Music Banter - Break Out The Incense: It's New Age Week!

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Break Out The Incense: It's New Age Week!

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Apologies for making this thread a day late, but I definitely forgot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

New Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation,[1] and reading as a method of stress management [2] or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often associated with environmentalism and New Age spirituality.[1]

The harmonies in New Age music are generally modal, consonant, or include a drone bass. The melodies are often repetitive, to create a hypnotic feeling, and sometimes recordings of nature sounds are used as an introduction to a track or throughout the piece. Pieces of up to thirty minutes are common.

New Age music includes both electronic forms, frequently relying on sustained synth pads or long sequencer-based runs, and acoustic forms, featuring instruments such as flutes, piano, acoustic guitar and a wide variety of non-western acoustic instruments. In many cases, high-quality digitally sampled instruments are used instead of natural acoustic instruments. Vocal arrangements were initially rare in New Age music but as it has evolved vocals have become more common, especially vocals featuring Native American, Sanskrit, or Tibetan influenced chants, or lyrics based on mythology such as Celtic legends or the realm of Faerie.

The top 5 New Age releases as rated by members of RYM:

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1) Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn (1975)

http://www.spirit-of-rock.com/les%20...a%20Mantra.jpg

2) Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra (1972)

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3) Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Symphonic Suite AKIRA (1988)

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4) Ketil Bjørnstad & David Darling - The River (1997)

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5) Vangelis - 1492: Conquest of Paradise

The only New Age band I can think of on my hard drive would be the Canadian electronic group Delerium, specifically their album Karma (1997). Here's one of the songs that I remember most from it, but I mean it could just as easily be classified as electronic, ambient, chillout, etc.

Deuter - Aum is my favourite New Age album, absolutely amazing it is. Can't say I'm massively up on the genre though so I'll be looking at this intently.

Y'all are too scared to risk your cred to post any real New Age.

I've rocked this Ray Lynch album more than a few times: Deep Breakfast (1984). Listen if you dare.

http://991.com/newgallery/Ray-Lynch-...ast-495585.jpg

Give me Clannad anyday although they are not strictly new age.

William Orbit's Strange Cargo project:

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoathsomePete (Post 1089243)

Interesting tidbit about Delerium: they're a side project of the electro-industrial band Front Line Assembly.

I have to admit I have kind of a soft spot Windham Hill Records, which was New Age label founded back in the 70s before the style of music had become the punchline it is today. The video below is the label's founder, William Ackerman, playing one of my favorite songs by him. If you can, ignore the cheesy-ass video and just listen. It really is a beautiful, heartbreaking song:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Engine (Post 1089308)

Hey ! I have that album too ! It has some better-than-average, even beautiful, syntheziser tracks, as well as the ridiculously catchy opener, Celestial Soda Pop.

The trick of decent New Age music is that it relaxes you without actually sending you to sleep. Deuter (who Stu recommends as well) can do it for me, and so can these guys :-

About 15-10 years ago, I used to listen to a lot of music usually classified as "New Age". Not in the strict sense, though (you know, like those labels at the record stores). I still remember some of my favourite tunes.

* Craig Chaquico's album Acoustic Highway. I like how he combines the guitar with electronic sounds.

* Chris Spheeris & Paul Voudouris. Pura Vida and Enchantment.

* Deep Forest: Sweet Lullaby. Adiemus: Adiemus.

* Many songs somehow related to Celtic music (instruments, connections to local folklore, appreciation of nature, etc.). For instance, When the Snow Melts by Phil Cunningham and Mánus Lunny, or Romance de Triacastela by Milladoiro, one of its songs inspired by ancient Galician traditions and landscapes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic (Post 1089352)

Hey ! I have that album too ! It has some better-than-average, even beautiful, syntheziser tracks, as well as the ridiculously catchy opener, Celestial Soda Pop.

Don't get me wrong - I actually really like the album :o:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon (Post 1089349)

I have to admit I have kind of a soft spot Windham Hill Records, which was New Age label founded back in the 70s before the style of music had become the punchline it is today. The video below is the label's founder, William Ackerman, playing one of my favorite songs by him. If you can, ignore the cheesy-ass video and just listen. It really is a beautiful, heartbreaking song

The video is kind of hard to ignore - poor guy's truck broke down in the middle of some deserted meadow. I can see why he's feeling so emotional. Will he survive the night?

Seriously, I like the song though. Quite a bit.

Quite a lot of new age seems interchangeable with ambient to me, yet one is somehow considered more 'cool' than the other. I think it's just that over-hyped bad new age music gives it a bad name and people get the wrong impression as they don't get to hear the good stuff.