I know it's a rather obscure music genre, so I'll try to link to the websites of my favourite artists. Most of them have places where you can listen, which is nice.

I really love new age music because, especially among my favourite artitsts, it's nice and narrative without being too specific - I like making up my own story for each song. (Of course, there's also the series of jokes... what do you get when you play country music backwards? Your dog's alive again, your truck works, and your girlfriend comes home. What do you get when you play new age music backwards? More new age music! )

I realize these might not be everybody's tastes, but if you think you'd be interested I encourage you to have a listen anyway.

http://www.vollenweider.com/ - Andreas Vollenweider is a great composer who plays electric harp - yep, electric harp. His music goes all over the map but I like his earlier stuff the best I think. There's a little controller at the top of his main site where you can listen to clips from his songs.

http://www.mannheimsteamroller.com - I don't like Mannheim Steamroller's more contemporary works but all of the Fresh Aire works are gorgeous. This is one of those bands you probably know even though you don't know it The Christmas in the Aire CDs are very popular around the holidays.

http://www.jessecook.com/ - a GREAT flamenco guitarist!! His song Mario Takes a Walk is just fantastic (you can listen to a clip on the site if you click "audio"). It's amazing to hear him play guitar; some of his stuff, especially from his newest CDs, are more world fusion as well. He recently partnered with my absolute favourite band for two songs on his newest CD Nomad, and they were fantastic.

http://realworldrecords.com/afrocelts/ - the Afro Celt Sound System are my absolute FAVOURITE band. Imagine if you took traditional celtic music, traditional african tribal music, and great groovy techno and then threw them all in a blender on high and then served it in a fancy glass with one of those little paper umbrellas. That's the best description I can give you of ACSS. If you have quicktime, you can listen to their stuff (samples at least) under "explore the alblums".

So - anyone here ever heard of these bands? Anyone here also like new age music? I'd love to hear it