Album Notes

Your Table Awaits... at the Rapa Nui Lounge
Music by St Mix
Birdwaves 011
© 2010 Birdwaves Media

This album is a collection of songs, mostly originals, based on the Space-Age Bachelor Pad sound (also called Lounge, or Exotica) made popular in the 50’s and 60’s. When I used to work in record shops in the 80’s, I’d rummage through the old bins under the counters where the “good” records were displayed. Every once in a while I’d discover some real gems like “Living Guitars” or “Like_Bongos”. I loved the sounds, ingenuity and eclecticism that these albums displayed. They were freewheeling, care free and fun albums.

I still don’t know much about some of the folks that created them, but they seemed to have been played on by LA studio musicians at the time. A lot of the records were put out solely to promote the new “Hi-Fi” stereo systems that were just coming out. So these guys were getting paid to have fun and experiment. Often there were no names given for the songwriters or players.

In the 90’s, this type of music was “re-discovered”. Some labels, like Rhino started series of compilations. Also, the greats, like Martin Denny and Esquivel, had their albums re-issued. New bands, like Stereolab, and Laika and the Cosmonauts borrowed heavily from this tradition.

Your Table Awaits… at the Rapa Nui Lounge represents my own take on this genre. The title is a nod to the “Tiki” tradition of Exotica. Rapa Nui is the native’s own name for Easter Island.