New Age

The soundtrack to the Marin County, CA hot-tub scene circa 1980, and beyond…

  • Peter Davison - Music On The Way Peter Davison – Music On The Way

    Dreamy & relaxing new age soundscapes, heavy on flute & synth. This LP has four long tracks that will take you away to your happy place. Released in 1980 on Avocado Records, beautiful stuff from Santa Monica. Check out a clip of “Morning Meditation” to start your day off right. [...]

  • Jagad Guru Chris Butler & Friends - Mantra Electric Jagad Guru Chris Butler & Friends – Mantra Electric

    Imagine if you will, Carlos Santana fronting Pink Floyd circa Wish You Were Here, with a dash of Camel and a little Popol Vuh for flavoring.  Add some synth and smooth melodic vocal harmonies chanting devotion to Hare Krishna, and you’ve got the sound of Jagad Guru Chris Butler’s “Mantra Electric” double LP.  Released in [...]

  • Chris Campbell - Meetings With Remarkable Alloys Chris Campbell – Meetings With Remarkable Alloys

    This 1987 cassette / CD release appears at a glance to be some sort of world fusion atrocity, but the Gurdjieff reference in the title turns out to be a very good thing indeed. It’s a consistently intense album with far more melody and direction than most bowl recordings, which are always pretty to listen [...]

  • Lightdreams - Islands in Space Lightdreams – Islands in Space

    I was listening to this album hardcore at the same time I started reading William Gibson’s Neuromancer. They seemed to compliment each other well, each depicted a world in space so daring and different. Paul Marcano, the mind behind Lightdreams, dedicates the album to the colonization of space and this really sets the tone [...]

  • Savant - Stationary Dance / Sensible Music Savant – Stationary Dance / Sensible Music

    Released on “Palace of Lights” in 1981, Savant was a group lead by Kerry Leimer, the head of the label and someone who still releases electronic/ambient music to this day. The record contains only two tracks, both with a decidedly Eno-vibe (each in their own way). The a-side’s “Stationary Dance” [...]

  • Orlando Kimber & John Keliehor - East Meets West Orlando Kimber & John Keliehor – East Meets West

    Wow, an 80’s library record that doesn’t sound like it belongs in a corporate training video for IBM! Unfortunately these types are few and far between, but thankfully for fans of floating synths and electronics, this one delivers. The first side mainly consists of gamelan jams that (for the most part) do a [...]

  • Driven Element (Various Artists) Driven Element (Various Artists)

    From around 1982 until about 1991 (dates are unclear) Marcel Dion ran a weekly Electronic/Experimental/Avant-Garde radio show on CJSR (campus/community radio station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) called Departures. It’s always unclear with campus/community radio how large your audience is and so it’s unknown how popular the show was. However, what is clear is that it [...]

  • VA: Wilderness America VA: Wilderness America

    Local NorCal save the wilderness benefit comp that ranges from symphonic overtures, and new age, to sensitive singer/songwriter wannabe James Taylor shit. I honestly don’t even know why I picked this up originally based on it’s looks… oh yeah, I think Iasos the “Finger Listener” dude is on it. Anyhow, the real standout track has [...]

  • David Kessner/Rudy Helm: Music For Progressive Relaxation Vol.1 David Kessner/Rudy Helm: Music For Progressive Relaxation Vol.1

    Decent new age lp from early 80’s Mill Valley, CA. It’s basically your usual mix of analog synths, flutes, and nature sounds, but it also gets just a tiny bit jazzy at times which is interesting. Some of it veers dangerously near to mystical smooth jazz territory, but much of it is quite cosmic and [...]

  • Peaceful Solutions - S/T Peaceful Solutions – S/T

    Peaceful Solutions are Nashville, Tennessee musicians Kirby Shelstad and Richard Allen. Since making his first bamboo fishing pole back in 1972, Allen has created and sold thousands of handmade instruments. In fact, all the wind instruments used on this album were made by him…the shakuhachi (an ancient Japanese flute), transverse flute, bamboo sax, and bamboos [...]

  • Musica Orbis - S/T Musica Orbis – S/T

    And I Quote:
    Welcome to a concert after dark
    Wannatellya glad to see ya
    Hope you like the show
    it was
    Work to get it all together
    we have
    Animals and Lovers
    we have
    Afternoons alone in the country
    Cigarettes & ashtrays
    and a
    Clean tuxedo in you closet
    Whaddaythink you’re here for?
    Do ya think that this is a parade? (x2)

  • Laura Allan - reflections Laura Allan – reflections

    Here’s one of my favorite new age lp’s. Laura is featured on celtic harp like customized zither, wordless vocals and lyrical song poems. One of those mellow records to sip tea to on a sunday morning and zone out to. One dollar well spent.

  • Michael Stearns: Planetary Unfolding Michael Stearns: Planetary Unfolding

    When last I spoke of Mr. Stearns, I believe I claimed something to the effect of “he fell off” after making one decent lp. Well, thankfully this claim brought about a reminder that I needed to revisit this, his second lp. While I’m not sure I agree that it “steps all over” Ancient Leaves, I [...]

  • Iasos: Inter-Dimensional Music Iasos: Inter-Dimensional Music

    One of the really great records on the Unity label from Marin County, CA. I guess this stuff is considered “new age”, but it’s super trippy and should appeal to lovers of space rock and Eno style drone stuff. Very entertaining liner notes too. Check out his instructions on “Finger-Listening”…
    “Finger-Listening
    Try this: While playing this record, [...]

  • Tom Leibel - Living Dreams Tom Leibel – Living Dreams

    Living Dreams is a trance-enducing private new-age album by pianist Tom Leibel from Calgary, Alberta circa 1984. The back of the album states, “all music on this album was spontaneously composed and performed by Tom Leibel. We hope this album inspires you to live your dreams in the same way Tom lives his.”

  • Michael Stearns: Ancient Leaves Michael Stearns: Ancient Leaves

    A later 70’s California New Age record that has a much more spacey sound than most. Reminds me a whole lot of the first few Klaus Schulze solo lp’s. Two side-long cosmic drones consisting of layered electronics and hypnotic wordless voices. Stearns’ best record by far. He went on to make a several more in [...]

  • J.G. Weir / Exploration One J.G. Weir / Exploration One

    This is a one-sided guitar drone record from Orange County, 1998. I picked it up from a dollar bin because it was limited to 250 copies and I thought “what the hey.”
    Listening to this excellent slice of reverb zen, which I can only liken to a redux of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music one would [...]

  • Joel Andrews - the violet flame Joel Andrews – the violet flame

    This is a nice and mellow new age harp record, really sublime stuff. From the liner notes: “During the time of the winter solstice, 1976, Joel gathered with a small group for a meditation to invoke, anchor and broadcast the Transmutive Seventh Ray activity of the Violet Flame through the medium of music. This is [...]

  • The Order Of Orpheus The Order Of Orpheus

    A 1977 record channeling ‘A trip through the planes from the throne of god’, this is not your typical blissed-out private press new age trip. Instead it’s a far more interesting mix of acoustic 1970’s new age music with improvisational group playing that reminds me of AMM or Harry Partch at times, with the end [...]

  • Dr. Jacques Hondorus - Within: A Cosmic Odyssey Dr. Jacques Hondorus – Within: A Cosmic Odyssey

    Fairly cool mystical spoken word record from the “You Institute, Inc.” in Los Angeles, Ca. I’ve had this a few times, but it honestly doesn’t ever get much play. The cover alone makes it pretty worthwhile though…

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