{"id":2615,"date":"2012-11-10T09:13:47","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T14:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westwoodvalley.com\/?p=2615"},"modified":"2012-11-10T09:13:47","modified_gmt":"2012-11-10T14:13:47","slug":"my-musical-evolution-part-321-new-age-exploring-new-age-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wrharrison.com\/musicalevolution\/2012\/11\/10\/my-musical-evolution-part-321-new-age-exploring-new-age-music\/","title":{"rendered":"My Musical Evolution – Part 321 New Age Exploring New Age Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/a>I have no idea when the term New Age Music<\/em> was actually invented. I had been actively looking at records in stores since The KISS Age<\/em> back in the 1970’s. I didn’t remember seeing that little section tucked away between Classical or World<\/em> and the Comedy<\/em> albums before. Of course I wasn’t looking for it. Maybe that is a good example of how My Musical Evolution<\/em> has changed my behavior. Today I’m more likely to look at everything in the store, my mind wide open to what may be there. Before, I was willing to look at everything in those particular sections that I felt interested me.<\/p>\n

Even so, the New Age<\/em> section didn’t exist at Wooden Nickel and was reall quite small at Musicland. Which raises that question in my mind. When did New Age Music<\/em> become a thing?\u00a0<\/em> Keep in mind that we are still years away from the first time that we’d hear that crazy dial-up modem connecting to the World Wide Web. In those early years of the 1990’s there really wasn’t a good way to find out about music that didn’t qualify as mainstream. I had to just keep going back to Musicland and scouring that tiny New Age <\/em>section. I knew that I like Ray Lynch<\/em> but I already had both of his albums. I had to start gambling. It was a lot harder to do back then. Compact Disc prices were still comparitively high, coming in around $16 each or more.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I rolled the dice on a couple of compilation discs and scored some absolute winners. This album New Age Music <\/em>features 10 tracks from great New Age artists. As I sit and listen to these pieces, I find it unbelievable that there was once a time where their names meant nothing to me.New Age Music is bar far the most played Compact Disc I have every owned. I really hope that I can find good samples to share with you because this is an amazing New Age album. Sadly, I’m not certain that you can buy this anywhere anymore. One of the tragedies of New Age music is that it doesn’t have as wide of an audience as The Ramones<\/em> so production runs are typically smaller especially for the more obscure stuff. I just spent about 10 minutes on Amazon.com trying to find this album using all kinds of keyword searches but could not. If you see it anywhere, buy it!<\/p>\n

As I would discover along the way, there are many styles of music within the New Age <\/em>genre. Some of it is more ambient and is marked by long tracks of trance like sounds. Some of it is more acoustic and usually features traditional instruments from the far east and beyond. My favorite is the more melodic and electronic like Ray Lynch’s Deep Breakfast. New Age Music<\/em> is just that, a collection of synthesized pieces that are perfect for drowning out the din of the world while I read, paint or do mental labor. The notes stimulate just the right parts of my brain.<\/p>\n

Now for the\u00a0challenging\u00a0part, which selections will I be able to find and share here.
\nKlaus Schulze – Floating<\/em>
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