A former pop star in her native Germany during the 1960s,
Suzanne Doucet underwent a spiritual transformation and became a trailblazer of the new age movement, recording with musician
Christian Bühner under the band name New Age and co-founding the West Hollywood store Only New Age Music, the first specialized retail outlet dedicated to the genre.
Transformation, originally released on cassette in 1982, was
Doucet's first instrumental release under the New Age banner, and like early recordings by
Emerald Web and
Deuter, this music is much stranger and more otherworldly than the vapid commercial product that would eventually come to be associated with the genre. Starting with a flurry of backward sounds and drifting voices, the album settles into a very lovely, relaxing rhythm with "The Neverending Path," filled with water-dripping drum machines, heart-warming synth melodies, and crisp acoustic guitars. "Drop Out" is essentially musique concrète, beginning with recordings of dripping water that are gradually assembled into a rhythm and accompanied by submerged piano. "Cosmic Consciousness" is easily the album's centerpiece, a continuous flow of playful, whistling synth textures that anticipates some of Detroit techno's more cosmic explorations. "Love" is awash with the sound of rolling waves, prefiguring the extensive, highly successful series of nature recordings that
Doucet would later become known for releasing.
Transformation is truly a hidden gem, recommended to anyone interested in new age's boundless early era. ~ Paul Simpson