Hector Zazou was a quirky French composer who worked quietly in the background, creating music that sent subtle ripples across the music firmament. He died this past Monday, September 8 at the age of 60. Most of the hipster community discovered him in the mid-1990s when he released the albums, Sahara Blue and Songs from…
Category: Reviews & Commentary
Reviews & Commentary
Lights Out Asia and Near the Parenthesis
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080910.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSLights Out Asia and Near the Parenthesis create an ambient rock You can hear an audio version of this review, with music. The n5MD record label began with a suspect business plan. They were going to release their music only on mini-disc. Although commercially that format went the way of…
Reviews & Commentary
A Trip to the Drone Zone with Furthernoise
It’s difficult finding reliable reference material about the music you hear on Echoes. I’ve yet to locate a single site that reliably covers the music heard on the show, or even some of its significant component parts. One interesting site I recently stumbled across is Furthernoise.org out of the U.K. It travels through the darker…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Ronn McFarlane’s 21st Century Lute
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080903.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSIt’s not your ancient Renaissance lute anymore when Ronn McFarlane creates new music for an ancient instrument. (You can hear an Audio Version of this blog, with music.) In 2006, Sting put out an album of tunes by 16th century composer John Dowland called Songs from the Labyrinth.…
Reviews & Commentary
Michael Brook & Djivan Gasparyan Return with Penumbra
Michael Brook has been a fixture on Echoes since we launched in 1989 and he recorded one of the first Living Room Concerts from the London apartment he lived in then. He’s remained a fixture on the show with inventive releases and collaborations. Penumbra continues this tradition. In the 1990s, Michael Brook built a segment…
Reviews & Commentary
Blow Your Mind Music Video in Advanced Beauty
If you’re looking for some delirious eye-candy to take your mind somewhere else, check out a site called cololourlovers.com Right now they’ve got a series of 18 computer paintings with original, mostly electronica music in a series called Advanced Beauty.
Reviews & Commentary
Thoughts in Sound: Cage, Eno, Jarrett, Riley
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080820.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSThoughts in Sound from musicians at the bleeding edges of music including John Cage, Brian Eno, Terry Riley and Keith Jarrett. You can also hear an Audio Version of this blog, with music. Every musician plays notes, but some of them think about the nature of sound a…
Reviews & Commentary
Genuflections and Reflections at Ash Ra Tempel
I always thought of Manuel Göttsching, who records under his own name and more famously as Ashra and Ash Ra Tempel, as the most soulful of the Berlin Trinity: Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel. His compositions had a warmth the others lacked and his guitar leads flitted between dangerous micro-second precision on Inventions for…
Reviews & Commentary
Harold Budd & Clive Wright: A Song For Lost Blossoms
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080618.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSFor a guy who supposedly retired 4 years ago, Harold Budd is sure putting out a lot of records. He’s just offered up a new slice of gauzy atmosphere, hazy keyboards and unguitar-like electric guitar with Clive Wright. It’s called A Song for Lost Blossoms . This works…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Marconi Union’s A Lost Connection
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http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20080813.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSI know, I just mentioned Marconi Union in a blog last week, but I decided to feature them in an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music, an Echoes feature heard on WXPN-FM, 88.5, in Philadelphia/Lancaster/Harrisburg. An audio version of this Echo Location with music can also be heard.…