A Snow Shrouded Landscape and Lou Reed Interview This Weekend on Echoes
Before he died in 2013, Lou Reed created an ambient album called Hudson River Wind Meditations that tapped into his spiritual side. Now that the album is being re-released in a deluxe edition, we go back to our interview with Reed talking about it.
Lou Reed was an iconic figure in modern music. The founder of The Velvet Underground, he provided a counterpart to the hippies and flower power of the era, trawling a darker and seedier side of life. As a solo artist, he did the same thing, with a lean, distorted guitar sound and songs that were often grittier than a back alley. But there was another side to Lou Reed as well, one that’s experimental and meditative. One example came out on the 2007 CD, Hudson River Wind Meditations. It was an all-electronic disc of drones and ambiences. We don’t play Lou Reed often on Echoes for obvious reasons, but I thought: when else would I have an opportunity to interview him? Lou Reed talks about a meditative river, on Echoes from PRX.
I know, you thought the Holiday season was over so winter music was gone, but no. Echoes is still in a chilled winter mood, especially since we got our first real snow of the season. So we’ve got a snowtrack for you to put you in the idealized side of that wintry mood. It will include The Great Northern’s “Winter’s Walk,” Bluetech’s “Crystalline Forms,” Taylor Swift’s “Snow on the Beach,” Pangaea Projekt’s “Winter Vol. IX,” Mary Fahl’s “Winter Songs and Carols” (but no carols,) Thomas Lemmer’s “Arctica (Lukas Midub Remix)” and more. It’s a Nor’easter on A Snow Shrouded Landscape on the next Echoes from PRX.