Iasos

Iasos emerged as a defining figure in new age music, embodying its essence through unwavering commitment to ethereal and spiritually oriented compositions across his full career. Born in Greece in 1947, the artist viewed his output as a terrestrial recreation of sounds from alternate realms, channeling what he described as “paradise music” received internally and attributed to transmissions from Vista, an entity existing on another plane. Through early use of phase shifters, multi-track methods, and nascent synthesizers, he generated some of the most unconventional and transcendent recordings linked to the new age scene, alongside its most psychedelic expressions. Unlike many peers focused on spiritual themes, Iasos displayed a lighter, more playful character, marked by an effervescent and approachable demeanor as well as vivid, imaginative fantasy imagery on his album covers.

His family relocated to the United States when he was four, after which he began piano lessons before joining his school band on flute. After earning a degree in cultural anthropology from Cornell University in 1968, he performed with rock and jazz ensembles and relocated to California to establish a professional music path. Participation in sessions led by a spiritual instructor in Sausalito introduced him to Vista, prompting dedicated efforts to transmit the internal “paradise music.” This resulted in the 1975 debut LP Inter-Dimensional Music on Unity Records, the same year he contributed flute to fellow new age innovator Steven Halpern’s Spectrum Suite. Iasos then founded his own imprint, also titled Inter-Dimensional Music, which distributed the debut on cassette along with subsequent releases such as 1978’s Angelic Music, 1979’s Crystal Love, 1981’s Jeweled Space, and the 1982 laserdisc Crystal Vista, all sold through new age outlets.

In 1989, Plymouth State University professor Joel Funk identified “The Angels of Comfort,” taken from Angelic Music, as the musical selection most closely matching accounts from multiple near-death experiences. Among his catalog, the 1991 release Bora Bora 2000 stood out for its buoyant and rhythmic character, while 1998’s Sacred Sonic Tools arrived packaged with a 64-page book. Realms of Light appeared as an album in 2001 before later receiving a DVD edition following years of visual development by the artist. The 72-minute temple meditation work Javanese Dream Bells, which looped its central motif repeatedly, followed in 2007. A 2010s resurgence of interest in new age music expanded his listenership and generated unprecedented media attention, highlighted by Numero Group’s 2013 anthology Celestial Soul Portrait compiling selections from 1975–1985, together with reissues of several earlier albums. Further projects included the distinctly extraterrestrial Night Time Jungle Sounds on Planet Allura in 2014 and Essence of Lemuria in 2015.

Iasos collaborated on multiple recordings by Los Angeles producer and musician Carlos Niño while continuing to issue individual tracks such as “Ever Upwards” in 2017 and “The Garden of Salathooslia” in 2023. He maintained creative output until his death on January 6, 2024, at age 76, with “The Garden of Salathooslia” serving as his final released composition.