10 albums a day #7

Iona
- Journey Into the Morn (1995, CD)
- Open Sky (2000, CD)
- Woven Chord (2000, CD)
Kitaro
- India (1983, cassette)
- Ki (1983, CD)
- Asia (1985, CD)
- Astral Voyage (1985, LP)
- Silk Road I (1985, LP)
- Kojiki (1990, cassette)
Mike Oldfield - Voyager (1996, CD)

Still working through the new age collection. Iona was discovered by chance. I was browsing through the catalog at yourmusic.com and one of those recommendations popped up that said "if you like that, you might like this." So I put all three of them in the queue and yes, I like them very much. Another Celtic group that is listed at Wikipedia as progressive rock, but that's not how I would group them. Their music falls into that Celtic-flavored spacey rock/ambience that is similar to Clannad in some ways. The overall lyrical theme of their songs is openly and unabashedly Christian. In fact, one of these CDs has a version of the old hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" in which they use the original words but have put them to their own music, and it's great. I haven't gone out of my way to hunt down any of their other stuff, but if I happen to come across any I wouldn't hesitate to buy them unheard.

Ah, Kitaro! Another musician who has created his own distinct sound. He began as a guitarist in a rock band in his home country of Japan, but then he traveled to Europe and eventually ran into one of the guys in Tangerine Dream and got turned on to electronics and ambient-style music. He combines all kinds of synthesizers, electric, acoustic and traditional Japanese instruments in his music, and on the recordings he plays just about every instrument himself. I first heard of him via the track "Cloud" from Asia when it was played on Musical Starstreams. I still have a couple of more records of his that I haven't ripped yet. Give a listen to "Cloud" and see what you think of his electric guitar work starting at about 4:15.

Mike Oldfield is the guy who is most famous for the Tubular Bells album from 1973. I don't have that one, but this one is pretty good, too.

Album count: 71.