new age

Vinterhjärta: Vinterhjärta (1987)

2018/01/02

Deeply icy, floating music from Swedish band Vinterhjärta. Playing like a soundtrack to a particularly windswept, frozen tundra Vinterhjärta’s (which translates to winter heart) sole, self-titled affair, binds all sorts of experimental Swedish conceits — space prog, New Age, and ambient jazz— into one work (released on cassette) that looks for no quarter in the…
Yoshio Ojima: Une Collection Des Chainons II: Music For Spiral (1988)

2017/12/22

When I originally wrote my piece on Yoshio Ojima’s groundbreaking work Une Collection des Chainons I, I couldn’t think of why omitted the second part of his story. Une Collection des Chainons II truly cements what a monumental piece of music (Une Collection des Chainons I&II) for the Wacoal Art Center was. Trying to move…
Toshifumi Hinata: Story (1987)

2017/12/15

I wish I had a great way to describe the beauty of Toshifumi Hinata’s music, more so, the beautiful music you’ll find in Story. I’ll skip over his background, which you can peruse here, in a previous post, so that we can get to the meat of the album. Though not quite as dark/moody as…
Takashi Kokubo: Get At The Wave (1987)

2017/12/08

Just reading about Takashi Kokubo makes one feel decidedly less accomplished. Since the early ‘80s, Edokko Takashi has been knee-deep in the environmental music world. Outside of Japan, few would know that he is responsible for perhaps some of the most terrifying sounds you’ll ever want to hear.
G. B. Beckers: Walkman (1982)

2017/12/05

Günther Beckers music has a perfect word for it: Gesamtkunstwerk. Gesamtkunstwerk is an interdisciplinary artistic work combining various disciplines — music, painting, poetry and design. Wagner conjured up this idea when trying to produce a work that could also wrap in artistic ideas derived from theatrical, poetic, and musical influences. Aesthetics would be the English word…
Masahide Sakuma & dip in the pool: 黒いドレスの女 OST (1987)

2017/12/01

This is such a rare album, for a truly forgotten movie. Masahide Sakuma and dip in the pool’s soundtrack for 黒いドレスの女 (otherwise known as Kuroi Doresu No Onna/A Woman With A Blass Dress) hints at darker themes underlying the whole movie. The movie itself, one starring Tomoyo Harada, was a sexy noir movie based on…
Thomas Almqvist: The Journey (1980)

2017/11/28

A personal favorite of mine, not because it’s his greatest work — I’d wager more people expect the late, great Swedish guitar maestro Thomas Almqvist’s Balearic masterpiece Nyanser to be that one — but because it’s the one that sounds the most honest to where I come from. Thomas Almqvist’s The Journey was his second…
Mix: 7. Only Love

2017/11/22

I was going to write about how much I appreciate all of you, the readers, who keep visiting this blog and give your precious time to discover music I feel passionate about. It’s been over a year since FOND/SOUND began. It’s because of your encouragement and support that this labor of love keeps going. With…
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Flora 1987 (1987)

2017/11/14

There’s something about fall that makes me play Hiroshi Yoshimura’s music much more often. On prior albums like Green, A・I・R (Air In Resort), and Soundscape 1: Surround, Hiroshi perfectly seized on exactly what “environmental music” could be and how it could differ from BGM (background music). No longer mere ambient music, it was decidedly rich, melodic experimentation…
New Child: Rehabilual (1990)

2017/11/07

Maybe Harry Hosuono was onto something? Mishio Ogawa, the “Trance” part of the Love, Peace, & Trance equation…and also ex-lead singer for Japanese experimental New Wave act Chakra…seemed like an odd choice to be one of the three vocalists for his eclectic and forward-thinking quasi-ambient techno group of the same name. However, judging by the…