Stephen Hill

This time we return to a series we began in 2015, and continued in 2020 and 2021. Yes, spacefans, it’s another transmission in our seminal electronic music series—”COSMIC ELECTRONIC 4.”

It’s seminal because we’ve been obsessed with the genre since 1973, but didn’t get around to naming a program after it ‘til decades later. As I said then, “The analog synthesizer allowed musicians to design entirely new sounds and created a new kind of spatial imagery that evoked the vastness of cosmic space. It could be cold and dark, warm and romantic, dramatic or contemplative—and it came to be called “spacemusic.”

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a deep space journey to newly discovered star fields, thanks to the awesome JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE — on a program called “COSMIC ELECTRONIC 4.” Music is by MARTIN STÜRTZER, STARTERRA, DREAMSTATE LOGIC, JIM OTTAWAY, COUSIN SILAS & MICHAEL BRÜCKNER, KEVIN BRAHENY FORTUNE, and KLAUS SCHULZE.

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AFRICA…an enormous continent, with a vast and diverse array of music.

In Sub-Saharan Africa it’s mostly upbeat, polyrhythmic, and joyful, designed to accompany dancing and celebration. There’s also an extensive traditional folk music, with songs for every occasion, and historic religious and ceremonial music. It’s different—so it’s not surprising that it took us more than six years to produce our first program exploring the slower, quieter side of African music in 1989.

The most obvious difference when compared to contemporary ambient from Western countries is the emotional quality. Where Western ambient is often cool and trance-inducing, African ambient makes a joyful noise, and remains committed to traditional acoustic instruments, like the 21 string harp called the kora, the metallic thumb piano called the mbira, the West African lute called the ngoni, and a wide array of drums and percussion.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, the seductive polyrhythms and sweet modal harmonies of Sub-Saharan Africa, on a program called “AFRICAN DELIGHT.”  Music is by AYUB OGADA, SONA JOBARTEH, BETWEEN, STEPHAN MICUS, DANIEL BERKMAN, WILL RIDENOUR & BETSY BEVAN, and SAMITE.

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What we call Ambient Music today dates from 1978, when English musician and producer BRIAN ENO released “AMBIENT 1 : MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS.”  In his companion “Ambient Manifesto,” Eno gave a name and a purpose to an undefined creative area of minimalist, electronic, and experimental art music, and turned it into a contemporary genre.

Writers searching for the roots of the Ambient sensibility traced its origins to prehistoric Eastern religious traditions that promoted ecstatic states through stillness, meditation, psychedelic and mystical experience. The contemporary influence of European electronic music was more technical, and focused on creating complex soundscapes and defining auditory space. Today, Ambient music creates a sense of place that ranges from merely calming and serene, to profoundly numinous and transcendent, and supports an accessible form of spirituality for a post-secular age.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we look back at ambient music from its early maturity in the 1980s, and now—on a program called “AMBIENT EVOLUTION.”  Music is by JOHANNES SCHMOELLING, PETER BAUMANN, DON ROBERTSON, STATE AZURE, CHRISTIAN HALTEN and MICHAEL STEARNS, BLUE CHIP ORCHESTRA, PETER SEILER, and BRIAN ENO.

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It’s been just over a year since our last program on the classical and devotional music of India. With a history going back over three thousand years, it has complex, deeply entrenched traditions, yet has adapted surprisingly well to contemporary genres and technologies. A case in point is the ongoing embrace of electronic music by musicians from India and the demanding study of Indian music by western electronic musicians. It’s even more remarkable because Indian classical music is drone-based and monophonic—no harmony, no chords—and microtonal, with 22 notes to the octave versus 12 in western music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space — contemporary, traditional, and devotional music of India, on a program called INDIA NAVIGATION 3. Music is by ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN, STEVE GORN, MANOSE & TY BURHOE, ALAM KHAN, and MANISH VYAS.

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When the comprehensive history of electronic music is written, the period from the arrival of playable synthesizers in the 1960s and the introduction of drum machines in the 1970s until now will seem particularly disruptive. Synthesizers propelled the music out of academic laboratories and on the road to the diverse electronic space, ambient, and atmospheric genres of today. At the same time, drum machines propelled popular music out of the recording studio and onto the dance floor, where DJs produced an endless variety of complex beats that paved the road to EDM—Electronic Dance Music, and IDM—Intelligent Dance Music.

When the summer heat arrives, it stimulates rhythmic activity everywhere. Ironically, ambient is one of the few genres that can live without rhythm, but percussion is so fundamental to popular music that many ambient artists can’t resist using it. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, percussion-powered ambient for early summer, on a program called (with due respect to the song by Peter Gabriel) ‘RHYTHM OF THE HEAT.’ Music is by AES DANA, VIR UNIS, STEVE ROACH, CHRIS MEYER’S ALIAS ZONE, EXTRAWORLD, BIFF JOHNSON, JOYSTICK, and THIERRY DAVID. 

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