Archive for the ‘Live New Age Music’ Category

Believe me, dear reader, that THIS is probably the best offer you’ll get all day. What I can give you is the link to a MAGNIFICENT video of a concert held by Andreas Vollenweider and friends on 3 June 2010 in Shanghai, China, at the Shanghai Centre.

The video is free, about 40 minutes long, has excellent quality and is available for playback on Vollenweider’s homepage here – or by clicking the above picture.

I can only say WOW, what energy, what creativity, that is in this music – and this incredible artist. Thank you, thank you, mr. Vollenweider.

At Tangerine Dream’s own Eastgate Music Shop is now the 3 CD recording of the band’s concert in Royal Albert Hall on April 1st 2010 available. The performance started with cellos, leading into a beautiful piano improvisation by Linda Spa – and then getting interrupted by Edgar Froese’s beating with a whip on the grand piano strings and then suddenly the new arrangement of Rubycon 2010!

Tangerine Dream played the Royal Albert Hall for the first time in April 1975. So this concert was actually a 35 year anniversary.The 3 CDset comes with a 16-pages booklet. Below are two videos from the concert taken by the audience.

A truly unique concert!

See the complete track listing here.

If you didn’t get to see Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest/Deep Project’s concert at La Villette/France in May, you can now enjoy three songs from the concert below.
I think it so nice to hear and see Eric do some of the old Deep Forest material, from the World Mix period in the mid 1990s. And wow, Blick Bassy adds a magnificent vocal! Inor Sotolongo is great on the percussion. Some Deep Brasil material would also have been nice of course.

When doing this kind of music live the question is always; how to give life to the ethnical samples and the overall synth/sequenced presentation. The best way is actually shown here; just playback the samples and synth effect and add something extra, like Blick Bassy’s vocal – and even more live instruments.

These videos are true gold for the Deep Forest fan. And don’t forget, we will soon get a brand new Deep Project album called Deep Africa! Eric Mouquet is without a doubt the king of new age music within the ethnic sub genre. With a Grammy (for Deep Forest) and over 10 million album sold and just as many playbacks on Youtube, he is an artist loved by a truly international audience.

Be sure to visit Deep Projects.com.

Now Europeans have the chance to see some of the best and most inspiring new age music artists live; Terry Oldfield & Soraya will from August to October be performing in Italy, Spain, Germany, Scotland, Holland, Belgium and Sweden. Meditation Workshops will also be given at some of the locations. Believe me, you will not find anyone on earth better to give such a workshop!!

See the full tour & workshop plan here.

The new Dancing with the Lion-Orchestra will on August 21 celebrate the 30th anniversary of Andreas Vollenweider as an artist!

The beautifully picturesque setting at the border of the Lake of Zurich is the backdrop for this event. The music of the three centuries of the Vollenweider-Sound, between Behind the Gardens, Dancing with the Lion and AIR, is being played by the extended Andreas Vollenweider & Friends Orchestra. It is now thirty years since Vollenweider started, and still he enjoys a large and faithful audience. Note that this will be the only concert in Europe this year.

Read about ticket prices ect. on Vollenweider’s homepage.

The newspaper Hamptonroads.com has an interview with Peter Kater and Nawang Khechog who have recently completed their tour.

First question out is:

Hamptonroads.com: When you helped start the New Age movement, were you consciously trying to start a new musical genre?

Mr. Kater: Absolutely not. I’m classically trained and I grew up listening to pop and rock and Top 40 music, but I was a pianist and not really a singer. I just started improvising, and this style is what came out.

Read the whole interview here.

Good news to all Peter Kater fans; he will release a new album in September. Nothing much is known about the album as of today – but we will tell you as soon as we hear anything.

But while we are waiting; why not check out Peter’s tour schedule: lots of great conserts are coming up this July for our US friends! And also make sure to read his latest blogpost: called Unreasonable Happiness.

The European Song Contest is today being held in Oslo, Norway. Last year Alexander Rybak won the European Song Contest with the ballad Fairytale. The song got the most votes in the history of the show. You can see the song performed here.

It is however not a new age song, but the reason I am writing this is because the last time Norway won, in 1995, the winner was Secret Garden with Nocturne – which is very new age indeed. This was the beginning of Secret Garden’s career, which has given us some incredible songs (like You Raise Me Up).

So yes, a new age song can win the European Song Contest, at least back in 1995.

See the performance here – which is a classic moment i new age music history (with some Dutch speaking in the intro):

On Friday June 11 Kitaro will perform at the Harmony Festival on the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California.  He will perform together with Grand Master Tanaka & Dennis Banks. Here is a presentation of Grand Master Tanaka:

Grand Master Tanaka has been honored by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs with its prestigious Foreign Ministers Commendation which recognizes his significant efforts in promoting the Japanese art of Taiko drumming.  In 2001, he was named a National Heritage Fellow by the United States National Endowment for the Arts, widely recognized as one of America’s highest honors in folk and traditional arts.. Master Tanaka explains, “The essence of Taiko is not only skillful playing of percussive instruments, but also discipline of mind and body in the spirit of complete respect and unity among drummers.”

Dennis Banks:

Ojibwa Native DENNIS J. BANKS is one of the founders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and has spent much of his life protecting the traditional ways of Indian people and engaging in legal cases protecting treaty rights of Native Americans.

Read more and book your tickets here.

One of our readers, John T, recently gave us this comment about Tangerine Dream’s concert on 1 April at the Albert Hall.

I was at the concert. As an old fan – I listened to phaedra at Loughborough Uni in ‘74, at two hours into the concert I wanted to leave. I’d had enough, but with friends? And having waited months for the experience.

The engineering wasn’t that good – the Hall’s normally good, adjustable sonics, weren’t matched and there were a few low req resonances that were quite nasty. It was too loud for this genre. What’s wrong with not driving the amplification into distortion?

The sound scape was very very busy at times with leads and counters fighting for presence – the net effect confusing. There is the suggestion of egos fighting for importance in the lineup.

TD had become too self indulgent and has forgotten about the experience of its audience, at least that’s my impression.

Be sure to check out if Deva Premal & Miten are visiting your city. This Friday they are performing in Washington, DC. See the complete tour schedule here.

I can only say that it doesn’t get better than the below video; feel the love, in the light of love – here the couple is filmed in Malibu, California, together with Manose. His flute is as always AWESOME.

New Earth Records is reporting the following great news:

Terry Oldfield and his partner Soraya Saraswati will be heading to Europe this fall to play concerts. After they wrap up summer events in their home country of Australia, they will be in Italy, Holland and Belgium among other spots. If you will be in either Australia during the summer or Europe from late August through October, you can look up more informatin on Terry and Soraya’s events at www.terryoldfield.com.

Major British newspaper The Times has posted a review of Tangerine Dream’s concert on 1 April at the Albert Hall.

Reviewer Will Hodgkinson asks this rhetorical question:

Way back in 1970 Tangerine Dream was a revolutionary proposition. Pioneering the use of early sequencers, digital technology and 30-minute musical pieces devoid of choruses, vocals or indeed song structures of any kind, Edgar Froese’s band created about as much atmosphere as three motionless German men lost in a sea of electrical cables are capable of.

That year their concert at the Albert Hall caused a mass outbreak of furrowed brows amid the greatcoat-wearing youth of London. Four decades on, with synthesizer and New Age music long established, even pilloried genres, could Tangerine Dream still weave that magical spell?

Read the complete review here.

New age music superstars Secret Garden will in April be on the road in Korea. They will be performing in 5 cities;  Nowon, Goyang, Sjeong, Incheon and Gunpo. The duo consists of Rolf Lovland and Fionnuala Sherry.

See information here, where you can also get tickets.

On Domo Music Group’s newsblog you can see pictures from Kitaro’s recent concert in Singapore. And a 13 seconds long video (!!!) has also been posted… I guess you have to be a diehard fan to enjoy that one.

But if you want a somewhat longer video of Kitaro’s new live material, take a look at this one.

On Saturday March 20 you have the chance to experience Master Musician / Healer Constance Demby live in Malibu, CA. It is one of the final events in the series of presentations at Sound Currents Healing Temple. Constance Demby gives this presentation:

In almost every culture and religion, one finds a special significance accorded to the Vernal Equinox. Owing to the dramatic change that it brings about in the environment, when day and night are approximately equal in length, the Vernal Equinox has become a religious and cultural symbol representing the triumph of good over evil, of light over darkness, of life over death.

It sounds fascinating, doesn’t it? Read all about it on constancedemby.com.

After Gandalf’s successful Sanctuary tour last year, three new concerts in Germany and Austria have been announced. The places and dates are:

Sa, June 12th, 20h
Schwaz/Tirol – Germany
Woodroot-Festival

Fr, July 16th, 20h30
Gutenbrunn/NÖ – Austria
Bühnenwirtshaus Juster

Sa, November 20th, 20h
Pressbaum/N.Ö. – Austria
Sacre Coeur

And if that wasn’t enough, Gandalf has this exciting news to his many fans:

Currently Gandalf is working on the composition of a new orchestral project which is planned to be released on CD and performed live in Vienna on the occasion of his 30th Anniversary in 2011.

So yes, Ganfalf fans has a lot to look forward to! And while you are waiting, see the excellent video below from last year where Gandalf is performing together with  Merike Hilmar (cello) and Christian Strobl (percussion), who both also contributed to the recording of Gandalf’s album Sanctuary.

See more on Gandalf’s homepage.

It is such a joy to be a Tangerine Dream fan! There is just so much material still being released, so many excellent concerts to attend and such a fantastic community. The latest edition is a recording of TDs live performance in Japan in September last year – which has been released today, March 10.

On September 5th, 2009, more than 20.000 people pilgrimaged to the tropical peninsula of Izu on the Pacific shore about 130 miles off from Japan’s capital Tokyo. On the occasion of the immensely popular “Metamorphose Festival” TD performed some of their highlights accompanied by an enthusiastic young Japanese crowd. A fantastic warm summer night out in South East Asia.

The DVD also contains three clips from “BEHIND THE SCENES” which will give you an intimate insight of TD backstage, the streets of Tokyo and a bit of Japanese culture.
Here is a presentation of the tour, which still is on the road. London in April will be BIG.

See the track listing on the Eastgate Shop.

We recently told you about the band Fadalack , who did their version of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Another interesting project that is soon out on the road is Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts’ Tubular Bells for two. Their two-man version of the classic comes to life utilizing acoustic and electric guitars, two pianos, three synthesizers, two drum kits, bass guitar, mandolin, glockenspiel, and of course, tubular bells!

So if you are in Australia on the 13^th of March you have the chance to experience a rare and special Tubular Bells performance. Read all about it here.             Source: Tubular.net

Be sure to read the responses from people who attended Constance Demby’s recent music event. Here is one of them:

From everything I am, I deeply thank you for the wonder, the magic, the love, the radiance. You are a divine gift to this world and all of
Creation! Thank you for being here and sharing your beauty, your love, your vastness.

Constance Demby’s music is truly magical. You can check it out on Amazon if you don’t believe me – or the concert response above.

This is to our Australian friends; next week you have the chance to experience Terry Oldfield and his wife Soraya and their wonderful Sound Journeys. They weave a rich tapestry of healing sound and music with flute, crystal bowls, strings, symphonic gongs, percussion and voice. Terry is well known for his nature recordings, which always give the listener a profound sense of connection to Mother Earth. The seminar’s goal is to transport the audience to a space of deep relaxation and peace. It is in this space spontaneous healing can occur.

Terry writes:

Throughout history the power of sound through music has been used to move people to states of inspiration, joy, meditation, wellness, grief, war and stillness. Sound bypasses the intellectual mind and goes straight to the feelings center. Music can make us dance, laugh and cry; music is ever present in every celebration of life from birth to marriage and finally death.

Read more on TerryOldfield.com

Some pieces of music will live forever. One such title is without a doubt Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. I am sure this groundbreaking album will be played 50, 100 or 500 years from now.

A sure sign of the quality of TB is that it is being played live by other artists too. Below is the group Fadalack at a concert in Alicante, Spain, performing TB live. Here are more pictures and a presentation of the band in Spanish.

What a great performance! Still, one can’t avoid being impressed too by the very young Mike Oldfield who composed this and played most of the instruments himself… Source: Tubular.net

Time and time again Tangerine Dream proves that New Age Music is live music. No one is better than Edgar Froese & co on stage.

The below video is from the One Night In Space DVD, recorded at the Frankfurt opera on October 7th 2007. Have you ever seen a happier drummer?

The video is available at the wonderful Eastgate Music Shop.

And while we are talking about live new age music, we must tell you that the Grammy-winning duo Tingstad and Rumbel is now out on the road again. Twenty-five years of their music collaboration has produced 19 albums. They began performing and recording together in 1985, and their debut album the following year, The Gift, became a holiday classic.

For two decades their music has earned praise from The New York Times, The Washington Post and Billboard magazine – and now NewAgeMusic.nu! They’ve performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, and they received a Grammy in the New Age category in 2003 for their album, Acoustic Garden.

You can check out their tour plans here – and while you are at it, listen to their music too!

We love live new age music here at .nu – and what we can present for you today is probably the most exclusive and intimate live event of the year! New Age Music super star Constance Demby invites you into her home recording studio in Malibu, CA. She says:

“I’m really excited about what’s coming up the weekend of Feb 20 & 21: Special Salon Concerts performed in my home recording studio in Malibu, CA. There’s room for about 35 people, so these will be intimate events, as you’ll be just a few feet away from me as I perform and channel the Music of the Spheres. Each concert is always unique, because regardless of the music I prepare, once the concert starts, a palpable energy fills the space, an energy that has been seen by those who have the sight to see into realms beyond the third dimension.”

Read all about it here – and be sure to buy your tickets today because they will all be gone in 1-2-3…

Good news to all Steve Roach fans: his upcoming album, the 2-CD Live at Grace Cathedral, is now at the factory! It to be ready by mid-February – and will also available at iTunes at the same time. About the recorded live performance mr. Roach says:

The opportunity to perform at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral a while back was a dream come true in many ways, and a high point in my live performance memories from the last decade. It’s a fitting release to commence the times. This will be the first live recording I’ve released with the natural reverberant sound of the performance space predominant in the mix. The expansive reverent ambience of Grace Cathedral was absolutely the perfect environment to experience this music within. To honor this space, I built a set that offered me options to directly respond to the unique acoustic properties I knew I was heading into.

And more:

I gathered a set of options ranging from the eras of “The Magnificent Void”, “Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces” as well as new pieces that would later become “Dynamic Stillness”, “Arc of Passion”, and beyond. The influence of the massive space and the spirit it contained acted like an unseen collaborator holding the music and all of us in a dynamic embrace. From my performance location, I could best describe the sensation as hearing and seeing the sounds constantly blooming outwards in the space hovering above the audience, collecting energy and then receding away within the expanse of the cathedral.

I am sure this will be yet another fine Steve Roach release – the first in his fourth decade as a professional artist!

Visit SteveRoach.com

2010 is well underway, and artists are beginning to announce their tour schedule. This is the case with Tangerine Dream, and so is it also with new age music superstar Jean Michel Jarre. He will in March focus exclusively on Germany.

But Germany is not the only place where there are many Jarre fans. Armenian club of JMJ is organizing a photo exhibition called “CITIES IN CONCERT” in Yerevan, Armenia. You can see pictures from the exhibition here (scroll down).

While in Germany J. M. Jarre will perform in:

Braunschweig – 3/03/10
Volkswagen Halle 20:00
 
Hamburg – 4/03/10
Color Line Arena  20:00

Berlin - 5/03/10
Max-Schmeling-Halle 20:00

Oberhausen – 6/03/10
König Pilsener Arena 20:00

Stuttgart – 9/03/10
Porsche Arena 20:00

Leipzig – 11/03/10
Arena 20:00

Bamberg – 12/03/10
Jako Arena 20:00

München – 13/03/10
Olympiahalle 20:00

Mannheim – 14/03/10
SAP Arena 20:00

You can get tickets through Eventim.de

Isn’t it fun that the first and most influential band in our genre still is the most active too? 2009 was a very good year indeed for Tangerine Dream fans; we saw the release of the four albums Springtime and Summer in Nagasaki, Autumn and Winter in Hiroshima, the awesome Views from a Red Train and Hyperborea 2008, plus the live album London Eye Concert 2008 (plus several re-releases of previous albums too!). Yes, 2009 was a busy year! And now TD soon will be out on the road again, this time in Europe!

These are the dates and cities:

• Lisbon (25th March),
• Barcelona (27th March),
• Paris (28th March),
• Zoetermeer/Amsterdam (30th March)
• London (1st April).

Links for tickets to the Amsterdam concert is ready – for the other concerts, follow updates here.

What is there to say? Only one thing; there are no one better! TD forever!

Picture Copyright by Andreas Mueller, Tangerine Dream

JeanMichelJarre.com has received a massive face lift in preparation for the 2010 world tour. After this years’ success, which debuted six months ago to full houses in the United Kingdom, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Holland and Poland – it is easy to see that J. M. Jarre’s millions of fans have a lot to look forward to in 2010. The show continues with concerts in France, Belgium, Germany and Czech Republic. See all the tour dates here.

You only have to click the link to be taken into Jarre’s world of sound and light. The opening video gives a great impression of how it is to attend one of his concerts. If you sign up to the newsletter, you get a free mp3 live recording of Oxygene 5.

After having just completed his critically acclaimed 50 city tour in the USA and Canada, Yanni returns to Mexico for his first concert tour in over 5 years.

He will be touring four cities, October 11–20, 2009. Here are the venues:

• Puebla Auditoria Siglo XXI 10/11/09
• León Poliforum 10/15/09
• Guadalajara Auditorio TELEMEX 10/16/09
• Mexico City Auditorio Nacional 10/19/09

Like on the US tour, Yanni will be joined by “The Voices” crew; Nathan Pacheco, Chloe, Ender Thomas and Leslie Mills, who will give a new life to some of Yanni’s classical compositions with voices that will leave the audience awestruck. And in Mexico City, they will be joined by special guests José José, Lucero and Cristian Castro.

According to Yanni.com the maestro himself says: “This is the best show that I have ever toured with and I can’t wait to share it with the great music fans of Mexico”.

For our many Mexcian readers and listeners; you can buy your tickets here.

One of the best live recordings of new age music is without a doubt Planet Passion by Ancient Future (although the band prefers the genre name world fusion music and not new age music). A remastered version of the original album was released in February to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first Ancient Future concert.

Planet Passion contains both songs by Ancient Future and more traditional songs, all played with the same joy and passion. Nineteen artists from all over the world, from India to Cuba, from America to China, participate on the album. It is truly a global fusion.

Planet Passion is a classic that no new age music collection is complete without. Feel the passion

But don’t take my word for it – sample the album on Amazon or your favorite digital music outlet! Or check out this long list of rave reviews.

Peter Kater & Dominic Miller start their summer 2009 tour on July 23rd at McCoy Studio Theater at Maui, Hawaii. Two days later they are in Colorado, and after that in New Mexico, Arizona, Washington DC and the tour ends in Virginia.

See all tour dates and get information here.

Peter Kater has received 5 Grammy nominations in the last 6 years and has scored over 100 television programs and films including 11 Off and On-Broadway plays. Now you got the chance to see him performe live!

Marshall Styler is holding a concert Fredericksburg, Texas Wines, this Saturday between 1pm and 5pm. Here you can hear Marshall play songs from his new album Seven Falls, as well as some favorites from his other CDs.

And while you are waiting for the concert to begin, why not check out our review of the Seven Falls album?

On Saturday 18th July 2009 you have the chance to see Llewellyn & Juliana live in concert.

The event takes place at the Paradise Theatre in the city of Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, UK, and doors open 7.30pm.

And Llewellyn of course has Juliana with him on stage.

If that was not enough, a free Llewellyn CD is included with every ticket!

Read more here.

The newspaper The Bellington Herald has an interview with David Lanz in connection with his upcoming concert on 17 July in The Amadeus Project concert hall in Bellingham, Washington.

This is also the city where the popular pianist lives.

In the interview David is asked about how he works:

For me, laughing at one’s self and not taking things too seriously is really the best approach to life. Focus and dedication make for a serious musician, but laughter and light heartedness bring joy to life.

And about his upcoming recording:

I am planning on previewing music from my upcoming project at the July 17 concert, and have been keeping this recording under wraps, which means you will have come to the show to see what is next!

So this will indeed a concert not to miss if you are in the area.

Read the interview here.

Picture taken from DavidLanz.com