Lou Reed’s final solo album, Hudson River Wind Meditations, is to be reissued.
Newly remastered, it will be made available across 2xLP, CD and digital editions, with the deluxe and standard physical editions of the release set to feature new liner notes, including a recent conversation with Reed’s wife, Laurie Anderson. She has overseen the reissue together with Light In The Attic and The Lou Reed Archive, and it marks the latest instalment of Light In The Attic’s Lou Reed Archival Series.
Originally released in 2007, six years before Reed’s death, Hudson River Wind Meditations is viewed as one of the best examples of a decades-long exploration of drone and ambient music across Reed’s discography. In a brief introduction to the record shared upon its original release, he said: "I first composed this music to play in the background of life – to replace the everyday cacophony with new and ordered sounds of an unpredictable nature."
Speaking recently, Anderson said: "I guess by ‘life’, he meant something like what Brian Eno might mean – ambient music that colours the air in very interesting ways. For me, it resets my brainwaves. In Tibetan Buddhism teachings, heart and mind are the same word – citta – close to the chi of Tai Chi, which is pure energy. This music is pure energy; it breathes in and out. It’’s not like, ‘Here’s the beginning: dum da da! And now it develops, and now it ends!’ Rather, it’s one long loop that keeps changing in subtle ways."
Light In The Attic will release Hudson River Wind Meditations on January 12, 2024.
