Windham Hill Records was an 80’s new age label well thought of among the crowds who wore fabulous sweaters and drank white grenache. I ran across one of their samplers on Amazon recently and was amazed and delighted by this title and its recording artist: House Made of Dawn Light by Douglas Spotted Owl. Wow! If I were trying to parody the genre, I could spend a whole day thinking about it and fall well, well short of the comedic level of House Made of Dawn Light by Douglas Spotted Owl. I won’t even try. Just enjoy the fact that there exists a song on the Windham Hill label called House of Dawn Light by Douglas Spotted Owl.
But it gets better: A man (I assume - it could be the name of some exotic Swedish MIDI keyboard for all I know) named Oystein Sevag is represented on the same sampler by his tune There’s a Monk in My Garden.
Which inspired the title of this post.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Courtney on Nov 29, 2007 at 3:08 pm
That’s beautiful.
I hate when monks are in my garden though. You feed them once and they just keep coming back.
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2 Tim on Nov 29, 2007 at 9:46 pm
My only disappointment is the absence of Storage Shed of Celestial Delight by Philip Poison Arrow Frog.
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3 Neb on Nov 30, 2007 at 12:29 am
Ah…Windham Hill. I remember them well from my college days as a Tower Records employee. I saw it as New Age for white people who wear black socks to the beach.
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4 Brain Blog Round-up: Inaugural Edition « deep ape on Dec 4, 2007 at 11:23 am
[…] is Like an Old, Old, um, Custard… More Christmas Gift Ideas! (Don’t Say No Right Away) Martha, Get the Shot Gun! MY PICK Roar, I Guess… Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis Any “Last Requests”? […]
5 Chris on Dec 6, 2007 at 11:55 pm
It’s Douglas Spotted EAGLE not Owl (alas).
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Reply from Edgewriter on December 7, 2007:
Hah! I was going to say the same thing. I actually went to the release party for his first album. (My cousin did some work for him on the album)
He seemed like a nice enough gent. He had native american dancers there and everything. Did a couple of his songs live.
I even brought a date. (That one went nowhere, folks)
I brought home a copy of his album and listened to it. . . . . Once.
I like new age and everything (Secret Garden, Mike Oldfield, Enya, and David Arkenstone in moderation) But, dude . . . Is native american chanting with ambient sounds and a couple of drum beats really music?
Anyhoo, I tried. Really I did. But who knows. Maybe Douglass Spotted Eagle had changed. Maybe he has grown as a musician. . . . . . Maybe not.
6 Merat on Dec 10, 2007 at 6:14 am
“House Made of Dawn” - Fantastic book that draws you in.
“House Made of Dawn Light” - Boring music that puts you to sleep.
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7 Kete on Dec 10, 2007 at 7:06 am
Whenever I get Monks in my garden, I like to set traps with fresh bread and brandy.
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