Amidst Wars Around the Globe, An Echoes Memorial Day Soundscape
Memorial Day was this past Monday, but weekend listeners can still celebrate it. When we made this Echoes Memorial Day Soundscape show three years ago, I said how while Memorial Day is traditionally a time to remember those who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces, that I also wanted to remember those losing their lives in the current days of violence, particularly Ukraine. In the interim, that violence has only gotten worse with the Israeli war in Gaza and now our very own war in Iran. So today, we need to remember all of those lost in violence. Remember not just the soldiers, but those innocents who have left the planet due to collateral and sometimes intentional damage from war. I have songs from a women born is Israel of Jewish and Iraqi parents, a band who are Russian refugees following the Ukrainian war, a song inspired by World War I, but is also a Vietnam war protest song. We’ll hear Hans Zimmer from his score to The Thin Red Line and Brian Eno meditates on the world’s destructive impulses from his album, Neverforevernomore. It’s all part of an Echoes Memorial Day Soundscape.
We remember pianist Philip Aaberg who left the planet on May 23. Aaberg came to renown in the mid-1980s at the height of Windham Hill Records and made several albums for the label, including his critically acclaimed 1985 debut, High Plains. He continued releasing solo albums on the label until Cinema in 1992. Then he began releasing his records on his own Sweetgrass Music label. His 2001 album, Live from Montana, was nominated for a Grammy Award. If you haven’t heard his solo music, then you’ve heard him on some of the biggest pop hits of the 1970s. He played with Peter Gabriel, and he co-wrote material for Elvin Bishop’s Struttin’ My Stuff, the 1975 album that included Bishop’s biggest hit, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” But it was his solo music that made us love him. We’ll hear a suite of his music.
Read our tribute on Echoes Website.
Hear our 2003 interview with Philip Aaberg in Echoes Podcast