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I never set out to create specifically new age music and hadn’t really considered my music to be a part of the new age genre until I saw people making comparisons to it online. I honestly hadn’t listened to much new age music when I first saw these comparisons (by that I mean specific artists within the new age genre). Tracks for meditation, zen music I guess you could call it, was an influence to me though so I guess a lot of that could be considered within the realm of new age music. I can see why people would consider my music to have connections to the new age genre due to a lot of my themes and sounds. When it comes to the spiritual, that has always been an important influence and aspect for myself and my music so I do consider it to be spiritual in many ways. Of course there are other influences, such as memories of past times, fantasy and folk elements, but for myself all of these weave into the spiritual aspects.
Something that has been influential to me in many ways is ambient music. I feel there is something very therapeutic within the soundscapes one can create within it. It can cause music to have a deeper and more expansive atmosphere, in my opinion. I’ve always loved deep and atmospheric music that conveys a sense of beauty and light. I base a good majority of my music around that and I like for a lot of it to have a tranquil and healing atmosphere. Even so, there is a sense of nostalgia and also more melancholy sounds within it at times.
Overall I would say there is a sort of ebb and flow within my music between themes of earthiness – the beauty and the spiritual spark within the natural world – and also a theme of transcendence on a more cosmic level. In some ways I would say that the dungeon synth elements in my music convey the earthy aspects and the ambient, or new age, convey the transcendent aspects. This isn’t to say that these aspects are separate from one another. I feel it is all connected and mirroring. An example of this for me is that when I look at the stars shimmering in the night sky, a sense of wonder and transcendence come to me. When snow comes in the winter (unfortunately rare these days where I live) and I see it shimmering under the moon, I feel a connection between these and a bridge is made.
– Darien Dabbs (Foglord)
A New Age of Cool
Depending on one’s age, the term “new age” comes with different connotations. For me, the term was associated with extremely uncool music. When I was younger, and spending a considerable amount of time at the mall smoking cigarettes in the parking lot, new age was for older people usually sold in the nature stores that I got my incense from. My perception of new age was that it was pleasant, but not to be listened to actively nor taken seriously compared to other styles, such as the music I was listening to. New age was music for old people who stopped caring about music and needed something for their meditation sessions. At the time I delineated between what was real music and what was non-music, and new age was most certainly a part of the latter. Things have changed, and I have thankfully gained new perspectives on all of the music I once found not real. I also stopped smoking cigarettes in parking lots. More importantly, the internet has given myself and others tools in approaching styles once maligned or misunderstood. Most of the things I have discovered have been through the power of the internet and the careful cultivation of knowledge in online communities. The digital landscape has given certain genres an ideological restoration, as well as providing spaces for people to enjoy music without preconceptions. We also might be in a new era, where there is enough space for people to develop their own relationships with music that are much more free of prejudice. I might have also just grown old and finally accepted my place at those nature stores.
The reevaluation of new age is not a novel idea. When first researching albums, I was surprised to find so much archival work into this genre. Sounds of the Dawn was an exhaustive resource for me as the blog and channel has made many rare tape streams available for people to experience. The BBC has put together a wonderful article highlighting the work of Oksana Linde and the forgotten women synth composers of the 1970s and 1980s. JD Emmanuel has a glowing reassessment in the New Yorker which coincided with his music being embraced by the contemporary noise scene. Light in the Attic records not only has done an extensive compilation and showcase of Japanese environment music of the 1970s and 1980s but also the independent new age scene of the later 20th century. Valley of the Sun has cataloged the work of Robert Slap, Steve Powell, David Naegele, David Storrs, Steven Cooper, and Gloria Thomas in Field Guide To Inner Harmony (2023). Finally, you can find the sound of new age being used in various microgenres including vaporwave, slushwave, and dreampunk. These media pieces, revivals, and reissues give credence to the genre not just as background music for nature stores but as products from artists working outside of mainstream networks. New age is the psychedelic echo of independent music reverberating through the decades.
Over the course of its history, the term new age has meant a lot of things. It has been applied oftentimes erroneously and mostly out of confusion or laziness to an unknown sound. By the mid to late 1980s the sound had become mainstream with a Grammy award first being presented in 1987 for Andreas Vollenweider’s Down To The Moon. While this sound might have become the most commercial and popular in terms of sales, by the late 1980s and into the 1990s it had become a term that even creators shunned due to its connotation of unchallenging music for adults. This is perhaps when I encountered it being at those nature shops and looking at a wooden kiosk where I could listen to ocean waves and gentle synth. The age of the internet has given us a larger vocabulary to describe new age music and has mapped pathways for finding similar styles. Today, experiencing this music comes with a robust lexicon, where genres like space ambient, berlin school, library music, environmental music, noise, drone, post minimalism, and progressive electronic paint a more complex picture of the music style. New age is a genre which has become unshackled by the connotations that have weighed it down for most of its existence. Today it floats among the internet, connecting with people who might never have heard it before or, like me, heard it many years ago and are now ready to finally listen to it.
New Age and Dungeon Synth
Much of my initial interest in synth from the late 1970s and most of the 1980s comes from dungeon synth. Dungeon synth is a contemporary ambient fantasy genre that began in the 1990s and saw a revival period from the early 2010s onward. The style grew out of 1990’s black metal side projects, with musicians making fantasy soundscapes on their keyboards and releasing on the same underground networks that carried their metal records. Early dungeon synth artists such as Mortiis and Depressive Silence usually inhabit the genesis of dungeon synth. Over time, however, the aperture grew for the genre and people started to search for earlier innovators of the style as well as tangential relations. Aided by the internet and a few headstrong archivists, works by fantasy ambient composer Jim Kirkwood have proved to be prototypes to what would eventually become dungeon synth. Kirkwood is recently seeing a revival of interest with even the label Out Of Season reissuing much of his earlier work. The more one looks into dungeon synth and its early influences, the more a lineage can be seen of even earlier synth artists who were operating off of self released or small press publishing labels and making tapes for niche audiences.
I became fascinated with this “spiritual” connection rather than a historical connection. Black metal and their synth side projects probably did not draw influence from the new age of the 1980s. If anything original dungeon synth drew their inspiration from the 1970s Kosmische / Berlin School acts like Tangerine Dream as well as a pastiche of 1980’s dark ambient and industrial predecessors. Despite not historically drawing upon influence, dungeon synth of the 1990s and eventually 2010s can be seen as a continuation of at home synth records made by and distributed to niche audiences. Both styles were made possible by the advancement of home synthesis and recording then propagated through DIY distribution. Both enjoyed a large media presence on cassette tapes. Both were usually a solo artist making synth music in their home studio for private release. Both were oftentimes released on private labels, which housed the artist’s entire catalog. Both relied on the construction of imaginary worlds with music as a guide. In the 1980s, much like today, people sat at home and escaped into landscapes of sound without the need of a professional studio or producer. They were conductors and musicians of their own symphonies, and perhaps more importantly, the creators of their own worlds.
Over the course of my experience with new age, I found similarities to dungeon synth not just with sound but also an outlook on making music. Many of the artists associated with independent and visionary synth were a range of musicians, some with professional training and some just an idea. The synthesizer allowed them to have a full studio in their home and albums represented experiments in other worlds. These albums would sometimes be distributed among independent publishers and some would sit at home on cassettes until archived decades later. While new age certainly had a commercial period, with names such as Kitaro, Enya, and Yanni, there exists an entire history of lesser known musicians who are on the cusp of obscurity that are just now being archived. It is these artists that I found most interesting, not only for the similarities with dungeon synth but as part of a history of music that used synthesizers to warp and manifest realities.
Visionaries and Alternative Undergrounds
In the art world, “visionary art” is a genre of art produced outside the academic sphere usually with self taught creators and often guided by a spiritual compass. Visionary art has a relation to concepts such as “folk art” and the more general and often undefinable “outsider art.” All of these styles are free in some way to rote cultural education and possess creativity unbound by formal rules. The appeal of a visionary is the freedom from artistic norms in greater service of a vision. While there is sometimes a fetish for the bizarre and eccentric, the appeal of art that lies outside of establishment is that it can be guided by an internal set of rules and aesthetics.
Over the course of time I have come to see dungeon synth, and new age of the 1980s, as a form of visionary art. Most of the current boom of dungeon synth projects we are experiencing in the early 2020’s were started during the COVID pandemic, where people from various backgrounds and musical training were inspired and driven to create music at home through synthesizers. The internet gave them a place to share their music and find a community that was receptive and supportive. This visionary art motif can be seen not only in the dungeon synth of the 1990s but throughout minimal synth, environmental music, and new age of the 1980s.
An investigation into the new age of the 1980s (and before) is an investigation into synth based electronic music operating in the submainstream and underground. Much of the material in this article operated out of independent studios and labels made possible by the increasingly commercial synthesizers for professionals and amateurs. Because of this, we are given a style that is free of constraint and a sounding board for individuals with a vision, sometimes without any formal training. Many of these records were produced through private presses and it is impossible to know how much of it has been archived and how much of it has been lost over the decades. There are some records on here that still do not exist in a digital form and all that remains are pictures of its cover.
Much like dungeon synth and other microgenres, new age’s existence and recent appreciation has come from internet archivists who have not only cataloged material, but presented it without ridicule. Additionally, these microcommunties, which have relied on operating outside the mainstream, are bolstered by social media algorithms pushing content to people who show the slightest interest in the subject. While the goal is to keep users engaged with the chosen platform, the algorithm has connected and strengthened small communities and allowed their preservation to flourish. New age, much like dungeon synth, has been crafted by the archivists and fans who preserve it online. Much of the music we appreciate now was only made possible by people finding the tapes everyone forgot about and eventually putting it online. New age, particularly, is fascinating, as it represents a style of music on the edge of existence.
Step Down Transformer
Traveling through new age music will bring the listener close to many esoteric philosophies, which might seem strange and bizarre depending on your worldview. Much of new age music has spirituality as a component, with its music being as much of a tool as a commercial entity. It is also these beliefs, and the artwork that accompanies it, which make the genre viable for lampoons and jokes. While it is easy to laugh at the crystal dolphins and cosmic language of these records, it is, for me, much more enjoyable to approach the esotericism as an anthropologist and treat the beliefs as a central component for the music. Some of this music was intended as casual relaxation, while others are direct communications to alternate dimensions. Approaching new age music in the same way one would approach spiritual jazz, with the acknowledgment that some musicians are devout believers, is a rewarding lens in which to experience the music.
Iasos was a Greek born new age pioneer who passed in 2024 and was the center of a retrospective written by myself and the editor at Fantasy Audio Magazine. During my time listening to his music and watching documentaries of his life I found many interesting moments. During one documentary, he described himself as a step down transformer who was recreating patterns of paradise to those on earth who could not preview them. A step-down transformer is an electrical device that reduces the voltage of an alternating current power supply. The transformer consists of a primary winding, a secondary winding, and an iron core. When an AC voltage is applied to the primary winding, it creates a fluctuating magnetic field in the iron core. This magnetic field then induces a voltage in the secondary winding but at a lower voltage level than the primary winding. I found this metaphor fascinating and funny as it seemed like a very mechanical (and mathy) way of describing music. It was also an extraordinarily bizarre and delightful way of looking at new age music.
New age, dungeon synth, and even noise music can be thought of as music that is transmitting either to or from the void. Whether or not to create alternate realities or send transmissions hoping for a reply, these musicians use art and music as beacons to the other side. Iasos was careful to add that while he was a transformer for his own dimensional being (Vista), he was not the only person with the abilities to receive these transmissions. The power in which to communicate with the beyond was egalitarian and anyone with a vision and maybe a synth could give it a try. Viewing new age, and its related genres, as transmissions from another world sent through artists as mediums, results in a fascinating and enjoyable way to experience music that is designed for such bliss.
Naive Magic
Andrew Werdna, the writer who coined the term dungeon synth in 2011, spoke about the essence of the 1990s black metal adjacent synth projects and the “weird naïve magic” which seemed to be a part of the substyle of music that he would eventually call dungeon synth. It is this “weird naïve magic” which was a part of the aesthetic that saw sometimes ametuer musicians making fantasy worlds on sometimes now primitive tech. There was an appeal to people constructing vast worlds out of limited technology, as if they were visionaries limited only by the time period they were in.
This naive magic is something I see in new age and related styles throughout the decades as technology made its way into the hands of everyday people. During my time in this genre, I have seen many popular new age composers who are professional musicians. I have also seen some who approached the style without any formal training. There are even more who inhibit the worlds between those two. What remains constant is the appeal for people to try something at home without the need of others to complete their vision. There is something special about expression outside of the expectation of appreciation. Most of the new age I encountered, much like dungeon synth, felt like it was made with a very small audience in mind. Sometimes the audience was just the creator and anyone who happened upon it was secondary.
Discovering new age has helped me reevaluate dungeon synth as a relationship with the metaphysical and possibly a form of visionary art. Dungeon synth is often packaged as background music to read to or play during tabletop games. I now see people who are using contemporary tools to conjure places beyond our imagination. The fact that there is little barrier for entry allows anyone to try and wield a connection with the beyond. I feel this naive magic, the thing which drew Werdna to the genre in the first place, is an essence seen in other types of music. Not just a new age, but perhaps an entire history of technology as it makes its way to everyday people. There may be a genre in the future that we can’t even foresee yet, which will draw upon these same principles and will be yet another branch in the cosmic tree.
[KAP] 2024
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PS: I’d like to thank my wife, who supports me, so I can go from writing dungeon synth blurbs to writing long form articles on new age music. She was the first one to show me Enya and is the reason we have a record collection of new age. While I was laughing at the music in nature stores as a teenager, she was enjoying Watermark and the Pure Moods compilation. Now that there is a renewed interest in this time period, we both laugh at how many years it took me to finally admit she was always cool.
My Morrowind Albums
I first became interested in new age for a soundtrack to my playthrough of the 2002 Bethesda RPG Morrowind. I don’t think I was even going to write an article on this subject, rather I was just going to sit in a dark basement, possibly stoned, and listen to dreamy music while playing an RPG that was over 20 years old. Since the music for Morrowind was limited compared to modern games, I made a playlist of music based on what sounded good and what had amazing covers. For hours I immersed myself in an alien world brimming with mystery and magic reading 15 year old Reddit threads on crafting spells. I am not saying this is the only way to get into new age, rather the music is so complimentary to a variety of activities including floating above the words of … with a broken magic system. There was a sense of freedom and isolation as the music and game became something I thought about and sought out to return to. My story is unique and yours will be most certainly different but if anyone was looking for those records which aided my exploration of Vvardenfell, enjoy your time.
Don Slepian – Sea of Bliss (Plumeria Productions, 1980)
Sea of Bliss was the third album by Don Slepian and released on the independent, if not private, label Plumeria. Slepian was a musical prodigy and early practitioner in the electronic instruments often using new technology to sculpt sound. Sea of Bliss has become a touchstone for many new age revists with Numero Group reissuing the record in 2019. As one could expect, the releases from Slepian were intimate meditations of drone and minimal ambient. There is a sense of perpetual wonder in Slepian’s work and Sea of Bliss is a vast expanse of gentle yet unstructured space for one to explore.
Inoyama Land – Danzindan-Pojidon (Yen Records, 1983)
Inoyama Land are a duo of Japanese artists and were a part of the quiet wave of environmental music called “Kankyō Ongaku” which populated japan in the 1980s. Inoyama Land , along with other musicians, were recently rediscovered outside of Japan due to a renewed interest in the style and the success of the 2019 compilation Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990. Danzindan-Pojidon was produced by Haruomi Hosono and lives in a kingdom of post minimal dreamscapes and soundtracks to JRPG games.
Emerald Web – Valley of the Birds (Stargate, 1981)
Emerald Web was a duo composed of Kat Epple and Bob Stohl who not only recorded delightful ambient music but also saw success in producing music for Carl Sagan’s documentaries. Emerald Web was successful during their time with Valley of the Birds being a triumph among their early releases. Following the accidental death of Bob Stohl in 1990, Emerald Web would disband leading to Kat Epple’s solo career as well as guest spots on Devin Townsend record. The last ten years have seen a wave of remasters and unreleased material. This, combined with the renewed interest in the band’s material is befitting their stature of the king and queen of dream melodies.
Suzanne Cianni – Seven Waves (Finnadar Records) (1982)
Suzanne Cianni is perhaps the most well known synth artist in this list and is usually discussed in relation to other innovators such as Wendy Carlos for pioneering women creators. Ciannis’ history before Seven Waves is ludicrous and filled with many bits of creation including advertisement design, pinball voiceovers, and her first release in 1970 which is more musique concrete. Seven Waves, Cianni’s most celebrated work, initially only saw a Japanese release but soon found international renown due to its sound design and unassuming tone.
Michael Genst – Crystal Fantasy (Sona Gaia Productions) (1984)
Crystal Fantasy was the debut for Michael Genst with cover art from visionary artist / musician Aeoliah. Though the title of the album feels ripe for parody, the gentle and memorable melodious of Cyrytal Fantasy are surreal and imaginative. Genst creates an entire plane of existence which are Sona Gaia Productions was a Holland based record label and host to a boom of wonderful releases in the mid 1980s including the western version of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s 1986 record Green.
Constance Demby – Novus Magnificat: Through The Stargate (Hearts of Space) (1986)
Novus Magnificat: Through The Stargate is perhaps one of the records which can be considered a classic in “new age” once past surface level. The record takes on more serious sounding genres like modern classical though all of the bright bliss aesthetics of traveling through space are here. This record was also released through Hearts of Space, the influential radio program which promoted new age, space ambient, and other abstract ambient music through the 1980’s and 1990s.
A cassette version of the article track plus more relaxation music with subliminal messaging is available from Fantasy Audio Magazine. This article plus interviews with JD Emmanuel and Mark Griffiths are offered in the print version also sold from the same publisher. Eternal gratitude to FAM for their vision and for their freedom when it came to how i put this together. Thank you to Klaus Wolfe for providing music and creating the start of the Dream Journal Institute. Thank you all who read this and thank you to the DS community for inspiring many things.