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Joined: February 06 2004
Location: France
Status: Offline
Points: 8138
Posted: May 05 2012 at 15:12
infocat wrote:
What are your thoughts on Yanni? I think I've only listened to one of his albums, once, and I come across him in concert on PBS occasionally. I find some of it a bit of a "guilty pleasure", and some of it is just terrible. Especially in concert he seems to "play up" to his audience. Meaning, a band member will have a solo of some sort and he'll grin and clap and cheer on the audience. Repulsive. But musically I like some of it. Not enough to pursue it, though.
before turning new age, Yanni played in an AOR band called Chameleon. Quite nice band.
"Magma was the very first gothic rock band" (Didier Lockwood)
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 26199
Posted: May 06 2012 at 01:52
Stephen Caudel is included in PA . His debut album Wine Dark Sea is one of the best of the genre. He has only recorded a small handfull of albums including Earth In Torquiose which is a more traditional instrument prog album and also very good.
Hadn't realised until I went on youtube this minute that he has recorded a live version of Wine Dark Sea with an orchestra. Very interesting.
How about something by the brilliant Mark Isham also?
Joined: February 10 2010
Location: Barcelona Spain
Status: Offline
Points: 5093
Posted: May 06 2012 at 03:35
lucas wrote:
^
Also, as we were discussing about Andy West and Zazen, his Dixie Dregs mate, Steve Morse, released in the late eighties an album strongly ambient-oriented : 'high tension wires', unfortunately often despised by the die-hard prog-rock lovers.
Oh yes, I have it and it's a very nice album.
I should say that within music that can be called New Age I tend to like more the kind closer to jazz and jazz rock than the ambient kind. I also like that with more classical influences like Anthony Phillips or The Enid but not excessively ambient.
I'm a big admirer of the OP's reviews but I'm sure that a well balanced, fair minded and equitable soul as Gerinski would agree that 75% of the problem debating the merits of otherwise of this type of music is the frankly repellant nomenclature and fan demographic used: I mean there are cave dwelling hermits who would turn their noses up at the prospect of 'New Age' innit?
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Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
Posted: May 06 2012 at 07:37
Lucas mentioned Claire Hamill as blending Ambient with pop, and as far as I know she has only done that on one album - an a capella album that uses mutlitracked voices to create ambient soundscapes - I've seen her reproduce this live with two backing singers and it is breathtaking.
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 26199
Posted: May 06 2012 at 10:10
Snow Dog wrote:
I know that if Mike Oldfield heard is music described as "New Age" he would go apesh*t.
I don't know . There were a few artists who jumped on the New Age bandwagon in the eighties . Tangerine Dream - Underwater Sunlight and Vangelis - Soil Festivities (but don't tell Moshkito he might come after me with a big knife) even Rick Wakeman with his 'Airs Trilogy'. Oldfield more or less invented it with Hergest Ridge so I think he will have a wry smile. The producer of Tubular Bells , Tom Newman also got involved before Oldfield re-employed him for TB2 in the early nineties. It was a very interesting little genre that developed well beyond just whale sounds and the sound of a stream. Many creative people got involved so I doubt that Oldfield would throw a fit somehow.
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Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
Posted: May 06 2012 at 12:32
Musicians say a lot of things. For a time in the 80s it was fashionable to be "New Age" - you could guarantee some form of success by being New Age when being Prog was viewed as commercial suicide, just as Mike Oldfield and (gasp) The Enid forayed into "dance music" in the 90s. Now it is not fashionable to be "New Age" to the extent it is seen as a derogatory term, even within the classical guitar driven Jazz side of New Age.
Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
Status: Offline
Points: 32995
Posted: May 06 2012 at 12:48
Well I agree with Mike. I'd not describe him as New Age. But that's not the point. The point was he'd be annoyed having his music described as New Age. Which he would be.
the above link refers to Ommadawn as being a pre-cursor to the New Age musical movement. I guess Oldfield doesn't take much notice of his official press releases then?
Joined: February 10 2010
Location: Barcelona Spain
Status: Offline
Points: 5093
Posted: May 06 2012 at 17:13
ExittheLemming wrote:
I'm a big admirer of the OP's reviews but I'm sure that a well balanced, fair minded and equitable soul as Gerinski would agree that 75% of the problem debating the merits of otherwise of this type of music is the frankly repellant nomenclature and fan demographic used: I mean there are cave dwelling hermits who would turn their noses up at the prospect of 'New Age' innit?
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The "good New Age" music
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infocat wrote:
yeah sure