Rainbow Dome Musick Explained

Rainbow Dome Musick
Type:studio
Artist:Steve Hillage
Cover:Steve_Hillage_Rainbow_Dome_Musick.jpg
Released:13 April 1979
Recorded:January 1979
Genre:Ambient music
Length:43:45
Label:Virgin
Producer:Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy
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Prev Year:1979
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Next Year:1979

Rainbow Dome Musick is the fifth studio album by Steve Hillage, released by Virgin Records in April 1979. It is a departure from his previous albums, consisting of two long ambient songs recorded in collaboration with his long-time partner Miquette Giraudy.

Background and recording

The album was commissioned for performance at the 1979 Mind-Body-Spirit Festival, held at Olympia London.[1] It was recorded at Om in January 1979.

The equipment engineer was John Newsham. The Rainbow Dome concept was created by Rupert Atwill.

Reception

In his book The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock, Paul Stump commented that "it was perhaps Hillage's most spiritually saturated work, 1979's Rainbow Dome Musick, which ensured his place in rock history some ten years after the event. ... its celestial, looping synthesizers and glissando guitar provided as hypnotic and mesmerizing a multi-track experience as any heard in Progressive, or indeed in rock at that point."[1] A retrospective review by Mike DeGagne in Allmusic asserted that the album puts Hillage's varied musical background to strong use in both of the pieces, creating "a relaxing and pleasantly divergent journey through a sorted spectrum of instruments".

It was ranked as one of the 1,000 greatest albums of all time by The Guardian.[2]

Personnel

References

  1. Book: Stump, Paul . The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock . 1997 . Quartet Books Limited . 0 7043 8036 6 . 331–2.
  2. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/guardian100.ht{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}