Description
Aphex Twinのリミックスも収録。90年代ラウンジコア・ムーヴメントのアイコンが残したチルアウトの至高の名盤が、未発表音源を追加した3枚組ホワイト・ヴァイナルで初の豪華復刻
1990年代初頭にロンドンのブリクストンでドレスアップ・テーマパーティーを主催することから活動を開始した、Dougee Dimensional、Laurie LeMans、Valentine Carnelian、Honeyminkの4人による多国籍ラウンジ・ユニット、The Gentle People。Richard D. James（Aphex Twin）らが主宰するカルトレーベルRephlexと契約し、50〜60年代のイージーリスニングやエキゾチカの美学を90年代のクラブカルチャーへと巧みに滑り込ませた彼らが、1997年に発表した不朽のラウンジ／チルアウト・クラシック『Soundtracks for Living』が、拡張版として鮮やかに蘇る。
フランスのポップスやボサノヴァ、映画サントラ、ライブラリーミュージック、そして美しいヴォーカル・ハーモニーといった要素が、ダブやアンビエント・テクノの要素と優雅に交錯する本作。ハープのグリッサンドや美しいストリングスの高鳴り、アナログシンセの電子音が、オリジナル音源からの最新マスタリングによって高音質な立体感を持って再現されている。
今回の復刻は、3枚組の見開きゲートフォールド仕様・限定ホワイト・ヴァイナル。本編に加え、未発表音源や貴重なレアトラック、失われたインタールードなどを収録したボーナス12インチが付属する。さらに、彼らのRephlexからのデビュー曲であり、後にAphex Twinの手によってスペース・ポップへと昇華された伝説的なリミックス音源 "Journey" のAphex Twinリミックスもオリジナルバージョンやインストとともに完全収録。ブレインダンスやIDM、アシッドと並んでも異彩を放った彼らの先鋭的なラウンジ・サウンドを堪能できる、90年代ポップ・イマジネーションの結晶だ。
A1. Intro
A2. The Soundtrack Of Life
A3. Journey
A4. World Of Love
A5. Laurie's Theme
B1. Emotion Heater
B2. Dream
B3. Tiki Mix
C1. Travel Bug
C2. Le Tunnel De L'Amour
C3. Stay
D1. A Close Encounter
D2. Relaxation Central
D3. Journey (Reprise)
D4. Outro
E1. Space Bubble
E2. Star
E3. Sunny Day (Demo)
F1. Journey (Aphex Twin Care Mix)
F2. Journey (Gentle Instrumental)
WRWTFWW Records is proud to present THE GENTLE PEOPLE - Soundtracks for Living (Expanded Edition), ?the ultimate Lounge/Chill Out classic from 1997, reborn! Available as a limited edition white vinyl 3LP in heavyweight 3-panel gatefold sleeve.
When The Gentle People first glided into the mid-90s on clouds of strings, sugar and sine waves, they sounded like visitors from another, more glamorous planet. Signed to Richard D. James and Grant Wilson-Claridge's cult label Rephlex, this multinational "E-Z-Core" lounge unit took the aesthetics of 50s/60s easy listening and exotica and gently smuggled them into 1990s club culture.
Soundtracks for Living was their defining statement: an album that "takes the lounge scene and runs away with it entirely… blissful and heavenly," as one contemporary review put it. Imagine KLF's Chill Out or Space growing up on French 60/70s pop, bossa nova, soundtracks, vocal harmony groups, library music and easy listening then slipping out for a late-night date with dub, ambient techno and bubble-bath pop. That's Soundtracks for Living: a record that can score cocktail hour, 4am taxi rides, and daydreams in headphones with the same effortless grace.
The Gentle People - Dougee Dimensional, Laurie LeMans, Valentine Carnelian and Honeymink - began in early-90s Brixton, throwing dress-up theme parties before taking their audio-visual universe into the studio. For them, music was "a way of life": soothing to the ear, rich in pop hooks, and pitched somewhere between the playfully idiotic and the hyper-intelligent. Their debut on Rephlex was the single "Journey", later blessed with a shimmering Aphex Twin remix that pushed their sugar-coated sound even further into outer space.
This Expanded Edition of Soundtracks for Living finally gives this glambient lounge-pop milestone the treatment it has always deserved. Spread lovingly across 3LP, it features new mastering from the original sources, allowing every harp glissando, string swell and analog squiggle to float in high-fidelity widescreen. The core album is complemented by a bonus 12" of unreleased and rare material, offering a deeper dive into the Gentle world: alternate takes, lost interludes, and secret soundtrack cues for lives not yet lived.
Crucially, "Journey" appears here in its original version, Gentle Instrumental and the cult Aphex Twin remix, reuniting band and labelmate in one place and underlining the quietly radical nature of the project: this was lounge music that could sit next to braindance, acid and IDM and still steal the scene.
Pressed on limited edition white vinyl, Soundtrack for Living (Expanded Edition) invites long-time fans and new listeners alike to step back into The Gentle People's universe - a place of fondue parties, bubble chairs, star-lit elevators and endlessly rewinding sunsets, where "the pathway to the stars" is never quite out of reach.
In an era that often reduces the 90s to big-room bangers and grunge guitars, Soundtracks for Living remains a quietly subversive reminder that the decade was also about imagination, camp, softness and utopian possibility. As later writers have noted, The Gentle People weren't just a curiosity on a weird label; they became unlikely icons of a whole loungecore moment, gracing TV, compilations and magazine spreads, and proving that tenderness could be as futuristic as any drum machine.
In conjunction with this release, WRWTFWW has also unearthed The Gentle People's Peel Sessions, a 4-track EP from their 1997 BBC on-air performance, available on vinyl for the first time ever !
Points of interest
For fans of chillout, lounge, easy listening, ambient jazz, bossa nova, downtempo, smooth funk, exotica, library music, 50s, 60s, 70s, sugar, tenderness, gentle moments with gentle people.
Super limited edition white vinyl 3LP expanded reissue of The Gentle People's Soundtracks For Living with their legendary Aphex Twin remix.
