hearts of space | news

PGM 1192 'MINIMAL GROOVE' : sept.14-21

What's in a groove? In music the term usually describes a repeating rhythm pattern that creates a cycle of movement and a sense of propulsion. The word has been used in jazz since the 1930's, but grooves have been key to dance music around the world for centuries, and are an element of many popular genres. 

Swiss musician DON LI has taken the concept farther, working with what he calls "curved rhythms" and subtle changes in phrasing that create changing perceptions of time and space. His work is often described as "reductive" or "minimal." 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we explore minimal rhythms and ambient patterns, on a program called MINIMAL GROOVE. Music by DON LI, TWILIGHT ARCHIVE, ALEX HAAS & BILL LASWELL, NELSON FOLTZ & TOM LYNN, SATORI, and MIDORI TAKADA.

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PGM 1191 'ENVIRONMENTS' : sept. 7-14

 

IRV TEIBEL was an innovator and entrepreneur who created the ENVIRONMENTS series of ambient sound recordings in the 1970s. He perfected the concept of functional therapeutic background sound, once comparing his recordings to "a bar of soap." Teibel realized that nature sounds had a soothing, calming, restorative quality, so he concentrated on ocean waves, flowing streams, birds, insects, wind and rain. Listening to nature sounds takes us back to pre-industrial, pre-electronic media times, where we spent hours every day immersed in natural sound environments. In fact, it's fair to say that our stereoscopic hearing system itself evolved to guide, position, and protect us in the natural environment. 

With characteristic bravado, Teibel called his one-man record label SYNTONIC RESEARCH. His obsessive persistence, technical talent, genius for branding and marketing, and over-the-top, buzzword-filled copywriting led to the first commercially successful series of ambient sound recordings. The debut release in 1969 was an ocean recording, which he branded "The Psychologically Ultimate Seashore." Against all odds, it was a hit—picked up by a major label and sold millions, which gave him the freedom to expand his idea into a series. Teibel wasn't a purist; when he couldn't get a real ocean recording that fit his concept, he turned to a scientist friend at Bell Labs and created it electronically on an early IBM mainframe. 

Until recently, his work was an almost forgotten artifact of the 1970s. But according to a profile by CARA GIAIMO at atlasobscura.com, Teibel was the transition between the 1960s era of Muzak, "mood music" and cheesy sound effects records, and the 1980s era of New Age atmospherics, Ambient music and Brian Eno. And, not coincidentally, Hearts of Space. 

The original ENVIRONMENTS LPs and later CDs were out of print for years, but recently they appeared on the full-catalog streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Not only that — thanks to new age sound historian DOUGLAS McGOWAN and the NUMERO GROUP reissue label, you can now buy the complete ENVIRONMENTS catalog of 22 long-form ambient nature recordings for just $2.99 as an app— making the experience affordable, personal, portable and accessible, even when you're offline. It's so effortless to play them in the app that it encourages more use, experimentation, and appreciation. How cool is that? 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a celebration of the pioneering ambient sound recordings of IRV TEIBEL and Syntonic Research, on a program called ENVIRONMENTS. We'll feature selections from 16 of the ENVIRONMENTS series recordings, tracking the sounds of a day from dawn to night and beyond, into contemplative environments for digital bells and choral voices.

The gentle world of natural ambient sound: ENVIRONMENTS...on this transmission...of Hearts of Space. 

Additional Information on Irv Teibel:
Profile article at atlasobscura.com
Irv Teibel bio
Wikipedia article on Irv Teibel

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PGM 1190 'IN A SPANISH MOOD' : aug.10-17

Only a few places can claim a native music with worldwide popularity, but the province of Andalusia in southern Spain is one. With roots going back to medieval times, in the late 18th century a rare fusion of Moorish, Christian, Sephardic Jewish and Gypsy cultures gave birth to the fiery rhythms and dark harmonies of flamenco. This is the culture that gave us the Spanish guitar — a descendant of the Arabic lute called the oud. For sheer cultural impact, it's a record that's hard to beat. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, contemporary Spanish fusions and the soulful music of Andalusia, on a program called IN A SPANISH MOOD.

Music is by B-TRIBE, JOHANNES LINSTEAD, BOB ZOPP, JEFF DWARSHUIS, GINO D'AURI, the AL-ANDALUS ENSEMBLE, ADAM HURST, ANDRE FERIANTE, MILOŠ, and BENEDETTI & SVOBODA.

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PGM 1189 'DEEP DUB' : july 27-aug 3

The history of Jamaican Dub music is rich and fascinating. Dub grew out of reggae in the 1960s, and evolved well beyond its popular parent. It was a studio craft where producers created instrumental remixes of reggae tracks by removing the vocals, adding echo, reverb and delay, and dubbing in new ambient sounds. Essentially, dub was an early form of popular electronic music.

If you think all this had something to do with cannabis, you'd be understating the case. In a 1982 essay, LUKE EHRLICH said: "With dub, Jamaican music spaced out completely. If reggae is Africa in the New World, then dub must be Africa on the moon; it's the psychedelic music I expected to hear in the 1960s...and didn't. The bass and drums conjure up a dark, vast musical portrait of outer space, with sounds suspended like glowing planets or the fragments of instruments careening by, leaving trails like comets and meteors."

Dub was a natural link to later electronic genres like techno, ambient, trip hop and electronic dance music. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the trancey beats of Jamaican Dub and its electronic descendants, on a program from guest producer DAVID J. EGAN called DEEP DUB. Music is by JAH WOBBLE & MARCONI UNION, ORKUS, FINGERS IN THE NOISE, ECHO GRID, PURL & DEFLEKTION, LOSCIL, and MOTIONFIELD.

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PGM 1188 'SUMMERTONES 3 : july 20-27

Believe it or not, the combination of ambient nature sounds and electronic music was actually an innovation in the 1970s. And you may be surprised that the idea had a history in European classical music, especially in England and France.

In England, it was the so-called "pastoral" composers like ARNOLD BAX and RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, who created orchestral images of nature. In France, it was the Impressionists, from CLAUDE DEBUSSY to OLIVIER MESSIAEN. They didn't have recordings, so they created new instruments and playing techniques to imitate natural sounds like wind and birdsongs.

By the mid-20th century, we could record the sounds of nature, edit them and play them back at will. In the 1950s, avant-garde composers like JOHN CAGE were promoting an awareness of ambient sound as equal to music. Music...was how you listened. Incorporating nature sounds into music was the next step; beside, film soundtracks had been doing it for years.

The psychology is foundational: humans evolved listening to natural sounds, and they send a message we respond to instinctively. For example, birdsong on a gentle summer morning is delightful and calming. Blend in some subtle synthesizers, season with gourmet reverberation and you have what two young Canadians named MYCHAEL DANNA and TIM CLÉMENT called "environmental electronic music."

It's an idea that was embraced by New Age musicians and in time became a bit of a cliché. But it led to an electronic genre of extended tone-color journeys in virtual space, which is still alive and well. On this transmission of Hearts of Space...the fluid, airy sound of summer spacemusic, on a program called SUMMERTONES 3.

Music is by MEG BOWLES, DANNA & CLÉMENT, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, ALTUS, and STELLIA.

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PGM 1187 'DESERT SOUL 2' : july 13-20

Over the last 35 years we've broadcast some 31 programs inspired by the evocative, intensely moving music of North Africa and the Middle East. And almost every time, I've added a disclaimer that these programs have nothing to do with the contentious politics of the region. After all, these are some of the oldest cultures on earth, with complex, artistically evolved musical traditions. But in one sense, politics has made a difference. The political ferment has led to a diaspora of hundreds of the region's best musicians, who now live and work in France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, and the U.S.

From the relative safety and stability of western cities, nostalgia for their homelands has produced what poet HAKIM BEY memorably called "romantic transcultural exile music of the Middle East." These creative fusions of Arabic, North African, Persian and electronic music stand as living examples of cultural tolerance and communication.

I'm Stephen Hill and on this transmission of Hearts of Space, we return to the superheated spaces of the Middle East and North Africa, on a program called DESERT SOUL 2.

Music is by MICHEL BANABILA & MEHMET POLAT, RHO UTASATO, YUVAL RON ENSEMBLE, MAHSA VAHDAT, PETE NAMLOOK & BURHAN OÇAL, ALEX KHASKIN, DHAFER YOUSSEF, ANOUAR BRAHEM, MERCAN DEDE, and OMAR FARUK TEKBILEK.

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PGM 1186 'TRIBAL AMBIENT' : june 29-july 6

It's not all that often that a new strain of popular electronic music arrives in the culture fully formed, but it happened in 1988 in the wake of STEVE ROACH's ground-breaking album DREAMTIME RETURN. Like Stravinsky 75 years earlier with The Rite of Spring, Roach realized that electronic music needed a dose of primitive energy and physicality — and he found it in the trance-inducing music of the aboriginal tribes of Australia.

The new genre was called "Techno-Tribal" and it combined electronic atmospheres with primitive rattles, drums, rocks, and the aboriginal didgeridoo. If our current political tribalism is an index of popularity, tribal music should be all the rage. But most electronic artists are urban, and have been influenced by Electronic Dance Music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, electronic atmospheres meet trance percussion, on a program called TRIBAL AMBIENT. Music is by STEVE ROACH, BYRON METCALF & JENNIFER GRAIS, INLAKESH, FRORE & SHANE MORRIS, JOHN VORUS, D LOOP and KEVIN BRAHENY [FORTUNE].

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PGM 1185 'COSMIC TRAVELER 2' : june 22-29

Since the earliest days of popular electronic music, artists have created sonic images of cosmic space. Where traditional instruments failed, synthesizers seemed right at home in the endless vacuum of the interstellar void. Exploring this vast environment led to a kind of traveling music of slowly changing rhythmic loops — originally made on hardware "sequencers," later on dedicated "loopers," and now with software. Invented in Berlin in the 1970s by German artists like KLAUS SCHULZE and TANGERINE DREAM, the "Berlin school" style was widely influential and still has descendants today.

Extending the metaphor of cosmic travel...once you arrived at your destination, it was time to power down the propulsive rhythms and experience the awesome cosmic panorama. This led to a slower, quieter, beatless electronic music for floating in space — static and contemplative, the progenitor of Chill.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, electronic meditations on space and motion, on a program called COSMIC TRAVELER 2.

Music is by STEVE ROACH, BROEKHUIS KELLER & SCHÖNWÄLDER, MICHAEL BRÜCKNER, JACK HERTZ, RICHARD BONE, CHRISTOPHER WILLITS & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO, and SVERRE KNUT JOHANSEN.

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PGM 1184 'BEYOND THE RAGASPHERE : june 15-22

Slow and gentle, the harmonic drone and the ancient bansuri flute invite us to another journey in the contemplative music of India. Half a world and centuries away from European practice, Indian classical music developed in its own unique way. It focused on melody and rhythm rather than harmony, evolved a sophisticated framework for improvisation in live performance called raga, and a set of rhythm rules called tala.

The goal of raga is to create mood, atmosphere and feeling for the listener. And though Indian music once sounded impossibly strange and exotic to European ears, as a result of the tireless touring of Indian virtuosi like RAVI SHANKAR and ALI AKBAR KHAN, it was embraced in the 20th century by Western avant garde and experimental musicians, and later by others exploring the new frontiers of electronic music. Building on the sounds, instruments and strategies of Indian raga, they created new hybrids of Eastern and Western music which are still being explored today.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey in the creative world of Indian fusion, on a program called BEYOND THE RAGASPHERE. Music is by JOHN WUBBENHORST, AL GROMER KHAN, ALAM KHAN, MARK DEUTSCH, HANS CHRISTIAN, CRAIG PRUESS & ANURADHA PAUDWAL, and ALIO DIE.

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PGM 1183 'HYPERTRONIC' : june 1-8

In the fair days of late spring, electronic winds blow warm and steady, while sequencers spin creative rhythms, propelling us into the active days and balmy nights of summer. DJs prepare their sets for the summer festivals, while ambient composers create expansive soundscapes for virtual travel. Attention Spacefans: it's party time.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an hour of technotronic rhythms and ambient atmospheres, on a program called HYPERTRONIC.

Music is by S1GNS OF L1FE, MARC HARTMAN, MEES DIERDORP, MARTIN NONSTATIC, ASC, CRYSTAL MOON, LEMONGRASS, ISHQ, and ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT.

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PGM 1182 'FLOWING INTO SPRING 4' : may 25-june 1

Back in 1975, a Northern California steel string guitarist named WILL ACKERMAN began playing and selling cassettes of his music around the Stanford University campus. It was so popular it led to the founding of Windham Hill Records in 1976 — the first big success of the music trend that came to be called New Age Music in the 1980s.

Instrumental, acoustic, and generally low key, Windham Hill literally became the poster child for a grab-bag genre that became ever more unfocussed as it grew—a category for anything that wasn't jazz or folk, rock or pop. But it served a need for quiet, relaxing, meditative instrumental music that continues today.

In time the New Age Music category became so diverse as to be almost meaningless. Home studios, inexpensive publishing on cassette and later CD, meant that anyone could release their music, and the genre's reputation deteriorated to the point that serious producers of atmospheric music called theirs Ambient, Electronic, or just about anything else.

Yet — in the last few years, the New Age genre has seen a critical reconsideration, with carefully curated compilations of historical material, while both veterans and descendants of the genre are creating new music that merits serious attention. A good example is the group FLOW, which includes none other than steel string guitarist WILL ACKERMAN, in a kind of New Age "supergroup."

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we ride the vernal breezes into the gentle sound of the season, on a program called FLOWING INTO SPRING 4.

Music is by FLOW, PETER KATER, JIM GABRIEL, MICHAEL WHALEN, MIACHAEL BRANT DeMARIA, CHRIS HAUGEN, TOM MOORE & SHERRY FINZER, and MAJESTICA.

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PGM 1181 'CONFESSIONS' : may 11-18

CONFESSION...it's simple in theory: to tell the truth. In practice? It's more complicated.

Confession plays a critical role in the justice system, in religion, in therapeutic and personal relationships. And at a time when the very idea of objective facts and truth is being challenged, confession is more important than ever.

A true confession is a revelation — a release of hidden knowledge. And it's often accompanied by powerful, even cathartic, emotions. No wonder confessional songs and music are found in some of the oldest cultures on earth.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space...the quiet sound of emotional truth, on a program called CONFESSIONS.

Music is by ADAM HURST, ELINA DUNI, MIRABAI CEIBA, SAVINA YANNATOU, BADI ASSAD, JOSÉ LUIS MONTÓN, ESTÁS TONNÉ, ANDRÉ GERAISSATI, and AMBERFERN.

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PGM 1180 'FLOATING WINDS : may 4-11

One of the most seductive musical combinations is the soft cry of a wind instrument — in this case, a soprano saxophone — floating high and free above a cushion of electronic sound. It's a combination that brings out the best of its parts: the melodic, emotional expression of the horn; the spacious sonic architecture of an ambient electronic soundfield.

Winds with electronics are relatively new, but the sound of a primitive flute or horn resonating in acoustic space goes back to the cave homes of our earliest ancestors.
It's a formative sound experience in the evolution of the ambient sensibility, revived
in the 1960s by clarinetist TONY SCOTT in MUSIC FOR ZEN MEDITATION, and by flutist PAUL HORN in his classic recording INSIDE THE TAJ MAHAL.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we explore the happy combination of acoustic winds and ambient electronics, on a program called FLOATING WINDS. Music is by KEVIN BRAHENY FORTUNE, MATT BORGHI & MICHAEL TEAGER, KLAUS SCHULZE (with TOBIAS BECKER), and KIT WATKINS.

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PGM 1179 'TRANCE PLANET 2' : april 27-may 4

SPRING: it arrives in the Northern Hemisphere in fits and starts. It takes several months before we're all on the spring page. In the meantime, we can take a hint from our pagan ancestors, who went in for big parties around the vernal equinox to let the gods know they were ready for spring.

In those days, drummers got everyone moving around the communal bonfires. These days, hand drummers tap out mesmerizing rhythms on new melodic percussion instruments like the PanArt Hang and the Halo handpans. On this transmission of Hearts of Space...we follow the sound of the Hang, on an ethno-tronic journey for spring called TRANCE PLANET 2.

Music is by JAMES HOOD, HANG IN BALANCE, HANG MASSIVE, LAURA INSERRA & DARREN GIBBS, CHRISTOPHER OF THE WOLVES, and PETER GARLAND.

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PGM 1178 'BIOSONIC 2' : apr.13-20

Exploring the remote tributaries of the great river of ambient sound, we come upon music inspired by the natural world and the micro-organisms that inhabit it. Recent research shows that the so-called "micro-biome" — the vast community of microbes in the environment, in animals, and in us — is essential for life.

According to musician ROBERT RICH "we imagine ourselves to be individuals, but in fact we're a collective, a network of organisms with a unique microbiome of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and organelles." Rich calls it "the Biode, a biomic node, the gathering place where a community of organisms combines to become a unit of individuality."

For these ambient musicians, the Biode inspires electro-acoustic metaphors of the natural world, a complex, inter-dependent community of sounds. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, the organic sound in ambient electronics, on a program called BIOSONIC 2.

Music is by ROBERT RICH, JARGUNA, APOCRYPHOS, KAMMARHEIT & ATRIUM CARCERI, FORREST FANG, ISHQ, ROBERT DAVIES, and STEVE ROACH & ROBERT LOGAN.

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PGM 1177 'DIVINE LIGHT' : mar.30-apr. 6

The sublime tradition of Russian Orthodox sacred choral music begins with ancient Byzantine chants and comes to full magnificence with the influence of Western classical music. In the great mixed choirs, ethereal and earthly sonorities magically combine with images of radiant light and extended prayers of fervent supplication, transporting the listener to realms beyond worldly cares. 

On this Easter season transmission of HEARTS of SPACE from longtime guest producer for sacred and classical music ELLEN HOLMES — a program called DIVINE LIGHT.

Music is by RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, KALINNIKOV, CHESNOKOV, SVIRIDOV, NIKOLAEV-STROUMSKY, KETCHAKHMAZDE, ARVO PÄRT, OLA GJEILO, KJARTAN SVEINSSON, TERJE RYPDAL, and the monks of CHEVETOGNE ABBEY in Belgium.

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PGM 1176 'ELECTRON TRAVELER 3 : mar. 23-30

What would you do if someone gave you a magical electronic instrument, one that could create any sound you could imagine? You might play it like a conventional acoustic instrument with a distinctive tone; or you might invent entirely new kinds of music, free from the physical limitations of breath, bow, vibrating strings, resonant tubes, stretched skins and skilled fingers...that defined traditional music for centuries.

Something like this actually happened to musicians beginning early in the 20th century. Along with recording technology, electronic music started a revolution we still haven't heard the end of a century later — a world of hundreds of new electronic genres, from so called IDM or Intelligent Dance Music, to an almost endless array of contemplative electronic sounds for solitary experience and "deep listening."

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we focus on electronic music for virtual travel, on a program called ELECTRON TRAVELER 3.

Music is by PALANCAR, STELLARDRONE, ALIO DIE, CONNECT.OHM, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, ISHQ, and BOB HOLROYD.

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PGM 1175 'THE ENCHANTED HARP' : march 16-23

It's fitting that we celebrate St. Patrick's Day in March, when we can either be enduring the final insults of winter, or enjoying the gentle rains, green leaves and pink blossoms of spring. Whatever the weather, Celtic music can rise to the occasion. Of all the world's folk musics, the Celtic tradition is one of the most extensive in range and varied in emotional expression. From heroic marches to joyous dances, from melancholy dirges to heart-rending ballads — Celtic music reflects the panorama of human feeling.

The Celtic revival of the 1980s and 90s brought new attention to the genre, and motivated native Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Breton musicians to new heights, while many other nationalities of Celtic descent were inspired to extend the boundaries of the genre, leading to a kind of golden era for Celtic music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another excursion in the Celtic soundscape, on a program called THE ENCHANTED HARP.

Music is by AINE MINOGUE, ADRIAN VON ZIEGLER, JEFF JOHNSON & BRIAN DUNNING, WILLIAM COULTER & MARY McLAUGHLIN, DAVY SPILLANE, SKYEDANCE, AOIFE NI FHEARAIGH, TRINE OPSAHL, SARAH COPUS, and MÉAV,

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PGM 1174 'GALACTIC TRAVELER 2' : mar. 2-9

In the beginning...was the void.  Endless, empty, dark, silent.

Then — depending on your preference to believe — either God created the heavens and all within it, OR....there was a very Big Bang, which began the evolution of everything we now call The Universe.

Some time later...electronic and ambient musicians were moved to create sonic images of our still boundless, but no longer empty cosmos, with what we like to call spacemusic. It's a vehicle for virtual travel to the stars and beyond — at least until SpaceX can take your body there.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another cosmic-electronic journey, on a program called GALACTIC TRAVELER 2.

Music is by ASCENDENT, NUMINA, CARBON BASED LIFEFORMS, JONN SERRIE, JOHN LYELL, JUTA TAKAHASHI, and IAN BODDY & ERIK WØLLO. 

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PGM 1173 'HIMALAYAN DREAMSCAPES' : feb.23 - mar.2

 

It must be one of the strangest sounds in all the world's religions: deep guttural chanting over percussive chaos. In fact it's Tibetan monks chanting Buddhist sutras or holy scriptures, against a wild background of metallic percussion and 15-foot long horns. Unlikely though it might seem, this ancient and remote Asian mountain culture has been the inspiration for western electronic musicians to create a distinctive kind of Tribal-Ambient travel music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey to the metaphoric "roof of the world" on a program called HIMALAYAN DREAMSCAPES.

Music is by NAWANG KHECHOG, DAVID PARSONS, NEBULAE, and CHOYING DROLMA & STEVE TIBBETTS.

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PGM 1172 'THE TRANSCENDENT PIANO' : feb.16-23

With its bell-like high notes, rich bass tones, subtle touch dynamics, and endless chordal, melodic and rhythmic possibilities—the piano is indispensable for many genres of contemporary music. In the 35 year history of the national Hearts of Space program, we've done more than 50 shows focused on the piano. The guitar may be the world's most popular instrument, but for range, versatility and personal expression, the piano takes the prize.

When played with sensitivity and imagination, the acoustic piano alone is capable of taking us into rarified spaces. Today in Europe, a new generation of classically trained, technically creative and musically talented Ambient musicians are exploring minimalist trance patterns, combining the piano with traditional chamber instruments, extending it with electronics, and transporting the instrument into new dimensions of contemplative sound experience.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, a program of recent discoveries called THE TRANSCENDENT PIANO. Music is by NILS FRAHM, MAX RICHTER, ANGUS MACRAE, DUSTIN O'HALLORAN, DMITRI STÖKL, KAI SCHUMACHER, STEN ERLAND HERMUNDSTAD, and BRUNO SANFILIPPO.

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PGM 1171 'CLOUD GUITARS' : feb.2-9

Let's hear it, ladies and gentlemen, for the slow-moving, high altitude, floating sound of the electric guitar.

Born in the 1930s for parity with drums and horns in jazz bands, greatly expanded in the 1950s and 60s with the discovery of techniques like feedback and overdrive, with the help of psychedelics the humble Spanish guitar was transformed into a vehicle for exploring distant soundworlds—the musical equivalent of the mission of the Starship Enterprise.

The last half of the 20th century brought dozens of electronic "effects"—EQ, compression, echo, reverb, phasing, distortion—and in the 21st century, software algorithms for ever more sophisticated transformations. Today the electronically enhanced guitar can create anything from diffuse ambient tone paintings to epic soundscapes, to something unnamed and unrecognizable...as a guitar.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another expansive journey in the ambient guitar universe, on a program called CLOUD GUITARS.

Music is by BUCKETHEAD, JON DURANT, STRATOSPHERE, DAVID HELPLING, CARL WEINGARTEN, RICK COX, JUHA-MATTI RAUTIAINEN, and JEFF PEARCE.

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PGM 1170 'MAGIC METALS' : jan.26-feb.2

Locked in the cold embrace of winter, under leaden clouds relieved by dazzling clear days, we return once again to the otherworldly sounds of the resonant percussion family — bells, bowls, gongs and cymbals. 

Developed over thousands of years by native cultures in Tibet, the Far East and Indonesia, gongs and bells were used primarily in religious ceremonies, and later for utilitarian purposes like broadcasting the time. 

In the 20th century, they were rediscovered in the west as a vehicle for meditation and sonic journeys. These sublime metal instruments are unequalled in subtlety and psychoactive power. In the hands of a dedicated contemplative musician, they create sounds that live in the profound realm we call The Deep Zone. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a wintry resonant percussion journey, on a program called MAGIC METALS.

Music is by DEUTER, KARMA MOFFETT, HANS CHRISTIAN, TONY GERBER, and A PRODUCE.

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PGM 1169 'NORDIC WINTER SONGS' : jan.19-26

There's a fine line between the epic folk songs and the medieval hymns of Scandinavia and far northern Europe.

In the Middle Ages, the folk ballads and the sacred music of the early Christian church evolved from the same mix of cultures, addressed the same audiences, and employed some of the same instruments—like the 8 or 9 stringed Hardanger fiddle and the Baltic box zither called the Kantele. Warm and melodic with vibrant string overtones and beguiling vocals, traditional Nordic music creates the perfect atmosphere on cold winter nights. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the brilliant cold world sounds of Norway, Sweden and Iceland, on a program called NORDIC WINTER SONGS.

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PGM 1168 'POLAR FLIGHT 3' : jan.5-12

WINTER DESCENDS...a contractive force that drains the color from the landscape, leaving a world of subtle monochromes, softened by chilled blue-gray mist and fog. As the temperature drops, movement slows, challenging every species to adapt and survive, while winter storms bring cutting winds, freezing rain, sleet, and the white fantasy world of snow. 

Winter inspires Ambient musicians to change their tonal palette and create sonic images of cold wind and stormy skies. The sound of the season is darker, denser, colder, slower—with restrained melodies and crystalline accents. It's native territory for musicians from the northern countries of Europe, Iceland, Canada, and kindred spirits in the United States. 

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a journey across the Arctic north, on a program called POLAR FLIGHT 3.

Music is by BANCO DE GAIA, BRYAN CARRIGAN, BRIDGE TO IMLA, SEETYCA, SIMON LOMAX, ALTUS and PANGAEA PROJEKT.

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