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PGM 1299 'OMINOUS' : oct.29 - nov.5

If you're feeling masochistic, turn on the unrelenting stream of disaster, tragedy, and malfeasance that passes for "news" in these troubled times. Is it any wonder that each year at the end of October we celebrate a Celtic and medieval Christian holiday haunted by death, decay, and supernatural dark spirits?

For ambient musicians, it's a time for deep drones, disembodied voices, melancholy wailing, gloomy strings, and a dark galaxy of electronic and environmental effects. On this Halloween transmission of Hearts of Space, we embrace the gathering gloom with a program of cathartic dark ambient atmospheres called...OMINOUS.

Music is by SOUND PHENOMENON, ATRIUM CARCERI, GEORGE WALLACE, MONOCUBE, TOM JENSEN, MYUU, SUSPERIA-ELECTRICA, and SOUNDING THE DEEP.

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

PGM 1298 'SHADOWLANDS 2' : oct.22-29

Autumn brings transformations both subtle and powerful. The shadows lengthen as the focus of the sun moves south below the equator. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we now experience rapid seasonal climate change on top of slow global climate change. It's a transition marked by familiar changes in temperature, color, and activity in the natural world, disrupted by increasingly extreme weather events.

For ambient musicians, it's a time for complex tone colors burnished with glints of silver and gold, bittersweet harmonies, descending progressions, and gently melancholy emotions.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we transition to the darkening electro-acoustic soundscapes of autumn, on a program called SHADOWLANDS 2. Music is by MYCHAEL DANNA & TIM CLÉMENT, STEVE ROACH & MICHAEL STEARNS, MIGUEL NOYA, CLIFF MARTINEZ, ALEX HAAS, and LISA BELLA DONNA.  

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PGM 1197R 'TWILIGHT EARTH 4' : oct. 15-22

The dulcet tones of the Native American cedar flute have inspired a soothing sub-genre of contemplative music. Pioneered by native musicians from the American Southwest, over the last 30 years the genre has attracted non-native musicians, who expanded into electronics and exotic percussion. It's a sound we enjoy in the fall, when it complements the mellow light and withering colors of the landscape, and evokes the vast, echoing canyons of the high desert. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an Indian Summer journey for Native American cedar flute, on a program called TWILIGHT EARTH 4.

Music is by ANN LICATER, COYOTE JUMP, COYOTE OLDMAN, BYRON METCALF, JOHNNY WHITEHORSE, PAMELA WHITMAN & RICH KURTZ, TONY GERBER, MYSTERIES OF THE NIGHT, and SCOTT AUGUST.

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

PGM 1297 'COSMIC ELECTRONIC 3' : oct. 8-15

The powerful creative stimulus that came with the first wave of popular electronic instruments was nowhere more intense than Germany in the early 1970s. In Berlin, a young drummer named KLAUS SCHULZE began working with early electronic instruments. He was a founding member of important bands like ASHRA and TANGERINE DREAM, but soon went solo with a series of groundbreaking albums that established a cosmic sound and a musical language that's still influential today—combining native electronic ornaments, trancey sequencer rhythms, and electronic string lines inspired by his hero, RICHARD WAGNER.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space we're back in our comfort zone, with another classic spacemusic journey called COSMIC ELECTRONIC 3. Music is by KLAUS SCHULZE, COSMIC REPLICANT, EXTRAWORLD, JUTA TAKAHASHI, NIMANTY, DREAMSTATE LOGIC, SPACECRAFT, and JONN SERRIE.

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PGM 1296 'CELLO ELEGIES' : oct. 1-8

Like sopranos, the violins get all the attention. The violas, famously, get ignored. But of all the orchestral string instruments, the real star is the cello. In its low range, it anchors the string section; as a solo instrument, it soars with a beautifully lyrical singing voice; while in the studio, its four octave range is a compact string orchestra in one instrument. So for range, tone, versatility, and expression, the cello is unsurpassed — and it sounds especially right in the fall.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE from longtime guest producer for classical and sacred music ELLEN HOLMES, we follow the cello to the emotional heart of autumn, on a program called CELLO ELEGIES.

Music performed by 2CELLOS, STJEPAN HAUSER, MICHAEL HOPPÉ & MARTIN TILLMAN, JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER, YO-YO MA, JACQUELINE DU PRE, SHEKU KANNEH-MASON, MATHEW BARLEY, BARRY PHILLIPS, FRETWORK, and JORDI SAVALL & HESPERION XXI.

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