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PGM 1231 'FALLING' : nov.15-22

THE SUN begins its long withdrawal from the northern hemisphere after the summer solstice in June. After the autumn equinox in September, the transition seems to accelerate. The days grow shorter, the nights grow longer, and the temperature cools, while the natural world changes color and prepares for the winter to come.

Since medieval times we've called this season "fall." The word comes from Middle English, with Old English and Old German roots. Falling implies movement downward, and in autumn, declining solar energy brings a feeling of descending or falling into the season. In music it's marked by slowing tempos, descending chord progressions, darkening timbres, and wistful, even melancholy emotions.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space...we descend into the autumn soundscape, a program called FALLING. Music is by DAVID DARLING, JOEP BEVING, CHRISTOPHER TIGNOR, HAMMOCK, LUDOVICO EINAUDI, and TOM EATON.

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PGM 1230 'TRIBUTE to NOTRE-DAME de PARIS' : nov. 8-15

The fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris in April 2019 sent shock waves of distress and sadness around the world. You didn't have to be French, Catholic, or even believe in God...to feel a profound sense of cultural loss.

Since the 12th century, Notre-Dame has been both a physical monument and a metaphysical symbol of the deepest aspirations and highest artistic values of humankind, at the center of one of the greatest cities on earth. For it to be destroyed would have been an insult to the global spirit, in a world that's already burdened by unprecedented challenges.

When the fire was out, it was clear that it could have been much worse. The spire and most of the oak and lead roof were destroyed and the exterior was badly burned — while the irreplaceable relics, priceless artwork, rose windows, bell towers, and three pipe organs were not seriously damaged. Over a billion Euros have been pledged to rebuild and restore the cathedral — a job that will take twenty to forty years. Our Lady will rise again in the center of Paris, in all her Gothic magnificence.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space from longtime guest producer for sacred and classical music ELLEN HOLMES...a TRIBUTE to NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS.

Sacred music for chorus, strings and organ is by an all-star cast of French composers from the 16th to the 20th century, including MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER, FRANCOIS COUPERIN, JEAN RICHAFORT, PHILIPPE VERDELOT, JOSQUIN DES PRES, ANTOINE BRUMEL, CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS, CESAR FRANK, CHARLES GOUNOD, LILI BOULANGER, GABRIEL FAURÉ, MAURICE DURUFLÉ, and OLIVIER MESSIAEN.

We celebrate the artistic and spiritual legacy of a great cathedral: a TRIBUTE to NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS...on this transmission...of Hearts of Space.

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PGM 1195R 'DESCENDING DARK 2' : nov. 1-8

This could be the sound of the Sugar Plum Fairies in the netherworld — we're coming up on Nutcracker time, after all — but no: it's the on-ramp to a journey into the cooling, darkening, deepening autumn soundscape. It's time to join the animals and prepare for the long winter ahead; time to focus, plan and complete those lingering projects, and get together with friends you missed over the summer. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a seasonal electronic journey in the autumn soundscape, on a program called DESCENDING DARK 2. 

Music is by SLEEPY TOWN MANUFACTURE, SOLARIS, PAULINA CASSIDY, DEBORAH MARTIN, KIT WATKINS, KLAUS SCHULZE, ERRANT SPACE, and BOB HOLROYD.

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PGM 1229 'THE UNEXPLAINED' : oct. 25 - nov.1

Once again, dear spacefans, we arrive at the intersection of cosmos and culture we celebrate at the end of October as Halloween.

The name is a contraction of the 16th century Christian holiday of Hallows' Evening or All Hallow's Eve. In Celtic mythology it was said to be the time when the boundary between This World and the Otherworld was at its thinnest, and the souls of the dead walked the earth. Today it's a time for us to exorcise our ancient limbic emotions of fear and danger.

I'm DR. DARKO and on this transmission of Hearts of Space, a mysterious dark ambient journey for Halloween, on a program from guest producer DAVID J. EGAN called THE UNEXPLAINED.

Much of the music on this show comes to us from the Italian experimental music label UNEXPLAINED SOUNDS GROUP and its sub-label EIGHTH TOWER RECORDS. They were founded by RAFFAELE PEZZELLA to explore dark underground experimental music in regions of the world not generally known for it, like Iran, Lebanon, Portugal, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans.

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PGM 1228 'GAME SCORES' : oct.18-25

Full disclosure, spaceFans: I am not a "gamer." That is, I have never played video games. When I was growing up, they didn't exist. Then the video game world arose, prospered, and passed me by. It's a shame, because over the last 40 years a great deal of high quality ambient, electronic and environmental music has been composed for video games. Today it's a parallel media universe, four times larger than the entire music industry.

In our mission to bring you music from every corner of the ambient musicverse, we've been missing an entire galaxy. Clearly, we needed help, and it arrived recently in the form of JOHN WEDGEWORTH, an expert on video game music who's also a Hearts of Space fan.

John hails from Des Moines, Iowa, where he produces a podcast called NERD NOISE RADIO, that covers the full spectrum of video game music. From this vast repertoire, John selected tracks from the ambient side of the genre, where it overlaps Hearts of Space.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space...ambient, electronic and chamber music from video games, on a program called GAME SCORES.

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PGM 1161R 'THE GATHERING DARK' : oct.11-18

Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures and their sometimes disastrous consequences, one thing in our environment remains absolutely unchanged: the sun and the earth continue reliably tracing their cosmic orbits. And so, for very good astronomical reasons, here in the northern hemisphere the autumn days grow shorter, and the light grows ever dimmer, as we plot our course toward the winter solstice. 

The music of the season is measured, calm, with restrained passion and glints of bright color against a darkening background. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we score the season of fading light and falling leaves, on a program called THE GATHERING DARK.

Music is by JEFF PEARCE, DARSHAN AMBIENT, TIM STORY & ROEDELIUS, JEFF GREINKE, TAPES AND TOPOGRAPHIES, EYES CAST DOWN, and HAMMOCK.

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PGM 1227 'ALTIPLANO 2' : oct.4-11

The folk music of the high Andes plateau called the altiplano, comes from the western edge of South America, a thousand rocky miles stretching from southern Ecuador through Peru and Bolivia, to Northern Chile. In the transparent mountain air, the brilliant overtones of native stringed instruments like the charango and the ronroco, airy native flutes and panpipes and natural skin drum rhythms, make music that runs the gamut of emotions from joyful to solemn, mystic...to achingly sad. 

It's a sound that calls to both South American expatriate musicians and northern film composers, who've enriched it with strings and electronics. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, New Andean music inspired by the brilliant folk sounds of the high Andes plateau, on a program called ALTIPLANO 2.

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PGM 1025R 'NOCTURNES' : sept.27 - oct.4

The first movement of BEETHOVEN's famous Piano Sonata No.14 in C Sharp Minor, better known as the "Moonlight Sonata." The nickname came from a German music critic in 1832 who impressionistically compared the effect to "moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne."

Beethoven intended it as a prelude, but in the score he instructed the performer to keep the sustain pedal down for the entire movement — a kind of special effect that mixed the music with natural harmonic reverberation from the piano. With its hypnotic triplets and ghostly melody, for Ambient music fans, it's one of the simplest, yet most memorable pieces ever written.

Beethoven may have inadvertently started a movement to redefine the piano as an instrument for contemplative, spatially expanded music, seeding the Impressionism of Debussy, the early ambient music of Satie, and laying the foundations of modern Minimalism.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a program of sublime night music for piano called NOCTURNES. Featured artists are MICHAEL DULIN, KEVIN KELLER, BRUCE LEVINGSTON, JENNY LIN, RALPH ZURMUHLE, LUDOVICO EINAUDI, and CHAD LAWSON.

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PGM 1226 'TONE COLOR REVERIES' : sept. 20-27

It was ambient godfather BRIAN ENO who observed that, unlike conventional instruments with centuries of history, the synthesizer came "without any baggage." The synthesizer required the musician to consciously design the sounds they use, and thereby effectively define a new instrument, every time.

Ironically, this pointed back to a late Romantic genre of European classicism called "tone color" music, associated with German composers like WAGNER, STRAUSS and MAHLER, and French composers DEBUSSY and RAVEL, who all invented radical new kinds of orchestration. But where tone color music was a difficult stretch for conventional instruments, it's like the native language of synthesizers.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, a chromatic journey in the floating worlds of electronic spacemusic, on a program called TONE COLOR REVERIES. Music is by LONEWARD, DEEP SPACE, PAUL AVGERINOS, JARGUNA, and DAVID HELPLING.

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PGM 1225 'DEVOTION' : sept. 13-20

From the world of traditional Hindu and Buddhist religion come practices focused on devotion—to god, to guru or to the divine itself. The Sanskrit word bhakti means practicing a path centered on emotional devotion as a spiritual principle and means of salvation. 

The adoption of Indian spirituality and culture by westerners after the 1960s famously led to yoga and meditation, and also to kirtan—group chanting of Indian devotional prayers — and later to new hybrids of western and Indian music. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, the ardent sound of devotional chants and contemplative instrumentals, on a program called DEVOTION.

Music is by CRAIG PRUESS, HANS CHRISTIAN, ALAM KHAN, CONFLUENCE TRIO, WHITE SUN, MANEESH DE MOOR+SUDHA, AL GROMER KHAN, and DEVA PREMAL.

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