Ambient / New Age Anyone?

TAS released a compilation CD a few years back (long since out of print), entitled Hearts of Space. Mainly a mix of Electronica and New Age. Very well produced. I also recommend Steve Reich's recording on the Private Music lable of a work called Gaudi. It's a musical interpretation of Gaudi's architecture.

I personally tend to veer far away from anything related to the current crop of music that sits within the so-called 'new age' genre, but did listen to a fair amount of the music in the early days of the scene when I first started to get into electronic music. 'White Eagle' was actually one of the first LP's in my collection along with stuff by other folks like Klaus Schulze, Jean Michel Jarre, Ashra, and a host of other artists. A few artists/recordings I can recommend from the 'earlier days'...

*Tangerine Dream: 'Zeit', 'Stratosphear', 'Atem', 'Rubicon'
*Klaus Schulze: just about anything between 1971-79
*Michael Stearns: 'Ancient Leaves', 'Chronos', 'Planetary Unfolding
*Ashra: 'New Age of Earth', 'Inventions for Electric Guitar'

Most of Edgar Froese's earlier solo work fits well within the genre as well as the classic ambient works of Brian Eno and the trance recordings of Terry Riley ('Persian Surgery Dervishes, 'Reed Streams', 'Rainbow in Curved Air'). Also, you may consider some of the Popol Vuh recordings such as 'Hosianna Mantra', 'Seligpreisung', 'Einsjager & Seibenjager') or some of the mid- to late-'70's recordings by Cluster. There's obviously lots of other stuff and a lot of the music I listened to back then slips my mind at the moment. I'm not too familiar with the current crop of ambient techno artists, but I know there is TONS of material within this genre out there as well. One band I can heartily recommend checking out is an Australian group called The Necks. It is certainly not new age music, but contains elements of the classic new-age 'sound' in that it serves as very atmospheric mood music, but with a heavy jazz leaning and more experimental compositional structure. I might call it trance-jazz, although their music really defies description and has morphed and evolved over the years. Check out their website at www.thenecks.com

Robert, yes I have been a longtime TD fan. Love White Eagle, Phaedra, Tangram, etc. Will check out the Threshold. Thanks.

Slipknot1 - Do you know of Reich's 'Counterpoint?' - seems I recall hearing good things about that.

Chris

I wonder why none mentioned Hanz Joahim Roedelius?
I bet that any ambient lover would "eat" his albums with huge appetite.

Anyone remember Eno's 'ambient" speaker system instructions on the back cover of On Land? Place a "mini" speaker behind you at the apex of the main speakers and wire the "mini" to the two positive posts of your amp. The out of phase information now "enlarges the room acoustically". Did Eno unknowingly start the Home Theatre craze?