Ashra

After an initial European release in 1976 on the Isadora label Age Of Earth was re-issued on Virgin Records in Summer 1977 and fast became a beacon for electronic music and what was becoming known as ambient - Some cite its very title as helping introduce 'new age' music - This re-issue fathfully replicates the original 1977 Virgin Records release and is pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl. Guitarist and synthesiser player Manuel Gttsching formed Ashra after disbanding Ash Ra Tempel, the outfit he had led since 1971. Moving away from the space rock of his previous group, Ashra was a far more electronics-based project. Recorded in Berlin, between March and June 1976, the four pieces on the album represent the very best of what became known as Kosmiche: dreamily repetitive, glancing to the stars while keeping feet firmly on the ground. New Age Of Earth is a record full of contrasts: the throbbing, techno-predicting "Sunrain" opens the album; with its waves and crickets sound effects, "Ocean Of Tenderness" pulses gently like a space-age early Fleetwood Mac; "Deep Distance" brings elements of surf music into glacial electronica. At 21 minutes long, "Nightdust" occupies all of the album's second side, a ruminative, slowly unfolding piece that, after its crescendo, gives way to Gottsching's impressively celestial electric guitar solo.