ASTERISM
Currently on a brief hiatus due to its editor's really bad luck with a computer meltdown, ASTERISM is a quarterly magazine devoted to (as Ed. Jeff Berkwits describes it) science-fiction and fantasy music. This means they cover lots of electronic, ambient, space, and some soundtrack music. It's a well-written magazine and Jeff manages to get some incredible interviews, e.g. David Arkenstone and Richard James, a.k.a. Aphex Twin.

EXPOSE (accent over the last "e" so it's "ex-pos-zay")
Ed. Peter Thelen puts out a quarterly that is second-to-none in writing quality and a great bang for the buck. Usually clocking in at about 80 pages, EXPOSE covers the boundaries of progressive rock, including a lot of instrumental stuff. Crossover music with "new age" includes artists like Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana, TD, Klaus Schulze, the Spotted Peccary artists, and others of similar ilk. I read it cover to cover and it never fails to prove worth it.

DREAMSWORD
Supposedly this once-defunct zine is making a comeback. Phil Derby is going to slightly alter the direction it used to head in, it sounds like. It was heavily electronic before, I think. Still in the planning stages (or else close to first "new" issue printing). Should be interesting to see how it shakes out.

NEW AGE VOICE
A trade magazine that covers lots of different music. Weighed heavily for radio and store personnel, the magazine has lots of ads and playlists. Reviews are rather insubstantial, IMO, but interviews can prove insightful. And articles by folks like Scott Raymond are fascinating, IMO. Getting insider info can be helpful. If you are a musician, it's got some pertinent data. For the fan, it depends.

NAPRA Review
Another trade publication, this magazine covers all the stuff associated "new age" not just music. But it's not a "new age" magazine as much as it is a trade magazine. Peggy Randall (Music Ed.) and her associate, Bette Timm, do an excellent job with their music reviews and are not above panning a CD (unusual for the trades). Hard to say how worth it it is for the fan, since only a small section is about music.

NEW AGE RETAILER
Not as good as NAPRA, IMO. Their critics, PJ Birosik and Steve Ryals, can read more like catalogue copy than critical analysis, IMO. Same caveat applies to this as to NAPRA.

WIND AND WIRE
Published six times a year WIND AND WIRE is a consumer/fan-oriented magazine that covers all aspects of "new age" music, i.e. anything sold in stores as such, as well other stuff too. Issues have interviews, op-ed pieces, articles, and lots of in-depth reviews by a staff of _fans_ not profressionals, i.e. you get real fan reaction to the music (as you also do in EXPOSE and ASTERISM). Supposedly content-heavy as opposed to glitzy, WIND AND WIRE covers everything from ambient/dark ambient to world fusion, space to new acoustic, Celtic to Native American, and electronic to music for meditation.

For contact info on these, try a Yahoo search on their names, except for that piece o' crap WIND AND WIRE which _still_ doesn't have a legit website (although Judy put up a nice mini-one with sub info). I do promise to get one going (when have you heard THAT before? ). Really. I swear! Honest!

I welcome all the comptetition and heartily endorse my friends Jeff and Peter (ASTERISM and EXPOSE) as excellent publications.

Bill
aka Editor and Publisher of WIND AND WIRE