Lou Reed’s Hudson River Wind Meditations to be released on vinyl for the first time

In 2007, Lou Reed released the ambient/new age album Hudson River Wind Meditations, which would end up being his final album before his death in 2013. Now, the album is finally being released on vinyl via Light in the Attic. It’s due out January 12, 2024. The album was produced for vinyl by Laurie Anderson (who was also married to Reed up until his death), Don Fleming, Jason Stern, Matt Sullivan, and Hal Willner; restored by engineer Steve Rosenthal; and remastered by engineer John Baldwin.

“Listening to Hudson River Wind Meditations as a whole piece is moving through several modes and states of a sixty-five-minute meditation,” Anderson said in a statement. ““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.”

She continued, “I guess by ‘life,’ he meant something like what Brian Eno might mean – ambient music that colors 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.”

Last year, Light in the Attic also released Lou Reed’s Words and Music, May 1965, which was featured on our list of the 12 Best Reissues of 2022.