Valentine Eleven by Jordan De La Sierra

Jordan De La Sierra didn’t come to New Age, New Age came to him. “It was coming from the school of minimalism,” Jordan said. “Pure sound, with shape. I didn’t think of it as New Age. New Age was added onto it as a thought form after the fact, and that’s okay.” His 1988 sophomore album Valentine Eleven explored notions of new biology, quantum alchemy, modern chemistry, and relativity, all with a message to unite the world with love. Coming later in his career, the record is a departure from the solo piano works of Gymnosphere, trading his touchstone minimalism for lavish synthscapes.

A visit to the Numero office makes it very clear that ‘the stacks’ is a literal description of our process: we accumulate stacks of records, master tapes, photos, flyers, and old newspapers while assembling a project. From The Stacks is our way of illuminating the experience: the selections here are presented without curation. While we’re digging for gold, these are the lesser minerals we find.