ON THE TOWN, PART II: Suzanne Doucet...

ON THE TOWN, PART II: Suzanne Doucet is a West German Rennaissance woman who’s done everything from composing, singing and running a record company to acting, painting and producing TV shows. Now she’s embarked on a new career--running L.A.’s first New-Age music emporium, aptly titled the Only New Age Music store. The shop, which just opened last week at 648 N. Fuller (off Melrose Avenue), features hard-to-find artists as well as an audio gallery where customers can listen to the latest releases on head-phones before deciding on a purchase.

“When my husband and I were traveling around the country, distributing our own label, we realized there was a real need for a new kind of store that specializes in New Age music--in other words one place where you could find everything,” she explained. “It’s hard for a big record store to deal with independent artists and small labels, and often a lot of those records just never make it to the big stores.”

Store prices will be expensive--Doucet said albums and tapes will sell at full-list price (starting at $9.98, with CDs going for about $19.98). But the shop will be more than just a mellow version of Tower Records. Doucet said many artists will be on hand to debut their albums, while it will also offer in-store play of visual-music clips as well as seminars on such popular New Age topics as the healing power of music.