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review by Dene Bebbington Marking the twentieth anniversary of New World Music (NWM) The Story So Far... is a compilation of music on this label [released] between 1981 and 2001. The ethos of NWM is to deliver music to "relax, uplift, and inspire," and they do this via the relaxation, ambient, and New Age genres - though in my view it mostly fits into the latter category as this covers a wide range of music. It's difficult to represent a label's music spanning twenty years in as many tracks, but this album makes a good attempt, featuring both well known and lesser known artists. Anyhow, it's a good introduction to what the NWM label has to offer. In general, most of NWM's output can be loosely classed as New Age, some of it being more literally so due to connections with healing methods such as Yoga and Ayurveda, although ironically these are old systems. Of the non-healing based music, a lot of it is of the romantic and sweet variety, though it isn't necessarily too sickly sweet as some New Age music can be. But then, that's really a matter of preference; I don't like overly sweet music but can see its attraction, especially as melody tends to be a major element. Listening to The Story So Far… left me thinking that there's a timeless element to some New Age music - I couldn't always tell which were the oldest or most recent tracks without referring to the liner notes. The same cannot be said of ambient or synth music because older pieces often stand out due to changes in technology and musical styles. This might mean that some aspects of the New Age genre are stuck in a time warp! As you'd expect from this label a lot of the music uses traditional instruments like piano, guitar, harp, drums etc; and a couple of tracks contain vocals. This is a pleasing album to listen to, the music is varied enough with a quality feel. It's an ideal album for those into the New Agey genre or anyone just wanting to check it out. |
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