Smooth Groovin’s with Anton

Anton Graham introduces and reviews some of the best new age, ambient and lounge music out there to accompany you and uplift you, in the spa or anywhere else.

No Jazz 
Mixed & Combinations 
No Jazz is a French lounge outfit and this is perfect feel-good up-beat early-evening easy-going retro-R&B lounge-type hyphenated music. The elements mixed together on this disk come from all sorts of sources, with Earth Wind & Fire appearing at one point. It is interesting to think that samples on a compilation such as this were actually paid for. A concept that is about to become quaint.

Deep Forest 
Pacifique
In the early 1990s, there appeared an album which just broke the mould Deep Forest . It combined African chants with Western synth washes over dance beats, and it was a huge success. Deep Forest are a couple of French music producers and they have continued to produce material in the years since, drawing on inspiration from different parts of the world. This album is the soundtrack for a film set in the Pacific islands, and it is smooth and pleasant, while avoiding the New Age trap of terminal blandness.

Willie & Lobo
Gypsy Boogaloo
This duo play flamenco guitar and violin, and the style is something between Gypsy music, tango, easy listening and a bit of jazz. Willie Royal is the violist and Wolfgang “Lobo” Fink plays guitar. They have been playing together for over two decades, and the word pleasant fits well. Not desperately adventurous, but they are both good musicians and the tunes are well chosen and arranged.

Amethystium
Onadata
What a long name. This is atmospheric music with world and New Age characteristics from a guy in Norway who has obviously listened to a lot of Tangerine Dream, Enigma and Deep Forest. He has added all sorts of other sonic bits and pieces into the mix, and he is aiming at a light and airy feel. This was his first album, released in 2001, and it is a remarkably mature effort.

May 2004