New Age

[Lothlorien]

So I may get slayed on this thread, but oh well. I love new age music, I use it to relax me and I listen to it when I'm at the graphic lab at college working on projects. Are there others on this forum that would like to come clean and admit they enjoy such wonders?

Some of my favorite artists are:

Clara Ponty
Liz Knowles
Secret Garden
Libera

Anyone have any recommendations for me?

 

[biggsy]

Not sure if Enya or Enigma are classified as New Age but I listen to them frequently. I'm sure you would have heard both.

 

[Arjen W.]

Yeah, new age can be pretty awesome. If you know Enya you may also know Clannad, which I prefer. Great group. Another great artist is Kitaro, try his Silk Road albums for example (although I must say 'Kojiki' is his best album, but it's not really new age, be sure to check it out if you have the chance). Some other artists I've heard on compilation albums and really like are Medwyn Goodall, Robert Lafond, Max Folmer, Daniel Kobialka and Coen Bais. I haven't checked their albums (except for Coen Bais) yet since they're quite hard to find, but the songs that I did hear were all pretty awesome.

 

[Don Corleone]

fuck new age, listen to craig armstrong

 

[dwoakee]

Anyone have any recommendations for me?

George Winston, Autumn (Piano solo)
Gary Thomas, Gaia's Dream (Percussion + Didgeridoo)
Kangaroo Moon (Folk, Didgeridoo)
Stephen Housden (New Age Rock)

and, of course,
Loreena McKennit

That's about everything I have in the New Age department, apart from Clannad who have already been mentioned. I've got the album Crann Úll, which is pretty beautiful.

 

[Kenneth R.]

Yanni is the man.

Karnataka is kind of new age.

 

[Oakenpalace]

My fav New Age artists are:
David Lanz (piano)
Tingstad & Rumbel
Secret Garden

 

[Lothlorien]

thanks guys for your replies. i'll definetly check out all of the sugestions that are posted in this thread.

 

[Arjen W.]

Loreena McKennit

Ah, how could I forget. Lovely.

 

[biggsy]

Loreena McKennit

I have her "The Book of Secrets" album sitting directly in front of me. Listening later tonight.

 

[i aint play this]

Loreena McKennitt is absurdly great

 

[hibernal_dream]

How can Loreena McKennitt be New Age when almost all her music is based on historical themes and traditional literary sources?

Maybe Lothlorien should define more precisely what he's after.

 

[biggsy]

wikipedia says shes new age

 

[hibernal_dream]

Hmm

Wikipedia gives 3 possible definitions for new age:

1. a branch of electronic music that includes melodic, non-dance pieces with miscellaneous kinds of arrangements
2. a branch of electronic music which appears mostly on the meditation or relaxation CDs, which are frequently seen in New Age bookshops and music stores.
3. electronic music that is melodic, soothing and relatively simple sound-wise, with wide pads, gentle melodies and long tracks.

I guess she could fit into the 2nd or 3rd if she actually played electronic music

 

[biggsy]

"There are more than three viewpoints on this but as a starting point for understanding the varieties, three main points of view can be seen as follows: (hibernals post)"

It's not like it's sayuing they're the only 3 possible definitions and everything else is wrong. My reference to Wikipedia was actually tongue in cheek but I hate genre wars so lets leave it there.

By the way, that article is so confusing... on top of those 3 theres:

New Age music is a style of music originally associated with some New Age beliefs.

Some listeners consider New Age music to be a branch of electronic music.

 

[dwoakee]

When it comes to definitions of musical genres and styles I would rather rely on allmusic.com than on wikipedia. Their definition of New Age is:

Born from an aesthetic that aims to induce a sense of inner calm, new age music emerged from the meditational and holistic fields. Generally, these are harmonious and nonthreatening albums that are allied with new age philosophies encouraging spiritual transcendence and physical healing. Some of these albums are artistically satisfying as well as therapeutic. Lesser musicians, however, often make ridiculous claims in the liner notes as to their ability to catapult listeners into advanced spiritual states through specially designed sonic vibrations and "immaculately conceived" musical ideas.

That being said, they list Loreena McKennit under the Folk genre rather than New Age. Yet, they attribute six styles to McKennit, three of which (Celtic New Age, Celtic Fusion, Adult Alternative) are also listed as New Age styles. In short, they describe Loreena McKennit as Folk with a strong New Age touch to it. And I think that's a good classification.




PS: Opeth note on BWP that it was "painfully conceived". So that is perhaps the difference between Progressive Death Metal and New Age

 

[Lothlorien]

no need to search for the real meaning of new age, IMO it's calm, relaxing, tranquil music. Atleast, the type of new age music I'm after.

I've checked out alot of your guys' recommendations, and im very pleased! keep them coming!

 

[Kenneth R.]

I associate New Age with that adult easy listening stuff like Yanni and John Tesh and Enya. Since that pretty much IS the genre's style. Unless there is also a subset of Electronica called 'New Age'.

Too many genres.

 

[hibernal_dream]

I associate New Age with that adult easy listening stuff like Yanni and John Tesh and Enya. Since that pretty much IS the genre's style. Unless there is also a subset of Electronica called 'New Age'.

Me too but I thought New Age doesn't usually have vocals and is always electronic, but not quite ambient. But yes, easy listening so I wouldn't include Tangerine Dream or Brian Eno. I don't know how 'electronica' differs from electronic music.

 

[Abhorsen]

Not really new age per se, but electronic/space, check out Steve Roach and Robert Rich. Nice soundscapes.