Beyond his edgy, poetic lyrical explorations that often profiled the dark side of humanity, the late Lou Reed experimented with sonic textures throughout his music career—including on his final solo album, the 2007 ambient instrumental project Hudson River Wind Meditations. Now, a newly remastered version of the album is scheduled to be released in multiple formats and configurations on January 12, 2024.
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Reed composed the initial tracks from Hudson River Wind Meditations for his own personal use, as an accompaniment to spoken-word meditations his acupuncturist recorded for him. He eventually began using these serene recordings to accompany his Tai Chi and yoga sessions, before deciding to create an album featuring the tracks, plus a couple of additional compositions, that were produced by his friend Hal Willner.
The Hudson River Wind Meditations reissue, which can be pre-ordered now, will be available on CD, digitally, and as a two-LP set, marking the album’s first-ever release on vinyl. Three different vinyl variants can be purchased—black, Coke bottle clear, or glacial blue. Deluxe collections also will be available that feature either a CD or a two-LP set, and packaged with glossy 8-by-10-inch prints of five photos of the Hudson River taken by Reed, and a 24-by-36-inch fold-out poster.
The physical versions of the reissue also feature liner notes by Reed’s longtime yoga instructor Eddie Stern, as well as a new interview with Reed’s widow, avant-garde musician Laurie Anderson. In the conversation, Anderson discusses the Hudson River Wind Meditations project and her late husband’s devotion to Tai Chi.
Reed explained the origin of and intent behind Hudson River Wind Meditations in an introduction he wrote for the album’s original release.
“I first composed this music for myself as an adjunct to meditation, Tai Chi, and bodywork, and as music to play in the background of life, to replace the everyday cacophony with new and ordered sounds of an unpredictable nature,” he noted. “New sounds freed from preconception. …[O]ver time, friends who heard the music asked if I could make them copies. I then wrote two more pieces with the same intent: to relax the body, mind, and spirit and facilitate meditation.”
The album features four parts—two lengthy pieces, “Move Your Heart” and “Find Your Note,” that each run about 30 minutes, (both of which clock in at around 30 minutes each), and two shorter tracks: “Hudson River Wind (Blend the Ambience)” and “Wind Coda.”
Hudson River Wind Meditations was the next-to-last full-length musical project Reed released; it was followed by his much-derided 2011 collaboration with Metallica, the concept album Lulu. Reed died of liver disease in 2013 at age 71.
