hearts of space | news

PGM 1219 'BEYOND THE COOL' : june 28-july 6

The legendary trumpeter MILES DAVIS from his 1969 classic IN A SILENT WAY—the album that established laid-back, atmospheric, electrified jazz fusion — built on the acoustic Cool Jazz of the 1950s. It's been called a "proto-ambient masterpiece." 

In retrospect, 1969 was the threshold of the electronic revolution in popular music that brought us the ambient electronic music of today. [Miles] Davis added two electric pianos, organ and electric guitar to his band, slowed down the tempos, and made music history. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we feature the sound of the trumpet and the flugelhorn in a journey from cool jazz, to space jazz, to ambient — on a program called BEYOND THE COOL. Music is by MILES DAVIS, JEFF OSTER, TWILIGHT ARCHIVE, TOM LUTHER, FRANK MAUCERI & MIKE WHITEHEAD, CHAD KETTERING, NILS PETTER MOLVAER, and MEG BOWLES.

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PGM 1218 'MOONTRIBE' : june 21-28

Summer officially arrives on the 21st of June — the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. For ambient musicians, the extra light and heat inspire influences from faraway warm-weather cultures; exotic acoustic instruments, tribal rhythms, and mind-bending shamanic rituals, combined with creative electronics and native soundscapes. It breeds an evolving genre originally called "techno-tribal." Today we call it "tribal ambient" — it evokes atavistic memories of our village past for our digital tribes, and creates a space for virtual travel, even if the body has to stay at home. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space from guest producer DAVID J. EGAN, a tribal/ambient/solstice journey for summer, on a program called MOONTRIBE.

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PGM 1105R 'ATMOSPHERIC' : june 14-21

If there's one thing that Ambient electronic music excels at creating, it's the experience of floating in space. And when that space is high, light, and airy, we call it atmospheric.

Atmospheres have qualities — elevation, temperature, brightness, color, density, and a wide range of tones. When we immerse ourselves in sonic atmospheres, our normal sense of time seems to disappear: suspended in space, we lose track of time. Einstein probably had a special theory about that.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, an airy, immersive electronic journey, on a program called ATMOSPHERIC. Music is by KIT WATKINS, JACK HERTZ, CRAIG PADILLA, ROBERT SCOTT THOMPSON, ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT, and DARSHAN AMBIENT.

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PGM 1217 'INDO-TRONICA 3' : june 7-14

The Hindustani classical music of North India was little-known to westerners until the 1960's, when The Beatles famously introduced Indian sitar virtuoso RAVI SHANKAR to their audience and incorporated the instrument into their music. 

The long-necked lute called the sitar and it's bass version the surbahar, other unique Indian string instruments like the veena, the sarod, the sarangi and the esraj, along with the bansuri flute, have gradually become familiar to western listeners in the last hundred years. More recently, the microtonal scales of Indian music lent themselves to being combined with electronic instruments, giving rise to an ambient genre we call Indo-tronic. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the fusion of microtonal melodies, exotic ornaments, and electronic tone colors — on a program called INDO-TRONICA 3.

[ view program page ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]