Suzanne Doucet

Originating in West Germany, Suzanne Doucet established herself early as both a vocalist and new age composer before settling in the United States during 1983. Recognized throughout Germany as a pop sensation by her eighteenth birthday, the versatile performer secured a contract with Liberty Records in 1968 and cut sides in England with producer Les Reed, best known for his work with Tom Jones. Her first American single presented the Bee Gees composition “Swan Song,” while the multilingual project Suzanne Doucet International collected material performed in seven languages. Early songwriting explored themes of existence, romance, and deeper concerns, extending past straightforward “message” material, yet several pop numbers she recorded reached the top of European charts. Self-produced and forward-looking, her debut album Red as a Ruby continues to receive airplay across Europe.

By age twenty-five Doucet had already journeyed through Europe, the Far East, and the United States, prompting a year-long withdrawal from the industry for a spiritual quest. During the following decade she shaped a personal new age idiom while investigating numerous metaphysical traditions. “This was my going within period,” Doucet recalls, noting that her psychologist father’s studies with Carl Gustav Jung guided her examination of music’s metaphysical properties, especially the Pythagorean school of harmonics.

She also gained recognition as a composer, actress, and television host, appearing regularly on stations in Germany and Switzerland. In addition, she mastered dubbing, directing, scriptwriting, engineering, editing, producing, and marketing. Heading the A&R department at a Munich label, she produced more than thirty recordings with German and French artists and wrote songs for herself as well as other prominent European singers. In 1975 she released Essig & Oel, the first new age song album issued in Europe.

Forming her own Isis Music imprint in 1979, Doucet issued her second new age song collection, Reisefieber. The pioneering label presented three of her own albums, guided meditation recordings, and works by Christian Buehner, Karl Schaffner, Lothar Grimm, and Al Gromer Khan.

In 1983 Doucet fulfilled a lifelong ambition by moving to California. Together with new husband James Bell she launched a grassroots distribution effort for Isis Music through the alternative-holistic network. In 1987, accompanied by her two children, the couple relocated to Hollywood and opened Only New Age Music, the world’s first specialized new age music retail outlet. Between 1987 and 1988 she established the U.S. label Beyond. Her music appeared on the award-winning visual music videotape Star Flight and on Shirley MacLaine’s Inner Workout and Going Within video and audio releases.

Through the nonprofit International New Age Music Network and Only New Age Music, Doucet has remained active as a new age music marketing consultant. In 1997 she released twenty-one CDs containing nature sounds captured by Chuck Plaisance. Returning to her state-of-the-art studio, she plans to merge those recordings with her compositions. “I am shifting again,” she observes. “The next few years will be devoted to my own music productions.”