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Michael Spriggs is an A-list session guitarist in Music City who has played on, and written, dozens of country hits. But when he goes home, he plugs in to a different sound, turning country into Ambient Americana, with touches of Celtic music.
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Chad Kettering started out as a classical trumpet player, but something happened on the way to the concert hall. He discovered synthesizers and started creating an orchestral electronic sound that’s part progressive rock and part New Age.
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Árstíðir is a band out of Iceland with an organic, acoustic sound that has roots in the harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Playing guitars, violin, piano and cello, these musicians create introspective songs on their latest album, Hvel.
The Echoes Top 25 for August finds Jesse Cook’s CD of the Month at the top, followed by July’s CD pick, Heather Woods Broderick’s Glider. Look at the bottom and you’ll see next month’s #1 album, our September CD of the Month, Hans Christian’s Nanda Devi.
Hans Christian is a classical cellist turned global music explorer. As a founding member of the Hind- Chant Fusion group Rasa and on his own solo albums he creates a global orchestra of the imagination playing instruments from India, Swedish Nyckleharpe, cello, lap steel, percussion and more.
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Clarinet isn’t an instrument you often hear in electronic music, but it’s a central part of the sound of Digitional the English ambient chamber music band headed up by Andrew Dobson. Along with violinist Samy Bishai, Dobson creates a music of haunting melodies and luxurious moods. Their latest album is Beautiful Broken, where they find a common ground between chilled electronic grooves and the modern classicism of Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt.
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Chronotope Project is the name used by electronic musician and cellist Jeffrey Ericson Allen to deply his free-floating atmospheric compositions that merge concepts of Buddhism, astrophysics and ambient music. he talks about his new album, Dawn Treader.
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Unlock the door to your mind with when Steve Roach gives you Skeleton Keys. That’s the latest album from the legendary electronic musician. Noted for his acclaimed albums, Structures from Silence and Dreamtime Return and as a pioneer of techno-tribal and drone-zone music, Roach has carved a unique and independent path over the last 35 years. He was also voted the number one Icon of Echoes last year. He returns to his analog roots for an album of furious sequencer syncopations called Skeleton Keys. He unlocks it when we talk with him in the Echoes Interview Podcast.
Hearing Air performing on Jean-Michel Jarre’s forthcoming album, E-Project, reminded me of the great performance they played for us back in 2004. We first interviewed Air back in 1998 when their first album, Moon Safari came out. They’ve been on since then in 2007 with a Blindfold Test in the Echoes Chamber and again in 2012 when we talked about their last album, Le Voyage Dans La Lune. Here’s a couple of pictures from their 2014 session.
Nouveau Flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook came to renown with his debut album, Tempest, in 1995. At the time he road in on the coattails of Nouveau Flamenco pioneer Ottmar Liebert and bands like The Gipsy Kings, but Cook always had his own sound, one that that morphed and fused over the course of two decades and several albums. He’s taken his flamenco influenced guitar playing into new settings with every album. On One World he goes global and electronica in a studio infused album of journeys from the serene to the ecstatic. One world is the Echoes CD of the Month for August.