new age

Frank Fischer: Gone with the Wind (1989)

2016/10/21

Pictures rarely lie, right? Take a look at the album cover to Frank Fischer’s Gone with the Wind. What does it bring to mind? Breeziness, brightness, tinges of autumnal feelings, and crisp, cool sensations are the first things that come to my mind. Released on krautrock giant Klaus Schulze’s iconic label Innovative Communication, by then more known…
Ernest Hood: Neighborhoods (1975)

2016/10/19

It bears repeating: nostalgia is a powerful thing. When used for nefarious purposes, we get horrible people like Donald Trump trading on delusionary illusions. When used for sentimental reasons, well, that’s when lines blur, and comfort starts to go through that inarticulate process of myth-making. What starts out as a simple idea, present a reflection on…
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Green (1986)

2016/10/14

Recorded by Hiroshi Yoshimura at his private studio, Hiroh 806, using Yamaha DX7, TX7, and FB01 synthesizers, a Roland MSQ-700 sequencer and a Victor AV computer. That’s exactly what the Sona Gaia release of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green stated in its liner notes. That can’t be. You put on Green, and the things that last with you, long after the…
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Soundscape 1: Surround (1986)

2016/10/12

It’s easy to get away with music that sounds like something. Vast store shelves are littered with “albums” proclaiming exactly what you’ll hear inside. Relaxing Sounds of the Rainforest, Nights in Ireland, Serenity and Bliss Mix, etc. all serving as perfect sonic backgrounds to whatever space you want them to live in. But is this…
Hiroshi Yoshimura: A・I・R (Air In Resort) (1984)

2016/10/10

Hiroshi Yoshimura was commissioned in 1984 by Japanese multi-national personal care company Shiseido to create something that might be entirely out of his own wheelhouse: music that could complement a fragrance. It’s a pitch that would sound ludicrous to most musicians but for Hiroshi presented a magnificent idea.
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Pier & Loft (1983)

2016/09/30

Self-released on cassette in 1983, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Pier & Loft earns the distinction of being both his most hard to find record (Discogs prices pointing upwards of $100 now) and also, surprisingly, his most accessible. The problem, of course, has been finding actual audio of it. On this release he took his environmental music somewhere new. You…
Mix: 1. Just Another Night Flight

2016/09/13

Isn’t this always the toughest post to create? Normally, for your first post, you try to give a call to action, or provide some kind of direction, to whatever kind of journey/experience you want to take your readers through.
Virginia Astley: A Summer Long Since Passed (1983)

2015/02/06

Here’s to another unheralded and quite forgotten one. In the summer of 1983, a humble, charming bit of pastoral neo-folk music was released. Mixing field recordings, piano, guitar, flute, and, very sparingly, voice, a young woman presented a breathtaking idea of how a certain English feeling can reveal itself to you. Back then, Virginia opened…
Steve Hillage: Garden of Paradise (1979)

2015/01/19

Miquette Giraudy and Steve Hillage Soundtracking a true visual experience of sorts, “Garden of Paradise” from Steve Hillage’s Rainbow Dome Musick stirred many a visitor’s brains when it debuted looping at London’s massive proto-New Age Mind- Spirit-Body Festival. Listeners who just wandered through booths filled with info from vegetarian, vegan, yoga, shamanic, and lords knows what…
Sally Oldfield: The Sun in My Eyes (1979)

2015/01/14

Sally Oldfield – 1979 Something that struck me the first time I encountered Sally Oldfield’s Water Bearer was its brilliant album cover. By combining something real, a staged photoshoot of Sally idling next to a waterfall in some forgotten Irish glen, with an altered color scheme that blends objects and edges to mimic some kind…