This move towards sparse, minimalist music by previously urgent, heavy artists...

Opeth's Heritage, the new (debut) Storm Corrosion, Kate Bush's latest, Anathema's Weather Systems, Peter Gabriel's orchestral disc, countless recent others...I'm definitely not complaining, as a massive fan of the music of Godspeed You Black Emperor and classical cats like Gorecki (who is a huge influence on the music of Steven Wilson and Godspeed).  This odd new mini-movement is being labelled dark and depressing by some, transcendent beauty by some more, and a dearth of musical ideas by yet others, who say it is the music of tired artists who have no vital ideas anymore and are putting out hour-long CDs of slow dirges masquerading as high, profound art.
 
Personally I find this an interesting and very unexpected development in music. It's going to pass under the radar in the scheme of things, because most of the bands I'm talking about are hardly world-famous, but I'm loving it. It's hit and miss, for sure. Parts of Opeth's Heritage and Storm Corrosion are irredeemably the sound of artists who have become comfortable enough to commit to disc things which collapse under scrutiny, music which is not high and challenging art but rather artists who are successful enough to allow them to think (musically) out loud and put it out on disc. But there are also gorgeous parts in all the CDs I mentioned. 
 
5 years ago, this new development (that's what it feels like to me - a new kind of minimalist music being made by artists who made their names playing flat-out musical intensity) would have left me cold. Now I'm at a place in my life where it just connects with me perfectly. I still routinely spin the odd early Metallica or Iron Maiden or Omerta, but right now I'm absolutely loving what Wilson, Akerfeldt, Bush, the Anathema boys, et al are experimenting with.  

Eric Johnson is another one I forgot to mention. His latest, Up Close, is a slow meandering hour-long journey of delicate, carefully chosen notes, a world away from the blistering energy of Ah Via Musicom. But...it works so brilliantly. 5 years ago I'd have called it boring. Now, it socks me right in the heart. I dunno, maybe it's just the onset of middle age. 

For me personally, Heritage has not hit home. Its just not focused enough for me, too meandering. I have high hopes for storm corrosion , as I loved insurgentes and drowning. I love anathema, fine day to exit and judgment are incredible.

I don't agree with Weather Systems being minimalistic.

Compare early Ulver to one of their later albums. Now that's a change of pace!

Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel were urgent and heavy?

Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Peter Gabriel, Ulver, now Storm Corrosion.And many others.
I'm completely and utterly enthralled by that approach, when a musician reaches his top in making popular music, he or she continues to expand the music outlook and records something like this. I think of it as a very natural and awaited phase in one's personal creative growth and a sign that this person is still making art rather than money.

Well maybe 'heavy' wasn't the correct word to use, but I didn't mean in the sense of 'heavy metal', more very passionate, explosive music. I mean, yes, to be honest Kate Bush's first albums often contained stormy songs (Don't Put Your Foot on The Heartbreak, Sat In Your Lap, Hammer Horror, etc), as did Gabriel's. Very 'busy' music with tonnes of layers and instrumentation. As opposed to now, where it's just a piano (in the case of Bush) or little more than a string quartet (Gabriel). 

There's more than just piano on Kate Bush's 50 Words for Snow. But yeah, I get what you mean.
 
I don't think those artists can all be put in the same category, though. For Steven Wilson, for example, that sort of stuff has always been part of his repertoire with No-Man and Bass Communion, whereas for Gabriel I think it's just a temporary excursion (and one I don't particularly care for, I might add).
 
All in all, though, there's a definite tendency for many people to become less heavy with age. And it's only natural, I guess, as you've just got more energy in you when you're younger.
 
For me personally, I don't care either way. I never settle for just one genre, mood, or writing approach.

Keep in mind that Gabriel also made an album (based on his soundrack for The Last Temptation of Christ) that is considered as one of the most influential ambient albums. I was actually thinking about this rather than "New Blood".

Yeah, that too. All I'm saying is I don't think Gabriel will go completely orchestral from now on. It may take another ten years, but eventually there will probably be a true successor to Up and I believe it will feature some of that "urgency" of old.

Thanks for pointing out the new Eric Johnson release, I adore Musicom but never tried anything else he's done.
 
Maybe they're just getting old. Old people don't like loud noises.
 
You could add The Marz Volta to the list, though whilst the overall sound of Noctourniquet is "quieter" I find it no less busy. I would say Devin Townsend was an example, releasing stuff like Ghost, but at the same time, he does Deconstruction and has already released stuff like The Hummer.

I just want Gabriel to produce some new music - not covers or re-hashes of older material.

Balance is good.
 
even my Hendrix-infused husband released a chill ambient cd... :)

even my Hendrix-infused husband released a chill ambient cd... :)

Cool! Is there a trailer or samples online? 
 

Baldrick, what begins with "Come here" and ends with "Ow"?

I have a cunning plan...
 
 

A lot of fans grow out of metal so it's inevitable that some artists do too; Opeth and Devin for example. (yeah he forced himself into making Decon with that four album thing but that's obviously not where his heart is at musically)
It's funny, the only metal I like is Opeth(Ghost Rev) and Strapping(Alien). I'm not a fan of mellow Opeth though; too samey and monotonous. Their song structures can really draaaag.

Crystal Silence

even my Hendrix-infused husband released a chill ambient cd... :)

Cool! Is there a trailer or samples online? 

Baldrick, what begins with "Come here" and ends with "Ow"?

I have a cunning plan...

Thanks for asking   http://www.monroeinstitute.org/product/strand
 
 
 
 

How is this any different, though, from any artist moving on from the experiments of youth, and exploring new ground?  I would venture to say that Signals or Grace Under Pressure falls into this category, as does And Then There Were Three, and there are others I would put here as well. 
 
It may be a different fork of the road (i.e. pop instead of ambient) but any time you have an artist that has explored the nooks of one cave to the point where they feel there is nothing left to find, and enters another cave, that to me is artistic progress (provided the switch is for reasonably altruistic reasons and not a desparate cash grab). 
 
I think it is reflective of human nature.