ROBERT AEOLUS MYERS
Talisman ORIGIN PEOPLES
Hawaiian New Age composer-turned-psychotherapist reassessed.
it’s possible you’re unfamiliar with the 1980s Hawaiian avantgarde performance arts and modern dance scene, but this album provides a good introduction to at least one aspect of it. Robert AEOLUS Myers is a composer of New Age music, which for a long time was synonymous with Californian baby boomers getting their chakras in alignment before a rebirthing ceremony. While some of it was not a million miles away from the cosmic end of krautrock or even certain Eno-related releases, a propensity for flavouring its ambient soundscapes with whale song and wind chimes meant that it tended to get relegated to shops selling crystals and Magic Eye posters.
But more recently, with the release of compilations such as I Am The Center and (The Microcosm), New Age has undergone a serious reassessment, and this retrospective of Myers’ work – featuring previously unheard tracks and remixes – continues that process. What’s interesting about much of this music is how its evocation of the natural world feels almost deliberately artificial, like
the soundtrack to an
80s version of a shared cyberspace environment, David Attenborough via William Gibson. Oracle’s synthetic strings and pan pipes, and its busy clatter of percussion, plunge the listener into a streamlined facsimile of the Andean jungle, while High Priestess begins with keening notes from atop a misty mountain before entering a more driving section with electronic thunderclaps, a persistent melodic undertow like water rushing over rocks. A live version of Embrace is particularly lovely, warm chords rippling in a pond, little bursts of piano occasionally breaking the surface while a flute drifts on the wind.
The remixes offer a conceptual as well as musical contrast. For instance, K Leimer’s ‘Temporary & Indefinite’ edit of Environment creates a gentle burbling of droning horns and strings, but it’s reflective and resistant to interpretation. Myers’ originals are never just pretty artefacts – instead, they’re gateways to somewhere else, designed for internal journeys, perfectly encapsulating the New Age ethos.