hearts of space | news

PGM 976 'FLOWING INTO SPRING 2' : march 30-april 6

For releasing sheer joy and creativity in the human family, it's hard to beat the arrival of spring. It's a beloved season for poets and painters, lovers and photographers, and ambient musicians.

Free at last from the challenges and restrictions of winter, it's famously a time to clean out the old and initiate the new; a time for outward expansion, movement and change; while in the natural world, we see the flowering of new growth and renewed activity, as the cycle of life accelerates.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we glide into the season with an hour of ethereal kinetics called FLOWING INTO SPRING 2, featuring music by ROBERT RICH, plus FORREST FANG, A PRODUCE & LOREN NERELL, AZAM ALI, and MICHEL BANABILA.

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

PGM 975 'VERNAL CROSSING' : march 23-30

Call it neo-paganism if you like, but when you work with ambient music, you can't help but be more aware of the natural environment — the time of year, the weather, the turning of the seasons, the solstices, the equinoxes. In fact, the seasons are always turning, but there are special moments, and this week we pass through one of them: the Vernal Equinox.

Around the 20th of March, the center of the sun aligns directly with the earth's equator and day and night are approximately equal everywhere on earth. It's the point of balance in the solar energy cycle, halfway between the extremes of winter and summer. Here in the northern hemisphere, most of us are enjoying more daylight, warmer temperatures, flowing water, and more time outdoors.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we bring you the sound of the seasonal transition with an hour of ambient electronics for early spring, on a program called VERNAL CROSSING.  Music is by AMONGST MYSELVES, ISHQ, HEAVENLY MUSIC CORPORATION, DAN POUND, SINEPEARL, JOHN LYELL, TAKASHI SUZUKI, and STEVE ROACH.

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

PGM 974 'THE CELTIC ROAD' : march 16-23

This week, dear listeners, we come once again to our yearly celebration of all things Celtic. Though the time has passed when Celtic music was trending, it's a tradition that continues to evolve. Ireland has boomed and bust, and through it all the beauty and spirit of Celtic music has continued to charm audiences around the world, with its brilliant dances and heartfelt airs and ballads.

In the poetic imagination of the Celtic bards and troubadours, travel metaphors are as common as thoughts of home. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we take another journey across those green and rocky lands, on a program called THE CELTIC ROAD.

Music is by DAVY SPILLANE, MOYA BRENNAN, LISA LYNN & ARYEH FRANKFURTER, LOREENA McKENNITT, AINE MINOGUE, DAVID ARKENSTONE, BRAGH ADAIR, and JAMES GALWAY & PHIL COULTER.

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

PGM 689R 'DARKNESS and DAWN' : march 9-16

 

It's said the darkest hour is just before the dawn. In unsettled times, the metaphorical dawn is always ahead, and darkness seems endless. The same feeling pervades the seasonal transition from winter into spring. It's a time of waiting — for the end of wintry darkness and the dawn of the brilliant light of spring.

Many ambient musicians have been drawn to these metaphors as they navigate dark electronic soundworlds, and bring us reports on their travels. On this edition of Hearts of Space, patient and forebearing music for late winter, on a program called DARKNESS and DAWN. Music is by PATRICK O'HEARN, ROBERT RICH, A PRODUCE, APERUS, PRINCIPLE OF SILENCE, and GLEN TARACHOW.

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

PGM 973 'SOUNDING the DEEP' : march 2-9

Like wine, ambient and contemplative music comes in many varieties — from acoustic to electronic, from solos to large ensembles, from subtle to powerful. But when it comes to power per gram, there's no doubt: the most potent instruments in the ambient music box are the resonant percussion family of bronze bells, bowls and gongs.

These instruments are psychoacoustic powerhouses, generating sounds that seem wired directly through our auditory systems to our inner core. In the hands of a sensitive musician, they can lead us to the quiet realm we like to call The Deep Zone. And while it normally takes most of a program to work our way into The Deep Zone...these instruments live there full time.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a wintry journey for resonant bronze called SOUNDING THE DEEP. Music is by DEUTER, APOLLONIUS+33 TETRAGAMMON, NEBULAE, 33 BOWLS, ED MANN and KARMA MOFFETT.

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

ALMOST SPRING UPDATES

iPhone: new main screen

IPHONE VERSION 2

Several weeks ago we launched Version 2 of
the HoS service and added some powerful new
features. The main innovation was expanding
from the single full-time "Radio Channel" to eight full-time channels.

We also rebuilt our main menu bar for easier
operation, added additional features to the
MY PLAYLISTS section,  and rewrote parts of
our custom Flash web player for smoother
and more reliable operation. A full rundown
of all the new stuff is in What's New in V2?

Until March 1st those features were only available
on the web site. Now we've added those new
features and more to our iPHONE app, and the
update is available free in the App Store if you've
already bought the app for 99¢. If you haven't
tried the iPhone app yet, now's the perfect time
to cough up the big bucks and give it whirl ;-)

Our new iPhone app gives you on-the-go access to all 8 full-time channels — the eclectic All Archive Mix channel, plus seven genre-focused channels:  Electronic Space, Ambient/Downtempo, Contemporary Instrumental, Orchestral/Chamber/Choral, Classic HoS Mix, World Fusion Mix, and Celtic Space.

In addition, personal playlists you create on the web site can now be played in the iPhone app.

Not only that, we've added on-demand access to programs within channels and playlists, so you can select any individual program in any of the full-time channel playlists or your personal playlists and go from there.

To answer the obvious followup question: no, you still cannot create personal playlists in the iPhone app. We had to defer that feature to Version 3. Nor can you navigate directly to any program in the archive like you can on the web site — that's also coming in Version 3. But anything you add to one of your MY PLAYLISTS is now available in the app.

So if you are determined and take the time to put all 973 programs into playlists (they're limited to 100 items each and you can make up to 100 playlists), then you can have mobile access to the entire archive now. Sweet!

Caveat user: if you make large playlists (more than 25 items) they will be very slow to load, and you will have to be very, very patient. We are testing a new back end architecture for the service that will speed things up, but for now you've been advised.

To answer the next followup question, we will be releasing a parallel update to our ANDROID app as soon as possible. We love our Android users as much as they love Hearts of Space, but for some reason there are a lot fewer of you, so our iPhone users get priority.

UPDATE, JUNE 9, 2012: Since the paragraph above was written last March, it has unfortunately become more difficult to justify the expense of releasing native Android applications. Some of the reasons are technical — Android devices are far less standardized than Apple's iOS devices, and a program that runs fine on one phone or tablet may not work in part or at all on others.

Furthermore, it is now clear that despite the large numbers of Android phones out there, only 1/5 as many people actually use the HOS Android app compared to Apple devices. Since the cost of developing it is the same as an Apple app, investing in the Android platform for a company our size no longer makes financial sense.

To solve the problem of offering mobile service to Android users (as well as other platforms like Windows Phone and RIM/Blackberry), we are now discussing developing a mobile version of our web site that will allow subscribers to run the service in the web browser of their mobile phone. There are compatibility problems using this approach as well, so we can't promise 100% support for every combination of phone/tablet and operating system like we can on Apple mobile devices. Nor can we give you a solid date for release beyond saying 'as soon as possible.' 

:: SH

Our thanks to stalwart programmer PAUL YAGO for some serious midnight oil burning and even a last minute fix while on vacation! The man is driven to get it right and we love that.

MORE FLASH GOODNESS

Our second announcement is that we've launched an update to our custom Flash web player.  First, the little green triangle "play" icons next to programs were too subtle for some users. They have grown up and now tell you unambiguously what they do:

You can also see which program is playing in any playlist and pause the active stream:

Clicking the CHANNELS or MY PLAYLISTS tab itself will refresh the list of channels or playlists.  Clicking the PLAY icon next to a channel or personal playlist will start it playing it from the top; to see the contents of any channel or playlist, click the name.

Within any full-time channel or personal playlist we've taken a feature from the iPhone app and now allow you on-demand access to each of the programs. So in addition to being able to switch channels, if you don't care for the show that's playing in a channel you can play any other, and the playlist will continue from there.

Last but not least, we rewrote some of the hidden plumbing in the Flash player for faster operation, and also fixed several obscure bugs that no one but our ace Flash programmer ALEX BURROWS understands for sure. Nevertheless, they are gone.

Enjoy the new software, and let us know about anything you don't understand or would like to see improved in the comments or by emailing [email protected].