For anyone that has spent significant time on this blog, or who has followed its many postings over the years, the subject of Eden Ahbez‘s “Scripture of the Golden Age” project remains both perennial and somewhat mysterious. Yours truly (Brian Chidester) has had several articles about it published in newspapers and magazines, including one about…
In February 2020 the Kenneth Karmiole Annual Endowed Research Fellowship was awarded to the filmmakers of “As the Wind: The Enchanted Life of Eden Ahbez.” Before the filmmakers could embark upon their research venture to complete this grant, however, the pandemic happened. The University of California-Santa Barbara Library Special Research Collections, to which the Karmiole…
The gates are finally open! “Eden Ahbez’s Dharmaland,” arranged and performed by Ixtahuele, is available through Subliminal Sounds Records in all media platforms, from vinyl double-LP to CD to digital download to streaming. Click here to get your copy. For those unaware, Ahbez wrote the music on “Dharmaland” in the immediate aftermath of his lone…
It’s official. “As the Wind: The Enchanted Life of Eden Ahbez” has launched a crowdsourcing campaign and we need your help. The link is here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/as-the-wind-the-enchanted-life-of-eden-ahbez#/ For those fans who are unaware, long-time Ahbez historian Brian Chidester teamed up with filmmaker John Winer in 2017, and the pair have been working on a feature-length documentary…
“Eden Ahbez’s Dharmaland,” arranged and performed by Ixtahuele, is just six days from being officially released (June 11, 2021), but already it has been chosen as the contemporary album of the month by the UK “Guardian” newspaper. See the full review here: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jun/04/ixtahuele-eden-ahbezs-dharmaland-review-striking-take-on-an-extraordinary-songwriter There is also a second lead single from the album out now,…
Academy Award nominated director Nicolas Winding Refn has a website—byNWR.com—and it currently hosts a feature article about Eden Ahbez written by yours truly (Brian Chidester), as well a preview of “As the Wind,” the documentary film I am currently co-directing about Ahbez with John Winer. The link to the article is here: https://www.bynwr.com/articles/visions-of-glory There is…
It’s been a few years since I last wrote an update on the many influences of Eden Ahbez in contemporary pop culture and since that time a number of new projects and mentions of the composer have emerged. The first of these is a full-blown ode by former Wall of Voodoo frontman Stan Ridgeway (as…
Follow the progress of the Eden Ahbez documentary, As the Wind, with this behind the scenes series. Part one of three is linked here: Vimeo link:
At long last! A 78rpm single, written by Eden Ahbez, which has eluded me for more than twenty years, has finally materialized!! It is titled “Gravy Train” b/w “Two Shades of Blue” and is by Nature Boy and His Orchestra, on Mercury Records. The single was announced in Billboard magazine on March 31, 1951 and…
It gives me great pleasure to announce it first here that I am now working on a feature-length documentary about the life and music of Eden Ahbez. The film is to be titled “As the Wind: The Enchanted Life of Eden Ahbez” and is currently in production. Here is the promo, or preview, of things…
EDEN’S ISLAND 