The Pop Corporation

Now ambient music is back, the good folks over at Light In Attic Records have teamed up with Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed’s Archive custodians to give us a vinyl reissue Lou’s ‘Hudson River Wind Meditations’. It’s not been on record before, and as you’d expect, it’s a real fancy package indeed.

Out January 12, ’24 (originally released in ’07, and Reed’s final solo LP), it’s further proof (if you needed it) of Reed’s long lasting love of ambient and drone music. He wasn’t one to sit still musically was he?

Of course, he’s most famous for his glam-punk solo LPs and psychedelic bondage music of The Velvet Underground – but let’s not forget how shook up everyone got when he released ‘Metal Machine Music’. Later, he’d give us ‘Fire Music’ on ‘The Raven’, and Reed was one of the most playful, sensitive and avant garde performers of any generation.

Great for a pithy aside too.

This LP however, initially, was for personal use while he practised meditation and Tai Chi. It features ambient music with spoken-word meditations by his acupuncturist. That’s not a sentiment you can say about most artists, and that’s exactly why Lou Reed is so compelling.

The 2xLP and CD sets will come with gorgeous gatefold jackets designed by Masaki Koike, features new liner notes, and loads of fun extras. For the vinyl, it’ll come in different colourways (black, coke bottle, and glacial blue). The Deluxe LPs will have a set of five 8×10 photos of the Hudson River photographed by Lou Reed and printed on 10-pt High Gloss Kromekote C1S cover stock and housed in a glassine envelope, plus a 24”x36” fold-out poster designed by Yolanda Cuomo.

You can pre-order it here.