Search - :: Hudson River Wind Meditations

Yet Another Side to Lou Reed.

Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 05/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Thirty-two years after the release of his notorious electronic instrumental album "Metal Machine Music", Lou Reed has returned to the electronic genre once again with "Hudson River Wind Meditations". Unlike the endless streams of feedback and noise that was "Metal Machine Music", "Hudson River Wind Meditations" is a quiet meditative collection of four ambient pieces and is intended as a serious musical work (as opposed to the former album being an obvious joke on Reed's former record label RCA). The intention of this music is made clear in Reed's brief liner notes to the album. This isn't music designed to make a person scream but rather a collection of music that is tailor-made for relaxation.

"Hudson River Wind Meditations" opens with two extended pieces. The opening piece "Move Your Heart" is a 28-minute minimalist piece consisting of slow pulsating synths. There is very little change throughout this piece and the music almost seems as if it were a long loop set on infinite repeat. There is a striking similarity between this piece and Brian Eno's disc-length piece "Neroli".

The second extended piece "Find Your Note" runs for close to 32-minutes and consists of endless droning sine-wave tones. While the ambient nature of the previous piece is still very much present, the overall style is more similar to the electronic music created in the 1960's (ie: the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen or Lamonte Young).

The disc closes with two shorter pieces. The two-minute "Hudson River Wind" is simply an electronic simulation of ocean waves while the closing "Wind Coda" is basically a five-minute summary of what was heard in the previous three pieces - the pulsating notes of "Move Your Heart" combined with the sine-waves of "Find Your Note" and the white noise of "Hudson River Wind".

This is definitely a different type of album from Lou Reed. This isn't the type of music to sing and dance to. This is a quiet, non-intruding piece of background music that suits its purpose perfectly. While this music may seem boring to some, it is quite beautiful and relaxing.

If "Metal Machine music" turned a lot of people off, "Hudson River Wind Meditations" may be likely to reverse that."

Don't bother to listen to it

Robert H. Jones | Randallstown, MD United States | 07/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I do a lot of intricate works with databases and fixing corrupt data so a work of art like this makes the day fly by. I put it on, crank up the jobs and get completely relaxed while plowing through a jungle of human errors. As Eno's Ambient albums helped me while getting my B.A., this album helps make what should be stressful flow like a stream. But you don't listen to it, you let it in.

I've been practicing Tai Chi since 1986 as well."

Lou meditates

J. R. Moore | Mobile, AL USA | 03/14/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"People, let's relax, this is what it is. I've owned it for a year now and had only given it one listen. Then I got into a spiritual direction program at the local Jesuit college and kept having trouble praying. One day inspiration hit and I began to use this cd, along with a Brian Eno ambient music cd, voila! my problem was solved. So if you're looking for classic Lou Reed don't bother with this, buy the Berlin concert he did recently, which I think is an improvement on the original album. If you want to meditate, do tai chi, etc. ...look no further."