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PGM 1113R “SWEET SERENITY” : may 15-22

In the 1970s a grassroots music movement emerged in the United States, Europe and Japan. Inspired by psychoactive chemistry and exotic forms of Eastern spirituality, enabled by inexpensive recording equipment and cheap publishing on cassettes, and supported by a burgeoning marketplace of specialized bookstores and boutiques, in the 1980s it received the dubious moniker “New Age Music.” It was all about relaxation and a sonic pathway to inner experience.

New opportunities for success in independent music are rare. What began as a promising new culture was soon overrun by less inspired artists and a glut of mediocre albums that left the genre with a reputation for extravagant marketing claims but insipid, boring music. Yet like most genres, there were always exceptional artists releasing sensitive, beautiful and worthwhile music — you just had to find them.

Today there’s been a revival of critical interest in the genre, with re-releases of lost classics and popular compilations. All the while, many of the best and most authentic New Age artists and record labels have quietly kept going. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an hour of new age music worth listening to, on a program called “SWEET SERENITY.” Music is by PAUL AVGERINOS, ANIMA, DEUTER, SHERRY FINZER & MARK HOLLAND, UMA, IASOS, GANDALF, and LIQUID MIND.

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PGM 1418 “LONG TONES, SLOW TIME” : mar. 27-apr. 3

Whether you mark the beginning of the ambient-electronic music genre as the 1978 release of BRIAN ENO’s historic “AMBIENT 1: MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS”… OR…you consider late 19th/early 20th century “Impressionist” composers like CLAUDE DEBUSSY as influences from pre-ambient atmospheric music. OR…you point to musical iconoclasts like ERIK SATIE, who cleverly advocated for an unobtrusive background music that was more like…furniture! OR…you find formal and spiritual resonances in the classical, religious, folk and native music of many cultures.

Taken all together, it’s clear that a sensibility for the slow-moving, space-creating, atmospheric sound at the heart of ambient music is alive and thriving in the 21st century. On this transmission of Hearts of Space…a program called “LONG TONES, SLOW TIME.”

We have a virtual coalition of artists who work with acoustic and electronic instruments, analog and digital synthesis, fractal rhythms, hypnotic drones, and consonant harmony—to create personal psychoacoustic music that expands our sense of space and alters our sense of time.

Music is by CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, STEVE ROACH, MARTIN STÜRTZER, LONEWARD, and PAUL AVGERINOS.

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PGM 1415 ‘SUBLIME CONTINUITIES’ : feb.6-13

The ancient kingdom of Tibet, high and remote in the Himalayan Mountains dividing India and China, is physically and culturally about as far as westerners can go from home.

The Buddhist religion of Tibet was derived from the Mahayana Buddhism of Northern India in the 8th century. It’s a rich tradition. For over a thousand years, Tibetan Buddhist monks have created some of the world’s most extraordinary sacred art and architecture. They also invented resonant metal percussion instruments—bells, “singing” bowls, gongs, and cymbals—and giant horns that emit sepulchral bass drones that seem to summon the spirits of the dead.

These bronze instruments and the ceremonial religious music they created were kept secret for centuries until the 1960’s, when a new breed of western artist-adventurers made the arduous trek over the mountains to the monasteries. Facing existential threats from China, the monks allowed these unofficial emissaries from the west to buy authentic Tibetan instruments and bring them home for safekeeping.

Before 1972 there were only a few ethnographic field recordings of Tibetan religious rituals. That was the year that HENRY WOLFF, NANCY HENNINGS, and DREW GLADSTONE returned to London from Tibet, booked a famous recording studio, and produced “TIBETAN BELLS,” the first album of original music for Tibetan instruments. It could hardly have been more exotic, but it was beautiful, and in the open-minded culture of the 1970s the album attracted the attention of Island Records—home of Bob Marley and reggae—and was given a worldwide release. The bells of Tibet had come to the west.

The sound they pioneered was not based on Tibetan religious music or western experimental percussion, but an invented language of pure tones with uncanny sustain, harmonic and inharmonic drones, fractal waveforms, spectral overtones, and extended resonant decays. In the intervening decades, it inspired practitioners of therapeutic “sound healing,” and more recently, the immersive group meditations of the “sound bath” movement.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the eternal sound of Tibetan bells, bowls, and gongs, featuring sonic meditations by KEVIN BRAHENY-FORTUNE, plus music by HIMALAYAN VOICES, HANS CHRISTIAN, JACUB LEONOWICZ, and KENT SPARLING. A program called “SUBLIME CONTINUITIES”—on this transmission of Hearts of Space.

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PGM 1211R ‘ELECTRON TRAVELER 4’ : dec.16-jan. 6

Flying and floating in electronic soundscapes

Flying…and Floating. As a literal description of the experience, it goes back to the early days of popular electronic music and the early days of Hearts of Space. Over the years we’ve done programs called Floating Whispers, Floating Worlds, Floating Gardens, Floating Reveries, Floating Waves, Floating Winds, and yes, Flying and Floating 1, 2, and 3.

Back then I said “flying music is rhythm-powered and moves through space, heading for worlds beyond; floating music is goal-free—ethereal, static, and timeless.” You know, I can’t really add anything to that; we still enjoy expanding into unlimited virtual spaces, and yearn for the quiet pleasure of weightless suspension in time.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another journey in our electronic touring series, on a program called “ELECTRON TRAVELER 4.” Music is by ASCENDANT, KEVIN KELLER, ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT, DWIGHT LOOP, MASSERGY, and ERIK WØLLO.

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PGM 1412 ‘SACRED HYMNS and TIMELESS MELODIES’ : dec. 19-26

Western sacred music was created for use in monastic religious rituals and the liturgies of the early Christian church. Plainsong or Plainchant developed during the early centuries of Christianity, influenced by the music of the Jewish synagogue and by the Greek modal system. Plainchant, and later Gregorian chant, was simple, monophonic, and vocal.

With the patronage of the Catholic church, it existed in the rare and heightened atmosphere of spiritual belief. In the awe-inspiring reverberant spaces of stone churches and cathedrals, it evolved into the diverse sacred choral repertoire of today.

Western classical art music began around the 9th century A.D. with the introduction of Polyphony and a practical system of notation. It was also influenced by the music theories of ancient Greece and Rome, and evolved, with the patronage of the royal courts of Europe, into the diverse classical repertoire of today.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, it’s another winter holiday special from longtime guest producer ELLEN HOLMES, featuring some of the most revered hymns and beautiful melodies from the European classical and sacred choral traditions, on a program called “SACRED HYMNS and TIMELESS MELODIES.”

Music by MOZART, J.S.BACH, HANDEL, PRFAETORIUS, GOUNOD, MORAN, CASSIDY, GERRARD ++

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PGM 1386R ‘LIGHT TIME’ : dec.12-19

In the brief interlude between Thanksgiving and the winter holiday celebrations, we undergo a rapid change in emotional tone. Gone are the fearful ghosts and goblins of Halloween, the somber melancholy of the autumn season, and the quiet gratitude of Thanksgiving. Approaching the shortest day and longest night of the year on the winter solstice, we celebrate the return of the light.

Today, we chase away the gloom and transform our environment with millions of colorful lights and dazzling screens. From the brilliance of our seasonal displays to the hypnotic warmth of a single candle — we embrace the joy of light and color, and the fulfillment of sound and music. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, electronic ambient for the season of light, on a program called ‘LIGHT TIME.’

Music is by DAVID HELPLING and singer MIRIAM STOCKLEY, JOHAN AGEBJÖRN and singer LISA BARRA, ERIK WØLLO, TOM EATON, ROSS CHRISTOPHER, ROBERT RICH & LUCA FORMENTINI, JON HOPKINS & ÓLAFUR ARNALDS, and WILL BANGS. https://bit.ly/HoS-1386R

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PGM 1411 ‘ARCADIA’ : dec.5-12

The name “Arcadia” is associated with a vision of pastoral simplicity and harmony with nature. The term was inspired by the remote, mountainous Greek province ARKADIA, over 2500 years ago. In time it came to symbolize an unspoiled wilderness of natural splendor and harmony—an unattainable, lost Eden—virtuous and uncorrupted by civilization.

For New York composer KEVIN KELLER, Arcadia was a natural extension of his love for “plainsong” or “plainchant”—the medieval sacred vocal music that originated in the early years of Christianity, and led to the development of the more sophisticated “Gregorian” Chant beginning in the 9th century. Keller’s 2023 album EVENSONG included plainchant melodies and Latin texts by HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, who played a key role in the evolution and eventual dominance of the Gregorian Chant in the 12th century.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey from “Contemporary-Medieval” to “Ethereal Electronic Classical,” on a program called “ARCADIA.” Music is by KEVIN KELLER with SOFIA CAMPOAMOR, BRIAN ENO, IMMERSION THEORY, MEG BOWLES, DEBORAH MARTIN & J.ARIF VERNER, BLUETECH, and JEFF PEARCE.

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PGM 1357R ‘AUTUMN TWILIGHT’ : nov.14-21

Of all the seasons, fall is the one that comes with the most mixed emotions: relief at the return of moderate temperatures, pleasure at nature’s autumn color show, and a feeling of melancholy at the darkening of the light.

Technical interventions like Daylight Saving Time can’t hide the fact that the amount of daylight is decreasing. In the northern hemisphere, we’re counting down to the Winter Solstice—the shortest day of the year, around December 21st.

For ambient musicians, fall offers a darker palette, more somber harmonies, and a call to explore deeper feelings. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we descend into the dimming light of fall, on a program called “AUTUMN TWILIGHT.”’

Music is by TOM EATON, BOB HOLROYD, SUBDREAM, DEEPSPACE, STEVE ROACH, and RUSSEL WALDER.

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PGM 1409 ‘ADAGIETTO’ : nov.7-14

Sublime melodic classics for string orchestra and small ensembles

The language of music notation is Italian, and the Italian word “adagietto” calls for a musical tempo that falls between adagio—”slow and stately”—and andante—”at a walking pace” — calm, flowing, relaxed.

By far the best known adagietto in the classical repertoire is the gorgeous 4th movement of GUSTAV MAHLER’s Symphony No. 5, which due to its length and beauty is often performed as a standalone concert piece. We’ll be hearing it on this transmission of Hearts of Space from longtime guest producer for classical and sacred music, ELLEN HOLMES, on a special program of much-loved orchestral and chamber classics called ADAGIETTO.

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PGM. 1331R ‘CELLO ELEGIES 2’ : oct.31-nov.7

Mournful…plaintive…melancholy…somber…sonorous…resonant.

The cello is all this and more — a compact, versatile string orchestra in one instrument, with a four-octave range that comes fully alive in the dark days of autumn. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, it’s an autumn journey featuring the plangent tones of the cello, on a program called “CELLO ELEGIES 2.”

Music is by DAVID DARLING, HANS CHRISTIAN, MAYA BEISER, BLACK TAPE for a BLUE GIRL, ERALDO BERNOCCHI & HOSHIKO YAMANE, JESSE AHMANN, MAX RICHTER, and MARCELLO DE FRANCISCI.

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