hearts of space | news

PGM 891 "GHOSTS" : Halloween week 2009...

Dark tones echo across a stony gray-green soundscape, ringed by gloom and decay. It's a world of strange smoky atmospheres and floating voices, punctuated by massive attacks and harsh metallic sounds, both chilled...and fiery.

Sounds like some kind of trippy video game, doesn't it?

Now imagine one that takes you on the journey, but without the game.
That, spacefans, is what electronic music was born to do.

We mark this All Hallows' Eve transmission of Hearts of Space in the anxious year of 2009, with a journey through sonic underworlds — gray-green and smoky black, adorned with crimson accents and diaphanous silvery sounds — on a program called GHOSTS.

Music is by TOR LUNDVALL, HOPE SANDOVAL, RICHARD BONE, BUILDING THE CATHEDRAL, BETWEEN INTERVAL, JOE RENZETTI, MINGO, and TROUM.

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

PGM 890 "FADING WORLD" : Week of Oct. 23...

As we journey deeper into the autumn soundscape the music reflects the progression of the seasons. After the bounty of summer, it's a time of receding, darkening, diminishing…marked by a final blaze of intense color, then desaturation — as life withdraws and retreats.

The music of autumn is complex, with foggy timbres, minor key harmonies, descending progressions, and patient suspensions. It's the sound of withdrawl, deflation, and retreat, as the natural world prepares for the rigors of winter.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, a chamber/electronic journey for autumn called FADING WORLD. Music is by LUDOVICO EINAUDI, JAMI SIEBER, JEFF GREINKE, AMIINA, and the KEVIN KELLER ENSEMBLE.

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

PGM 854 "LOST CANYONS" : Week of October 16th...

Slow...reverent...in tune and in time with the rhythms of nature: that's the signature feeling of the Native American flute.

Since its revival at the hands of a new generation of native musicians in the 1960s, its gentle tones can now be heard on hundreds of albums and soundtracks. But it seems most resonant during Indian summer and autumn, when the light dims, and smoke settles over the fading tones of the natural world.

On this 25th Anniversary retrospective transmission of Hearts of Space, a Native flute journey across the great western plateau...called LOST CANYONS.

Music is by GARY MALKIN, SCOTT AUGUST, JOHN HULING, COYOTE OLDMAN, R.CARLOS NAKAI & WILLIAM EATON and others.

[ view playlist ]      [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

ShareThis feature added to content pages

We were so excited about announcing the new Automatic Log In feature this week, we neglected to mention the other upgrade we rolled out at the same time — Sharing.

You've probably noticed a new icon and the word "Share" at the upper right corner of many of our content pages:

It works via a cute and highly functional kind of pop-up layer (not a window) that allows you to send a link to our pages via email, or to post a link to dozens of social web services including the biggies like Twitter and Facebook.

Using it is pretty self-explanatory, but for the record...when you click on the "Share" icon, up pops a little "windoid" that looks like this:

 

Note the arrows and the little circles at the bottom of the white area. There are four screens of choices, including some you've never heard of..."Twackle"?  Click the right arrow or one of the circles and check 'em out. Who knew there were so many?

 

Say you click Email. Now you see this:

 

Fill in the form and click Send:

Pretty easy, huh?  You've just sent a link to the page you were looking at when you clicked the Share button. To close the window, just click the big [X] in the upper right corner of the windoid:

Want to Tweet about something on our site on Twitter? We appreciate that, and it's easy — just click Twitter on first screen, fill in this form and click Post:

Posting to Facebook is different. When you click the Facebook icon in the ShareThis windoid, it takes you to the Facebook web site. If you are already logged in, you'll be able to post the item to your profile feed with one click:

The other services have slightly different procedures, but it's all pretty obvious if you just try it.

Go forth and Share, spacefans.

And let us know how it works. We can tweak it if we get your feedback.

:: SH

AUTOMATIC SIGN IN at last!

A number of our most active users requested that we make it easier to return to the service without having to sign in each time. This turned out to be more difficult than we expected, but we've done it.

Now when you click SIGN IN at the upper right corner of our home page

instead of launching a pop-up window you'll see a new "sign in bar" with fields for your email address and password, and a new ENTER button.

To complete the process, you can either click the ENTER >> button, or just hit "Enter" or "Return" on your keyboard.

Now here's the cool part:

From now on, users who don't SIGN OUT will be signed in automatically when they return to HOS.com on the same computer.

Users on shared or public computers should Sign Out to protect their accounts. When you Sign Out, you'll have to Sign In when you return.  If you are on the same computer, your email address will be entered into the proper field, and you will only have to enter your password.

If your session "times out" (you stream for more than 12 hours), you will have to sign in again, but we make it easier: both fields will be filled in, and you can Sign In with one keystroke on the Enter or Return key, or one click on the ENTER>> button.

IN SHORT...

To minimize Sign Ins, don't Sign Out.
When you come back you'll be signed in automatically.

To protect your account on shared computers,
Sign Out —then Sign in each time.

UPDATE: Duh...seems we forgot the "I forgot my password" feature. How ironic is that?
We've fixed this with a new link that opens our old pop up log in with a "forgot password" field.

:: SH

PGM 889 "WISTFUL" : Week of October 9th...

After the fiery days of summer, a spacefan's ear retunes to the mellowing notes and darkening tone colors of autumn. As the sun withdraws and the days grow short, it's time for some laid-back ambient jazz.

It's hard to say what makes it ambient. Jazz is generally all about dialogue between great players, but some of them have a contemplative bent, and a taste for larger, slower, deeper spaces. Above all, they listen......for the spaces between the notes.

Music is by HERBIE MANN, RON HART, DOUBLE IMAGE, CHICK COREA & GARY BURTON, MARILYN MAZUR & JAN GARBAREK, the MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO, and from Norway, the TORD GUSTAVESEN TRIO.

[ view playlist ]      [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

PGM 888 "TIME of TRANSITION" : Week of Oct. 2nd...

Four times a year, the seasons turn. The changes can be subtle or dramatic. These are the times of transition in the natural world — the original, the most pervasive, various and far reaching ambient soundscape of them all.

Societies and cultures go through their own transitions. Sometimes they're welcomed; more often, they are resisted, even feared. In nature, the wise, the lucky, and the flexible evolve, and learn to adapt.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we ride the receding energy of summer as it descends into fall, on a program called TIME OF TRANSITION. Music is by JON HOPKINS, BARCELONA, PSICODREAMICS, DAVID HELPLING & JON JENKINS, HAROLD BUDD & CLIVE WRIGHT, BRUNO SANFILIPPO & MATHIAS GRASSOW, DAVID DARLING, and FALLING YOU.

[ view playlist ]      [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]