New age

Private Music was started in 1984 by Peter Baumann, a member of Tangerine Dream from 1972-1977 (he later sold the label). Peter heard the wordless sequencer prelude on Jobson's Green Album and immediately contracted Eddie to do Theme Of Secrets. Eddie did record a follow-up, called Theme Of Knowledge which was never released because of the darker nature of the compositions. The label (not sure if that means Baumann, specifically) wanted Eddie to rerecord or alter the music, but he refused. Eddie has yet to release the music on his own.

Private Music did release some interesting stuff, and some downright crap. I still have some CDs from Private, including both by Lucia Hwong, Yanni's two good ones, Optimystique and Out Of Silence, and a couple of others.

Most of these guys played synths - the Synclavier being the favoured machine - and tried to create ambient music - and after awhile I couldn't tell one from tother.

Carlos Alomar's a guitarist, he used to play with Bowie. Patrick O'Hearn (former bassist with Zappa and Missing Persons) used a bunch of different synths. We all know who Jerry Goodman is. The music by all of the artists you mentioned was quite unique and easily identifiable -- except for Ponder, I only heard bits of his, and I didn't care for it. The music Yanni, Hwong, O'Hearn and Goodman created was too dynamic and eclectic-sounding to be ambient.

Another label that is no longer is Fortuna (or if Fortuna is still around, the label doesn't even register on the radar). Fortuna released some albums by Steve Roach, Richard Burmer and Emerald Web, but those seemed like the only worthwhile acts on their roster for a couple of years in the mid-80s. Roach and Burmer both switched labels, and Audion released Emerald Web's Catspaw before the Web returned to self-publishing.