hearts of space | news

PGM 1295 'AUTUMN WINDS' : sept.24-oct.1

The transition to autumn is marked by shorter days, cooler nights, and deepening colors. As the sun drops inexorably lower in the sky here in the northern hemisphere, the natural world begins the transformation to a colder, darker season scented with "the perfume of decay."

In music, the complex tones and smoky timbres of the woodwind family—the oboe, English horn, clarinet, and bassoon—bring a sonic analog of the changing atmosphere. Writer MARIA POPOVA calls it "a bewildering harmonic of the transcendent and the transient."

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, autumnal ambient for woodwinds and electronics, on a program called AUTUMN WINDS. Music is by RUSSEL WALDER, DEBORAH MARTIN & JILL HALEY, ALTUS, ANDREW LAHIFF, and MAX RICHTER.

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

PGM 923R 'PIANOSPHERES' : sept. 17-24

This week we pass through one of the yearly waypoints on our journey around the sun. The Autumnal Equinox, with day and night of equal length, marks the start of the Fall season in many countries. As the air cools and the shadows lengthen here in the Northern Hemisphere, it's a good time to return to the sublime world of the contemplative piano.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a program of solos and duets, acoustic and electronic keyboards and rare ambiences called PIANOSPHERES. Music is by KJETIL BJERKESTRAND, RALPH ZURMUHLE, HAROLD BUDD, LUDOVICO EINAUDI, BRUNO SANFILIPPO, DAVE EGGAR, RYUICHI SAKAMOTO, KETIL BJORNSTAD & DAVID DARLING.

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

PGM 1294 'DEVOTION 2' : sept. 10-17

Over the last 30 years, the gentle world of Indian devotional music has been updated and transformed by an international group of ambient musicians. Inspired by this venerable heart-centered tradition, often working with authentic Indian musicians, they've stretched the boundaries and expanded the atmospheres of the genre with electronic drones, echoes and reverberations, overdubs, and studio magic. Slow, deep, and meditative, you don't have to know anything about Indian music or religion to enjoy it.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, ambient excursions in Indian devotional music—on a program called DEVOTION 2. Music is by HANS CHRISTIAN, GARY STROUTSOS & STEVIN McNAMARA, BEN LEINBACH, CRAIG PRUESS & ANURADHA PAUDWAL, MARK SEELIG, and AL GROMER KHAN.

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

PGM 1293 'SYMMETRY' : sept. 3-10

Across the spectrum of Ambient, Electronic, New Classical and New Age music we find a common metaphor: the journey. It's music for virtual travel, for progressive ascent towards a goal, arrival at an apex, descent, and return.

New York composer ZENON MARKO has given classic architectural form to the experience by making it rigorously symmetrical. His album SYMMETRY, he says, "is a musically symmetrical journey — whether physical, intellectual, imaginary, emotional, psychological, or spiritual." As if serious music wasn't already difficult enough, the entire album is symmetrical, with the descending sections as actual reverses of the ascents.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the power of form, and the powerful sound of heroic ambient electronics, on a program called SYMMETRY. Music is by ZENON MARKO, SENSUALISM, KEVIN KELLER, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, HAMMOCK, MAX RICHTER, and TOM EATON.

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