Electronic, Ethereal, Sublime: Paul Williams’ ‘Aquarius’

Reviews / June 29, 2026 Atlantis Paul Williams Parry Music Ltd, 1987 Paul Williams’ 1987 Aquarius is, simply put, one of the most beautiful library music albums ever made. It would never have been described that way when it came out, of course. Library or production albums were released exclusively to media producers who would buy certain tracks or entire catalogs to score commercials, TV and radio shows, films, documentaries, educational programming, and so on. And these were not the programs with the big budgets—totally the opposite. No, library music was “stock music,” strictly functional. To many in the “proper” music industry, it was disposable. In fact, labels literally threw away their entire vinyl collections in the ‘80s and ‘90s when CDs became the norm. Hip-hop and sample artists rescued them, and now we can appreciate the genre for what all musical genres are: a sometimes banal, sometimes enjoyable, sometimes sublime experience. Library music is a genre that contains many…