Danish singer Agnes Obel’s third album, Citizen of Glass is a conceptual work that takes the fragile singer into new musical terrain, from muted pianos to choirs. She talks about it on Echoes.
Hannah Georgas started out as kind of a very peppy pop artist, but now she’s gotten a bit more introspective and intimate recently. She has a wonderful new album called For Evelyn, named for her grandmother.
Echoes celebrates the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service with a live performance by acclaimed oboist Jill Haley, from Windham Hill founder Will Ackerman’s stable of first call musicians. Her latest album is National Park Soundscapes..
Neo-classical composer Ólafur Arnalds travels across Iceland for his new project, Island Songs, a collaboration with director Baldvin Z. “Árbakkinn” and “1995” are the first two installments.
Ludovico Einaudi teams up with Greenpeace for a historic Arctic Ocean piano performance. In a new video, he plays, literally in the Arctic Ocean surrounded by glaciers calving into the water.
Aidan Knight cites Combat Rock by The Clash as one of his biggest influences, but you may not hear that in his music. The Canadian singer-songwriter has a much more introspective sound that tends toward slow tempos and atmospheric moods with an array of instrumental styles from humming and strumming guitar to more orchestral arrangements.
Harold Budd is a legend in the ambient world. His early 1980 albums with Brian Eno, The Plateaux of Mirror and The Pearl, are signposts of ambient music. Now he’s turned 80.
Drones, lconic alt-rock group out of depth. More drones. Charming elders of the old vanguard. A master of pink noise and symphonic expanse. Drones. Celtic aires. Gothic metal. Only at the 2016 Big Ears Festival.
Slow Meadow is the performance name of Matt Kidd who started out as a guitarist playing in church and Christian music bands before venturing out on his own ambient journey.
Paul Bley was a singular voice in jazz and can be credited with discovering Ornette Coleman, Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny. He passed on January 3 at age 83. John Diliberto remembers this forgotten artist.