And You Thought New Age Music Was All Schlock


Various Artists
I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America, 1950-1990
Light in the Attic
 

New Age music is often associated with spacy sounds and pseudo-mystical hokum, but the intriguing I Am the Center offers a more nuanced perspective. While this two-disc, 20-track set doesn’t entirely escape the slack blandness of New Age clichés, there’s startling diversity to be found in the self-released efforts of these intrepid souls, most of them dating from the ’70s and ’80s. Employing everything from synthesizer and harp, to violin and electric piano, to autoharp and (of course) flute, the oozing songs range in length from two to 13 minutes and may well induce a state of altered consciousness in receptive listeners. Among the highlights: Thomas de Hartmann’s spooky piano sonata “The Struggle of the Magician Part Three,” written by the guru Gurdjieff; the unearthly tones of what might be guitar on Wilburn Burchette’s “Witch’s Will”; and the mind-melting analog synths of Don Slepian’s “Awakening.” Even the lesser entries on I Am the Center testify to the admirably enterprising spirit of idiosyncratic artists who value self-expression above commercial potential. Now where did I leave my mantra?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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