Archives

PGM 1407 ‘DESCENDING DUSK’ : oct.10-17

AUTUMN ARRIVES QUIETLY, with less drama than other seasons: a gradual slowing of the solar-powered activity of summer, accompanied by a subtle cooling of the air and dimming of the light, as the sun moves south for the winter.

in contrast, the animal world is all activity—a flurry of preparation for the challenges of the season to come—while the changing colors of the leaves signals a silent chemistry of decay and transformation that fuels the next generation of plants, and feeds the animals with fruits and seeds.

For ambient composers, it’s time to explore slower tempos, darker harmonies, descending progressions, the bittersweet timbres of the woodwind family, and the metallic overtones of bells and horns.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE…Ambient-Classical atmospheres and introspections for autumn, on a program called “DESCENDING DUSK.” Music is by THE AMNIS INITIATIVE, DEEPSPACE, DEBORAH MARTIN & JILL HALEY, CHRISTIAN WITTMAN, GEORGE WALLACE, and ISHQ.

[ view program ] [ view Flickr image gallery ]

PGM 888R ‘TIME OF TRANSITION’ : oct.3-10

Four times a year, the seasons turn.
The changes can be subtle or dramatic.
These are the times of transition in the natural world —
the original, the most pervasive, varied, and far reaching
ambient soundscape of them all.

Societies and cultures go through their own transitions.
Sometimes they’re welcomed;
more often, they are resisted, even feared.
In nature, the wise, the lucky, and the flexible
evolve, and learn to adapt.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE,
we ride the receding energy of summer as it descends into fall,
on a program called TIME OF TRANSITION.

Music is by JON HOPKINS, BARCELONA, PSICODREAMICS, DAVID HELPLING & JON JENKINS, HAROLD BUDD & CLIVE WRIGHT, BRUNO SANFILIPPO & MATHIAS GRASSOW, DAVID DARLING, and FALLING YOU.

[ view program ] [ view Flickr image gallery ]

PGM 1406 ‘INDISPENSABLE’ : sept.26-oct.3

Program 1406 banner

Let’s talk about the piano, ladies and gentlemen. It’s so ubiquitous and flexible that it plays a part in almost every area of contemporary music. With its huge dynamic range, rhythmic and percussive capability, chordal and harmonic facility, and melodic expressivity—no other instrument can play as many roles, both solo and within an ensemble. Today, we can enhance its flexibility by modifying the sound of the piano—spatially expanding it with electronics, making it more ethereal; or perversely, celebrating action noise, making it more physical.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, ambient, atmospheric, and contemplative music for the piano, on a program called “INDISPENSABLE.” Music is by LUDOVICO EINAUDI, TOM EATON, KEVIN KELLER, MASAKO, JOSHUA VAN TASSEL, PAUL CANTELON & LILI HAYDN, GABRÍEL ÓLAFS, and BEN LUKAS BOYSEN.

[ view program ] [ view Flickr image gallery ]

PGM 985R ‘BADLANDS’ : sept.19-26

Out on the western range, there’s places where the deep prairie meets the desert at the end of the line. Places where the tough get going and the outlaws go to hide: where the land’s eroded, the water’s scarce, the weather’s bad, the nights are dangerous, and everything you see…is a survivor. It’s called “The Badlands.” 

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, a program inspired by this hard and beautiful environment…called BADLANDS. Music is by DANIEL LANOIS, ERIC TINGSTAD, CARL WEINGARTEN, BRUCE KAPHAN, EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, JAPANCAKES and DAVID TORN.

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

PGM 1405 ‘COSMIC ELECTRONIC 4’ : sept 12-19

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.

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

PGM 1354R ‘WILD SANCTUARY’ : sept. 5-12

Trick question: Before recordings, before electronics, even before history—what was the original form of ambient music? Here’s a hint: it’s not what we normally call music, but it has a lot in common with music.

The answer is the natural soundscape: a combination of the geophony—non-biological natural sounds like wind, waves, water, and weather, and the biophony—the sounds produced by all the non-human organisms in a given habitat.

Documenting the natural soundscape has been the life work of “soundscape ecologist” BERNIE KRAUSE, who’s been recording and archiving natural soundscapes from around the world since 1979. Our 3-D sound localization ability is based on the evolutionary advantage of being able to identify the location, direction and distance of ambient sounds—and it’s this sensibility we use when we listen to ambient music.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the magical combination of ambient nature sounds and ambient music…on a program called “WILD SANCTUARY.” Music is by ISHQ, BRIAN ENO, STEVE ROACH, PATRICK O’HEARN, ARIEL KALMA, RUTH HAPPEL, and DANNA & CLEMENT.

[ view program page ] [ view Flickr image gallery ]

PGM 1404 ‘AFRICAN DELIGHT’ : aug.29 – sept.5

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.

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

PGM 1148R ‘INNER RHYTHMS’ : aug. 22-29

The trance rhythms of the Middle East, Asia and Africa are steady, continuous, and slowly changing. Rather than driving you forward like the ubiquitous military march beats of western rock, they patiently insinuate themselves on your nervous system, steady the breath, slow the pulse, and ultimately…transform your awareness. Psychologists call it “entrainment” or “dissociation.” The rest of us call it enchantment, rapture, ecstasy, or euphoria. It’s all part of the wide world of trance.

Trance rhythms have been used by priests and shamans in non-western cultures for centuries. More recently they’ve been rediscovered by western musicians seeking an alternative to conventional beats, used by so-called “minimalist” classical composers, and adopted by experimental musicians around the world for their psychoactive power and popular appeal. Trance is also a major genre of Electronic Dance Music, with mind-altering beats heard on dance floors around the world.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we insinuate ourselves on your nervous system—in a good way—with soft summer trance music, on a program called INNER RHYTHMS. Music is by JAMES HOOD, BYRON METCALF, LOREN NERELL, DREAM JUNGLE, and DON LI.  

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

REVIEW: Five Decades of ‘Hearts of Space’ by Randall Roberts

Musician RANDALL ROBERTS writes about music for a web publication called "In Sheeps Clothing HiFi." He did a very succinct and insightful review of the radio program and the streaming service. If you need a way to recommend the show or the streaming service to a potential 'space fan' send them here:

https://insheepsclothinghifi.com/five-decades-of-hearts-of-space-slow-music-for-fast-times/

Screenshot 2025-08-19 at 2.03.59 AM

 

PGM 1403 ‘AMBIENT EVOLUTION’ : aug.15-22

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.

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