''New Green Clear Blue'' is the seventh and final studio album by American musician and songwriter

Dan Hartman Daniel Earl Hartman (December 8, 1950 – March 22, 1994) was an American pop rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer, and songwriter and original frontman for several bands, including the Soploids, Mak and the Turnarounds, Our Wri ...

, released by

Private Music Private Music was an American independent record label founded in 1984 by musician Peter Baumann as a "home for instrumental music". Baumann signed Ravi Shankar, Yanni, Suzanne Ciani, Andy Summers, Patrick O'Hearn, Leo Kottke, and his for ...

in 1989. The album represented a big stylistic departure for Hartman; it consists of instrumental, ambient songs, with the concept of being a journey into the subconscious. ''New Green Clear Blue'' was written, performed, engineered and produced entirely by Hartman. In the album's sleeve notes, Hartman was quoted as saying: "The subconscious mind is a powerful world possessing experiences and feelings we do not necessarily recognize in our daily movements; but nonetheless they influence our entire lives. The tones and shades in this collection were performed live and intuitively for the purpose of opening channels by which the listener may visit their own subconscious". He also stated "This music is meant to be something that helps people connect with their subconscious. It is intended to be played at very low levels in a tranquil environment. It's a platform for the imagination."

Background

''New Green Clear Blue'' marked a stylistic departure for Hartman's solo career. After the commercial success of his 1984 album ''

I Can Dream About You "I Can Dream About You" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Dan Hartman on the soundtrack album of the film ''Streets of Fire''. Released in 1984 as a single from the soundtrack, and included on Hartman's album '' I Can ...

'', Hartman returned to the studio to record the follow-up, '' White Boy'', however his label, MCA, disagreed with the musical direction of the material and ultimately refused to release it. Speaking to the ''

Mohave Daily Miner ''The Kingman Miner'' is a local newspaper in Kingman, Arizona Kingman is a city in and the county seat of Mohave County, Arizona, United States. It is named after Lewis Kingman, an engineer for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. The popul ...

'' in 1989, Hartman said: "It seemed to be a natural period when I wanted to stop doing pop records; it came with a falling-out between my record company and me. One of the quotes I heard was that they expected me to crank out 10 songs like "I Can Dream About You"." With his departure from MCA, Hartman was inspired to record an instrumental, ambient album after listening to the music of

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

and

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...

. Once he decided to begin the ''New Green Clear Blue'' project, Hartman began reading material on the subconscious mind and intuitiveness, as well as how songs work to create an emotional reaction with their listener. He spent eighth months researching and reading, and then began writing and recording material in his home studio in Connecticut between August 1987 and August 1988. Hartman revealed to ''Mohave Daily Miner'': Hartman attempted to unlock his own subconscious during the writing and recording of the album: "I became frightened, to the point I was going to stop doing it. I was unlocking my own subconscious. And the first two or three pieces I listened to I felt were planets away from fulfilling my concept. Little by little, it began to flow. By that time I think I was on automatic pilot. I knew I had shifted gears to another level of the creative process. I ended up making 23 pieces for the collection. I narrowed it down to 11." Hartman dedicated the album to his sister, Kathy, because of the colour of her eyes and how he felt she was still seeking her inner self. In an interview for the Dan Hartman fan site,

Edgar Winter Edgar Holland Winter (born December 28, 1946) is an American multi-instrumentalist, working as a vocalist along with playing keyboards, saxophone, and percussion. His success peaked in the 1970s with his band the Edgar Winter Group and their pop ...

, a former musical collaborator of Hartman's, said that the album "marked a new evolutionary step in Dan's writing". He commented: "It is pure music of the spirit with no commercial intentions - meditative, peaceful, and serene. I know it came straight from his heart and was a beautiful parting gift to us all."

Critical reception

Johnny Black of '' Q'' considered the album to be "beautiful" and reminiscent of

and

Harold Budd Harold Montgomory Budd (May 24, 1936December 8, 2020) was an American music composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles and raised in the Mojave Desert, he became a respected composer in the minimal music and avant-garde scene of Southern California ...

. He wrote: "Hartman builds layer upon layer of gauzy synthesizer wash, cavernous echoes intermingled with distant thunder and enlivened by simple Satie-like piano tinklings. Finally, he introduces aural events which occur only once or twice in a piece, but which serve as lenses enabling the mind's eye to focus more sharply on his mist-hung musical landscapes."

Track listing

Personnel

* Dan Hartman - producer, instruments, engineer * Rod Hui - mixing (tracks 1, 11) * Peter Baumann - mixing (track 8), noises (ambient treatment) (track 4) * Amanda Stone, Andrew Derrick - design * Danny Goldberg - management

References

{{Authority control 1989 albums Dan Hartman albums Albums produced by Dan Hartman Private Music albums