Ariel Kalma's 'Osmose' plays into 'sounds of the rainforest' stereotype, and all for the better

Music Times believes that it's never too late to go back and try something old. Throwback Thursdays will go back and pull out an album that's at least 10 years old, so that you can find something new, or revisit something you've forgotten about.

Week of 12/26/2013

WHO: Ariel Kalma

WHAT: Osmose

WHEN: 1977

There is a stereotype that goes along with new age music, which associates the genre with bird calls and "sounds of the rainforest." Osmose, a 1978 album by Ariel Kalma, does little to dissuade these stereotypes. But what, we ask, the heck is wrong with that?

Osmose makes no bones about that fact that it's based around the sounds of the rainforest. Those who listen to new age more often than us will tell you that the calls of birds, chirps of insects and croaks of frogs make a great soundtrack for sitting back, relaxing, and forgetting car horns and annoying office chatter. Researcher Richard Tinti brought back hours of such tapes from the forests of Borneo, and he gifted them to Kalma to work into his recordings.

The resulting album was a masterstroke because Kalma doesn't seem to be the headliner. Instead, the forest takes precedence and the multi-instrumentalist accompanies with saxophone, synth and woodwinds as necessary. If this album were The White Stripes, he would be Meg to the rainforest's Jack; You often forget that Meg is there behind Jack's headlining work, but the overall project would be sorely lacking without her.

Of course, in this instance, the music beckons you to rest your weary head rather than bang it. If the purpose of new age music is to take us to our happy place, Osmose fits the bill.