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PGM 914R 'DREAM TRACKER' : june 29 - july 6

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 encore transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we beat the drum and rattle the bones on a journey called DREAM TRACKER. Music is by BYRON METCALF, DASHMESH KHALSA, STEVE ROACH, TERRA AMBIENT, CHAD KETTERING, TUU, and SCOTT AUGUST.

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PGM 984 'DESERT CARAVAN' : june 22-29

The typical image of the Middle East today is a teeming city or an empty desert landscape. Scoring this landscape is a seductive music built on a few simple instruments like the oud, the ney flute, goatskin drums like the doumbec and the darbuka, and the characteristic sinuous vocals.

It's an ecstatic contemplative music, influenced by a host of neighboring cultures: Greek, Indian, Byzantine, Arabic, Persian,  Mesopotamian, Kurdish and North African. It's built on trance-like rhythms, some (no doubt) derived from the area's nomadic past, when camel caravans were the main method of travel and commerce. Over the years, the steady rhythm of the journey and elegant curves of the desert worked their way into the soul of the music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we return to the romantic trans-cultural sound of the Middle East, on a program called DESERT CARAVAN. Music is by MICHEL BANABILA, STELLAMARA, ELIYAHU SILLS, AZAM ALI, STEVE SHEHAN, and MERCAN DEDE

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PGM 983 'SUMMERTRONICA 5' : june 15-22

Does a season have a sound? ANTONIO VIVALDI obviously thought so, and THE FOUR SEASONS remains one of the most popular classical pieces of all times. So did electronic music pioneer WENDY CARLOS, who created SONIC SEASONINGS, the first album of synthesized environmental sounds, all the way back in 1972.

What's the sound of summer for the ambient musicians of today?  Well first, it's warmer: languid, even sultry; it's lighter, more airy. From heat waves to gossamer breezes, cooling ocean sprays to the nighttime cricket chorus, in summer — save the occasional thunderstorm, tornado or hurricane — we inhabit a kinder, gentler soundscape.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we round up a flock of warm weather electrons and fly the blue skies of summer...on a program called SUMMERTRONICA 5. Music is by DAN POUND, GENERAL FUZZ, MARCONI UNION, ISHQ, S7VEN, and BVDUB.

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PGM 982 'TOWARDS THE WIND' : june 8-15

For over 35 years, the German-born musician STEPHAN MICUS has traveled the world — absorbing exotic cultures, collecting traditional ethnic instruments, and adapting them to his own brand of cross-cultural contemplative music. After 21 albums since 1976, it's a singular body of work, unmatched in its originality, creativity, beauty, and depth.

Working completely alone, MICUS is able to spend as much time as he likes researching, playing, and recording to meet his own exacting standards. Only then, at intervals of two to four years, does he release a new album. "Uncompromising" hardly touches it.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, our second retrospective of the music of STEPHAN MICUS, called TOWARDS THE WIND.

We'll concentrate on his releases over the last 10 years, including our title album TOWARDS THE WIND from 2002, LIFE from 2004, ON THE WING from 2006, SNOW from 2008, BOLD AS LIGHT from 2010, and from 1997, THE GARDEN OF MIRRORS.

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PGM 949R 'BLUE SKY BLUE' : june 1-8

In the brief, happy interlude between the tempests of spring and the hurricanes of late summer, we pass through an ideal moment in the cycle of the seasons.

It comes in gentle word-pairs: Clear and Sunny, Warm and Breezy, Fair and Mild, Blue skies and White clouds. Even the pollen seems to abate for a bit, and we're granted a period of naturally-fuelled optimism in our storm-tossed world.

It's a time for classic electronic music for flying and floating in translucent blue atmospheres. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an hour of spacemusic for early summer, on a program called BLUE SKY BLUE. Music is by ERIK WOLLO, STEVE ROACH, RUDY ADRIAN, SENSITIVE CHAOS, DIATONIS, and JONN SERRIE.

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