd heard of, they pick tracks that are obscure but still very representative (best example -- I love Don Slepian's process music work with the Alles synthesizer more than his live keyboard & flute music, so 'Sea Of Bliss' is a hallmark new age record for me, but I did not know about his other all-Alles cassette only album 'Open Spaces' -- http://www.discogs.com/Don-Slepian-Open-Spaces/release/556677)

the weekly music from the hearts of space show changed tack pretty dramatically in the late 80's as new age evolved, this compilation captures just how truly weird that show sounded to me in the early to mid-80's when I occasionally caught it on KPFA on sunday nights while trying desperately to do all the homework I'd put off all weekend. captures it a lot better than the HoS CD compilations & syndicated shows that came out later.

i would wholeheartedly add these to the search pile

http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS508535-01A-BIG.jpg

http://www.ebreggae.com/i595/M119219W595.jpg

One thing I really enjoyed was Mark Pilkington's New Age documentary "Crystal Voyagers" that was hosted on the Wire website:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Just watching some of that again and I had forgotten how beautiful the Gurdjieff movements are. Must sit and watch Meetings With Remarkable Men one day.

Picked up the LITA comp today. Very, very good.

came out on friday in vinyl, just listening to it today...

great mix of tracks....Works well for a comp that spans 40 years.

that laraaji album is spectacular in every way & the liner notes are great

does the LITA vinyl come w/ a download code?

yes

xpost yes the laraaji comp is tremendous

it has the full version of this bad boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwJtCY_R-5E

http://www.self-titledmag.com/2013/09/26/all-saints-launch-reissues-series-with-laraaji-compilation-rare-albums/

http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FKR068-web.jpg

^ just come out on Finders Keepers, sounds p good

http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/emerald_web_in_studio.jpg

ohhhh sweet

I like to think that the poster above their heads actually just says "WEB"

it actually says NO LOVE DEEP WEB

that keyboard - has that actually got a strap on it or is it just the cable going over his shoulder? be a shame if it's just the latter tbh

FYI cause this thread was bumped yesterday I checked the LITA website, which said that the vinyl of I Am The Light had sold out. So I went and bought it, fabulous stuff. My dad & stepmom were right in the middle of that early 80's cassette-and-new-age-bookstore scene, it is a blast from the past.

Bought this on CD, immediately wished I'd bought it on vinyl. Great comp.

Only (very minor) complaint: the track-by-track liner notes are good (not great - serious dearth of info re: what instruments were used, etc) but was surprised by the lack of overarching introductory material; the booklet just sorta dives right into the profiles. I guess I'm used to comps like Nigeria Special and stuff, which frame the music in historical context, but I realize, of course, that's much easier to do when you're dealing with a mere decade of highlife and juju produced by a single region.

Guess what I'm saying is I'd v happily read a book about this stuff.

me too, the profiles were pretty interesting! now that you mention it a bit more gear talk would have been nice.

Psyched for the emerald web reissue!
This album is pretty cool: http://waxidermy.com/pauline-anna-strom-trans-millenia-consort/

bought the 'i am the center' comp on vinyl, would have paid twice as much for how good it is. really intrigued by constance demby, her cut on the comp is incredible. as is everything else, tbh. been a steven halpern head for some time already.

Constance Demby is all over the place. 'Novus Magnificat' was her breakthrough album and it is good enough but there are albums where she goes much further out. 'Sacred Space Music' and 'Sunborne' are worth checking out if you like her track on the comp.

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=664186
http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=664125

They are kind of on the same page as the Alice Coltrane / Turiya cassettes. With more phasing & space echo.

http://www.discogs.com/Alice-Coltrane-Turiyasangitananda-Divine-Songs/master/606598

Where are you guys finding this on vinyl for $35? Lowest I've found is $45. As I said, I'm regretting buying this on CD (even though the idea of flipping a record six times seems to defeat some of the wall-gazing appeal of this set a bit)

i found it at mount analog in l.a. for $35. i think you can mail order from their site, if it's still available.

yeah I got it for $35 at House of Records in Eugene, they are pals with the label fwiw.

Nah, Light in the Attic is sold out. May just have to pull the trigger at $45...

http://climbmountanalog.com/products-page/main-2/va-i-am-the-center-private-issue-new-age-music-in-america-1950-1990-box/

constance demby cut is amazing. also really like wilburn burchette.

thanks, al!

Mentioned on the Grimes thread, but Claire Hamill's Voices (1986) is well worth checking out as a precursor of Grimes and Julianna Barwick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tdeqk3zdPI

^^^ excellent record and oddly cocteaus-esque in places

this thread has my name on it. i love the LITA comp and i love claire hamill!

the more I think about it the weirder it is that the Wilburn Burchette track is on this, it seems very incongruous to me in both sound and ideology. on the other hand, if LITA is gonna reissue his 3 LPs, I am all for it.

the guy kinda freaks me out tbh, I feel like he may have transcended this reality

I like the Wilburn Burchette comp track better than either of the two albums I have by him (though I will admit I haven't listened to those albums in years)

wonder if he still lives in spring valley california

i hadn't heard michael stearns before this, his track is beeeyutiful

Several 'chillwave' acts and artists like Chairlift, Grimes and Julianna Barwick sound too close to Enya for it to be accidental.

I love Michael Stearns. 'Ancient Leaves', 'Morning/Jewel' & 'Planetary Unfolding' are pretty definitive space music records, came out very earl, incredibly influential. 'Lyra Sound Constellation' is a collaboration with instrument builder George Landry, if you like bowed metal drones that lean towards heartier cosmic dissonances then you definitely want to hear that one: http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=512399

& of course best known for the soundtracks to 'Chronos' & 'Baraka' and 'Samara'.

The Wilburn Burchette track had me running to the internet to hear more, but had no luck. Mutant Sounds had three of his records, links all dead. RIP Mutant Sounds.

Had the tattered mp3's of Geoffrey Chandler's 'Starscapes' on again last night. That would have been a good candidate for inclusion on this compilation, it really needs a reissue.

xp after the last five years very few people would be embarrassed about having Enya for an influence

I wasn't saying they should feel embarrassed, I actually like their music. Just asking if they could apply as 'new age' artists since I would choose some tracks from there.

Otherwise, another vote for Ash Ra Tempel.

On the nu-flamenco new-age side of things Ottmar Liebert, Johannes Linstead and Armik actually wrote some very popular songs (at least in latinamerica and the mediterranean) which are well worth a listen. Liebert's Barcelona Nights and Santa Fe are practically 'stairway to heaven' for guitarists over here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTrhxVwz0_g

how about some destroys?

i'l throw out andreas vollenweider ...

my best friend used to love vollenweider. I've never dared to listen to him.

vollenweider is great, but maybe not as "new age music" per se

vollenweider is not great, beardo revaluation be damned

so saccharine, so not transcendent.

http://www.discogs.com/Andreas-Vollenweider-The-Trilogy/master/82258

^^ this was my dip into vollenweider and i didn't enjoy it

am i looking in the wrong place?

I had a friend who LOVED Vollenweider in the 80s but back then I was the kind of dickhead who couldn't get past the dude's hair

now I'll even listen to Kitaro, I straight do not give a fuck, new age for life