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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

Mournfulplaintivemelancholysombersonorousresonant.

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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PGM 1408 ‘DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE’ : oct. 24-31

The advent of the astrological house of Scorpio each year brings with it the ambient sub-genres of Gloom, Gothic, and Dark Atmospheres. This music displays a romantic quest for strangeness, a taste for the ominous, and a fascination with darkness, death, and decay that’s appropriate for the fall season—and celebrated on All Hallow’s Eve.

Grief, fear, depression, doleful lamentations, and solemn processions are expressions of the season, but this music has a mysterious restorative power that comes from the emotional confrontation with challenging feelings. The Greeks called it…catharsis.

On this Scorpio transmission of Hearts of Space, it’s another Dark Ambient journey for Halloween, on a program called ‘DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE.’ Music is by RICHARD BONE, STEVE ROACH & SORIAH, INSECTARIUM, AJNA, SUN’S MUSE, ARGYRE PLANITIA, and MOUNT SHRINE.

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LIVE EVENT Saturday Oct. 25, 2pm

Hearts of Space producer STEPHEN HILL in conversation
with ambient music historian DANIEL BROMFIELD

No.1 in the series “Contemplative Music In Marin”
Saturday Oct. 25th, 2:00pm -3:30pm at the
Belvedere-Tiburon Library, 1501 Tiburon Blvd., Tiburon, CA

EVENT PAGE : https://www.beltiblibrary.org/event?id=14376098

Join Stephen Hill, host of the nationally syndicated “space music” radio program Hearts of Space, in discussion with Daniel Bromfield about his over-50-year career on the airwaves and the history of ambient and new age music in Marin and beyond.

Stephen Hill has been broadcasting his nationally syndicated radio program “Hearts of Space” since 1973, focusing on the broad scope of “space music,” which includes the ambient and new age music of which Marin County was a prime incubator in the 1970s.

During this time, he’s brought national attention to ambient, new age and experimental artists while remaining at the cutting edge of technology, being an early adopter of both streaming and AI voice technology.

For the first in a planned series of talks with local luminaries focusing on Marin County’s history as a hub of contemplative music, Hill talks to ambient music historian Daniel Bromfield about his over-50-year career broadcasting the sounds of space over the airwaves.


Daniel Bromfield is a writer, critic and musician based in San Francisco. In addition to writing about music and film for the Marin Independent Journal, he has a prolific freelance career with publications such as Pitchfork, Stereogum and Atlas Obscura.

STEPHEN HILL
DANIEL BROMFIELD

PGM 1092R ‘SPIRIT OF ARMENIA’ : oct. 17-24

Armenian landscape with Mt. Ararat

THE ANCIENT LAND OF ARMENIA has had a complex and often contentious history. Sitting astride the Silk Road trade route in the southern Caucasus, east of Turkey and north of Iran and Azerbaijan, Armenia served as one of the gateways between Christian Europe and the non-Western cultures of the Middle East and Central Asia.

Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as the state religion in 301 A.D. Both location and history account for the rich set of cultural influences that became Armenian music, from roots in Zoroastrian and Pagan folk and sacred music, through the rise of Christianity, and continuing to evolve for over 1500 years.

The great historical figure of Armenian music was KOMITAS — the late 19th/early 20th century scholar, priest, folk song collector and arranger, composer, choir-master and singer. Educated in an Armenian seminary, then in western classical music in Berlin, Komitas combined traditional sacred and secular Armenian modal music with western classical practice, to create the foundation for an authentic Armenian classical music.

The German ECM label has been documenting new and traditional Armenian music for over 30 years, with a series of superb recordings, many of which have been featured on these programs. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we focus on two of these recordings, on a program called “SPIRIT OF ARMENIA.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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