Deep Breakfast
Studio album by
Ray Lynch
ReleasedDecember 12, 1984
RecordedSeptember–October 1984
StudioRay Lynch's home studio[1]
GenreNew-age
Space music[2]
Length40:20
LabelRay Lynch Productions
Music West (1986 reissue)[3]
Windham Hill Records (1992 reissue)[4]
ProducerRay Lynch
Ray Lynch chronology
The Sky of Mind
(1983)		 Deep Breakfast
(1984)		 No Blue Thing
(1989)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[6]

Deep Breakfast is Ray Lynch's third studio album, released on December 12, 1984. Upon its initial release, the artist sold over 72,000 albums out of his small apartment in San Rafael, California.[7] After signing with Music West Records, the album was released widely in March 1986.[8] Upon its re-release, the album was universally praised for its mesh of electronic and classical sounds, with several calling it an evolution to the respective genres. Eventually, in 1989, the album peaked at #2 on Billboard's "Top New Age Albums" chart, behind David Lanz's album Cristofori's Dream.[9] The album was eventually certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1994.[10]

Concept

The album's title (as well as the names of the songs) is taken from the then-unpublished The Mummery Book by Lynch's spiritual teacher, Adi Da Samraj.[11][12][13] The line in which the album's name was inspired can be found in the album's liner notes: "Evelyn slapped Raymond on the back with a laugh. 'You must be starved, old friend. Come into my apartments, and we'll suffer through a deep breakfast of pure sunlight.'"[4] In an interview with Cymbiosis, Lynch said that "Celestial Soda Pop" was named by a friend of Lynch after hearing that song for the first time.[13]

The artwork used for the album was oil painted by Lynch's friend, Kim Prager.[14]

Reception

Joe Brown of The Washington Post praised the album, calling it an album that is "effective with headphones". Brown particularly praised the song "The Oh of Pleasure", stating that it "uses gradual amplification to give the strange sensation that you're being drawn deeper and deeper into the sound."[15] Bill Henderson of the Orlando Sentinel called the album a "rare surprise", praising its "smoothness and sheer beauty."[16] P.J. Birosik of Yoga Journal called the album "the breakthrough new age pop record".[17] David Stockdale of Sunday Tasmanian labeled the album more than "a modern masterpiece" because "It's an absolute joy to behold." Stockdale also compared some of Lynch's works in the album to Vangelis, especially in "Your Feeling Shoulders".[18] William Ruhlmann of AllMusic gave the album five stars, praising the album's use of "deeply textured melodic structure and a buoyant rhythmic underpinning ".[5] Digital Audio & Compact Disc Review praised the album, believing that it is a "step forward toward maturity for New Age music."[19] Electronic Musician noted that the album is rooted from baroque music, specifically in the way Lynch "constructs neoclassical, melodically beautiful songs of remarkable clarity." The magazine also noted that "Lynch's relationship with synthesizers is a bit different from a keyboardist's" due to his background as a lutist.[20] In an article regarding the artist, Steve Korte of CD Review considered the album a classic.[21]

On June 3, 1989, Cash Box magazine commented that the album became "the only gold album ever by a new age artist on an indie label."[22]

Track listing

Deep Breakfast includes the following tracks. All music is written by Ray Lynch, except where noted.[23]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Celestial Soda Pop" 4:37
2."The Oh of Pleasure"Tom Canning, Ray Lynch5:18
3."Falling in the Garden" 2:44
4."Your Feeling Shoulders" 7:28
5."Rhythm in the Pews" 4:09
6."Kathleen's Song" 4:05
7."Pastorale" 5:26
8."Tiny Geometries" 6:08

Personnel

All music composed, arranged, and produced by Ray Lynch except The Oh of Pleasure which was co-written by Lynch and Tom Canning.[24]

Production

  • George Horn and Fantasy Studios (San Francisco) – mastering

Charts

Chart (1988-1989) Position
Billboard New Age Albums[9] 2
Cash Box Indie Jazz Albums[25] 26

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[10] Platinum 1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ↑ Widders-Ellis, Andy (December 1989). "Ray Lynch: Exploring the Structure of Music". Keyboard. 15 (12): 29. Lynch records and mixes his albums in his home studio.
  2. ↑ Patti Jean Birosik, The New Age Music Guide: Profiles and Recordings of 500 Top New Age Musicians, p113, 1989, Collier MacMillan, ISBN 0-02-041640-7, "Deep Breakfast...one of the best-selling New Age Space music albums ever"
  3. ↑ "Deep Breakfast (1986)". Discogs. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Deep Breakfast (1991)". Discogs. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  5. 1 2 Ruhlmann, William. "Deep Breakfast Review". AllMusic. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  6. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2006). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Muze. p. 384. ISBN 0195313739.
  7. ↑ Mayfield, Geoff (October 25, 1986). "Indies". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. N-4, N-20. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  8. ↑ McCormick, Moira (December 19, 1987). "Mainstream New Age Promo A Hit" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 99, no. 51. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  9. 1 2 "New Age Music: Top New Age Albums Chart". Billboard. January 28, 1989. Retrieved August 15, 2016.
  10. 1 2 "American album certifications – Ray Lynch – Deep Breakfast". Recording Industry Association of America.
  11. ↑ "Ray Lynch: Deep Breakfast". Digital Audio & Compact Disc Review. 3 (5): 19. January 1987. Several of his themes, "The Oh of Pleasure," "Your Feeling Shoulders," and "Tiny Geometries," as well as the disc's title, were taken from the unpublished Buddhist novel The Mummery by Da Free John.
  12. ↑ Means, Andrew (May 30, 1989). "Ray Lynch prefers studios to stages for his harmonics". The Arizona Republic. 100 (12): 18–19. Many of the titles on Deep Breakfast and No Blue Thing come from The Mummery, Love-Ananda's unpublished novel. Lynch said the novel is about "the transcendence of the ego," and it may be published this year. [...] Despite the references to Love-Ananda's book, Lynch said he's not trying to promote a particular philosophy through the music.
  13. 1 2 Yanow, Scott (August 1987). "Fine Instrumental Cuisine from Ray Lynch". Cymbiosis. West Covina, California. 1 (3): 22–23, 41. ISBN 9780793556878. ISSN 0895-6936. OCLC 16743840. 'A good friend of mine joked when hearing the first song that I should call it 'Celestial Soda Pop'. He was laughing, but the name stuck and it's a bit humerous. 'Rhythm in the Pews', although my own title, was suggested by a title in The Mummery, a published novel by Love Ananda.
  14. ↑ Lynch, Ray. "Deep Breakfast". www.raylynch.com. Retrieved April 2, 2017. An artist friend of Ray's, Kim Prager (now Zen Player), had heard some of the new music and asked for a copy of it, which Ray gave him. Several weeks later, Kim came back to Ray with this lively oil painting, which really captured the spirit of the music.
  15. ↑ Brown, Joe (October 2, 1987). "Nine to herald the 'new age'". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  16. ↑ Henderson, Bill (December 7, 1986). "Alternative Music". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  17. ↑ Birosik, P.J. "Yoga Journal". No. November / December 1989. Active Interest Media, Inc. p. 102. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  18. ↑ Stockdale, David (August 21, 1988). "Deep Breakfast". Sunday Tasmanian. More in the Vangelis mould of romantic-melodrama is Your Feeling Shoulders. It soars to a majestic climax on the wings of his resonant keyboards...Deep Breakfast more than lives up to the claim that it's a modern masterpiece. It's an absolute joy to behold.
  19. ↑ "Ray Lynch: Deep Breakfast". Digital Audio & Compact Disc Review. 3 (5): 19. January 1987. Deep Breakfast is a triumph for Lynch and a step forward toward maturity for New Age music.
  20. ↑ "Deep Breakfast". Electronic Musician. 2 (1). January 1986. Retrieved April 10, 2017. A former lutist with a renaissance quartet, Lynch's relationship with synthesizers is a bit different from a keyboardist's. Specifically, he constructs neoclassical, melodically beautiful songs of remarkable clarity — due in part to the percussive, short-envelope sounds with which he works. You can feel the baroque roots.
  21. ↑ Korte, Steve (August 1994). "New Age Leaders". CD Review. 10 (12): 24. His 1984 Deep Breakfast disc (Windham Hill) is considered a classic, and his perky instrumental composition "Celestial Soda Pop" from that album is a standard that you've probably heard dozens of times in your local supermarket or dentist's office.
  22. ↑ "Tickertape" (PDF). June 3, 1989. p. 2. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  23. ↑ Ray Lynch / Deep Breakfast / Track Listing. Allmusic.com. Accessed August 15, 2016.
  24. ↑ Das, Ramana (January–February 1986). "Windows of Sound". Yoga Journal (66): 70. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  25. ↑ "Cash Box Indie Jazz Albums" (PDF). December 17, 1988. p. 24. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
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