New Age Browse All

Will Dutta, Parergon

2012 | Label: Just Music

05.14.12 Will Dutta's music lies at the nexus where modern classical, New Age, and ambient electronica meet. He draws from all of them to create his own sonic geography: Sometimes it is lushly beautiful, other times it sounds as tortured and harsh as modern life, with textures that range from the stark purity of his piano to sounds heavily modified and manipulated by a bevy of producers.

It's impossible to avoid the shadows of modern pioneers like Philip Glass and Brian Eno here, and Parergon (the word, by the way, means subordinate work) carries strong traces of the minimalism and atmospheres that are their hallmarks. But Dutta is a new generation, and his own man, used to working with producers and turntablists;… more »

Cynth, Flute Medicine

Label: Cynth / CD Baby

04.22.11 While this disc does not specifically tout its healing qualities, the way it's produced and played gives it a natural healing vibration. Cynth is a flautist based out of Los Angeles who plays a combination of bamboo, Native American and brindle flutes. (She also acquits herself quite well on the panpipes.) The thing I love about this disc is how the flutes are overdubbed, often to the accompaniment of Tibetan bowls and bells, blowing like a clear breeze through the cathedral of the mind. But it's heart-centered music as well, especially on "Pyramid" and "Dream Lodge Dancer." Seven-time Grammy winner Roger Nichols helped out on production and it shows — even on a simple flute solo. The album, especially on… more »

Adrian Legg, Guitar Bones

Label: Favored Nations

04.22.11 A masterful exponent of the Celtic-styled hammer-on/pull-off technique, Legg's sheer command is astounding here on fingerstyle ditties like "Uncle Adrian," "The Ederly Jig" and "Short Story." But it's Legg's renegade streak that we've really come to admire over the years, and his playfully irreverent side manifests on the Kottke-esque slide vehicle "The One-Eyed Turk, his countrified Albert Lee-meets-Joe Pass turn on "Jam Today" and his knucklebusting closer "Een Kleijne Komedye." Few possess the chops (and sense of humor) of this uncommon acoustic guitarist. more »

OMFO, We Are The Shepherds

2006 | Label: Essay Recordings / Zebralution

04.22.11 OMFO is space-age Russian disco music that somehow simultaneously sounds like it belongs in 1950 and 2050. The samples, melodies, and texture are all quaint, dusty things that wouldn't be out of place soundtracking a Soviet-era sci-fi film. But the mode of production (i.e., the fact that they're using samples at all) is pure 21st century. If Kraftwerk had been East German, consider this the Eastern European folk music that would've followed. "Shepherd Disco," anyone? more »