New Age is ambient music in altruistic mode. New Age artists aspire to heal listeners and improve the world through tones intended to align chakras, soothe nerves, and pacify aggression. These musicians strove to help people deal with the formidable stresses of 20th-century life and, in general, to uplift mind, body, and spirit. New Age enjoyed an evanescent popularity in the â70s and â80s, but it soon became subjected to derision, as much of it was painfully earnest and egregiously sappy. However, as with any genre (except third-wave ska), a small percentage of New Age music is golden. At its best, New Age is profoundly spiritual, relaxing, and a huge boon to meditationâand also a pure sonic delight, even if you hold no truck with any of its mystical/hippie trappings.
The last half dozen years or so have seen New Age-oriented blogs surface and key artists like Iasos, Laraaji (aka Edward Larry Gordon), and JD Emmanuel receive the reissue treatment for some of their crucial works. But nobody up to now has made as strong a commitment to New Ageâs resuscitation as Light in the Attic Records has done with the release of I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America 1950-1990 (released Oct. 29).
Issuing a double-CD/triple-LP comp of this stuff is a risky and brave financial move for LITA to make, even in this slightly more receptive environment. Outside of a minuscule fanatical minority, New Age is still the music industryâs redheaded stepchild. One can scoop up used vinyl copies of some of the genreâs heaviesâe.g., Steven Halpern, Paul Horn, Kitaroâfor cheap (but probably not for much longer), reflecting the general disregard/apathy in which New Age is held among retailers and consumers.
Yoga Records boss/avid record collector Douglas McGowan has compiled I Am the Center with acumen and epicurean ears. His liner notes reveal that heâs been immersed in this field long enough to skim the most nutritious specimens from the ocean of newage that swirled onto the market in the last half of the 20th century. Heâs dug deep; not that Iâm an expert, but I only recognize seven of the 20 artists here. (I imagine it was somewhat of a nightmare tracking down the rights holders to these compositions, which were originally on ltd.-ed. private presses.) McGowanâs sequenced the tracks so they segue with an elegant logic, maintaining the sort of blissful journey to elevated planes that marks much of the best cosmic music of any stripe.
I Am the Center begins with a melancholic 1950 harmonium piece by the Fourth Way guru G.I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann and ends with Alice Damonâs 1990 cut âWaterfall Winds,â a gorgeous wisp of âaahhâs, spare, guitar somberness, and the titular waterfall burble. In between I Am the Center bestows several variations on minimal chillout soundtracks that ameliorate the crushing realities of modern life and usher you into ultimate comfort zones.
Gail Laughtonâwhose contribution to I Am the Center, â76 A.D.,â appeared briefly on the soundtrack of Blade Runnerâplayed harp on most of Harpo Marxâs stints and his 1969 piece here is a gorgeous cascade of crystalline tones. Nesta Kerin Crainâs âGongs in the Rainâ is exactly what it says; Crain strikes various gongs and lets their resonant reports decay dramatically. Wilburn Burchetteâs âWitchâs Willâ features tremulous solo guitar flights that shiver somewhere between Popol Vuh at their most spectral and 13th Floor Elevators at their most minimal. Iasosâ âFormentera Sunset Cloudsâ scuds by on luxurious swaths of keyboard and ocean spray, inducing a decadent tranquility.
Steven Halpernâs âSeventh Chakra Keynote B (Violet)â might be the most archetypal New Age track here: well-spaced, angelic tones seemingly coaxed from a xylophone made out of Plutonian ice, but the liners say they emanate from a Fender Rhodes. Whatever its origin, this track is unspeakably beautiful and calming. Joel Andrewsâ epic âSeraphic Borealisâ is all florid undulations and delicately, intricately plucked harp passages that give you bliss vertigo. McGowanâs notes reveal that Andrews âwould rather heal one listener than entertain thousands.â Mensch!
I Am the Center really hits its stride with the next four-track sequence. New Age star Constance Demby chimes in with âOm Mani Padme Humâ (the titleâs a Sanskrit mantra that doesnât translate precisely into English, but is said to encompass much Buddhist wisdom), a stately drone overlaid with pensive piano motifs and diaphanous chants. Demby claims that âSound created the universe⌠A musician sources that primeval, eternal sound, and it comes out as music.â (But has she heard Hoobastank?) âArabian Fantasyâ by Daniel Emmanuel (aka JD Emmanuel) is probably my favorite on the compâmaybe because itâs the one that most closely resembles Terry Rileyâs profoundly moving electric organ hymns. Too bad âArabian Fantasyâ doesnât even last two-and-a-half minutes.
Another too-short piece is the excerpt of Don Slepianâs âAwakening,â a serious deep-space dweller worth losing yourself in. It twinkles and moans with a wonderstruck sublimity, and one canât help thinking of Carl Sagan having an epiphany to it. Laraajiâwho was discovered by Brian Eno while he was playing zither with eyes closed in Manhattanâs Washington Square Parkâis represented by an excerpt from âUnicorns in Paradise.â Itâs a momentous interstellar jam that pulsates in the same galaxy as Tangerine Dreamâs work did in the mid to late â70s. Peter Davisonâs âGlide Vâ gently oscillates in a silvery ether, faintly filigreed by curlicues of flute.
Starting off CD2, Joanna Brouk brings bucolic enchantment on âLifting Off,â a serene, cyclical ode on woodwinds (I think) and synthesizer (I think). Michael Stearnsâ âAs the Earth Kissed the Moonâ (excerpt) weaves birdsong and cricket chirps into a mutedly grandiose keyboard constellation. The edit of Aeoliahâs âTine Fu: Heavenâs Gateâ is beyond the beyond, achieving a sonic peacefulness and beneficence via harp, flute, and guitar that seem impossible to generate at this late, awful date in history. This track actually might be the pinnacle of I Am the Center and of human achievement, in general.
Moving on, violinist Daniel Kobialkaâs âBlue Spiralsâ glitters and drifts nobly in a manner not unlike Fripp & Enoâs âEvening Starââmeaning itâs in the upper echelon of ambient music, a beatific soundtrack to horizontal daydreaming and vertical stargazing. Larkinâs âTwo Souls Danceâ is 13 minutes of astral whir, stately ocarina (I think), and ASMR-causing synth murmurs. In the notes, Larkin says, âIt is my wish that after listening you are more fully empowered to spread the light of which you shine so the world may have peace everlasting.â Nobody could get away with saying that now without receiving a hurricane of smirks and snarky chortles.
Heading into the homestretch, Judith Trippâs âLi Sunâ combines wispy, melismatic flute and distant thumb piano tinkles into a somber, tension-reducer. Mark Banning's âLunar Eclipseâ is a slowly revolving, glistening aural enigma recalls Enoâs Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. If you were to play these tracks while sitting in a hot tub, you may simply vaporize in slow motion.
Are you going to party to I Am the Center? Probably not. Youâre not that highly evolved. Just kidding. This kind of music always has been meant for solitary activities like communing with nature, contemplating infinity, and masturbating. But seriously, with humanity trundling down a path of self-destruction environmentally, politically, and in so many other ways, we should embrace the ethos and aura behind New Age music, as well as its healing power and pacifying effect. Real talk: We canât go on like this. You have any other better ideas? Letâs hope that I Am the Center helps, in some infinitesimal way, to catalyze a movement toward a saner, more sustainable way of life.