hearts of space | news

PGM 1373 'CHANTRESS SEBA' : may 31-apr.7

If there's a contemporary musical group that demonstrates the enormous changes that have overtaken the music business in the last 20 years, it's the husband and wife team of singer GEMINI FOWLER, and guitarist & "handpan" player FINN MILBURN, together known as CHANTRESS SEBA.

They emerged from the north England city of Leeds, a vibrant area, but not one known for musical innovation. Nevertheless, they've been able to attract a worldwide audience of millions--and they've done it while completely ignoring the established music business.

Their main publishing and streaming platform is YouTube, where by mid-2024 they have 22 one-hour-plus "long form" videos available, which have attracted from a few hundred thousand to 3.9 MILLION views!

By taking full advantage of the internet, they've reinvented New Age music. Streaming on YouTube and promotion on social media have replaced all the functions of a conventional record company, providing a worldwide platform for their entrancing live performances, without the compromises and loss of control of a conventional recording contract.

Their music is peaceful, harmonious, and contemplative. Here's how they describe it:

"CHANTRESS SEBA, Singer of the Stars, a voice to guide us home to our hearts. Gemini's powerful ethereal vocals and channeled light language from the shining stars above, combined with Finn's earthy, spacious instrumentation, create an atmosphere of deep remembering, allowing the divine to speak to the listener through mind, body, and soul." "We create music, host ceremonies and gatherings, and provide 1 to 1 shamanic sound healing."

It's a long-form journey from one of the new frontiers of new age music: CHANTRESS SEBA...on this transmission...of Hearts of Space.

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

PGM 1346R 'INDIA NAVIGATION 2' : may 24-31

It’s been almost seventy years since the arrival of Indian classical music in Europe and the United States. Starting in 1956, English violinist YEHUDI MENUHIN’s interest in Indian music led to collaborations and concert tours with two of the then hottest young musicians in India—sitar master RAVI SHANKAR and sarod master ALI AKBAR KHAN. It was the beginning of a period of cross-fertilization of Indian and Western classical music. And in the 1960’s, the famous adoption of the Indian sitar by GEORGE HARRISON of THE BEATLES brought awareness of Indian music to the mainstream.

Today, recordings, films, videos, and digital networks have led to a broadening of cultural communication, where influence and interaction occur across many genres simultaneously. Western musicians study Indian microtonal scales, play Indian instruments, and create new hybrid styles—while Indian musicians study western tempered scales, harmony, and orchestration, play electronic instruments, and extend the traditions of Indian music to an international audience.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, contemporary, traditional, and sacred sounds of India, on a program called INDIA NAVIGATION 2.

Music is by sitarists JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN, ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, and NILADRI KUMAR, bansuri flutists MARK SEELIG and VIRGINIA NICOLI, sarod and santur by CHINMAYA DUNSTER, and producer CRAIG PRUESS and the great devotional singer ANURADHA PAUDWAL.

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

PGM 1372 'ELECTRON FLOW' : may 17-24

Electronic music has come a long way in the last 50 years. Beginning in the 1960s, the arrival of affordable mass-produced analog and digital synthesizers liberated electronic music from the rigidity of academic laboratories, the iconoclasm of avant-garde theories, and the dogmas of experimental music. Equipped with powerful instruments and their own recording studios, electronic musicians were free to take ideas and influences from all kinds of popular and historical music, leading to a fruitful period of cross-fertilization, invention, and collaboration.

Early electronic instruments were notably lacking in musical expression, but they proved to be exceptionally good at creating the impression of flying and floating in vast virtual spaces. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we fly on electronic winds and float on electronic clouds, on a program called ELECTRON FLOW.

Music is by GEORGE WALLACE, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, COPAL RIVER, ROBERT SCOTT THOMPSON, STEVE ROACH, ANDREW LAHIFF, STEVE BRAND, and ADHAM SHAIKH.

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

PGM 1144R 'CONFLATION' : may 10-17

The solo piano: a sound that's been evolving for over 300 years. It's perfectly happy all by itself, but it also plays exceptionally well with others. Flexible by design, the piano has been a mainstay in classical music and jazz, and a key element in traditional and popular music.

With the arrival of ambient, minimal and new age music in the 1970s, the piano was expanded and dematerialized through studio magic, and combined with ambient and electronic textures to create spatial sound images. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the acoustic piano meets ambient atmospheres, on a program called CONFLATION.

Music is by JON HOPKINS, TALE OF US, BEN LUKAS BOYSEN, ROBERT RICH & MARKUS REUTER, HAROLD BUDD & CLIVE WRIGHT, CHRIS WALLA, and CHRISTOPHER WILLITS & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO.

NOTE: If you're thinking of buying one the new electronic/digital pianos, here's an excellent guide by Rob Beck.

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

PGM 1371 'HARMONIC WORLD' : may 3-10

"In turbulent times, ambient world musicians project calm and harmony."

It's an instinctive response to our super-charged environment, a way to transmute chaos and instability into order, reduce anxiety, restore regular breathing, and take down the temperature. Perhaps more remarkable, even in our electronic era, they do it mainly as they have for centuries — with traditional acoustic instruments and consonant harmonies.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a transcultural acoustic fusion of influences from South America, Jamaica, North Africa, the Middle East, Indonesia, and India — on a program called HARMONIC WORLD. Music is by SUZANNE TENG & GILBERT LEVY, STEPHAN MICUS, AUKAI, SHANTALA, CHANTRESS SEBA, and MIRABAI CEIBA. 

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