Light in the Attic Records releases a lot of magical, forgotten reissues. It’s easy to imagine a herd of well-coiffed Lisa Frank unicorns answering the phone there, sorting out rights to obscure 7-inch releases, and laughing at memes on the Unicorn Internet while Witch Interns get them fancy lattes. And maybe now that’s not so far from the truth, because Light in the Attic is boldly daring to go where very few super-cool indie labels have really ever gone before: giving props to New Age music.
This ain’t your mom’s Yanni Best Of or one of those ocean waves CDs you can get from Target and preview on a display. This has organs and drones and weird experimental shit, ladies and gentlewarlocks: welcome to I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America 1950-1990. The 2CD or 3LP release showcases analog, handmade, weirdo recordings that wouldn’t be out of place at an experimental music festival in some cool Eastern European city (KRAKOW *cough cough*, you know you’re cool). Plus a lot of the tracks have awesome/ridiculous names like “The Struggle of the Magicians part three,” or “Witch’s Will,” or my new life theme song from Brian Eno/Blues Control collaborator Laraaji, “Unicorns in Paradise.” Fun fact: one of the tracks on here, Gail Laughton’s “Pompeii 76 AD” was on the Blade Runner soundtrack. I Am the Center is available on October 29.
I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America 1950-1990 tracklisting:
01. Gurdjieff / de Hartmann, “The Struggle of the Magicians part three”
02. Gail Laughton, “Pompeii 76 A.D.”
03. Nesta Kerin Crain, “Gongs in the Rain”
04. Wilburn Burchette, “Witch’s Will”
05. Iasos, “Formentera Sunset Clouds”
06. Steven Halpern, “Seventh Chakra Keynote B (violet)”
07. Joel Andrews, “Seraphic Borealis”
08. Constance Demby, “Om Mani Padme Hum”
09. Daniel Emmanuel, “Arabian Fantasy”
10. Don Slepian, “Awakening” (excerpt)
11. Laraaji, “Unicorns in Paradise” (excerpt)
12. Peter Davison, “Glide V”
13. Joanna Brouk, “Lifting Off”
14. Michael Stearns, “As the Earth Kissed the Moon” (excerpt)
15. Aeoliah, “Tien Fu: Heaven’s Gate” (excerpt)
16. Daniel Kobialka, “Blue Spirals”
17. Larkin, “Two Souls Dance”
18. Judith Tripp, “Li Sun”
19. Mark Banning, “Lunar Eclipse” (excerpt)
20. Alice Damon, “Waterfall Winds”
• Light in the Attic: http://lightintheattic.net
