Monday Breakfast Blend – Women Art Revolution presents:
Monday Breakfast Blend w/ Emily – A History of New Age
Today we did a deep dive into the history of New Age music; its influences, its cultural causes and effects, and its enduring icons.
The first block features artists that represent New Age’s disparate influences, from jazz guitarists to pioneers of experimental and ambient music. In block two, we hear some proto- and early New Age like Tony Scott’s Music for Zen Meditation, and explore the term “New Age” and its deployment as a marketing technique. We then look into the iconic Windham Hill Records label in a block largely featuring “soft jazz” like Alex de Grassi and George Winston. Enigma’s “Return to Innocence” and cultural colonization get a once-over, then we head into a Hearts of Space block for some Slow Music for Fast Times™. Icons of the genre like Enya, Vangelis, and Kitaro get their due, and the episode closes out with some New Age standard-bearers of today, like Leo Takami. Thanks so much for joining me!
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An extended (4+ hours) version of this playlist is available here.
The music playing in the background while I talked is all from the wonderful compilation I Am The Center: Private Press New Age in America 1950 – 1980 from Light in the Attic Records.
Here’s the Timothy D. Taylor piece on “Return to Innocence” that I mention in the show: A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery: Transnational Music Sampling and Enigma’s Return to Innocence.
And finally, here are some links to articles I referenced in one way or another:
New Age Music Booms, Softly by John Pareles
The State of New Age Music in the Always On Wellness Era by Harley Brown
Trends: New Age Enters A New Phase by Don Heckman
New Age Artists Want A New Label by Roger Catlin
Show Archive
Play show / Add show to playlistPlaylist:
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Pat Metheny, “Electric Counterpoint: II. Slow”
from Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint
Nonesuch - 1988
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Dickie Landry, Gene Rickard, Joan La Barbara & Philip Glass, “North Star, Film Score (For "Mark di Suvero, Sculptor"): Etoile Polaire [North Star]”
from Glass: North Star
EMI Catalogue - 1977
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Nesta Kerin Crain, “Gongs in the Rain”
from I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music In America 1950-1990
Light In The Attic Records - 2013
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Kay Gardner, “Fountain of Light: Transpersonal Chakra”
from A Rainbow Path
Ladyslipper Records - 1984
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![Spectrum Suite (Bonus Version) [Remastered] [feat. Iasos]](https://is2-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music/v4/54/ed/23/54ed23f6-943d-69da-a3e2-b78e15b14309/93791777022.jpg/170x170bb.jpg)
Steven Halpern, “Be-Muse-Ment (feat. Iasos)”
from Spectrum Suite (Bonus Version) [Remastered] [feat. Iasos]
Inner Peace Music - 1976
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Will Ackerman, “Dance for the Death of a Bird”
from In Search of the Turtle's Navel
Windham Hill Records - 1998
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Paul Lloyd Warner & Steven Kindler, “Prisms”
from Best of Hearts of Space, No. 1: First Flight
Hearts of Space Records - 2008
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Vangelis & Irene Papas, “Neranzoula”
from Best of Hearts of Space, No. 1: First Flight
Hearts of Space Records - 2008
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Emily Robinson Monday Breakfast Blend – Women Art Revolution November 23rd, 2020
Posted In: Music Shows