Archive for the ‘On New Age Stars Radio’ Category

Recently John and I  have made the decision to revise our Music Submission Policies due to the increasing amount of e mails we both receive for album reviews from artists.

While we both enjoy writing comprehensive reviews about many musicians and their latest release for our individual websites, we have both been spending too much time just responding to e mails requesting reviews.  Some e mails we receive have also gone unanswered and we do want to emphasize that this is not a reflection on your music.

We regret not being able to reply to every e mail and want nothing more than to be able to write about everyone, but unfortunately this simply is not possible and ask for your understanding.

Our individual Music Submission Policies vary slightly now, and artists may read the revised NewAgeMusic.nu / Stars Radio submission policy right here.  The revised policy for NewAgeMusicWorld.Com can be read here.

All albums received by NewAgeMusic.nu over the laste couple of months will be reviewed as promised.  

Again, Thank You for your understanding.  John & B.T.

We are now celebrating that we have 2.500 registered members on New Age Stars radio on Live365! In a little over 2 months we have got over 500 new members. Among 188 channels in the new age music category, we are currently no. 6.  With tens of thousands of listeners, and now 2.500 registered members, we are not only a new age music news source – but a major new age music player.

Our goal is simple; to give you, the fan, the best new age music, news & interviews available.

This graph shows how the number of registered members grew in January.

It is with great pride we bring you the news that our already incredibly popular web radio New Age Stars has become even more popular.
Now over 2.000 Live365 listeners have the channel in their presets, and it is now the 8^th most popular channel in the new age music genre on the net’s top radio provider.

We are giving tens of thousands of listeners their daily dose of new age music, and do so with a smile. We are here to serve you, our fellow new age music fan. Let’s enjoy this walk under the stars together.

We, John P. Olsen and I, can only say thank you, thank you.

NewAgeMusic.nu’s web radio New Age Stars has just passed another milestone – over 1.500 Live365.com subscribers now have our radio among their presets for easy access! And approx. 1.500 is also the number of average daily listeners. New Age Stars is now the 140th most popular web radio on one of the largest radio hubs on the net: Live365.com.

We, John P. Olsen and I, can only say thank you – our dedicated listeners. Be sure that we will continue to provide you with free streaming new age music web radio while supporting US and international artists.

Now over 1000 Live365 Listeners have our web radio station New Age Stars in their presets – which means that they have saved the station for easy access and playback. The station was launched as NewAgeMusic.nu’s music sampler in late December 2008 and has been a success story from day 1. Now several thousand listeners are served each week.

New Age Stars is currently the 8th most popular station in the new age category on Live365 out of over 180 channels. It is also one of the 200 most popular stations on Live365 – which has around 2000 stations.

Here you can see a graph of the numer of presets over the last month alone, growing day by day:

We have added a lot of new songs lately – and promise to keep the playlist fresh. And we have to; after all, this is the genre that’s always new!

Check out the New Age Stars radio here – free, updated and always in CD quality. We are here to serve you, the fan.

Now over 500 Live365 listeners has New Age Music Stars Radio in their presets. The channel gets around 100 new regular listeners ever month, which we think is an incredible number. The station is raked at 9,09 / 10 points by 46 persons. Thank you! We promise you all a lot of great music in the months to come!

Once again we shine the spotlight on the time tested music of Vicki Logan, who has recently revealed her thoughts and artistic perceptions by our recent interview here at NewAgeMusic.nu.  If you click on my name to read my personal page, you will find that The Ride is listed second of my all time favorite albums.  I hope this will encourage you to listen what this gifted artist is offering the world of New Age music.
 
Vicki Logan presently has 4 impressive albums available to date, with The Ride as the third successful release on her Carvic Publishing label from 2004, winning a place in the New Age Reporter’s Top 100 albums chart.  Personally drawn from her self conclusions about the ride everyone must travel during our day to day life experiences, this album has also held positions in some additional top 100 charts and granted impressive online radio airplay attention worldwide.
 
The Ride is considered inspirational and emotional by recalling the exhilarating roller coaster like moments in life, to times of eminent cross road decisions where one must faithfully reach out for everything life has to offer, or risk losing an opportunity if we choose to remain in the much safer realm of not ever taking a chance at all.  There is also a calming and relaxed atmosphere to her music as if acknowledging contentment in knowing that we have tried and are justly rewarded for having done our personal best.  This comparison is the easiest way to describe how this album makes me feel. 

Vicki’s own description is related to the passage of time and how she has experienced progress while composing and producing music, so everyone if free to draw their own self conclusions about how this album makes them feel on a personal level, but believe me, you will feel something positive from her music.

Incorporating elements of New Age pop, jazz, and R & B influences provides the listener a fresh perspective beginning with a classic piano piece.

The Ride is primarily mid tempo instrumental throughout, enhanced by individual solo performances of saxophone, piano, guitar, and the wondrous flute which Vicki plays passionately.  Incorporating elements of New Age pop, jazz, and R & B influences provides the listener a fresh perspective beginning with a classic piano piece.  Track 1 The Dance of the Sun has a heartfelt piano melody with background synthesizer starting a new beginning of an adventure into your earliest observations of what to anticipate further down this musical journey. 

Track 5 Just to be With You offers a harmonious rhythmic ballad that intertwines electronic and saxophone solo into a singular peaceful existence upon adding the engaging percussion beat for blending everything together dramatically.  Track 6 The Ride  is one of many favorites being New Age pop in theme.  This memorable up tempo song with heart pounding rhythms, unbounded keyboard rides, and perfectly timed percussion is truly something to behold on it’s own.  Then upon adding the flowing flute melody, everything fits together so perfectly in the instrumental arrangement, you will soon find yourself recalling the melody over and over in your mind daily. 

Track 8 Finding Freedom is a thought provoking song from this spirited American artist, having deep rhythms, driving percussion, and building flute repertoire which inspire and restore your faith in the very notion of individual freedoms in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as if saying, yes we can !
 
This album is an excellent example of what can be achieved when a talented artist shares a part of themselves by putting their heart and spirit into the creation of their music, offering New Age music lovers a chance to also feel something truly special along the way.

… you will soon find yourself recalling the melody over and over in your mind daily.

Reach out for what this artist is offering you by going to vickilogan.com or Her Myspace page. You can sample the album on CDBaby.

Be also sure to check out our interview with the artist.

Our partner Live365 has just launched an iPhone application that makes it possible to listen to Live365 stations. This means that you can listen to New Age Stars radio, either at home or on the road with your iPhone! Read all about it here

New Age Stars currently has an impressive 9,07 of 10 rating from a total of 45 listeners. We can only say thank you! We are working hard to create an even better radio station for you. Now we can support up to 80 free listeners at 128 kbps, and unlimited paid listeners. So welcome, all of you!

Between now and May 10th, you can purchase Marc Enfroy’s debut CD, Unbounded, for only $9.99 at his official online store.

Get the CD that radio broadcasters worldwide voted as the Best Neo-Classical Album in the 2008 New Age Reporter Lifestyle Music Awards.

It has become a tradition in the world of new age music. Every fifth year or so Medwyn Goodall’s many fans get a new installment in the Medicine Woman series. Since the release of the first album in the series in 1991, it has become one of the most popular in the genre. 450.000 copies of Medicine Woman 1 has been sold so far, and Medicine Woman 2 the gift has been awarded gold disc status. Now the fourth Medicine Woman is ready to do house calls. This time she brings more mystery and magic than ever before. In the center is the ancient Mayan calendar and the enigmatic year of 2012.

Since his debut in 1987, Medwyn Goodall has been one of the leading new age artists. The most striking about his music is his ability to recreate and redefine his style while staying true to the objective: create music that is positive, fresh and uplifting. After more than 80 albums this is still the case: the new Medicine Woman has a lot of powerful magic potions in her bag, ready to heal your stressed-out soul.

In a recent interview with Medwyn Goodall we asked him about the Mayans and the year 2012. He answered: The ultimate conclusion of the Mayans knowledge of time and astrology was their creation of what is known as the Mayan calendar which tells of periods, eons of time each having its influence on humanity. What is immediately noticeable about the calendar is that it stop very precisely on the 21st of December 2012. Read the whole interview here.

Fans will find Medicine Woman 4 to be somewhere between Medicine Woman 3 the rising (2004) and Serve Chilled (2008 ) in sound. The somewhat heavy synth pads of previous Medicine Woman albums are gone, replaced by a lighter, modern synth arrangement. Medwyn uses guitar, flutes and a gentle drum set.

The thing I like best about the Medicine Woman series is the superb sound design. When you put on a new album, you know what it is even though you haven’t heard it before: for the fan it is a musical deja vu. Medwyn uses some of the melodic segments from previous albums while adding plenty of new material. From the first magical sounding synth you know that the medicine woman is here again. On track two you’ll get the first example of the totally renewed sound. The light synth together with the piano is beautiful beyond words.

The Medicine Woman series contain some of Medwyn Goodall’s best tracks, like Temple Journey and Farewell To The Darkness. And fans will be delighted to add track no. four, Solar Waves, to the list. It has an unforgettable melody combined with a light synth arrangement that shows Medwyn’s almost magical abilities to create positive, heartfelt music. This track is one of Medwyn’s finest. It is simply masterful.

As always in the Medicine Woman series the South American influences are many and welcome. I think they give Medwyn’s music both warmth and identity. When you play the album it runs like one track, with only a very short break between the tracks. In this way you get long session with the Medicine Woman. Not bad for a mere £ 9.99. It offers, like the rest of the series, almost endless replay possibilities.

Prophecy 2012 has the good old Medicine Woman atmosphere, pure and simple. This sound should have been patented, put on a bottle and sold to a big pharmaceutical company, since it is truly a healing experience. But I guess that the Medicine Woman is more about herbs and spells, than pills and bills.

Sample the album here.

Picture copyright Bigstockphoto, JaleEvsen

Both in art and in media there is a steady focus on social and cultural differences. It is for some reason more important to describe what makes us different from each other than what makes us similar. The album Kindred by Kevin Wood is a reaction to this. Wood’s message is that we all have a lot in common, regardless of race, ethnicity and religion. With this as inspiration, I guess Kevin Wood had to create something truly beautiful. And yes, he did.

Kindred is Kevin Wood’s third album. Fans of his previous albums, Scenic Listening (2002) and Sacred (2005) will feel at home. This time around there are less Gregorian chants, but a more ethnic approach. Wood has his very own style. He uses rich synth pads, a beat box like drum and additional layers of piano, strings and vocals. It is in my opinion exquisite sound design. It’s on the brink of perfection. Perhaps it is just me – but I think Wood’s synth and drum arrangement reminds of the intro to Bruce Springsteen’s classic Streets of Philadelphia. It is beautiful music with a hint of melancholy.

The first five seconds of the album are very interesting. It is like the artistic technique “in medias res” in a novel; after reading two lines you are in a middle of the story. On Kindred the high-pitched female vocal and the deep synth pads on Adoration create a sudden and intense soundscape. After 10 seconds or so your ears will adjust to it. In a genre where most artists use three to five minutes to build up to a song’s theme, it is refreshing to find an artists who doesn’t waste time. It is a good effect. You only have to listen to it for a few seconds and you know what to expect. Other songs, like The Eternal Return, have a longer build up.

The next song, Strength in Numbers, starts with an ethnic male vocal, followed by an electronic cello solo – and then another male vocal is heard. The theme, played with piano, is very melodic. I enjoy the way the different voices “talk” together, almost creating a conversation in the song. This is especially notable on the third track, Mother’s Love. Here a child is saying something, half singing and half sobbing. Then a female vocal (presumably the “mother”) is answering in a calming way, perhaps saying that everything will be ok. It is not unlike a lullaby. The female vocal is also on the next track, The Eternal Return. I think that these ethnic voices illustrate that all humans share the same need for love and comfort. Music is the universal language, and you can understand it by just listening. It is hard to say if the people of the Amazon would enjoy Kindred – but one thing is sure; since it communicates feelings of love and comfort, it may have universal appeal (at least for everyone used to synth music).

The deep flute on the intro to the song Honoring Tradition, played by Virgie Ravenhawk, is simply fantastic. It is like music from a distant past. Again the use of samples and voices are first rate, and the mix of cello, piano, flute and a guitarlike instrument is as good as it gets.

The best song on the album is Many Voices One Spirit. The piano melody is so lush and beautiful – you”ll want to hit the repeat button after just one listen. The sampled choir sings “kyrie” (but without “eleison”), and then an ethnic vocal is heard. Later on the song there a few Gregorian chants as well. The combination of musical elements is like a melting pot of East and West, past and present; it is Wood’’s way of saying that we are all kindred spirits. The meditation version of the song, track 10, is as expected a little longer and slower. And yet again the low-key rhythm fits in perfectly. The two last tracks, Atonement and Reunion, are two dreamy tracks – a nice way to end the album. There is also a bonus track, In Search of Kindred Spirits, from Sacred. And I guess that there is a reason for this; it has much of the same sound, or vibe if you will.

I must mention the phenomenal cover artwork by Claudia Wennberg / oledesign.com. It is the second best photo installment for a new age release I have ever seen (best being the Tubular Bells cover, no surprise there). The hands in the middle almost trying to catch the sun, with the world map and the meditating person at the lake – plus the mountains and the setting sun. It is such a powerful illustration of Wood’’s music.

Kindred is simply put an album that all fans of new age music will enjoy. It is relaxing, uplifting and somewhat different. Wood’’s uses drums and samples in an original way. And most importantly; it is heartfelt and real.

The kinship of humankind is something we all must cherish.