Hear the Piano Guys Echoes Interview The world of classical cross-over music is scattered with novelty acts that created a buzz and then faded away. One of the latest is a band called The Piano Guys. They are YouTube phenomenons with superstar viewing stats for their many elaborate videos. They’re music goes beyond simple instrumentation…
Tag: classical
Reviews & Commentary
Mike Oldfield Mentor David Bedford Heads for Star’s End
Composer, keyboardist and Mike Oldfield Collaborator David Bedford Passes I was sad to hear of the passing of David Bedford, the English composer who had a deep engagement with progressive rock in the early 1970s. It actually started a little earlier in Kevin Ayers and The Whole World, a rollicking post-psychedelic, pre-progressive rock, musically insane…
Reviews & Commentary
5 Essential Harold Budd CDs.
Five Essential Harold Budd CDs for Deep Listening of Pretty MusicSilence Required: The Best of Harold Budd, an Icon of Echoes. Harold Budd is a romantic with a classicist’s soul and an experimenter’s openness to chance. He’s never opted for the obvious ploys for the heartstrings. Instead, Budd explores the geometry of passion, the calculus…
Reviews & Commentary
Four Switched-On Masterworks from Wendy Carlos
Wendy Carlos did much more than just record Switch-On Bach. She created some of the most inventive and influential albums of the 20th century. Here’s four of them.
Reviews & Commentary
Ludovico Einaudi-New Age Fodder or Classical Elegance
Ludovico Einaudi is in the midst of a short US tour. Echoes and WFUV will be presenting him in concert in New York City on Tuesday November 25th. He just played Los Angeles in Largo at the Coronet Theater and two reviews from that show point up the dichotomies in Einaudi’s music. Writing in the…
Reviews & Commentary
STEVE REICH PUSH-STARTED MY VW BUG AND MINIMALISM
We celebrate Steve Reich on his 70th birthday with this anecdote that goes back to the days of drumming and something Reich probably won’t remember.