Wilderness America, A Celebration Of The Land

Black vinyl 47th anniversary reissue of this holy grail for collectors. Mastered from original tapes by Grammy-nominated Jessica Thompson. For fans of of Walter Hawkins, Iasos, Sugarloaf and Psychemagik. This is the ultimate collector’s item for those who are deeply in ambient/new age music history. Includes the original artworks from 1975
“Before I’m gone I’d like to see us turn the corner and give up being spoilers of the land…” In 1975 Wallace ‘Wally’ Smith Broecker published a paper that popularised the term ‘global warming’ and against a backdrop of change and environmental uncertainty, a musical concept album was commissioned. ‘Wilderness America, A Celebration Of The Land’ is a musical exploration of our place within the cycle of living things. All compositions were specially commissioned for the album and blended with natural sounds recorded in the wild, lending the entire project a conceptual air that still feels fresh today. The journey begins with the sun rising in the atmospheric haze of ‘Dawn’, a track composed by new-age innovator Iasos
Gospel singer Walter Hawkins soon drops in with the soulful but ever so funky ‘Metropolis’ backed by a heavy array of session musicians with Patrick Gleeson, Ed Bogas and Tom Salisbury all adding their own misty magic to the album. David Riordan is the sorcerer conjuring up many of the compositions and also takes vocal duties on the evocative ‘Mountain’ and the climatic ‘Before I’m Gone’. ‘Wilderness America / A Celebration of the Land’ was born when environmentalist Emily DeSpain Polk assembled a group of California residents to participate in a groundbreaking conservationist project. Christening the group SWAP (Small Wilderness Area Preservation) Emily needed funds and began a project to produce a promotional nature based music album. To acquire the financial backing Emily would need to source a musician of some calibre. Contacting Cliff Branch from ‘Warehouse Sound Co.’ she was told the man she was looking for was David Riordan