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PGM 1256 'TECHNO-TRIBAL' : aug 7-14

Centuries ago, a music emerged out of the world's deserts and tribal cultures. It was built on trance-like rhythms and the most primitive instruments: flutes, rattles, and drums. Against all odds, in the late 20th century elements of this ancient indigenous music were embraced by electronic musicians searching for an earthy, vital sound to balance the dematerialized tones of electronic instruments, and ground the atmospheric soundscapes of ambient.

Their quest led to a hybrid electro-acoustic genre originally called "techno-tribal" and later "tribal ambient." In retrospect, it was part of a wider movement ethno-botanist TERENCE McKENNA famously termed The Archaic Revival. Why would a sophisticated, technologically advanced culture want to revive an ancient, supposedly primitive one? In an era where our experience is increasingly mediated, artificial, and virtual — we seek authenticity, direct experience, and a deeper connection to our environment, our history, and our inner worlds.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, ambient electronics meet flutes, rattles, drums, and drones, on a journey across the desert mesas, wind-blown dunes, and rocky plains of the tribal ambient soundscape called TECHNO-TRIBAL.

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PGM 1255 'DESERT CROSSING 2' : july 31-aug 7

MENA is an acronym for the geographical region of the Middle East and North Africa, encompassing give or take 19 countries with a long, complicated history and a shared musical culture. Political conflict and anti-music fundamentalism in the region over the last 50 years led to a diaspora of MENA musicians to cities all over Europe, Canada and the U.S.

Leaving one's home and native culture is almost always difficult and unpredictable, but for music it can be a good thing, exposing musicians to new influences, new creative relationships, and unexpected cross-fertilizations. The classic example is DICK DALE, the inventor of Surf Rock—the original 1960s fusion of Middle Eastern scales and tremolo electric guitar drowned in reverb.

Today the rich traditions of Middle Eastern and North African music combine freely with jazz, rock, rap, electronic, ambient and even new age, in a brilliant diversity of sound and style.On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, the trance-inducing rhythms and deep modal melodies of the MENA diaspora, on a program called DESERT CROSSING 2.

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PGM 1254 'TERRASONIC' : july 24-31

Over the last 75 years, composers were gradually freed from creating music with notes on paper, and the limitations of acoustically generated sounds. Slowly at first, then in a rush of innovation in the 20th century, they were given the tools to create music directly from recorded and electronically generated sounds. The electronic studio itself became the master instrument, and imagination was unbound.

It's hard to overstate how revolutionary this was. It led to a much expanded palette of musical sounds, an explosion of popular electronic dance music, and immersive music with a focus on imagery, ambience, and virtual travel in sonic space. Composers became "sound designers," and listeners became sonic cosmonauts.

Environmental sounds captured by high quality portable recorders lent a new psychological dimension to music, making us more aware of the natural ambient sounds around us. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey in electro-acoustic spaces at sea and on land, on a program called TERRASONIC. Music is by ATOMIC SKUNK, ISHQ, RUDY ADRIAN, and LONEWARD.

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PGM 1220 'AMBIENT TRAVELER 2' : july 17-24

In the warm, bright days of summer, an ambient fan yearning for travel to exotic cultures will book a flight on Sequencer Airlines. With its steady pulse, it's a perfect rhythm for moving through space. 

The roots go back to 9th century Persia, but the music sequencer idea really got going in the 19th century after the Industrial Revolution, with popular devices like music boxes, mechanical organs, and player pianos. By the first generation of electronic synthesizers in the 1960s and 70s, the Step Sequencer was a machine that turned equal length notes into repeating rhythm patterns. They're simple, delightfully hypnotic, and fun to work with. 

Today things are more complicated, but a lot more powerful. We have audio sample sequencers, loop-based creative music software, phrase samplers, and digital audio recording software many times more powerful than the primitive sequencers of early synths—and hey! They're still fun to work with. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space...a journey from kinetic sequencer patterns to exotic Southeast Asian ambient soundscapes—on a program called AMBIENT TRAVELER 2. 

Music by ATOMIC SKUNK, DAVID PARSONS, CHRISTEL VERAART, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, LOREN NERELL, ALIO DIE & LORENZO MONTANA, RICHARD BONE.

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PGM 1253 'SUMMER DRUMMER 2' : july 10-17

The seductive sound of the Hang, ladies and gentlemen, a 21st century Swiss offspring of the steel pan drum. Gentle and tuneful, the handpans, as the new percussion family are called, are the perfect thing for delighting the ear and bringing joy to the heart during this disrupted and constrained summer of 2020.

After months of enforced confinement and social distance, the warm weather brings thoughts of summers past, filled with sun, sport, and vacation pleasures, while the steel drum's Caribbean origins in Trinidad and Tobago suggest images of island adventures, white sands, and emerald waters. It's a vision that's irresistible in normal times, let alone now.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a virtual vacation in the seductive soundworlds of the Hang, on a program called SUMMER DRUMMER 2. Music is by JAMES HOOD, LAURA INSERRA, HANG MASSIVE, HANG DRUM PLAYER, and THE MANY RIVERS ENSEMBLE (featuring HANG MASSIVE).

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PGM 1055R 'ROMANTICO' : july 3-10

It's been a while since we did a program on the music of the America to our south. It's a whole continent, after all, and the scope and variety of music from the distinctive cultures of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil is enormous.

Whether it comes from the mountain cultures, the grasslands, the rainforest, or one of the great cities; is based on influences from the native Indians, or from Spain or other European countries — the music of South America has a depth and passion all its own, and genres like Tango have created fans around the world.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we return to the soul and space of South American music, on a program called ROMANTICO. Music is by OSCAR REYNOLDS, INKUYO, TRIO GARUFA, GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA, ASTOR PIAZZOLLA, STEPHAN MICUS, DINO SALUZZI, and EGBERTO GISMONTI.

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PGM 1252 'AMBIENT COOL 3' : june 26-july 3

As this strange and unprecedented summer rolls on, it's a good time for us to resurrect one of our older, prematurely abandoned series of programs devoted to AMBIENT COOL.

What, you may ask, is Ambient Cool? Well, it's a sound and an attitude that traces back to the iconoclastic contemporary trumpet player JON HASSELL—and to the cool jazz of MILES DAVIS before him. Hassell advocated what he called "Fourth World" music, a timely and inevitable fusion he described as "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques." Playing microtonal Indian ragas on his electronically processed trumpet is a prime example.

It all came together, as these things have often done, under the tender guidance of producer and Ambient Godfather BRIAN ENO, with Hassell's 1980 album Fourth World, Vol.1: Possible Musics. In fact, Brian Eno is the common link and creative touchstone for all the artists in this program. Lay it back, stretch it out, and let it float — and you have the recipe for Ambient Cool.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey in the effortless galleries of Ambient Cool, on a program called AMBIENT COOL 3. Music is by JON HASSELL, ROBERT FRIPP & BRIAN ENO, and ALEX HAAS & BILL LASWELL.

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PGM 1251 'MUSIC for QUIET MOMENTS' : june 19-26

Despite a career in contemporary music that began in the legendary days of the 1960s, the brilliant English guitarist, composer, bandleader, innovator and collaborator ROBERT FRIPP has never become as famous as his friend BRIAN ENO—another brilliant Englishman Fripp worked with on several influential proto-ambient and pop records in the 1970s, with artists like DAVID BOWIE, BLONDIE, PETER GABRIEL, DAVID SYLVIAN and others.

Fripp co-founded the seminal progressive rock band KING CRIMSON in 1968, and has been its principal guitarist and fearlessly innovative leader through over 50 years of on-again, off-again activity. As a prog rock guitarist, Fripp can fill arenas with massive walls of sound, but he's also a student of the teachings of the Armenian mystic philosopher G.I. GURDJIEFF, and has a more cerebral, contemplative side.

Through his work with Eno, Fripp developed an analog looping system he called Frippertonics. Looping repeats musical phrases with a delay and layers them on top of themselves, turning musical fragments into continuous streams of sound. When combined with Fripp's sophisticated guitar technique, Frippertonics has produced a series of refined electronic soundscapes.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the sublime soundscapes of ROBERT FRIPP, on a program called MUSIC FOR QUIET MOMENTS. We'll feature the first four releases in a projected series of 50 weekly installments available online at Fripp's website DGMLIVE.com for exactly 99 cents each.

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PGM 1250 'DIVINE SURRENDER' : june 12-19

It's been over 60 years since western musicians began taking Indian music seriously. And no wonder — it's so completely different from western music, it might as well have come from another planet.

Nevertheless, beginning in the 1950s, Indian classical musicians led by RAVI SHANKAR and ALI AKBAR KHAN, established a dialog with European and American classical artists like violinist YEHUDI MENUIN, and in the 1960s, famously with pop artists like GEORGE HARRISON of the BEATLES.

The last 40 years have seen creative cross-fertilizations in many genres, from film music to rap, folk music to ambient electronic. At the same time, the emotional devotion at the core of Indian music has taken hold in the west with the bhakti tradition of devotional chant, bhajan and kirtan.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the slow, sensuous sound of Indian devotional chants and ambient instrumentals, on a program called DIVINE SURRENDER. Music is by AL GROMER KHAN, HANS CHRISTIAN, MARK SEELIG, CRAIG PRUESS, BEN LEINBACH, and RAGANI.

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PGM 980R 'MELLOTRONIC' : jun 5-12

Ahhh, the sweetness of early summer, the balm of warm breezes, the pollen, the allergies. It's a good time for electro-acoustic music with gentle rhythms, soft harmonies and seductive melodies. In a word, something "mellotronic."

Now, historians of electronic instruments will tell you that the Mellotron was a tape-based, polyphonic, sample-playback keyboard, developed in England in the early 1960s. The instrument achieved classic status for its key role in popular albums by the Moody Blues and the Beatles, and brought violin, cello, brass, flute and choir sounds to innumerable albums from the Progressive Rock era.

These days, every laptop can be a sampler, the original Mellotron sound is a menu choice, and the orchestration of electronic music is open to all. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we revisit the romantic-contemplative side of ambient electronica, on a program called MELLOTRONIC. Music is by PATRICK O'HEARN, LUDOVICO EINAUDI, THIERRY DAVID, CRAIG PADILLA, MICHELE IPPOLITO, and FRANK STEINER, JR.

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