Month: July 2009

Echoes Top 25 for July: Moby Tops

As is typical, our CD of the Month tops the  Echoes Top 25 for July with Moby’s entrancing, Wait for Me.  Look for the artist to bring this music to the concert stage in the Fall.  Tour Information here. But just beneath Moby is one of the prettier ambient chamber music albums of the year,…

Echoes August CD of the Month: Chris Bocast and MJCatalin’s Stratagem

http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090729.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS American guitarist Chris Bocast teams with Romanian electronic artist MJCatalin in meeting of ambient and progressive music You can hear an audio version of this blog with Chris Bocast & MJCatalin’s music here. Chris Bocast was all set to be a rockin’ guitarist.  He played with rock…

Jazz In the Space Age: George Russell Leaves Orbit

Composer George Russell traveled the spaceways and now he’s on the last trip. You may not have known him, but if you listen to music in general, jazz in particular and maybe even Echoes, you heard his influence.  George Russell guided trumpeter Don Cherry, guitarist Terje Rypdal, saxophonist Jan Garbarek and many more into new…

Echo Location: Ray Montford

http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090722.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSCanadian Guitarist Ray Montford threads together country, new age and Pink Floyd You can hear an audio version of this blog with Ray Montford’s music here. Guitarist Ray Montford has garnered accolades from people like film director Atom Egoyan and Windham Hill Records founder Will Ackerman.  The Canadian…

10 Best Vangelis CDs

In the 1970s and early 80s, Vangelis was synonymous with orchestral electronic music the way another Greek, Yanni, is synonymous with the New Age music.  Whether it’s his film soundtracks forChariots of Fire and Blade Runner, or his epic albums Albedo 0.39 and Voices, the sound of Vangelis has shaped much of Echoes‘ first 20…

5 Essential Paul Winter Albums

Paul Winter lives for two things, the environment and music,  although he would say that they are the same thing.  “For me, music implies something more than just the artistic combination of sounds,” he patiently explains.  “It has to do with a whole way of living, that’s musical, that’s harmonious, that’s resonant with the earth,…

Echo Location: Bill Frisell

http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090715.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSA Different kind of Americana You can hear an audio version of this Blog with Bill Frisell’s music here. Guitarist Bill Frisell is a genre unto himself.  His music flows through interlocking veins of jazz improvisation and harmonies, country melodicism and twang, chamber music strings and electronic dissonances. …

R.I.P. WBCN in Boston

A Warrior for New Music finally fades away. The station that made me the music junky I am, for better or worse, has left the airwaves.  WBCN in Boston, the first full-time “underground” rock station in Boston, originally broadcasting from a backroom at the The Boston Tea Party club, will switch to mainstream rock format…

Brian Eno Makes 2nd Apollo Moon Landing

Brian Eno Relaunches Apollo, Live. Brian Eno has been extremely busy lately. When he’s not producing U2, Coldplay or some other pop phenom, he’s been staging multi-day festivals in Sydney and now he’s relaunching Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Apollo is an ionic Eno release, full of atmosphere, never-ending melodies and shimmering lap steel guitar. Originally…

Echoes Top 25 for June: Tosca on Top

Tosca‘s No Hassle leads the Echoes Top 25 for June. Check down to number 16 for next months Top 25 winner. That will be Moby and Wait for Me, one of the most beautifully heartbreaking albums of the year. It’s the Echoes CD of the Month for July. A nice companion piece for Wait for…