I bet you probably haven’t been wondering whatever happened to David Helpling, but you should. His two albums on Spotted Peccary, Sleeping on the Edge of the World and Between Green and Blue were Echoes favorites in the 1990s. He’s played a couple of times on the show and also has an unreleased piece on…
Reviews & Commentary
Sultan’s Elephant-Giant Girl Video
I came across a totally enchanting video posted on the site of a recent echoesspace friend, Vespertine. It’s a apparently from a massive street theater production called The Sultan’s Elephant. The video is completely mesmerizing as a giant marionette girl walks the streets, licks a popsicle and gives some children a ride. And she looks,…
Reviews & Commentary
A few thoughts on The Echoes Polls-BT, William Orbit, Rena Jones
We’ve concluded our Year End polls which are sometimes confusing. We have the 2006 Listener Poll and the 25 Essential Echoes CDs of 2006. The Essential poll is determined by the staff of Echoes, and it’s inevitably different from the listener poll. After all, we hear everything and we hear it often, while listeners might…
Reviews & Commentary
A Whirlwind December: Moya Brennan, Loreena McKennitt, Stephen Bennett, BT
December has been a frantic month at Echoes. In addition to all the seasonal shows we produce: Sonic Seasonings, An Echoes Christmas, An Echoes Winter Solstice, Best of Echoes 2006 Listener Poll, Essential Echoes 2006. In the midst of all that, we’ve had a run of live performances and spontaneously picked up two of the…
Reviews & Commentary
Sonic Seasonings-Trying to Re-Invent Seasonal Music
I’ve been in maximum Christmas mode for the last few days, producing Sonic Seasonings, Living Room Concerts for Christmas. Every year since forever, we’ve produced these shows with 3-4 live performances. Finding Echoes artists that play seasonal music is always a difficult proposition. The shlock factor for seasonal music is high. I don’t know that…
Program Highlights
The Final Four Refractions: Petteway & White, Don Peris, Caryn Lin, Vic Hennegan
Here are the stories behind last four artists to appear on Refractions: The Echoes Living Room Concerts Volume 12. What a coincidence that only a few hours ago I stepped out of the Echoes Living Room after a new concert with Al Petteway & Amy White. They drove up today from North Carolina to record…
Reviews & Commentary
Four More Refactions: Marconi Union, AjantaMusic, Michael Hewett & Forastiere
Here are four more stories behind the sound of Refractions: The Echoes Living Room Concerts Volume 12. Marconi Union is the duo of Jamie Crossley and Richard Talbot from Manchester, England. Even that piece of information was hard to come by as the duo hadn’t done any interviews and didn’t put their names on their…
Living Room Concerts
Four Stories from Refractions: The Echoes Living Room Concerts Volume 12
Refractions: The Echoes Living Room Concerts Volume 12 launches Thursday night, November 16. The music on this CD tells a story of its own, a sound of synthesis and collaboration, world fusions, ambient designs and sonic explorations. But there are also stories behind each of those songs, unique circumstances that are part of the wonder…
Program Highlights
Download This: Lisa Gerrard, Patrick O’Hearn bypass CDs
Tonight on Echoes, (tomorrow in Philadelphia) you’ll hear an hour of music that you can only buy on-line. This isn’t a new phenomenon and I wrote about it a few months back (Farewell CD), but the transition is happening faster than I expected. MP3.com helped pioneer digital delivery before effectively folding its tent three years…
Reviews & Commentary
From Serene to Scintillating: Rasa and Cecil Taylor
It’s been a wild week for music both on and off Echoes. In the Echoes Living Room, Rasa made their first visit to Echoes. They’ve played live on the show twice before. In fact, their first live performance ever was on Echoes. But those performances were recorded in their Marin County Studio. Since they moved…