New Age Experience

I have recently discovered a genre of music called "New Age". Sadly, this name is more of an umbrella term and has multiple meanings depending on whom you ask. It seems that the most popular definition is tied to the New Age spiritual movement and healing/meditation music. In my case, however, I'm using the term for a specific style of ambient-jazz-rock fusion music released in the late 80's and early 90's.

My first exposure to such music was from archived footage of the Weatherscan channel of the early 00's, as well as Local on the 8s program segments of the 90's. Some of the first artists I stumbled upon were Patrick O'Hearn and Eko, which opened up a rabbit hole for me to explore. Thanks to YouTube and some other forums, I quickly started discovering great albums one after another.

Some common features between the records that I noted:

• Most common release dates of 1988-1996.
• Featuring mainly acoustic guitars, clean electric guitars.
• Very smooth & juicy bass lines, often prominently featured.
• Ambient & lush soundscapes with interesting melodies on top.
• Some elements of more "exotic" stringed and wind instruments.

Sadly, many of the artists I discovered are not as easy to find on streaming platforms, but are easily discoverable using the YouTube algorithm, which starts suggesting similiar artists quite quickly and effectively. Besides, not all of the albums are available on streaming platforms and I do not find the platforms reliable for keeping the albums available in the long term. So, to keep track, I will save some of my favorite albums here, in the table below.

Note: Some of the albums listed probably do not fit under the term "New Age" at all, but I found them fitting in some way to my experience of New Age.

My favorite New Age, Ambient, Jazz & Electronic albums

Cover	Artist	Album	Year	Genre
	Eko	Logikal	1992	New Age
	Patrick O'Hearn	Rivers Gonna Rise	1988	New Age
	Patrick O'Hearn	Eldorado	1989	New Age
	Wind Machine	Road to Freedom	1989	New Age, Ambient
	Wind Machine	Timeline	1996	New Age, Jazz
	Vangelis	Direct	1988	Ambient
	David Arkenstone, Andrew White	Island	1989	New Age
	Danny Heines	Every Island	1988	New Age, Jazz
	Bruce Mitchell	Hidden Pathways	1987	New Age
	Tangerine Dream	Underwater Sunlight	1986	Ambient, Electronic
	Motohiko Hamase	Reminiscence	1986	Ambient, Electronic
	Motohiko Hamase	Intaglio	1986	Ambient, Electronic
	Hiroshi Yoshimura	Wet Land	1993	Ambient, Electronic
	Eko	Alter Eko	1994	New Age
	Joe Sample	Ashes To Ashes	1990	Smooth Jazz
	Torcuato Mariano	Last Look	1994	Smooth Jazz
	Yoshio Suzuki	Morning Picture	1984	New Age, Jazz
	David Benoit	Freedom At Midnight	1987	Smooth Jazz
	Jim Andron	Tetris (CD-i) OST	1992	New Age
	Acoustic Alchemy	Reference Point	1990	New Age, Jazz
	Russ Freeman	Nocturnal Playground	1986	Smooth Jazz
	Mark Sloniker	Perfectly Human	1991	Contemporary Jazz
	Shadowfax	Too Far to Whisper	1986	New Age

Most of these albums should be available through Spotify & YouTube for now, thankfully. Additionally, Patrick O'Hearn has all of his music available right on his website!

Last update: 2022-12-02