hearts of space | news

Week of Dec. 30th...

As we break for the New Year holiday, we're rerunning a middle-aged chestnut from our "nordic" spacemusic catalog. In fact, much of the material is from the U.S., featuring a fine album by KEVIN KELLER and a classic Alaskan-inspired piece by film music ace MARK ISHAM. From England we have chilled electronics by SYMBIOSIS, and a classic wintry track from Germany by KLAUS SCHULZE, plus authentic Nordic music by OYSTEIN SEVAG. Take a look and listen to NORTHERN LIGHTS 3.

Week of Dec. 23rd...

Our penultimate holiday program for 2005 is a very special collection of sacred choral pieces from THE KING'S SINGERS and SARBAND, the LIBERA boys choir, the Canadian contemplative group SANCTUARY, TRIO MEDIEVAL, composers MORTEN LAURIDSEN, URMAS SISASK, and ARVO PART.

For music to be called sacred, it must exalt the spirit, heal the psyche,
and -- to some degree -- focus the mind on the eternal.

Week of Dec. 16th...

OK, this time we're really getting into the holiday spirit. Carols, bells, brass ensembles, harps and dulcimers -- the whole deal. Lots of lovely melodies and crystalline sounds to add to the mood, on a program called CALM and BRIGHT.

Week of Dec. 9th...

...we continue our transition into the end of year soundscape with a timeless program of electronic choral and instrumental spacemusic. The theme is Phos Hilaron: "joyful light."

Sources include PAUL AVGERINOS, exploring his heritage with Greek chants, PAUL SCHWARTZ's "State of Grace" project with vocalist LIZBETH SCOTT, CONSTANCE DEMBY's sacred spacemusic, and more.

New Playlist icon

Sharp-eyed spacefans may have noticed a small change to our user interface: instead of the slighty cryptic [PL] icon designating the playlist for our radio programs, we've switched to the full on [PLAYLIST] version. It's a little less space-efficient, but O, so clear.

A number of new users were not decoding the short version and assuming that clicking the name of the program would launch the playlist. Non-registered users got an error message when that happened, causing more confusion. Hopefully this will clear things up for good.

Week of Dec. 2nd...

...a transitional program pointing to the special sounds of the holiday season, "translucent" in the sense that the darkness and gloom of Scorpio is clearing on the way to the yearly celebration of light.

The components of this show (mostly from the indispensible ECM New Series catalog) could not be better: the gifted composer and vocalist LISA GERRARD, the wonderful Greek film composer ELENI KARAINDROU, a major new work by the great Estonian composer ARVO PART, and music by Ukranian composer VALENTIN SILVESTROV and English composer KARL JENKINS.