Cafe Del Mar
From what I've heard - home to one of the most peaceful sunsets in the world - and a label that spells a.m.b.i.e.n.t. - some of the most dark, inspiring, thought-provoking, soul-searching tracks have come out of this little sunset cafe's sessions over the years.
With the presence of ambient lounge heavyweights right from the mid-90s works of Jose Padilla and Beat Foundation, down to Moby, Substructure and Afterlife, this quaint little San Antonio music label has seen ambient music move from corporate elevators to social lounges. And I'm so glad it did, cuz what would we have done without it.
Dominated today by legends like Nacho Sotomayor, Rue De Soleil, Future Loop Foundation (to name a few), CDM welcomes new artists with the only key ingredient being the necessity for such vivid uniqueness in their music, that its incomparable to the advanced musical ear.
Very few Indians have graced the annals of Cafe Del Mar's esoteric CD collection, that comes out once a year.
The first to make it on there was A R Rahman with the haunting theme tune of Bombay in 1998, followed by Talvin Singh's Traveler (mixed by Kid Loco) and Nitin Sawhney's Homelands (one of my FAVORITE ambient tracks in the history of ambient tracks) in 1999.
In other news, the first time I heard Homelands was on a Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 9000 at a friend's villa in Dubai, and it was love at first note. I feel B&O is a very underplayed designer, especially when it comes to its low-marketing techniques vis-a-vis its comparatively-uncool counterpart, Bose.
But by far, its truly for the musical connoisseur, and not for the dude who wants to buy a music system cuz it *shudder* looks cool. When it comes to appreciating good lounge themes, and even dark trance for that matter, you have to hear it on an Olufsen, because it accentuates every single element.
Here's to my next musical investment. ;-)
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