Ottmar Liebert’s The Scent of Light, our August CD of the Month tops the Echoes Top 25 for August, but electronica and ambient music make a comeback after a few months off. They include Marconi Union who repeats their Top 5 performance with A Lost Connection, a download only release. Joining them are Klaus Schulze…
Month: August 2008
CD of the Month
Echoes September CD of the Month: Digitonal-Save Your Light For Darker Days
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080827.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSWhat do you do when you’re a classical musician, but you fall in love with 90s electronica and technology? The band called Digitonal took their symphonic instruments and plugged in, and in the process have made a powerful and moving work of ambient chamber music called Save Your…
Reviews & Commentary
Michael Brook & Djivan Gasparyan Return with Penumbra
Michael Brook has been a fixture on Echoes since we launched in 1989 and he recorded one of the first Living Room Concerts from the London apartment he lived in then. He’s remained a fixture on the show with inventive releases and collaborations. Penumbra continues this tradition. In the 1990s, Michael Brook built a segment…
Best Of
The Best Echoes Songs Ever? O Superman? Music for 18 Musicians?
Being from the pre-digital generation, I still organize music in terms of artists and albums. I thought of this recently as our local Echoes affiliate, WXPN in Philadelphia, has been pumping their latest poll, The Top 885 Essential XPN Songs.
Reviews & Commentary
Blow Your Mind Music Video in Advanced Beauty
If you’re looking for some delirious eye-candy to take your mind somewhere else, check out a site called cololourlovers.com Right now they’ve got a series of 18 computer paintings with original, mostly electronica music in a series called Advanced Beauty.
Reviews & Commentary
Thoughts in Sound: Cage, Eno, Jarrett, Riley
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080820.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSThoughts in Sound from musicians at the bleeding edges of music including John Cage, Brian Eno, Terry Riley and Keith Jarrett. You can also hear an Audio Version of this blog, with music. Every musician plays notes, but some of them think about the nature of sound a…
Reviews & Commentary
Genuflections and Reflections at Ash Ra Tempel
I always thought of Manuel Göttsching, who records under his own name and more famously as Ashra and Ash Ra Tempel, as the most soulful of the Berlin Trinity: Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel. His compositions had a warmth the others lacked and his guitar leads flitted between dangerous micro-second precision on Inventions for…
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Harold Budd & Clive Wright: A Song For Lost Blossoms
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080618.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSFor a guy who supposedly retired 4 years ago, Harold Budd is sure putting out a lot of records. He’s just offered up a new slice of gauzy atmosphere, hazy keyboards and unguitar-like electric guitar with Clive Wright. It’s called A Song for Lost Blossoms . This works…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Marconi Union’s A Lost Connection
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080813.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSI know, I just mentioned Marconi Union in a blog last week, but I decided to feature them in an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music, an Echoes feature heard on WXPN-FM, 88.5, in Philadelphia/Lancaster/Harrisburg. An audio version of this Echo Location with music can also be heard.…
Reviews & Commentary
Arrested Musical Development: The 60s are over, the 70s too.
The midsummer of 2008 has been a trip down Memory Lane for live concerts. In the last two weeks, I’ve seen, or will be seeing, Alex De Grassi, Return to Forever, King Crimson and Manuel Göttsching/Ashra , all acts who came to their greatest renown in the 1970s. It got me wondering about our penchant…