To understand the importance of Paul Horn you have to cast back to a time, 1969, when there was no New Age music. Few artists in the west were thinking about a contemplative musical sound. There were no important albums outside of classical music that were pure solo flute and certainly none that plied the…
We Pick the Best Echoes CDs of the Year at the Halfway Point. Hear them tonight on Echoes. See A Spotify Playlist Below It seems like it’s been such a long year, and it’s only half over. That’s what usually what happens when so much good music has come out. There are albums I feel…
The Grammy Awards have announced what could be a significant change in the Pop Instrumental Album Category. They’ve reconstituted it as the Contemporary Instrumental Album. The ramifications could be interesting since “contemporary instrumental” is a much more generic designation that could bring in all kinds of music that isn’t rock, pop, jazz or folk, potentially…
Some of you may remember the album, Kapt. Kopter and the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds by Randy California, the guitarist from the underrated psychedelic band Spirit. Well, somebody must’ve really liked the cover of that album, because they replicated it for a forthcoming DJ Harvey album called Wildest Dreams. If you hear the album, you’ll know…
Austra has been one of my favorite electronica bands of the last few years, fronted by singer Katie Stelmanis with a powerful voice that goes against the trend of fragile, ethereal-girl pop singers. They have a new EP called Habitat with the title track as their new video. It’s both bittersweet and creepy.
From his days with with a psychedelic pop band called The Ones to the first Tangerine Dream recording, Electronic Meditation in 1969, Edgar Froese has been a force of musical change. In fact, I can’t imagine music today without the groundbreaking work he recorded in the 1970s with Tangerine Dream and on brilliant recordings like…
Calling Planet Earth: Sun Ra, the Original Space Musician: Upon hearing Sun Ra’s “Constellation” in a Downbeat Magazine blindfold test Brian Eno said, “I wish I had done it myself. I’m extremely envious that somebody else did it. I’d give that five [stars] actually.” Guitarist Syd Barrett reputedly blew his mind to The Heliocentric Worlds…
An Echoes Celtic Soundscape for St. Patrick’s Day As I put together our Celtic Soundscape for St. Patrick’s Day, I recalled an article I wrote seven years ago called “Whither Celtic Music.” At the time I was struck by the dearth of new Celtic music coming out. In 2014, that still remains true. Now, let…
Science Fiction Music Through the Ages Today on Echoes, it’s a trip into the world of science fiction. Sci-Fi literature and movies have always had an impact on a certain breed of musicians, usually the ones who were a bit tripped out and cerebral. You’d have trouble pinning down the first Sci-Fi music. Was it…
ROBERT ASHLEY PASSES AT 83 Well, it may not have been so perfect, but Perfect Lives, Private Parts was the name of Robert Ashley’s multi-part meditation on life. It was loosely called an opera, in the way that his contemporary, Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach was an opera, but less so. Robert Ashley was…