A landmark moment – both for Brian Eno, and for experimental music in general! Although Eno began his solo run with some searing, guitar-heavy records that were even wilder than his early work with Roxy Music – he also began experimenting with more sensitive aspects of sound on albums like Another Green World and Before & After Science – an approach he takes here to the farthest degree, by opening up himself and creating a whole new genre of ambient music in the process! Gone are the raspy, sometimes nasty vocals – and in their place is virtually nothing – just beautifully open music that uses scores that are somewhat cyclical – but at a pace that's very different than the minimalism of the period – and maybe even more minimal too. The record features four long tracks, one with piano by Robert Wyatt – really beautiful stuff, like some strange dark sonic crystal that fell out of the skies years ago, and which still remains a mystery to all ears that stumble upon it! (Rock, Out Sound) CD

A landmark moment – both for Brian Eno, and for experimental music in general! Although Eno began his solo run with some searing, guitar-heavy records that were even wilder than his early work with Roxy Music – he also began experimenting with more sensitive aspects of sound on albums like Another Green World and Before & After Science – an approach he takes here to the farthest degree, by opening up himself and creating a whole new genre of ambient music in the process! Gone are the raspy, sometimes nasty vocals – and in their place is virtually nothing – just beautifully open music that uses scores that are somewhat cyclical – but at a pace that's very different than the minimalism of the period – and maybe even more minimal too. The record features four long tracks, one with piano by Robert Wyatt – really beautiful stuff, like some strange dark sonic crystal that fell out of the skies years ago, and which still remains a mystery to all ears that stumble upon it! (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Brian Eno leaves the Airports, and moves On Land – but still keeps things pretty much in the spare sound of the Ambient series! The lineup here features a few more extra musicians – including Michael Beinhorn on synth, Jon Hassell on trumpet, Axel Gros and Michael Brook on guitars, and Bill Laswell on bass – but all players are used sparingly, and the overall sound hardly acknowledges their presence. Daniel Lanois helped in the recording of some of the material – an early moment in his famous partnership with Eno – and the tracks were recorded over the space of 4 years – with occasional glimmers of the British countryside through the hazy atmospherics of Eno's landscape. Titles include "Lizard Point", "Tal Coat", "Shadow", "A Clearing", "Unfamiliar Wind", "Lantern Marsh", and "The Lost Day". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Brian Eno's second installment in the Ambient series – a set of recordings done in collaboration with Harold Budd – who'd almost go on to carry the torch for this style more than Eno! The tracks are as spare and atmospheric as the previous Ambient album – but are also almost a bit warmer too – filled with some of the slightly more melodic moments we love in Budd's work, and almost a precursor to the darker soundscapes of the 4AD generation. There's a subtle sense of poetry here that's really beautiful – and titles include "Steal Away", "First Light", "Failing Light", "Wind In Lonely Fences", "The Chill Air", "Not Yet Remembered", and "Above Chiangmai". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic work from this sublime instrumental combo! (Rock, Out Sound) CD

To most ears, trumpeter Jon Hassell first burst on to the world through his experiments with Brian Eno on EG Records, or maybe his 80s work on ECM – but here, on his debut for the small avant label Lovely Music, it's clear that Jon's already in complete control of his sound – and is ready to become the kind of performer that would captivate listeners for decades to come! Hassell's horn has that special sort of effect quality on most numbers here – spacey, but never slick – and electrified, but far from any sort of Miles Davis mode – especially considering that the music is full of earthy, organic percussion from Nana Vasconcelos and some other players, who balance out the set's work on Fender Rhodes, Arp, and Serge synthesizer. The spirit of the set is very much in Hassell's classic "fourth world" recordings – and titles include "Toucan Ocean", "Hex", "Blues Nile", "Vernal Equinox", and "Caracas Night September 11, 1975". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer gave us an excellent previous record on the International Anthem label – one that mixed field recordings with sounds of their own – an approach that's continued here as the pair are joined by Ariel Kalma, whose instrumentation really adds a wonderful new layer to the process! There's a mix of live instrumentation, sounds from sources, and processing going on here that takes us back to some of the best fourth world experiments from the EG/Eno years – almost like Jon Hassell, but with a lighter, airier vibe – and maybe more understated brilliance – an ego-less recording that has the musicians swirling together in beautifully sensitive territory. The set's never too quiet to be ambient, but has some of the appeal of that mode too – and titles include "Ten Hour Wave", "Dizzy Ditty", "Une Ombre Legere", "New Air", "Ecoute Au Loin", and "Stack Attack". CD

Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer gave us an excellent previous record on the International Anthem label – one that mixed field recordings with sounds of their own – an approach that's continued here as the pair are joined by Ariel Kalma, whose instrumentation really adds a wonderful new layer to the process! There's a mix of live instrumentation, sounds from sources, and processing going on here that takes us back to some of the best fourth world experiments from the EG/Eno years – almost like Jon Hassell, but with a lighter, airier vibe – and maybe more understated brilliance – an ego-less recording that has the musicians swirling together in beautifully sensitive territory. The set's never too quiet to be ambient, but has some of the appeal of that mode too – and titles include "Ten Hour Wave", "Dizzy Ditty", "Une Ombre Legere", "New Air", "Ecoute Au Loin", and "Stack Attack". LP, Vinyl record album

Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer gave us an excellent previous record on the International Anthem label – one that mixed field recordings with sounds of their own – an approach that's continued here as the pair are joined by Ariel Kalma, whose instrumentation really adds a wonderful new layer to the process! There's a mix of live instrumentation, sounds from sources, and processing going on here that takes us back to some of the best fourth world experiments from the EG/Eno years – almost like Jon Hassell, but with a lighter, airier vibe – and maybe more understated brilliance – an ego-less recording that has the musicians swirling together in beautifully sensitive territory. The set's never too quiet to be ambient, but has some of the appeal of that mode too – and titles include "Ten Hour Wave", "Dizzy Ditty", "Une Ombre Legere", "New Air", "Ecoute Au Loin", and "Stack Attack". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite mixing of modes from the old school – a tremendous second album from the legendary Aksak Maboul! The record mixes arty playfulness with some rootsier elements – bits of Eastern instrumentation, jazz, improvisation, and even some post-punk elements – all in a way that makes for one of the most creative recordings of its time – a set that easily provides key inspiration for more recent genre-crossing acts like this! There's a bit of Y or Ze Records whimsy at times – but the end result is much deeper, and much more compelling– as you'd expect from a group that features Fred Frith on guitar, Chris Cutler on drums, Marc Hollander and Michel Berkmans on reeds, and Denis Van Hecke on a range of cool cellos! Each tune has a slightly different flavor, but there's still a really unified feel to the record too – one of those European projects that comes together like nothing you'd hear from the US. Titles include "Geistige Nacht", "A Modern Lesson", "Palmiers En Pots", "Inoculating Rabies", "Cinema", and "Bosses De Crosses". (Rock, Out Sound) CD

Fantastic sounds from Tim Blake – an artist who previously worked with Gong, and sometimes worked with Hawkwind – but who really came into his own on this legendary album of electronics! Tim works here on a self-constructed "crystal machine" – a bank of electronics that was often played in performance to front some trippy film installations (as shown on the cover) – which perfectly suited the stretched-out spacey style of his music! The vibe is maybe a bit like early Tangerine Dream, but with some of the warmer modes of the French electronic scene of the time – and titles include "Midnight", "Last Ride Of The Boogie Child", "Synthese Intemporal", and "Crystal Presence". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A masterpiece of new music for guitar from the legendary Glenn Branca – a set that both draws on all the minimal experiments on the New York scene of the 70s, and the big wave of underground music at the end of the decade! Branca effortlessly fuses the rock and compositional communities here – working with Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, and artist Ned Sublette – in a fierce set of tunes that blend four guitars, electric bass, and drums – all with an instrumental frenzy that matches some of the best early jams from Sonic Youth. Branca's approach is less freeform, but has very much the same intensity – and titles include "Lesson No 2", "Structure", "The Ascension", and "Spectacular Commodity". LP, Vinyl record album

"Now you can experience transcendental consciousness without spending 10 years in a Tibetan monastery" – or so the liner notes proclaim – a pretty great description of what's bound to happen after making your way through this very trippy album from the early 70s! The set's essentially a set of long electric guitar solos – played by Wilburn Burchette on his self-created "impro guitar" – recorded with lots and lots of echo, and maybe a bit of distortion too – so that the long, cyclic lines ring out beautifully – with every bit of the hypnotic feel you might expect! The whole thing's almost like an electric version of some of John Fahey's longform solo work – and titles include "Dawn Of Awakening", "Regeneration", "Transformation", "Introversion", and "Piercing The Psychic Heart". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

"Now you can experience transcendental consciousness without spending 10 years in a Tibetan monastery" – or so the liner notes proclaim – a pretty great description of what's bound to happen after making your way through this very trippy album from the early 70s! The set's essentially a set of long electric guitar solos – played by Wilburn Burchette on his self-created "impro guitar" – recorded with lots and lots of echo, and maybe a bit of distortion too – so that the long, cyclic lines ring out beautifully – with every bit of the hypnotic feel you might expect! The whole thing's almost like an electric version of some of John Fahey's longform solo work – and titles include "Dawn Of Awakening", "Regeneration", "Transformation", "Introversion", and "Piercing The Psychic Heart". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

One of those landmark meetings of mighty talents that sounds even better on record than it does on paper – as the set somehow finds this really special space that's completely between all the best early 70s modes of both Terry Riley and John Cale! Cale was really coming into his own at the time as a solo act – creating amazing records after leaving the Velvet Underground, but also still tied to the deeper art scene from which he emerged. Riley was on the way to becoming one of the most popular of the more modern composers – thanks to a nod from The Who, and a big audience for his wonderfully trippy records on Columbia. The label allowed the pair to create this really special music here – sounds that borrow from Riley's minimalism, while also having some of the darkness of Cale's own compositions – and coming across with this jagged, almost modal sort of approach that's really great. Cale only sings on one song, and the rest of the set is instrumental – as Riley plays piano, organ, and soprano sax – and Cale joins in on bass, guitar, viola, and harpsichord. The two of them groove together in these totally cool tracks that build and build, with minimal lines repeating over and over in endlessly fascinating groove – in a way that touches on a weirdly funky mode! The cut "Ides Of March" has the potential to be dancefloor groover in the jazz dance scene, and there's lots of other great tracks like "Church of Anthrax", "The Protege", and "The Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles". (Rock, Out Sound) CD

With Sun Araw, Butchy Fuego, M Geddes Gendras, and Tony Lowe. (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album