What is "halcyon days"

n. 1 Period of calm during the winter, when storms do not occur. 2 (context idiomatic English) A period of calm, often nostalgic: “'''halcyon''' days of yore”, “halcyon days of youth”.

Halcyon Days (1996) is a collaborative album by the ambient musicians Steve Roach, Stephen Kent and Kenneth Newby. This album was recorded in the period from December 17 to 28, 1995. At that time most of the United States were experiencing severe winter weather, but the Sonoran Desert region, where this album was recorded, was enjoying a period temperate calm and clear skies.

While recording this album, Kent and Newby, along with their families, stayed at Roach’s home in Tucson. While there, the group enjoyed casual walks through the surrounding desert, serving as inspiration for their daily creative explorations in the studio.

Halcyon is the ancient Greek name for a bird now believed to be the kingfisher. In Greek Mythology Alcyone was a queen whose husband Ceyx was killed when his ship was lost at sea. She was overcome by grief and tried to drown herself, but the gods took pity on her and transformed her into a kingfisher. In the myth, the seas are calmed during a two-week period surrounding the winter solstice, when Alcyon’s descendants lay their eggs on the still water. This period is known as the Halcyon Days.

The music has a predominantly acoustic quality although much of the percussion and textures are rendered by computer algorithms designed by Kenneth Newby (Halcyon Days, Calyx Revelation, Rainfrog Dreaming) or programmed by Steve Roach (First Day, Kingfisher Flight), with didgeridoo and flute. Sampled electroacoustic textures are used throughout with only limited use of synthesizers. On some tracks, Stephen Kent plays a cello, in a fashion that resembles the sintir, a Moroccan plucked stringed instrument with a sound resembling an upright bass. This gives these tracks slight jazz overtones.

Halcyon Days is a play written by Steven Dietz that satirizes the 1983 American invasion of Grenada. The play had its world premiere October 24, 1991 at the ACT Theatre in Seattle, Washington.

Halcyon Days is the eighth studio album by American singer and pianist Bruce Hornsby. The album, recorded with his touring band the Noisemakers, was released in 2004. It was Hornsby's first release with Columbia Records. One song, "What The Hell Happened", has been described as a rare example of the use of bitonality in a pop piece.

The album marked a return to a more acoustic, piano-driven sound that reviewers described as "pure Hornsby". Guests included Sting, Elton John and Eric Clapton. The tracks "Gonna Be Some Changes Made," "Candy Mountain Run," "Dreamland," and "Circus On The Moon" became concert staples, each showcasing the diversity of Hornsby's improvisations and the Noisemakers' live sound. Notably, Halcyon Days also includes a suite of solo piano songs—"What The Hell Happened," "Hooray For Tom," and "Heir Gordon"—which all have a " Randy Newman pastiche." Although the album was markedly less-risk-taking than Big Swing Face, it would be well-received as a "winning balance of [Hornsby's] tuneful and adventurous sides."

"Gonna Be Some Changes Made" was used in several Lowe's commercials from 2006.

Halcyon Days is an oblique reference to the Greek mythological figure Alcyone, it may also refer to:

Halcyon Days is a compilation album by English band Strawbs. Although credited to Strawbs it does contain three Hudson Ford tracks and a Dave Cousins solo track (taken from his album Two Weeks Last Summer). The album was released as a 2-CD set in the UK and US. The US release has a slightly different title (Halcyon Days – The A & M Years) and a different track listing.

Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers is a digital book edited by James Hague and published in 1997. The book was originally formatted using HTML and sold via mail-order, shipped on a floppy disk by Dadgum Games for USD$20. In 2002 Halcyon Days was made freely available on the web. The book continued to be sold by Dr. Dobb's Journal, on a CD-ROM also containing Susan Lammers's Programmers at Work, until Dr. Dobb's shut down at the end of 2014.

The introduction to Halcyon Days is written by John Romero who told Wired News the interviews were "like hearing messages from old gods."

Halcyon Days has since become a common reference for writings on game history, including Racing the Beam (MIT Press, 2009), Retrogame Archeology (Springer, 2016), and "The Pinball Wizard" (The Digital Antiquarian, 2013).

Halcyon Days is BWO's second studio album and was released on 19 April 2006. It was the first BWO album to reach the number 1 spot in the Swedish album charts and was certified as a gold-selling album by the Swedish Recording Industry Association.

The Halcyon Days EP is the second official release by the English punk rock band Sounds of Swami. After the success of their Vent EP, the band began work on their first album. After a positive EP review in an issue of TNS Zine, the Manchester zine started a record label TNSrecords and offered the band a one-off split record deal with two of their roster bands. The band reluctantly declined in favour of saving new songs for the planned album.

Months later, the idea of writing and recording songs in a hardcore punk style as a one-off release came to fruition with three of the six songs being written in one sessione. The songs emphasised their more hardcore punk side with influences including Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Gorilla Biscuits and Dead Kennedys affecting the overall sound of the EP.

The band approached TNSrecords about the project in the run-up to their first album and co-released the EP physically on 7-inch vinyl and digitally on iTunes. Both formats are a first for the band. To much surprise, Halcyon Days generated rave reviews on the underground punk circuit and gained high recognition from mainland Europe.

Halcyon Days Ltd is a British retailer of luxury goods including enamel products, fine bone china, crystal, cashmere, leather and silk.

The company operates its primary retail store at [The Royal Exchange]] in London, with the company’s administrative HQ in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and its enamel production facility situated at its Strawberry site in the West Midlands, England. Products can be purchased at the stores, online at www.halcyonday.co.uk, and at other fine retailers worldwide including Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges, Neiman Marcus and Scully & Scully of New York, to name a few

It is one of a very small number of companies to have held all four Royal Warrants, including that of the late Queen Mother, and still today is one of only 15 companies to hold all three Royal Warrants , as suppliers of works of art to the British Royal Family. The warrants held are those of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, and HRH the Prince of Wales

Halcyon Days is the reissue of English singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding's second studio album, Halcyon (2012). It was released on 23 August 2013 by Polydor Records. Following the release of Halcyon, Goulding announced that she had plans to repackage the original album, with new songs that focused on electronic music. For the reissue Goulding recorded ten new songs and worked with a variety of producers, including Ryan Tedder, Calvin Harris and Greg Kurstin, to create her desired sound. Goulding and the producers created a synthpop album that takes influence from indie pop, dream pop, alternative dance and features positive lyrics in contrast to her previous releases.

Upon release, Halcyon Days was met with rave reviews from most music critics, who praised the album's musical expansion, its production and happier lyrical content. Commercially the reissue was a success and helped propel the original album on numerous charts. The lead single from the reissued album, " Burn", was released on 5 July 2013, becoming Goulding's first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart. The song also reached the top five in Germany and Ireland, and the top ten in Australia, France and New Zealand. " How Long Will I Love You" and " Goodness Gracious" were subsequently released as the second and third singles from Halcyon Days, respectively.