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PGM 1203 'INFINITE HORIZONS' : jan.18-25

This time on Hearts of Space, we're back to the floating worlds of ambient-electronic music.

It's an open-ended medium—almost unlimited in its ability to invent new sounds and use them to create virtual soundscapes. Despite epic changes in the business of recorded music over the last twenty years, the ambient-electronic genre is healthy and slowly expanding as a studio-based art. Composers on five continents hone their craft in personal studios, create albums, and release them on independent platforms like BANDCAMP.com and the major streaming services. 

They're "unsigned artists" and they like it that way. They collaborate with kindred ambient artists, and even work with independent record labels whose taste they like. Many of them have families and a skilled day job and their music is a serious avocation; others have found a way to survive on their music and related activity. 

Right now, everybody wins on the important thing: there's something at the heart of the ambient experience that feeds both the musicians and the audience, with a rich stream of serious new releases and a growing catalog of classics. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space...another ambient electronic journey, on a program called INFINITE HORIZONS. Music is by ILUITEQ, ERIK WØLLO, IAN BODDY & ERIK WØLLO, JUHA-MATTI RAUTIAINEN, and STEVE ROACH.

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PGM 1202 'PIPE ORGAN MEDITATIONS' : jan.11-18

It's been far too long since we devoted a Hearts of Space program to the pipe organ. Yes, the pipe organ. Did you know that there's a public radio program dedicated entirely to the pipe organ called PIPEDREAMS? It's even older than Hearts of Space, and still going strong.

The pipe organ dates back to ancient Greece in the third century BCE. About a thousand years ago, it started making its way into churches. Because of its tonal character and volume, it proved the ideal instrument to lead people in singing. Over those 10 centuries, the organ evolved into an extremely high-tech machine. Its range, size, and importance grew along with the Christian religion—especially in Protestant churches, where the congregation sang together.

By about 1600, the pipe organ was the most complex machine that humans had created — massive assemblies of bellows, valves, wood and metal pipes that could fill the vast reverberant spaces of European cathedrals with powerful sound. Hundreds of years before amplified music, the pipe organ was the first full-spectrum, full volume, multi-voice, super-instrument. The organ console was what we'd now call an "advanced ergonomic user interface." It was—without a doubt—the king of instruments, used to lead sacred services and create sublime moments of elevated religious emotion.

The pipe organ enjoyed a kind of golden age in Baroque Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, with rapid technological development and a growing repertoire of ecclesiastical works. By the early 20th century, French avant-garde composers were pushing the instrument to its limits—from delicate meditations and orchestrated tone poems, to bombastic showpieces exploring dissonance and extreme tonalities. Where Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque organ music had been limited to the church, the new music was also secular and experimental. In France, one devout Catholic composer embraced both the church and the avant-garde: OLIVIER MESSIAEN's music illustrated themes from Christian history and mythology, using an advanced musical language and playing techniques.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we bring together contemplative classics by OLIVIER MESSIAEN with contemporary composer-performers, on a program called PIPE ORGAN MEDITATIONS.

Music is by OLIVIER MESSIAEN, KIT DOWNES, ARVO PÄRT, ZVONIMIR NAGY, and PETER MICHAEL HAMEL.

[ view program page ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

PGM 1132R 'POLAR FLIGHT 2' : jan. 4-11

We're flying over the north polar icecap — in winter, a dazzling wonderland of white and deep blue. It's a vast glacial world of snow and ice, fractal patterns shot through with veins of melting water. Ambient electronic music, with its chilled harmonies, slowly changing rhythm patterns and endless reverberant sound images, creates the perfect soundtrack for this spectacular landscape.

In the polar night above the Arctic Circle, the winter sun never rises above the horizon; only the hypnotic ion curtains of the auroras relieve the darkness, while the sounds of moving water and breaking ice punctuate the solitude. It's a contemplative environment of sublime majesty and depth.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey to the Arctic north, on a program called POLAR FLIGHT 2. Music is by ASCENDANT, YAGYA, BANCO DE GAIA, SIMON LOMAX, WINGS OF AN ANGEL, and EASYCHORD.

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PGM 1201 'SPACE GUITAR SUPERSTARS' Part 2 : dec.28-jan.4

This week, dear spacefan, we conclude our two-part mini-documentary on the electronic space guitar celebrating our 1200th program—with music by American, English and Norwegian artists who extended the dimensions of the instrument in the 21st century. 

On these centennial programs, we take a retrospective look at the music we feature, often documentary-style, rather than our normal uninterrupted format. Of course, if you listen on our web service or mobile apps, you can turn off the voiceovers with one click or tap and still hear uninterrupted music. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space: SPACE GUITAR SUPERSTARS — Part 2. Music is by BUCKETHEAD, DANIEL LANOIS, LEO ABRAHAMS, EIVIND AARSET, CLIVE WRIGHT, JON DURANT, DAVID HELPLING, ROBIN GUTHRIE, CARL WEINGARTEN, HAMMOCK, and JEFF PEARCE.

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PGM 1064R 'MAGNIFICAT' : dec.21-28

The great tradition of choral singing has a glorious history extending over thousands of years. Even in these diverse, multicultural, often secular days, the tradition endures because there is something deeply satisfying and essentially human in the sound and the practice of group singing.

Choral groups range from trios to 200 voice chorales; they're often unpaid and done purely for the love of it. The genre has attracted specialist composers in every era, some working within churches and religious institutions, others as solo artists. During the winter holiday season, we enjoy choral classics like The Messiah and traditional hymns and carols in sacred spaces from cathedrals to street corners.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another sacred music journey from our longtime guest producer for classical and sacred music ELLEN HOLMES, on a program called 'MAGNIFICAT.'

From the Western Christian tradition, we have music by MOZART, HANDEL, CHARPENTIER, COUPERIN, GUERRERO, ANDREA GABRIELI and JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH; from the Eastern Orthodox sacred service, music by ANONYMOUS MASTERS, by ARCHBISHOP IONAFAN, NIKOLAI KEDROV SR., DIVNA and the MELODI CHOIR, N.FRUNZA, ANATOLY LIADOV, and OTTO OLSSON.

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MESSIAEN: La Nativité du Seigneur

Yesterday evening I was privileged to hear virtuoso San Francisco organist JONATHAN DIMMOCK play this extraordinary 1935 work by French composer OLIVIER MESSIAEN at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California. 

To call it “symphonic“ in scale and scope is an understatement. At over two hours in nine sections, it is longer, more varied and more dramatic than all but the most monumental symphonies. 

The astonishing tonal creativity and spiritual depth of Messiaen’s music; 

The extensive voices and vast power of the bilaterally symmetric Conroy Memorial Organ; 

The magnificent immersive acoustics of the cathedral that amplify and reverberate the instrument, creating mystical structures in the air;

All that, and Jonathan Dimmock’s deep insight into the soul of Messiaen’s music and wide-ranging, free, masterful performance— 

It came together in a sublime musical and sonic experience: the finest live concert sound I’ve ever heard.

:: SH 
12.19.2018

www.jonathandimmock.com

https://open.spotify.com/album/5TCwJo7od1h794HRQdaTHD?si=t7-e2-3eSmilwa61jYbQ4A

https://www.ctlcathedral.org/

 

PGM 1200 'SPACE GUITAR SUPERSTARS' Part 1 : dec.14-21

This week, dear spacefan, we reach another milestone in our journey through musical time and space, with our 1200th transmission in the Hearts of Space series. It's taken 35 years. 

On these centennial programs, we like to take a retrospective look back at the music we feature, often documentary-style, rather than our normal uninterrupted format. (Of course, if you listen on our web site or with our mobile apps, you can turn off the voiceovers with one click or tap and still hear uninterrupted music.) 

This time we focus on the evolution of the electronic and ambient guitar since the 1970s—on Part 1 of a two-part program called SPACE GUITAR SUPERSTARS. 

And let's admit right up front that even with two hours, the subject is so extensive that we can't possibly include every artist who's made a contribution: these are just some of the highlights we've featured on Hearts of Space. 

Let's first recall that in the mid-20th century musical world of ERIC CLAPTON and JIMI HENDRIX, the electric guitar was transcendent—the lead voice and dominant sound in popular music. 

But the confluence of musical innovation, new audio technology, and psychedelic drugs led to an unexpected development: the electric guitar became electronic, and with "effects" the sound of the instrument expanded and de-materialized into a vehicle for travel in virtual acoustic space. 

SPACE GUITAR SUPERSTARS (Part 1)... on this transmission of Hearts of Space.

[ view program page ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

PGM 1130R 'TOWARDS THE LIGHT' : dec.7-14

In the early days of December, we leave behind the trials and tribulations of the year past and focus on the annual rituals of the holiday season. In the shortest days and longest nights of the year, light itself becomes the theme, and an integral part of the year-end religious celebrations.

Whether it's traditional, commercial or spiritual, the music of the season takes on a festive, energetic air, culminating in the dazzling celebrations of the new year. It's a time for generosity, optimism, and hope.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space we celebrate the spirit of the season, on a journey called TOWARD THE LIGHT.

Music is by MATTHEW STEWART, SUBDREAM, FORT FAIRFIELD, DAVID HELPLING, TRENTEMØLLER, JUTA TAKAHASHI, STEVE ROACH & ROBERT LOGAN, BRIAN ENO, and MAX RICHTER.

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PGM 1199 'WINTER STRINGS' : nov. 30 - dec. 6

December arrives on the heels of the Thanksgiving holiday, and we settle into winter in earnest. From the chilly forest countries of northern Europe—Germany, Poland, Ukraine, England and Estonia—comes a post-modern neo-classical music that's traditionally tonal and modal—warm, slow and contemplative. It's a deliberate step away from the old avant-garde frontiers of atonality and serialism to a style that's spiritually resonant and broadly popular. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a program called WINTER STRINGS. Music is by MAX RICHTER, ARVO PÄRT, VALENTIN SILVESTROV, FRANZ SCHUBERT, STEFANO SCODANIBBIO, HENRYK GÓRECKI, BEN LUCAS BOYSEN, and LUDOVICO EINAUDI.

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PGM 1028R 'SHADOWLANDS' : nov.23-30

Now there's a winning combination: the classic floating keyboard sound of German synthesist KLAUS SCHULZE, and the cor Anglais or English horn — actually neither English nor a horn, but an alto oboe, a member of the double reed family. They go together like peaches and...well, just pick your favorite food analogy.

While earlier artists often drew purist lines between electronic and acoustic instruments, today it's all fair game for the architects of space and Ambient music. And why not? It brings us the magic combination of unlimited electronic sound design, and traditional instrument expression.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space...a journey in the dark forests and electro-acoustic soundscapes of late autumn, on a program called SHADOWLANDS. Music is by KLAUS SCHULZE, HAROLD BUDD, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, FRORE, DIATONIS, MARK BANNING, and DAVID HELPLING & JON JENKINS.

[ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]