Every now and then you learn a lesson you expect to keep with you for life, but usually, you have to learn it again. Back in 1985 when Kimberly Haas and I were conducting interviews for our documentary series Totally Wired, we talked with Patrick O’Hearn at a rehearsal studio in Los Angeles. Patrick is…
Category: Reviews & Commentary
Reviews & Commentary
STFU: Forty Dollars to Babble: Air, Lisa Gerrard, Loreena McKennitt, Amiina
*****LANGUAGE ADVISORY***** I went to a club in London called The Blue Note a few years ago to see the Gateway Trio with Jack DeJohnette, John Abercrombie and Dave Holland. In the middle of the club was a pillar with four block letters vertically emblazoned on it: S T F U I turned to a…
Reviews & Commentary
Circuit Bending Worms: Roll Over Stockhausen, Tell Ussachevsky the News
WARNING: Possibly Creepy Last year you might recall electronica artist BT talking about Circuit Bending on Echoes. This is the art of taking commercial electronic products like Furby dolls and altering their sound circuits to make music, or at least funny noises. Recently, Lars Hoel did a cool piece on Circuit Bending for NPR. Well…
Reviews & Commentary
Space Music Validation: Simon Reynolds on Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and all things Electronic
A great overview article of space music appeared in the London Observer/Guardian Sunday paper. It’s written by Simon Reynolds, a very good critic and author of several books including Generation Ecstasy : Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture. His article, Kings of the Cosmos, takes the stance that 70s space music is still…
Reviews & Commentary
David Fulton & Giles Reaves Defrost Live Electronic Music
If you’ve read some of my previous blogs, you’ve heard me lament the state of live performance in electronic music. It’s one thing to create elaborate architectures in the confines of your studio and computer, meant to be heard in environments detached from the real world, be it a boombox, a car stereo or ensconced…
Reviews & Commentary
In Search of Space, Lost in Ambience:The Orb, Future Sound of London, Orbital, Tangerine Dream
There’s been a lot of activity on the space music list lately. One topic is what’s the difference between Ambient and Space music. Folks are camping out at either end of the spectrum, saying the twain should never meet, with a few taking up the middle ground, that space is a subset of ambient or…
Reviews & Commentary
Tibetan Kitchen Singing Bowls
It’s nice to know that in these days of high tech digital music, you can still create sound with something as simple as marbles and kitchen mixing bowls. That’s what Sxip Shirey has done in a fascinating video called Sxip Shirey Playing Bowls with Red Marbles. Think La Monte Young, Tibetan Singing Bowls and the…
Reviews & Commentary
Whither Celtic Music?
As I put together our Celtic Soundscape for St. Patrick’s Day, I was struck by the dearth of new Celtic music coming out. Now, let me be clear. There is still a vital Celtic music community with lots of discs being released. However, not too much of it is in the Echoes vein. It’s quite…
Reviews & Commentary
Lisa Gerrard Sanctuary, Tour and Music
Lot’s of news on the Lisa Gerrard front. Look for a US tour in April and May There will be a Best of album in June And the Lisa Gerrard documentary, Sanctuary will be released on April 24 Directed by Clive Collier, it’s more artful meditation than blow-by-blow biography and features a lot of Lisa…
Reviews & Commentary
International Women’s Day–just another day on Echoes?
Well, it’s that time again, for my cameo appearance as host of Echoes. March 8th is International Women’s Day! I’ve been in this spot for decades. Long before we began producing Echoes, John and I hosted various programs on WXPN in Philadelphia. On March 8th, I’d usually pull two or three shifts, ranging from classical…