Customer Reviews

Rainbow Dome Music

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This one is way different from Hillage's other solo work, like Fish Rising, L, Motivation Radio, Green, etc., as this is an all instrumental album, largely electronic. I was a little hesitant to buy this album because it was released in 1979, released in an era where Virgin Records was beginning to pander to the Lowest Common Denominator (especially since Virgin ditched that cool Roger Dean created label with the ladies and snake by that time). But with Rainbow Dome Musick, I was completely blown away. Apparently the music was used for the Rainbow Dome at the Festival of Mind - Body - Spirit in London in April 1979, and if the event was as mindblowing as the music, I only wished I was there to witness that, but unfortunately I was only 6 years old and living in Eugene, Oregon at that time. There are only two cuts which tends to be repetitive, but it creates a wonderful hypnotic effect. "Four Ever Rainbow" shows the most mindblowing glissando guitar I have ever heard! Rainbow Dome Musick seemed to be liked by the ravers, but since I don't follow that scene, I love it for the spacy qualities. So if you love electronic music (like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, etc.), Gong, or Hillage's solo efforts, you must have this album in your collection!

Rainbow Dome Musick.

This album was totally ahead of its time, with groups such as the Orb only catching up ten or more years later. While this album is quite different from all of Hillage's previous stuff (which was guitar and synth based rock, and very good too!), this album was a project for a "Body-Mind Festival" in England in the late seventies (you can just imagine it, can't you, all these spaced out hippies looking for somewhere to relax and some music to relax to!). The result was two 20 minute really excellent ambient synth recordings.

The music moves slowly, ebbing and flowing, shifting and changing textures as it goes along. If you can imagine each song like a river, big and wide and deep, moving slowly. The main musical thrust of each song moves slowly along, with big fat deep synthy sounds sweeping majestically across the sound stage, lots of modulation, reverb, sequencing, and other cool effects. But, here and there, there are little eddies in the music, swirling tinkling synths, understated guitar solos, fabulous bass lines, bells, water sounds, fading in and out, all combined seamlessly together into a wonderfully dreamy experience. This is fantastic stuff, and, as I said, well ahead of its time.

I think I should make special mention of Four Ever Rainbow, the second track. This is, in my opinion, possibly Hillage's single finest achievement. Beginning with a richly textured synthesisers, rising and falling slowly, sweep over you like water lapping at the shore. Then comes the guitar synth, notes picked out and tinkling all around, Tibetan bells punctuating the music every so often. Then it moves on, with the fat synth acting as an anchor, new higher pitched synths come in, singing aria-like, only to be supplanted by more but different deep synths that seem to bubble up from below the surface, like some huge up welling of water bringing more little swirling synths with it, finally turning into the best bit of all, a wonderful synth tune, the notes sometimes staccato, sometimes extended and modulated, it bounces unhurriedly along, and is just so sweet and good that it always brings a smile to my face. I used to listen to this song when going to sleep, as you can put it on real low but you still get the deep sound effects, very soothing.

On a historical note, this album led to the re-emergence of Steve Hillage in the 90's. By the mid-80's, Hillage had faded from view somewhat, but he discovered Alex Patterson in a club listening to this album, introduced himself as the artist, and from there went on to found System 7, a band based around Hillage and his partner Miquette Giraudy, but drawing in people such as Patterson to guest on the albums. Hillage is now very big again, owing his new lease of life to this album. Hopefully, this new interest in Hillage will lead people to listen again to his previous stuff, as there really are some gems in there (not to mention Gong, but that's another story...).

Getting right to the point, this is a fantastic album, one which I would strongly advise everyone and anyone to get.

This is an amazingly beautiful album, especially in its latest digitally remastered incarnation. It's also an unheralded classic, deserving a slot as one of the most important in the history of electronic music -- right up there with Tangerine Dream's Phaedra and Rubycon, Terry Riley's Rainbow in Curved Air, Fripp and Eno's No Pussyfooting, and take your pick of several Klaus Schulze albums. Finally, this album is a seminal influence on today's trance/electronica scene through The Orb and Hillage's own System 7.

If you're new to Hillage, try this album, and then for a contrast, the Todd Rundgren-produced "L". The latter album has a much harder edge, covers of Donovan and the Beatles, and a track ("Lunar Musick Suite") that almost sounds like heavy metal (almost).

This recording is early "New Age" music - before "New Age" was cool to listen to. Much more surreal than his work with Gong - Steve Hillage teams up with keyboardist Miquette Giraudy to create some of the most introspective, ambient music ever recorded.

The opening track , "Garden of Paradise" - simulates just that: An outdoor fantasy - complete with a babbling stream, fading into "insect-like" synthesizer doodlings. The background Tibetan bells remind one of a mantra - occurring intermittently, but illuminating a common thread to focus on. (They continue throughout the entire first track, and part of the second). Hillage's guitar "cries" mixed in the background (starting around the 12:30-13:00 mark) - simulate a small creature in this imaginary garden, singing and gracefully trolling through this "paradise". Never threatened, but always alert and active. ...Needless to say, the imagery created by this recording is incredible.

The second track, "Four Ever Rainbow" begins with the Tibetan bell "mantra", joined by the Arp Omni string sounds - creating a euphoric, hazy feeling on a cloud-filled day. Hillage plays his guitar through an Echoplex, thus giving a repetitive counterpoint against the string sounds and the bells. A lone, droning synthesizer executes single, swelling notes to further enhance the imagery. A single light beam breaks through the clouds at about the 6:30 mark (Arp synthesizer) - swelling to a full-blown multiple chord/key swing which occurs shortly before 9:00, and continues. This puts an "eerie" slant on the image. However, an almost "playful" synthesizer pattern breaks this creepiness at about 12:30, and continues to "dance" around the ever-present Omni strings. Soulful bass tones interplay with the dancing synthesizer, creating almost a counter-melody. This all fades into "euphoric heaven" about at the 18:00 point, when the strings begin shifting and swelling. This brings the entire image to an anti-climatic end.

This is great, great music, and will never "get old" with age, or repetition. It is timeless. It produces visuals and imagery that only could be created by certain "gifted" artists.

I'd give it 100 stars if the rating system went up that high.

This is one of those amazing landmarks of 1970s music that came back to haunt everyone about a decade-plus later. Hillage and Miquette Giraudy here weave a complex, drone-based tapestry of ambience for an installation/chill-space at a UK music festival in 1977, but later artists of the rave-oriented ambient scene (such as The Orb and The KLF) grabbed onto what Hillage and Giraudy did here for their seed-sources, with The Orb clearly in acknowledgement of their debt as Dr. Alex Patterson was a collaborator/remixer/producer with Hillage and Giraudy's System 7 project. But System 7 really begins here, according to Hillage, with these two side-long flowing works of pure guitar and electronic tranquility. If you own The Orb's "Adventures...", you own a snippet of this; may as well go ahead and grab the whole thing, if you can.

This 1979 album opens with the sound of running water, which then gradually segues into a lush, ambient soundscape drenched in washes of synthesizer drones and heavily echoed Fender Rhodes piano, in addition to extremely spacey guitar parts (no, Steve does not rip it up on this album). The two tracks are fairly lengthy (23'15 and 20'30" respectively), and like all ambient recordings, motionless and static with very little dynamic contrast. Steve is joined on this album by his (then) girlfriend and former Gong bandmate Miquette Giraudy (double sequencer, Fender Rhodes piano, ARP Omni synthesizer, and Tibetan bells). All in all, this is a fantastic and very soothing album that provides a great deal of enjoyment. For those folks that like the proggier side of things, check out Steve's Fish Rising album (1975) - it is incredible.

My wife and I got married in '88, and began to collect music to listen to, to relax and fall asleep. Regular music usually demands its own attention, keeping you awake by your remembering what is coming next. This album allows the listener to drift with soothing sounds, no absolute begining or ending. This allows the listener to repeat it over and over to insure a good nights sleep. We recorded it from the radio program on PBS "Hearts Of Space", and listened to it for 3 years before we ever heard it all the way through. When we did, we decided we must buy the whole thing! Sadly it was out of print, and otherwise unavailable. I searched for years until it was re-released and found it here on Amazon. I can't speak for the artist, or his intentions, but it is a beautiful piece of work, not just for sleeping, but anytime of the day when you want to relax. I consider THIS to be a MUST HAVE for anyone who likes peacefull relaxing good music.

In 1980, I made the pilgramage to Philly by bus to the coolest import record store in town to buy this pioneering electronic record. Rainbow Dome Musick had been playing on college radio for months and I was hooked like an addict. A precursor to New Age but best filed under "electronic" or "ambient" music. This is NOT disposable wallpaper music like most new age. This is spiritual and meditational experience. It includes a great guitar solo by Hillage and both pieces build in intensity over their 17+ minutes each.. This was long before MIDI and digital sampling so except for the synth sounds, the guitar, electric piano, natural sounds and bells are real. This is one of the most transcendental albums ever.

Starting with the sound of running water on the first track, Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy create a aural landscape of Fender Rhodes piano, swirling synths, and sound effects that would make you swear you were under a clear sky filled with shooting stars on a warm spring night. Steve and Miquette were to become famous later for their techno experiments in the eighties and nineties as co-founders of System 7, and while this CD is a fine precursor to what would come later, none of their techno music sounds like this.

Dear Mr Crowell, it seems as if we shared the same musical interests, but if there was any album that bears resemblance to Steve's current techno project System 7, then it's 1983's "For to next/And not or" with its catchy dance pop. "RDM" is pure new age rock, rather allied to '70s electronic bands like Tangerine Dream. "Garden of paradise" starts with the noise of bubbling water before it dips into a multi-dimensional, celestial sound with ebb-and-flow synths and "seagull's cry" guitars. Great, but it was a small let-down when I discovered that this track is more repetitive and less guitar-oriented than the 30-second audio bit suggests. While I consider "Garden.." as 'best-of-genre', the second piece, "Four ever rainbow" is not more than standard new age music. With its long stretches of modulated, atmospheric synth waves, it's too static to hold the listener's attention. Since I'm accustomed to music with often changing textures and melodies, this track is rather boring for me. All in all, "RDM" was designed as background music and it should be taken as such. My favorite Hillage album remains "Open" because it demonstrates Steve's talent within a greater variety of styles, moods, and sounds.