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INTERVIEWS AND CONCERTS FOR THE WEEK

THOUGHTS IN SOUND
This week on Echoes, we hear from icons of modern music who give us their vision of sound. Most artists are content to play the notes, but there's a handful of composers and musicians who work at the level of sound itself, turning meaning, finding nuance, charting new hitherto unheard directions in music through a contemplation of the meaning of sound itself. In a series of five non-narrative modules, 4 composers and one music movement grapple with sound from it's spiritual to its theoretical dimensions. The artists include John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Brian Eno, Keith Jarrett and in a Minimalist Meditation, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, LaMonte Young and John Adams.

Monday 08/25
THOUGHTS IN SOUND #1
BRIAN ENO: ARCHITECT OF AMBIENCE
Brian Eno has become a defining figure in music over the last three decades. Since his days with Roxy Music in the early 1970s, he's been rock's leading conceptualist, drawing upon the avant-garde traditions of John Cage, along with minimalism and electronic music. But he applies their concepts to the most popular music with his productions of U2, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, David Bowie and Coldplay. His ambient music series has continued to resonate through the last 3 decades.
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Tuesday 08/26
THOUGHTS IN SOUND #2
JOHN CAGE: IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES
Few contemporary composers had the influence of John Cage. From experimental music to minimalism, Brian Eno to George Winston, echoes of John Cage continue to resound to this day, more than 6 decades after his "Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano" were first published. John Cage was a conceptualist of sound who turned even silence into music as he did with his famous piece, 4 minutes and 33 seconds. John Cage died from a stroke in August of 1992. ut we hear his thoughts in sound from a 1987 interview.
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Wednesday 08/27
THOUGHTS IN SOUND #3
A MINIMALIST MEDITATION
Cyclical music has ancient roots and many modern manifestations. The trance music of Moroccan Sufis and the meditations of Tibet are born in repeating cycles. In the 1960s, ancient mantra met modern music in the form of minimalism. Four of the early pioneers of this music were Lamonte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Along with one of their disciples, John Adams we'll hear their often conflicting and critical thoughts in sound with a Minimalist Meditation.
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Thursday 08/28
THOUGHTS IN SOUND #4
KEITH JARRETT: PIANO PRIMITIVE
In the 1970's the piano and Keith Jarrett were synonymous. His
solo piano albums like the Köln Concerts established his reputation for free-form, melodic improvisational flights. Since then he's recorded with orchestras, clavichords, his Standards Trio, and even a CD of over-dubbed impressions for flutes and hand drums called "Spirit." Despite being the only purely acoustic musician in this series, Keith Jarrett reveals a music vision based in the inner vibrations of sound.
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Friday 08/29
THOUGHTS IN SOUND #5
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN: COMPOSING FOR THE POST-APOCALYPSE
Karlheinz Stockhausen's passing in December 2007 served to highlight the often forgotten impact of this German music titan. Minimalist composer Philip Glass once referred to Karlheinz Stockhausen's music as "neurotic" but the German icon's adherents have included The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Miles Davis and Frank Zappa. Like John Cage, he is as much a philosopher as a composer, writing music for what he called the Post-Apocalypse. He ran into some trouble in 2001 when he called the world trade center bombings "Lucifer's greatest work of art." When you hear Karlheinz Stockhausen's thoughts in sound from this rare 1982 interview, you might understand why he said that.
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Playlists for previous weeks can be found at our Playlist Archive

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