I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age In America 1950-1990 CD

New age music has undergone a bit of a critical reappraisal of late. Having too often been dismissed as "lift music" (or worse) by critics, a few enlightened souls have taken it on themselves to educate the record buying public on its merits. That's what Light in The Attic Records, often a source for forgotten gems and curious psychedelic oddities, has done here. I Am The Center mines 40 years of private press new age releases and presents the cream of the crop in one astonishing two-disc dose. In parts, the music is magical (see Don Slapian's "Awakening" and Iasos's familiar "Formentera Sunset Clouds"), at other times it's decidedly trippy (step forward Laraaji, Peter Davison and Aeliah); throughout, it's rarely less than spellbinding.