Archives

PGM 1428 “INDIA EVOLUTION 2” : aug.21-28

BACK IN 2009, I wrote this introduction to a program called ‘INDIA EVOLUTION” :

“Hundreds of years ago, while Western music turned right at polyphony, harmony, and the equal-tempered scale, Indian classical music continued to develop the old modal system of scales and natural intervals, in a vocal-centered, monophonic style.”

“Where we created chords and counterpoint, monumental symphonies, hymns and songs, Indian music continued to evolve the melodic sophistication of raga, the rhythmic complexity of tala, and the patient pursuit of mood and depth.”

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we return to the sublime world of Indian Classical and Indian-influenced ambient music, on a program called “INDIA EVOLUTION 2.” Music is by JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN, PREM JOSHUA & MANISH VYAS, ANCIENT FUTURE, FILIP HOLM, ROSS AINSLIE, AMELIA CUNI & WERNER DURAND, STEVE GORN & MANOSE, and RAJENDRA TEREDESAI.

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PGM 1053R “SPACE GUITARS 12” : aug 14-21

Ambient explorations for electronically enhanced guitar

The inventors of the electric guitar were originally motivated by the need for volume, to compete with drums, brass, and other loud instruments. But it didn’t take long for reverb and special effects to transform the electric guitar into a vehicle for space exploration.

Beginning in the 1960s, technically inclined improvisers used tape recorders to create live repetitions, essentially reinventing the Baroque canon, where a musical phrase or melody is repeated at fixed intervals. The need for more portable effects led to the invention of compact tape loop echo processors, and today’s electronic “loopers,” which make possible a more precise and flexible style of contemplative improvisation.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, recent work in this ambient sub-genre, with another installment of our long-running “space guitars” series, on a program called “SPACE GUITARS 12.” Music is by PETER JACK RAINBIRD, STEVEN GRAHN, CLIVE WRIGHT, JEFF PEARCE, and HAMMOCK.

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PGM 1427 “DOWNTEMPO TO AMBIENT” : aug 7-14

Downtempo electronic music has been enjoying an unexpected revival. After years of being overshadowed by high-energy Electronic Dance Music, Downtempo has found new cultural value as a sonic counter-weight to our intense, relentless, media-saturated, hyperconnected, fast-paced world.

Today’s downtempo has evolved beyond its 1990’s roots in “Trip-Hop” in the UK city of Bristol and has embraced globalization. It now incorporates multi-cultural folk instruments and so-called “organic electronica,” is promoted as “functional music” supporting productivity, and is heard daily by millions on streaming playlists curated by algorithms.

Global exposure has also inspired more serious use in therapeutic environments as a method for enhancing mindfulness, deep focus, and self-discovery—which completes the circle back to Ambient.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space…it’s a midsummer journey from Downtempo beats to Ambient atmospheres called “DOWNTEMPO TO AMBIENT.” Music Is by TWILIGHT ARCHIVE, MARCONI UNION, AËR, ALEX HAAS & BILL LASWELL, CHRIS RUSSELL, and DIGITONAL.

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PGM 1220R “AMBIENT TRAVELER 2” : jul 31-aug 7

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

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PGM 1426 “ARABIAN NIGHTS 2”

It takes increasing effort, but if we can just turn away from the political chaos that has once again overtaken the Middle East, we can still hear the overtones of artistic traditions that have been evolving for over 5000 years.

From source cultures in Arabia, North Africa, and Persia, come instruments and musical traditions. Today, both native and expatriate artists are working to extend these traditions and adapt them to the world of contemporary music. It’s an effort that aims for harmony and understanding in the face of dissonance and division: “cultural” in the best sense — a human treasure to be loved and shared.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the hypnotic rhythms, sinuous melodies, and ambient atmospheres of the Middle East—on a program called ARABIAN NIGHTS 2. Music is by MICHEL BANABILA and MEHMET POLAT, OPIUM MOON, ZIKR PROJECT, NAO SOGABE, FILIP HOLM, RAFAEL KRUX, and ANOUAR BRAHEM.

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PGM 1213R “PROGRESSIVE AMBIENT” : july 17-24

The “progressive” label is growing, and it has nothing to do with politics.

In music, the term has a history that goes back to Progressive Folk in the 1930s. After that came Progressive Jazz from the 1940s to the 1970s, Progressive Rock, Pop, and Bluegrass in the 1960s, Progressive Country in the 1970s, Progressive Metal in the 1980s, and Progressive Electronic and Progressive House in the 1990s.

Progressive is what happens when a genre has matured, and there’s an abundance of highly skilled musicians who want to stay creatively challenged.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space—if the progressive label means expanding stylistic and conceptual boundaries and synthesizing cultural influences—then I’m gonna say we’re overdue for a genre…and a program…called “PROGRESSIVE AMBIENT.”

Music by NOYA, GODWIN, & JÜRJENDAL, BRIAN ENO & J.PETER SCHWALM, MASSERGY, CRAIG PADILLA & MARVIN ALLEN, JON DURANT, MANUEL GÖTTSCHING, HAMMOCK, and EYES CAST DOWN.

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PGM 1425 “AMBIENT WORLD” : july 10-17

The term “World Music” was invented by an American ethnomusicologist in the 1960s. Originally intended to refer only to folk or ethnic music from non-Western cultures, over time its frame of reference expanded to include any form of popular music with ethnic instruments, style, or texture. A good example is Reggae music from Jamaica.

The 1970s introduced the radically new sounds and techniques of electronic music. Traditional World Music was, of course, 100% acoustic. Electricity wasn’t widely available until the late 19th century, but it grew fast. And by the 1980s, the ethereal atmospheres of electronic and ambient music were converging with the expressive acoustic sounds of traditional folk and ethnic music.

At the same time, electronics were expanding the spatial and tonal dimensions of World Music. And where musicians had formerly been identified by their instruments as “acoustic” or “electronic,” a new term was invented to capture the new, hybrid genre: “Electro-Acoustic” Today it’s becoming the dominant approach to all genres of popular music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an Electro-Acoustic journey in musical time and cultural space called AMBIENT WORLD.

This edition of Hearts of Space was originated by guest producer DJ EGAN. There’s a whole lot more by DJ EGAN on Mixcloud.com. Go to https://www.mixcloud.com/the-armchair-traveler

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PGM 844R “AMERICAN CROSSROADS” : jul 3-10

EVERY JULY 4TH, we celebrate America’s independence with food, fun, and fireworks. For as long as most of us can remember, everything that’s good about America — our diversity, freedom, individuality and self-assurance — has been proudly on display.

This year, our celebration is tempered by a growing awareness of the great challenges we face in national, global and even planetary affairs. You have to look back to the 1930s to find a comparable period, but even those challenges seem limited by comparison.

So this year we celebrate the founding of America with the knowledge that American ideals and the American character are being tested. If Americans can respond positively to the challenges we face, we may look back on this period as the time of America’s maturity.

American music today reflects the maturing of our melting-pot of cultural traditions — hymns, folk and popular songs, blues, jazz, electronica, maverick classical, ethnic rhythms, and immigrant genres — a complex panorama of musical sources, freely invented and reinvented. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we listen for the reflective side of the American soundscape…on a program called AMERICAN CROSSROADS.

Music is by BRIAN KEANE, PAUL WINTER CONSORT, SACRED EARTH, BILLY McLAUGHLIN, WILL ACKERMAN, BIOMUSIQUE, PATRICK O’HEARN, PETER OSTROUSHKO, and JOHN DOAN.

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PGM 1424 ‘APPLEFISH’ : jun 26-jul 3

We’re floating on a luxurious bed of pipe organ—the first thing you hear on the 2022 debut album of Bristol, England, electronic musician NICOLA “NIK” DAVIES—best known by her recording alias APPLEFISH.

By our unofficial count, she’s a member of the seventh or eighth generation of electronic musicians, starting from its formative years in the 1920s and 30s at the dawn of playable electronic instruments like the Russian Theremin and the French Ondes Martenot. From the 1930s to the 1960s, a handful of academic laboratories became the venues for the development of electronic music and electro-acoustic tape music. They had the real estate, the hardware, and the money.

The transition from academic to popular electronic music was driven by the invention of analog synthesizers in the 1970s. Relatively affordable instruments and recording tools enabled a new generation of popular electronic artists in Germany like TANGERINE DREAM, KLAUS SCHULZE, and ASHRA, who invented a cosmic sound that went viral and spread to Europe, the U.S. and Japan.

That’s where Hearts of Space began, as a Bay Area late night radio program in 1973, and then a nationally syndicated program in 1983, with a mission to expand the audience for “ambient, space, atmospheric and contemplative music.”

Disco had pioneered use of electronic instruments in dance music in the late 1960s. By the 1980’s a new generation of creative DJs and live performers attracted a worldwide audience for high-energy EDM (Electronic Dance Music). BRIAN ENO defined Ambient in 1978, while a group of serious electronic composers and recording artists like STEVE ROACH, MICHAEL STEARNS, ROBERT RICH, and thousands more around the world, made personal artistic music, and self-released it on cassette and CD. Today they upload it to free or inexpensive internet streaming services that provide effortless access to a worldwide audience.

And it is here, dear space fan, that we encounter the latest generation of electronic recording artists like the subject of this program, NICOLA “NIK” DAVIES aka APPLEFISH. She describes her music with precision as “a fusion of space ambient, downtempo, and electronica, with substantial cross-pollination from drone, psy-chill, and modern classical genres. Much of the Applefish discography explores cosmic and astronomical themes, guiding listeners through ethereal voyages and otherworldly realms. The music interlaces immersive atmospheres with subtle, yet evocative melodic lines and layered, shimmering textures, intentionally evoking a sense of deep introspection and cosmic wonder.”

Thanks, Nik. Could not have said it better. Early music by APPLEFISH… on this transmission… of Hearts of Space.

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PGM 913R : ‘TRANS-ASIAN DIFFUSION’ : june 18-25

The term “The Silk Road” was invented by a German geographer in 1877. He was describing trade routes that go back to the Han Dynasty of China over 2000 years ago, connecting Europe with the major cultures of the Asian world…by land and by sea. The driving force was commercial, but like the Internet today, it also enabled the spread of social communication, technology, culture, food, and music.

In 1940 American anthropologist ALBERT KROEBER came up with a fancy name for the process: “Trans-Cultural Diffusion.” In music, traditions from many countries and intersecting influences over many centuries make sorting it out a challenge. There are common instruments, rhythms, scales, and approaches to making music. Each country added its own distinctive elements, and the process continues today—at electronic speed.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space….music derived from those way stations on the Silk Road…on a program called “TRANS-ASIAN DIFFUSION.” Music is by BOB HOLROYD, FRITZ HEEDE, TARIK BANZI, ANOUAR BRAHEM, OMAR FARUK TEKBILEK, ROBERT RICH & LISA MOSKOW, BENJY WERTHEIMER & DAVID MICHAEL.

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