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PGM 879R 'CLOUDSCAPES' : june 24-july 1

SUMMER brings us one of the greatest free shows on earth. In fair weather, rising water vapor freezes into microcrystals of ice, and we see a vast, constantly changing panorama of clouds, floating and flying overhead. When summer storms arrive, the sky grows dark with the drama of thunder and lightning — nature's original multimedia show.

Clouds come in four families: high, middle, low, and vertical — with official Latin names like cirrus, cumulus and stratus. Satellites now give us the big picture of cloud patterns around the planet and how they affect the weather; there are even clouds on other planets, and interstellar clouds in outer space. It's no wonder that ambient musicians find clouds a major inspiration.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a cirro-stratus-pheric journey for summer called CLOUDSCAPES.

Music is by DIGITONAL, RUBEN GARCIA, FORREST FANG, ROBERT RICH, TERRA AMBIENT, BRUNO SANFILIPPO, and DARSHAN AMBIENT.

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PGM 1115 'ETHNOTRONIC 2' : june 17-24

THE INCREASINGLY INDISPENSIBLE WIKIPEDIA tells us that the term "World Music" was popularized in the 1980s as a marketing category for non-Western traditional music. "Globalization" has become controversial these days for its effect on western jobs, but on the cultural side, it's expanded world music's audiences and scope — which has grown to include hybrid subgenres like world fusion, global fusion, ethnic fusion, and worldbeat.

"Fusion" implies the cross-pollination of different genres, often something old and something new, like traditional ethnic instruments and musical styles with electronic textures and production techniques. Whether that means progressive recordings from native artists in exotic places, or exotic elements in recordings by western artists, the result is vibrant, creative, open-minded contemporary music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, sultry global rhythms and ambient atmospheres for summer, on a program called ETHNOTRONIC 2.

Music is by GREEN ISAC ORCHESTRA, JIA PENG FANG, HIROKI OKANO, MICHAEL BROOK, STEPHAN MICUS, and ANOUSHKA SHANKAR.

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PGM 1114 'BIOSONIC' : june 10-17

CODED DEEP INTO OUR PERCEPTUAL SOFTWARE is the language of the natural environment: the sounds and patterns of birds, insects, animals, weather, wind and water. Even before music existed, our primordial ancestors knew how to interpret these sounds to navigate their environment, find food, and respond to danger.

When music evolved, it was originally heard in the context of natural sounds. Over the centuries, music moved indoors and became more dissociated from nature, until ambient musicians rediscovered the power of combining music with natural sounds and fractal patterns.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we immerse ourselves in natural and electronic soundscapes, on a program called BIOSONIC. Music is by COMMON GROUND, ROBERT RICH, AES DANA + MIKTEK, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, STEVE ROACH & ROBERT LOGAN, PETE NAMLOOK & MIXMASTER MORRIS, and RUDY ADRIAN.

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PGM 984R 'DESERT CARAVAN' : june 3-10

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 by MICHEL BANABILA, STELLAMARA, ELIYAHU SILLS, AZAM ALI, STEVE SHEHAN, and MERÇAN DEDE.

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