Kit Watkin's Linden Music

Kit Watkins first came to prominence as part of legendary progressive band, Happy the Man. Despite disbanding years ago after just a couple albums, Kit still gets questions as to if and when this band might ever get back together. Later he joined up with Andrew Latimer in Camel for the album, "I Can See Your House from Here." Shortly afterwards he became a solo artist with his first album, "Labyrinth." From here it was inevitable that Kit would start his own label, Linden Music.

For me Kit's music is a perfect example of why more artists need to start their own labels. The major labels make it a point to market to the lowest common denominator. An artist on a major label, and even many niche indie labels, must record albums that basically sound the same from beginning to end and from one album to the next. That makes it easy for the labels to market, but denies the artist any artistic growth and eventually cuts short his/her career. Kit refuses to treat his audience in this manner. Instead he assumes that they are both very intelligent and very curious and each album is a new adventure in a totally different musical world.

The classic Arista releases - Happy the Man and Crafty Hands - have been remastered by Kit and are listed below!!! You'll also find other Happy the Man titles available on our Cuneiform page! Also on Cuneiform you'll find Forrest Fang's The Blind Messenger which features Kit in a guest appearance. Kit also performs on Richard Sinclair's RSVP and let's not forget his other band, Camel.

Kit Watkins Sale

Kit Watkins is having a special sale for his catalog. For a limited time and while supplies last you may get any of the above four titles for FREE when you buy any of the titles below. And this goes for any number you buy. Buy two CD's (or DVD's) from the catalog below and get two of the above for free! Buy four CD's (or DVD's) from the catalog below, get four of the above for free! You get the idea!

These four titles represent the diversity of Kit's musical abilities. Kinetic Vapors is energetic, still, flowing, coiling, high-spirited, curious, accessible, obscure, intuitive, logical, and great listening. A Different View presents 18 classical pieces orchestrated for electronic studio and includes both familiar and lesser-known works by Satie, Chopin, Khachaturian, Stravinsky, and others. Thought Tones Volume 1 presents audioscapes for creative thinking, contemplation, imagination and other forms of direct and indirect perception. These are sparse electronic ambiences from organic sound sources that create intriguing new worlds for both background and foreground listening. In Time is the classic album by Kit & Coco from 1985. The two had played together previously in the classic progressive band Happy the Man.

Available Now!!!

Meditative science fiction for the new millennium. Previously unreleased ambient gems from Kit's archives, 1990-2006, with guests: Phil Grace, Fred Lyman, Helge Krabye, and Bill Smith~Sonic Metals.

After having been out of print for some years now, Kit Watkins has remastered his classic album Azure. "Progressive traditions meet impressionistic aesthetics on this highly acclaimed album, including beautiful renditions of Jan Hammer's I Remember Me and Philip Catherine's Nairam. An album that can be put on auto-repeat without getting tired of it. #1 album of the year." -ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN "Watkins has written and performed some sensational music... full of invention and creativity, the resulting sounds are quite beautiful and captivating. A fine contribution to music lovers from a stalwart of the new music scene." -AUDION

Live concert from March 10, 2001, Philadelphia, PA. Video footage has been enhanced with visual effects, making The Gathering a fascinating and inspired multimedia experience. "The concert was incredibly well received by the audience. Watkins had provided an impressive and comprehensive evening of music: spacemusic that was intelligent and transported the listener inward . . ." -- Chuck van Zyl, Star's End "The wind instrument gives Kit the opportunity to play more passionately. It is amazing how much feeling Kit can bring into his music. Electronic music often becomes dry and mechanical, but Watkins proves it is possible to create warm electronic soundscapes." -- Douwe Fledderus, progVisions

It's a new world-beat CD for 2005 . . . part real, part imagined. The album consists of a number of improvised vignettes, conceived, recorded, and produced by Kit Watkins in Charlottesville, VA and Raleigh, NC 2003-2004. Kit Watkins: synthesizers, electronic wind controller, electronic drum pads, percussion, audio conjecture, editing.

The DVD "This Time and Space" by Kit Watkins contains slowly evolving manipulated images set to the music from the Kit Watkins audio CD of the same name. Each "chapter" corresponds to a song title and typically gives the perspective of a perpetual, slow-motion, elastic zoom through strange and fascinating landscapes, toward an illusive destination - be it deep space, the winter sky or some imaginary city. Somewhat of an "ambient" experience, the sound and imagery of this DVD is meant to be taken in along with the entirety of the viewer's surroundings. Copies of the DVD are autographed by Kit Watkins.

Kit Watkins has released a new CD of progressive world-fusion music entitled "Flying Petals." With music created over a 10-year period, this collection showcases Kit's rhythmic sensibilities, displaying elements of progressive music (odd time signatures, complex arrangements) and world-fusion (jazz and ethnic instrumentation). Fans of his previous non-ambient work will recognize Kit's signature sound in this well-produced and highly evocative release, rich with sophisticated audio wizardry and meticulous sound design. This is NOT an ambient CD.... play it LOUD!

The improvisational ensemble Tone Ghost Ether has released a new CD for 2004. "Guard Lock Skin" is an additional collection of primarily rhythmic world-fusion material from the original 2001 TGE sessions, available now for the first time ~ eerily comforting, somewhat mesmerizing, and hauntingly beautiful. Tone Ghost Ether consists of Kit Watkins, John Tlusty, and Brad Allen. All of the music by Tone Ghost Ether is improvised and played in real-time without overdubs. The use of live looping devices contributes to the often densely textured sound. Minimal editing is sometimes performed after recording, but the nature of the immediacy of this music remains intact. The sound of Tone Ghost Ether falls naturally into a number of familiar pigeonholes: ambient, acid-jazz, world-fusion, electronic..... but then there are the hybrid genres where mind-trips and alien worlds might only exist within the imagination, later to materialize beyond the realm of possibility.

Created in 1982, Frames of Mind signaled a new direction for Kit working in collaboration with Brad Allen. The two musicians moved headlong into vocal pop, world beat, and experimental music, creating a broad range of material, opening with the new wave track "My Telephone" and traveling through to the earthy and inspired closing track "Audia." The CD features four additional tracks not available on the original LP release (Far From Home, Brad's Spirit, Mandolin Orange, and Pilobolus). KIT WATKINS: vocals, keyboards, drum machines, flute, telephone, pan pipes, autoharp, percussion. BRAD ALLEN: vocals, guitars, Casio, toy bells, screwdriver-mandolin, timbales. ***** "A richly satisfying album, one that reveals new subtleties with each listening. --KEYBOARD. ***** "Watkins never lets technical literacy become an end in itself. Each of his unpretentious songs establishes a distinct atmosphere." --TROUSER PRESS

"Created in February 2003, this music was my response and reaction to the impending, illegal war in Iraq, and the associated French-bashing propagated by the right-wing in the U.S. Only 30 minutes in length, these ambient pieces each represent aspects of hope and despair. While the CD is a political statement, it is also an evocative work of sparse sound design and texture, using "found" material from one of my favorite composers, Maurice Ravel." - Kit Watkins

This collection of ambient and spacemusic compositions was created in Kit's live performance studio. Each piece is an improvisation created on the spot with synthesizers, electronic wind instrument, and looping devices. The mood is mostly one of reverence and tranquility. This collection is somewhat reminiscent of Kit's "music for the end" improvisation from 2001. There is an accompanying hourlong DVD of ambient video that Kit hopes to make available in 2004. Only limited quantities of this CD will be available.

Happy the Man/Happy the Man ....import CD $19.99	Happy the Man/Crafty Hands ....import CD $19.99

HAPPY THE MAN is a superb American Progressive rock group, creating a hyper refined and elaborate music with lots of breaks, tempo changes and melodies both gorgeous and complex, showing a rare instrumental richness (two keyboards, saxophone, flute, guitar, vocals & percussions) and remarkable talents of composers. The Musea remastered reissues from the two first official albums present a music between Progressive and Canterbury style, with complex and captivating writing, full of surprises. Hailed then and now as two of the finest progressive rock albums ever made, 1977's self-titled Happy The Man and 1978's Crafty Hands are both filled with wondrous, genre-leaping music that transcends time, place and easy categorization. Now that One Way's license on these has sadly expired these two classic releases are no longer available as US releases! But fortunately they are available through Musea. Better still, they have been meticulously remixed by the band's synthesizer wizard, Kit Watkins, and reissued with the same art work that was featured on the original vinyl versions.

The muse struck without warning and an ensemble was born. Tone Ghost Ether was realized through a natural interaction between three musicians/multi-instrumentalists - Kit Watkins, John Tlusty and Brad Allen - searching for a common form of expression. By means of a series of informal improvisational gatherings, recorded on Sunday afternoons in early 2001, Tone Ghost Ether produced what were to become their three pioneering debut CD releases - The White Space, Hydrogen 2 Oxygen and Condor Sail Curve - elegant and tonally rich musical excursions into the future. All of the music by Tone Ghost Ether is improvised and played in real-time without overdubs. The use of live looping devices contributes to the often densely textured sound. Minimal editing is sometimes performed after recording, but the nature of the immediacy of this music remains intact. The style of Tone Ghost Ether falls naturally into a number of familiar pigeonholes: ambient, acid-jazz, world-fusion, electronic..... but then there are the hybrid genres where mind-trips and alien worlds might only exist within the imagination, later to materialize beyond the realm of possibility....

Three new CD's from Kit Watkins capture a rare evening of live performance of Kit's solo work. The Gathering ~ Set 1 and Set 2 are each hour-long CDs, available individually, from Kit's concert from The Gathering on March 10, 2001 at St. Mary's Church in Philadelphia and hosted by Chuck van Zyl of Star's End radio. Following the The Gathering, Kit performed a live radio concert in the wee hours between 2:00 AM and 3:00 AM on Star's End radio in Philadelphia which is captured on Music for the End. Consisting of ambient electronics and environmental night time sounds from Linden, Virginia, Music for the End will appeal to those fans of such Kit Watkins albums as Circle, Rolling Curve and Thought Tones 1 and 2.

Kinetic Vapors is energetic, still, flowing, coiling, high-spirited, curious, accessible, obscure, intuitive, logical, and great listening. "Kinetic Vapors" holds 54 minutes of music in eight pieces composed and recorded from January through July 1993 at Kit's studio. The album successfully juxtaposes the organic with the electronic through the tasteful use of synthesizers, samplers, and live instruments. The songs are subtle and hypnotic. With each listening, they became like old friends. A joy while we are together, a small, sad loss when it is over, a quiet anticipation until we meet again. -- MUSIC UNCOVERED

Recently remastered by Kit Watkins and including mp3 files of each track! Recorded in 1992, Circle presents an hour of exquisitely recorded environmental sound and music inspired by the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. Circle is a masterpiece of ambient expression taking nature's sounds of the night and placing them in an Eno-like ambient context. A haunting work that will relieve the tensions of the day!

Rolling Curve is Kit Watkins' release for 2001 as he jumps headlong into the world of ambient music with the help of such friends as Steve Roach and Brad Allen. This special release also contains multi-media material and mp3's of all tracks.

Beauty Drifting was Kit's release for 1996 now newly remastered for 2001! This is a collection of contemplative piano works, generally mellow in flavor, but ranging from dark to light. Superb music, suberb artwork, superb release! This one is really outstanding, I love the acoustic piano and the VL1 parts. ... I'm struck by perfect balance of all elements: notes, space, tone color, and ambience. Please continue to rain these stunning works of art down upon us from your mountaintop in Virginia! -- John A. Trevethan, Antarctica Media

Four newly remastered Classic Kit albums

Unpredictable shifts in tempo, lush orchestral textures, and complicated melodic structures . . . technically proficient, creatively daring, high-energy and accessible. -- WASHINGTON POST. A richly satisfying album, one that reveals new subtleties with each listening. -- KEYBOARD

With over 70 minutes of material, this album features uptempo, driving rhythms and accessible melodies, as well as two lenthy pieces in the "spacemusic" genre.Uptempo and melodic, "SunStruck" brings progressive and new age sensibilities together to create a hybrid form. As a bonus, the album is topped off with two beautiful ambient pieces. With this release, Watkins again emerges as one of the most talented of keyboard maestros. -- HEARTBEATS. One of my favorites of the year. It is a classic! -- WGDR-FM, Music Director. Working in a mid-sized home studio ... Watkins crafts CDs of gemlike clarity. Highly recommended. -- KEYBOARD.

This album's theme is rhythm and primitive expression. The title comes from a quote by Robert Bly from his book "Iron John." An album to stir your soul. Here's proof that it is still possible to do sample arrangements and rhythmic programming in an accessible framework without succumbing to the conventions of dance music or hip-hop. Economically orchestrated, artfully conceived . . . more than a mere masculinist soundtrack; it is, in the true sense of both words, pop art. -- KEYBOARD

This recording features a number of different styles intertwined into two sets. SET 1 (odd numbered tracks) tends toward the introspective, while SET II (even numbered tracks) is more overtly rhythmic. Included is a 10-page booklet of accompanying images and words. Watkins has long proven his genius and musical diversity over a long string of albums. His influences range far and wide, from classical to ambient and progressive rock to pop. However he fuses these, it's always done originally and dynamically, full of vitality and effervescence. Another great and different album. -- EXPOSE'. Our hats are off to Mr. Watkins... -- SYNTHESIS.

Many of you have tried to get Kit Watkins Thought Tones Volume 2 only to find it no longer available. But that has changed! Out of print for over 5 years and available again in this remastered Millennium Edition. An ambient classic!

After taking an extended sabbatical from the music business - one that was no doubt deserved, but overly long for us fans - Kit Watkins has finally returned to the business of making music. Kit's new album, The Unseen, is his first release in four years. As we've come to expect from Kit, this album covers a lot of musical territory, effortlessly blending progressive with ambient, world music and many other styles. As an added bonus, The Unseen features not only the CD audio tracks, but all tracks are also available on this disc as mp3 files playable on your computer's CD-Rom drive as well.

This CD presents 18 classical pieces orchestrated for electronic studio and includes both familiar and lesser-known works by Satie, Chopin, Khachaturian, Stravinsky, and others. It's the finest example of its kind I've ever heard. It's sublime! -- Craig Shropshire, KERA-FM. It uses synthesizers to deepen and enhance the mood rather than to make classical pieces "palatable" or "relevant." Bravo, Kit. -- KEYBOARD. It's a disarmingly enjoyable album based on deceptively simple music. -- JAZZIZ.

Audioscapes for creative thinking, contemplation, imagination and other forms of direct and indirect perception. These are sparse electronic ambiences from organic sound sources that create intriguing new worlds for both background and foreground listening.

"In Time" is the classic album by Kit & Coco from 1985, recently re-issued by Linden Music. One of the best instrumental albums of the year (1985) -- CASHBOX. "In Time" sparkles like that rare gem that instantly appeals to a broad instrumental rock and electric jazz audience, while retaining its sprightly original conception. -- JAZZIZ. An album made by human beings for human beings. -- KEYBOARD

Kit Watkins/Kinetic Vapors	Kit Watkins/A Different View	Kit Watkins/Thought Tones Volume 1	Kit Watkins & Coco Roussel/In Time

Tone Ghost Ether/The White Space ....CD $15.99	Tone Ghost Ether/Hydrogen 2 Oxygen ....CD $15.99	Tone Ghost Ether/Condor Sail Curve ....CD $15.99

Kit Watkins/The Gathering-Set 1 ....CD $15.99	Kit Watkins/The Gathering-Set 2 ....CD $15.99	Kit Watkins/Music for the End ....CD $15.99

Kit Watkins'

Linden Music

Kit Watkins Sale

Available Now!!!

Four newly remastered Classic Kit albums

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