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PGM 915 'HYBRIDS' : Week of June 25th...

In biology and genetics, hybrids are the offspring of two different subspecies, genera, or families of plants or animals. Nature creates hybrids randomly as part of natural selection; humans do it deliberately and call it "selective breeding." Often the hybrids that result are stronger than the natural offspring, and we call that hybrid "vigor."

In music, hybrids (or fusions) result from thinking outside the box, creating new combinations of genres, styles and instruments. As you'll hear on this transmission of Hearts of Space called HYBRIDS, the results are often surprising, satisfying and...vigorous.

Music is by BRUCE KAPHAN, ROBERT RICH, NELSON FOLTZ & TOM LYNN, MICHAEL BROOK, JAZZCOMPUTER.ORG, BILL LASWELL & TOSHINORI KONDO, FORREST FANG, JON HASSELL, and TONY LEVIN.

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PGM 914 'DREAM TRACKER' : Week of June 18th...

For several decades, a small group of Western musicians have studied the ancient practice of shamanism and shamanistic music, as a way of deepening their art and their connection to the natural world.

In aboriginal and tribal cultures from the Arctic to Australia, the role of the shaman was to bridge the human and the spirit world for guidance and healing. Today, neo-shamanism and neo-shamanistic music express a longing for direct spirituality, wholeness and harmony with nature that some find lacking in our culture.

Starting from prehistoric forms of music and aboriginal instruments like the rattle, the drum, the bone whistle and the didgeridoo, they added the ambient dimensions of electronic sound and created a new genre called "techno-tribal." Earthy and trance-inducing, it rescued electronic music from ethereal abstraction, grounded it in the sounds and rhythms of the natural world, and influenced the ecstatic electronic dance music of today.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we beat the drum and rattle the bones on a journey called DREAM TRACKER.

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PGM 769R 'BALEARICA' : Week of June 11th...

The Balearic Islands — Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera — occupy prime real estate in the Mediterranean Sea, just off the eastern coast of Spain. In ancient times, it was a tough neighborhood; the islands were invaded successively by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, and finally, the Aragons.

These days things are lively, but a lot quieter — they're all popular tourist destinations, home to a tapestry of musical cultures that matches their multi-cultural past, and an up-to-date vibe that runs from acoustic to electronic, sensual to chilled.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey into the Mediterranean soundscape new and old, called BALEARICA. Music is by CANTOMA, BLISS, B-TRIBE, ANOUAR BRAHEM, SAVINA YANNATOU, DINO SALUZZI, SACRED SPIRIT, and ZEUS FABER.

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PGM 913 'TRAN-ASIAN DIFFUSION' : Week of June 4th...

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 ancient Asian world by land and by sea. The driving force was commerce, 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. He called it 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 cultural way stations on the Silk Road, on a program called TRANS-ASIAN DIFFUSION.

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