new age

  • With all that’s going on in our world, I thought it would be important to share something that both reminds us of the healing power of music and of a country that is desperately suffering through its crisis. Originally created for Italy’s intriguing healing music label, Ludi Sounds, Raffaelle Serra’s Musiche Per Il Cuore E…

  • Truth be told: I really had trouble deciding to share this album with you, fair reader. One of my many goals for this blog is to move away from the well-worn stereotype/trope of the “female musician”. However, staring right in front of me (and you now) is exactly what one associates  that being by pigheaded…

  • Put on your headphones. Put on and listen to this album. Spatial audio. Ambisonics. 3-D, virtual sound. There are many words to describe the technology Kohsei Morimoto’s Chaos Zone: Three Dimensional Sounds Created by Roland Sound Space System (カオス・ゾーン) or カオス・ゾーン (Chaos Zone) for short, tries to exploit a technological demo of sorts to promote…

  • Time for another palette cleanser. You already know mine: folk music. Doug Smith’s Order Of Magnitude is more of that same vein. However, it’s a bit of its own tributary. Here, largely acoustic guitar of the American Primitive style, get’s us one step closer to what a larger, universal other expects of “their” type of…

  • Right off the bat, I promise this review will be spoiler free. However, in this age of increasing troubling times, this seems like a good time to revisit Michio Mamiya’s score for 火垂るの墓, Hotaru no Haka (otherwise known as Grave of the Fireflies). Now, for those that have seen Isao Takahata’s animated masterpiece one can’t…

  • The changing of decades always seem to introduce truly amazing albums that fall through the cracks. Be it because they are caught in between eras. Be it because they’re simply made outside of any prevailing trend. These albums, unfortunately, reveal their true brilliance (sometimes) only in hindsight. Recently, I’ve had that aha! moment with Clevedon…

  • Don’t you just hate the holidays? Don’t answer that. If anything this time of the year teaches us is that we need to find ways to forgive and move forward. Don’t you just hate Christmas music? Don’t answer that. I used to. Now, I’ve seen the light (so to speak). Perhaps this whole month I’ve…

  • Winter heat from an unlikely source. Perhaps I’m showing my bias as a violinist, but I have to share another of my favorite (sadly unknown) releases from my fellow brethren. Another wonderful cross-thatched affair of fourth world and new age grooves not from the west but this time from Japan’s other uber-talented, and quite prolific,…

  • Let’s do things in reverse. Let’s revisit the work of violinist Steve Kindler. Perhaps better known for his work with John McLaughlin and Jan Hammer, one would be surprised to discover how much more sweeping and romantic his solo work was. And it doesn’t get much more “sweeping and romantic” than his, sadly, nearly impossible…

  • I told you things were going to get real here. Let’s get intimate. Let’s get closer to the work of Yukie Nishimura. Call it various names: neoclassical, ambient, new age, easy listening or BGM. You can call it anything you want but you can’t call it boring. Romantic is the key word here. Take one…

ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental folk-rock fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic