Hearts of Space Turns 25.Music from the Hearts of Space is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. They launched their nationally distributed show in 1983 although it originated 10 years earlier from the studios of KPFA in Berkeley, California. To commemorate the anniversary, they’ve put out a CD with the music from their initial syndicated…
Month: September 2008
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Solas and the Celtic Tradition
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080924.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSCeltic veterans Solas find new dimensions in a traditional sound when they play live on Echoes. You can hear an Audio Version of this blog with music. The Celtic boom of the Riverdance days are long over, leaving only the fructose sweetened foam of marketing campaigns like Celtic…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Ludovico Einaudi’s Ambient Chamber Music
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080917.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSLudovico Einaudi orchestrates new refinements in ambient chamber music. You can also hear an Audio version of this blog, with music. Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi heeds a dictum of ambient chamber music pioneer, Harold Budd. He declared that he wanted to hear music that’s so beautiful it hurts.…
Reviews & Commentary
The Ping of Echoes Passes: Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright Dies
Echoes the radio show owes its name to Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” and that song’s signature sound was the opening sonar pings of Floyd keyboardist, Richard Wright. He died today, September 15 at the age of 65, reportedly after a losing bout with cancer. The BBC has one of the earliest obituaries. Wright was an original…
Reviews & Commentary
The Nerve-Music & the Mind
On Echoes, I’ve frequently sought the answer to the big question, Why? Not the “Why do we exist?” question, but the “Why do we like the music we do? Why do we respond to it the way we do? Why do some people love crappy music and why doesn’t everyone like Echoes music, which of…
Reviews & Commentary
Hector Zazou Dies: Ambient Chamber World Music Pioneer
Hector Zazou was a quirky French composer who worked quietly in the background, creating music that sent subtle ripples across the music firmament. He died this past Monday, September 8 at the age of 60. Most of the hipster community discovered him in the mid-1990s when he released the albums, Sahara Blue and Songs from…
Reviews & Commentary
Lights Out Asia and Near the Parenthesis
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080910.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSLights Out Asia and Near the Parenthesis create an ambient rock You can hear an audio version of this review, with music. The n5MD record label began with a suspect business plan. They were going to release their music only on mini-disc. Although commercially that format went the way of…
Program Highlights
General Fuzz: Ambient Chamber Trip-hop, for Free
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.generalfuzz.net/echoes/interview.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSJames Kirsch is a classically trained pianist who decided to plug in. For the last few years he’s been releasing albums that have down-tempo moods and jazzy improvisations under the name of General Fuzz. Kirsch is part of an eclectic generation of electronic musicians who might see a…
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A Trip to the Drone Zone with Furthernoise
It’s difficult finding reliable reference material about the music you hear on Echoes. I’ve yet to locate a single site that reliably covers the music heard on the show, or even some of its significant component parts. One interesting site I recently stumbled across is Furthernoise.org out of the U.K. It travels through the darker…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Ronn McFarlane’s 21st Century Lute
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080903.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSIt’s not your ancient Renaissance lute anymore when Ronn McFarlane creates new music for an ancient instrument. (You can hear an Audio Version of this blog, with music.) In 2006, Sting put out an album of tunes by 16th century composer John Dowland called Songs from the Labyrinth.…