Spiritual Music

Artist: Anugama

Angugama uses the didgeridoo and a drum beat, along with the sounds of nature, and synchronization with certain brain wave patterns, to clear the emotions and help focus the mind and heart on these beautiful sounds. The music is peaceful and meditative. The liner notes provide some fascinating information how the "Spiritual Environments" recordings of which this is one ... create a healing effect with the sounds of nature and sacred mantras.

Artist: Riley Lee

As peaceful and enchanting as a sunset's afterglow on a cloudless summer evening, the gentle music of Riley Lee (playing shakuhachi flute, an instrument traditionally used by Japanese monks) and Bert Moon (on koto, a 13-string zither) stirs a warm, caressing breeze that calms the spirit and stills the mind. Lee, an Australian, is one of the few non-Japanese musicians to be acknowledged as a dai shihan (grand master) of the shakuhachi, a fairly primitive flute made from a bamboo root. His talents are artfully displayed on this tranquil assortment of improvisational duets with Moon, recorded in 1984 and first released in 1991 as a meditative cassette titled Evening Mist.

Artist: Various Artists

Label President Terence Yallop, who leads a 15-minute guided meditation on Namasté’s second bonus disc, has done a superb job of assembling pieces that transmit New Age music’s most trancelike and devotional qualities. Two beautiful tracks are from Karunesh’s Zen Breakfast, two from discs by Buedi Siebert. "Prabhupada Padma" from Rasa in Concert features the vocals of Kim Waters. Kim’s voice is so sensual that she could sing a grocery list and have you down on your knees, pledging eternal devotion to Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and hopefully something more organic. The music of Ben Leinbach, excerpted from his Spirit of Yoga disc, has already received praise in these pages: Yallop wisely uses it as background to his meditation as well as a solo track.

Artist: George Winston

The precursor to 1982's commercial breakthrough, December, George Winston's 1980 Windham Hill debut boasts all the lyrical power and poignancy of its follow-up. A simple, clear recording for solo piano, Autumn finds Winston developing simple melodic motifs with studied left-hand underpinning, on hypnotic pieces like "Woods," which moves from a brisk rhythmic figure to rubato minor-key runs. Leaving pauses and breaths in all the right places, Winston suggests the play of color and light, the comfortable melancholy, and the encroaching slow-down that characterizes the fall season.

Artist: Brian Eno

This complex sound sculpture was created by Brian Eno in 1978 and was even installed for a while at the Marine Terminal of New York at LaGuardia Airport. The ambient-minimalist soundscape has been alternately described as background Muzak, a profoundly artificial musical milieu, and a groundbreaking studio creation. Eno designed Music for Airports from a few simple notes and the serial organization of variable tape loops that didn't quite match up. It's a groundbreaking elaboration on the aural/spatial dimension that utilizes silence, piano, synthesizer, female voices, and, most importantly, the technology of the studio.

Artist: R. Carlos Nakai

Nakai's free improvisations on this album are based on his impressions of the Anasazi and Sinagua sites, ancient cliff dwellings that were home to communities of Native people thousands of years ago. By using the Roland SDE 3000 Digital Delay system, Nakai is able to play duets with his own echo, in an effort to emulate the echoes of the past that haunt these ruins. On this recording, Nakai's flute sounds even more plaintive than usual, as if the spirits of these forgotten ancestors had entered into the studio to fill his playing with the whispered reverberations of their ancient ways. This is one of Nakai's most deeply felt recordings, one that resonates with a deep, melancholy yearning.

Artist: Phil Thornton and Hossam Ramzy

This, the third pairing of Brit multi-instrumentalist Thornton and Egyptian percussionist Ramzy, further explores Middle Eastern dance motifs in a contemporary setting. Recording the basic tracks in the U.K., they went to Cairo and invited some of the top local musicians to collaborate. Flute, violin, ney, aud, rebala, and accordion flesh out these extended, ambient grooves in an evocative, textural tapestry aimed as much at the mind as at the feet. Reminiscent of Peter Gabriel's film scoring, Immortal Egypt has, with all its participants, enough cultural pedigree to satisfy World Music fans and sonic construction to please the headphone listener..

Artist: Enya

New Age diva Enya first became widely known when her 1988 album Watermark sold 4 million copies and launched the single "Orinoco Flow." Her follow-up, Shepherd Moons, was even more successful, selling over 10 million copies despite its slightly lower grade of ethereal enchantment. In 1997 she released Paint the Sky with Stars, an assortment of her best work from these two early albums plus gems from 1995's The Memory of Trees and the soundtrack to the BBC series The Celts. The most melodic and atmospheric examples of Enya's lovely Celtic-flavored songwriting shine on this disc. Overall, an outstanding collection from an artist who gives New Age a good name.

Artist: Deep Forest

What a fascinating and spine-tingling interpretation and enhancement of Eastern European music, primarily Hungarian, which is my heritage. Deep Forest manages to make Marta Sebestyen sound even more evocative than she usually sounds ... her voice is soulful, poignant, piercingly tender and sincere. This CD is one nonstop experience of primarily Hungarian/Gypsy and Eastern European culture. It is made more enticing and alluring by the qualities Deep Forest brings forth with their creative imaginations -- they add unique beats and splendid vocalizations.

Artist: Enigma

This is Enigma's juxtaposition of the sexual and sacred. Their inclusion of chanting monks in "Sadeness," over wooshy ambient noises and a slower hip-hop-appropriated beat was a sensation. "Callas Went Away" promised more than it could deliver, although "Mea Culpa" stands as one of the few shining moments on the CD. The idea of mixing new age aural wallpaper with beats that you can do a slow grind to is actually rather intriguing. Spicing it up with controversial religious chants isn't a bad idea either.

Artist: Delerium

Karma is said to be one of the best Delerium albums. The melodies are textured and lush, the beats entrancing, and a parade of gifted singers--Kristy Thirsk, Jacqui Hunt, and Sarah McLachlan included--bill and coo impressively. Lead single "Euphoria (Firefly)" has spark and spirit, while "Enchanted" and "Duende" are strong vehicles for Thirsk and Camille Henderson respectively

Artist: Azam Ali

Azam Ali, lead vocalist of Vas and Niyaz, takes her patented polycultural blend of ancient and contemporary influences even farther beyond the stratosphere. That she is now a veteran of numerous film scores, including Children of Dune, Earthsea, and Matrix Revolutions, perhaps explains her present more cinematic direction. Born in Iran, reared in India and the US, and gifted with a voice of improbable tonal breadth, flexibility, and beauty, she is backed by collaborators like Trey Gunn (King Crimson), Chris Venna (Nine Inch Nails), Turkish DJ/composer Mercan Dede, the Japanese ensemble Kodo, and Grateful Dead drummer/world percussion enthusiast Mickey Hart.

Artist: Various Artists

New Age music, ambient electronica, and spiritualized hip-hop received their first major, K-Tel-like treatment in 1996 when Virgin Records assembled Pure Moods. To be sure, Pure Moods offers genre hits aplenty: from Enya's "Orinoco Flow" to "Sadness" from Enigma; from a dance mix of the "X-Files Theme" to edits of vintage electronica from Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells) and Jean Michele Jarre (Oxygene). Beyond other selections of beat-enhanced chants and a few other popular themes ("The Mission," "Twin Peaks"), the album, refreshingly, also includes a few selections noteworthy only for their originality and quality.

Artist: Yanni

Formally attired and seductively positioned, Yanni gazes out at you from the cover of this 1993 recording and--no description needed--tells you everything you need to know about the music that awaits inside. Here are a few additional details: In My Time is a 49-minute album of piano-based works with a distinct neoclassical flavor that is targeted specifically to Yanni's large and faithful female following. Its highlights: the shimmering tenderness of "In the Morning Light" and the gently caressing "To Take ... To Hold." Perhaps because this was his last album for Private Music, he elected to fill it in with two repeats from Dare to Dream, "Felitsa" and "In the Mirror."