Although many recognize Steven Halpern’s Spectrum Suite album [Halpern Sounds-1975] as ground zero for the New Age music movement, its influences precede it by a decade, as the music of Phillip Glass, Pink Floyd, Terry Riley, and others, laid the groundwork.
By the mid ‘80s, New Age was a big deal and had transcended its humble bookstore and health-food store retail origins: major labels picked up indies or started their own divisions to cater to the music’s growing audience; record stores established New Age sections (in 1981, a California Tower Records was the first to do so), and certain jazz and rock musicians started dabbling and released New Age records. (A significant chunk of The Police’s Andy Summers’ solo catalog falls into that category.) Former Frank Zappa/Missing Persons bassist Patrick O’Hearn was among the latter.
A charter member of former Tangerine Dream keyboardist Peter Baumann’s prestigious Private Music label—also home of Eddie Jobson, the aformentioned Tangerine Dream, and Yanni, among others—O’Hearn’s solo debut, Ancient Dreams [Private Music-1985] is a breathtaking example of what New Age music could be in the right hands, and is rightfully considered a classic of the genre.
