music

PGM 1429 “MASTERY” : sept.4-11

OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS, the music of both MICHAEL STEARNS and ROBERT RICH has earned the highest respect from long-time listeners to this program, as well as serious ambient fans around the world. 

Beginning in the 1970’s, STEARNS in Los Angeles and in the 1980’s RICH at Stanford, were among the first to create important original work in those formative days of popular electronic music. Even when the early instruments were frustrating and difficult to work with, they persisted — because electronics opened up vast new realms of creative expression.

Later, they both integrated acoustic instruments and wordless voices into their music, enriching and deepening their sound. In time, Stearns moved into scoring and music supervision for immersive IMAX films and multi-channel theme park rides, and traveled the world recording natural environmental sounds, while ROBERT RICH became a prolific recording artist, collaborator, and mastering engineer for other independent musicians, created high quality sample libraries, and consulted on the design and development of electronic instruments.

In 2026, with Stearns 77 and Rich 63, they´re at the peak of their powers individually, and the only thing left undone was their first full collaboration as mature ambient masters, the mysteriously titled “REUNION OF BREATH AND WAVES.”

Today, the career of an ambient musician is impossible to predict. The old gatekeepers are gone, replaced by powerful personal studios and a digital distribution system that connects composers and performers with a worldwide audience. Success is not guaranteed; you must be motivated, persistent, innovative, and impressively talented. But for those who can live with the uncertainty, time and practice can bring “maturity, ” and with it, the possibility of “mastery”— levels of excellence sought by many, achieved by few. 

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we celebrate the expansion of creative space and artistic freedom, with electro-acoustic music by MICHAEL STEARNS and ROBERT RICH from “REUNION OF BREATH AND WAVES;” by DREAMSCAPIST from “EREMITISM;” by KELLY DAVID from “ILLUSIVE;” and by JEFF PEARCE from “SKYWARD.”

The art of creating value with skill, and doing it perfectly.  A program called “MASTERY”…on this transmission… of Hearts of Space.

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PGM 1401R “RHYTHM OF THE HEAT” : aug 28-sept 4

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 late 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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PGM 1428 “INDIA EVOLUTION 2” : aug.21-28

BACK IN 2009, I wrote this introduction to a program called ‘INDIA EVOLUTION” :

“Hundreds of years ago, while Western music turned right at polyphony, harmony, and the equal-tempered scale, Indian classical music continued to develop the old modal system of scales and natural intervals, in a vocal-centered, monophonic style.”

“Where we created chords and counterpoint, monumental symphonies, hymns and songs, Indian music continued to evolve the melodic sophistication of raga, the rhythmic complexity of tala, and the patient pursuit of mood and depth.”

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we return to the sublime world of Indian Classical and Indian-influenced ambient music, on a program called “INDIA EVOLUTION 2.” Music is by JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN, PREM JOSHUA & MANISH VYAS, ANCIENT FUTURE, FILIP HOLM, ROSS AINSLIE, AMELIA CUNI & WERNER DURAND, STEVE GORN & MANOSE, and RAJENDRA TEREDESAI.

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PGM 1220R “AMBIENT TRAVELER 2” : jul 31-aug 7

In the warm, bright days of summer, an ambient fan yearning for travel to exotic cultures will book a flight on Sequencer Airlines. With its steady pulse, it’s a perfect rhythm for moving through space.

The roots go back to 9th century Persia, but the music sequencer idea really got going in the 19th century after the Industrial Revolution, with popular devices like music boxes, mechanical organs, and player pianos. By the first generation of electronic synthesizers in the 1960s and 70s, the Step Sequencer was a machine that turned equal length notes into repeating rhythm patterns. They’re simple, delightfully hypnotic, and fun to work with.

Today things are more complicated, but a lot more powerful. We have audio sample sequencers, loop-based creative music software, phrase samplers, and digital audio recording software many times more powerful than the primitive sequencers of early synths-and hey! They’re still fun to work with.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space…a journey from kinetic sequencer patterns to exotic Southeast Asian ambient soundscapes-on a program called “AMBIENT TRAVELER 2.” Music is by ATOMIC SKUNK, DAVID PARSONS, CHRISTEL VERAART, CHRONOTOPE PROJECT, LOREN NERELL, ALIO DIE & LORENZO MONTANA, and RICHARD BONE.

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PGM 1213R “PROGRESSIVE AMBIENT” : july 17-24

The “progressive” label is growing, and it has nothing to do with politics.

In music, the term has a history that goes back to Progressive Folk in the 1930s. After that came Progressive Jazz from the 1940s to the 1970s, Progressive Rock, Pop, and Bluegrass in the 1960s, Progressive Country in the 1970s, Progressive Metal in the 1980s, and Progressive Electronic and Progressive House in the 1990s.

Progressive is what happens when a genre has matured, and there’s an abundance of highly skilled musicians who want to stay creatively challenged.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space—if the progressive label means expanding stylistic and conceptual boundaries and synthesizing cultural influences—then I’m gonna say we’re overdue for a genre…and a program…called “PROGRESSIVE AMBIENT.”

Music by NOYA, GODWIN, & JÜRJENDAL, BRIAN ENO & J.PETER SCHWALM, MASSERGY, CRAIG PADILLA & MARVIN ALLEN, JON DURANT, MANUEL GÖTTSCHING, HAMMOCK, and EYES CAST DOWN.

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PGM 844R “AMERICAN CROSSROADS” : jul 3-10

EVERY JULY 4TH, we celebrate America’s independence with food, fun, and fireworks. For as long as most of us can remember, everything that’s good about America — our diversity, freedom, individuality and self-assurance — has been proudly on display.

This year, our celebration is tempered by a growing awareness of the great challenges we face in national, global and even planetary affairs. You have to look back to the 1930s to find a comparable period, but even those challenges seem limited by comparison.

So this year we celebrate the founding of America with the knowledge that American ideals and the American character are being tested. If Americans can respond positively to the challenges we face, we may look back on this period as the time of America’s maturity.

American music today reflects the maturing of our melting-pot of cultural traditions — hymns, folk and popular songs, blues, jazz, electronica, maverick classical, ethnic rhythms, and immigrant genres — a complex panorama of musical sources, freely invented and reinvented. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we listen for the reflective side of the American soundscape…on a program called AMERICAN CROSSROADS.

Music is by BRIAN KEANE, PAUL WINTER CONSORT, SACRED EARTH, BILLY McLAUGHLIN, WILL ACKERMAN, BIOMUSIQUE, PATRICK O’HEARN, PETER OSTROUSHKO, and JOHN DOAN.

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PGM 913R : ‘TRANS-ASIAN DIFFUSION’ : june 18-25

The term “The Silk Road” was invented by a German geographer in 1877. He was describing trade routes that go back to the Han Dynasty of China over 2000 years ago, connecting Europe with the major cultures of the Asian world…by land and by sea. The driving force was commercial, but like the Internet today, it also enabled the spread of social communication, technology, culture, food, and music.

In 1940 American anthropologist ALBERT KROEBER came up with a fancy name for the process: “Trans-Cultural Diffusion.” In music, traditions from many countries and intersecting influences over many centuries make sorting it out a challenge. There are common instruments, rhythms, scales, and approaches to making music. Each country added its own distinctive elements, and the process continues today—at electronic speed.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space….music derived from those way stations on the Silk Road…on a program called “TRANS-ASIAN DIFFUSION.” Music is by BOB HOLROYD, FRITZ HEEDE, TARIK BANZI, ANOUAR BRAHEM, OMAR FARUK TEKBILEK, ROBERT RICH & LISA MOSKOW, BENJY WERTHEIMER & DAVID MICHAEL.

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PGM 914R ‘DREAM TRACKER’ : jun.12-19

For several decades, a small group of Western musicians have studied the ancient practice of shamanism and shamanistic music, as a way of deepening their art and their connection to the natural world.

In aboriginal and tribal cultures from the Arctic to Australia, the role of the shaman was to bridge the human and the spirit world for guidance and healing. Today, neo-shamanism and neo-shamanistic music express a longing for direct spirituality, wholeness and harmony with nature that some find lacking in our culture.

Starting from prehistoric forms of music and aboriginal instruments like the rattle, the drum, the bone whistle and the didgeridoo, they added the ambient dimensions of electronic sound and created a new genre called “techno-tribal.” Earthy and trance-inducing, it rescued electronic music from ethereal abstraction, grounded it in the sounds and rhythms of the natural world, and influenced the ecstatic electronic dance music of today.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we beat the drum and rattle the bones, on a journey called “DREAM TRACKER.” Shamanic poet JOSIE TAMARIN puts it this way:

The lost world waits in darkness and dream;
And in dreamworlds gods and goddesses
Beat the pulse of prayer
Dancing near blazing fires
Drumming toward greater light
Creating song from cries of loss
Fanning the glowing embers of the heart.

(quoted by MICHAEL HARNER in “The Way of the Shaman”)

Music by BYRON METCALF, DASHMESH KHALSA & STEVE ROACH; TERRA AMBIENT, CHAD KETTERING, TUU, and SCOTT AUGUST.

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PGM 1422 “ELYSIUM” : may 22-29

Perhaps the most impressive ability of ambient music is its power to create virtual environments with sound. And when those environments are rare, legendary, and metaphysical—then we’re operating on a different plane of existence.

Over a thousand years before digital electronics, ancient Greek mythology conceived of a luxurious “afterlife” at the western edge of the world, in a heavenly realm called “ELYSIUM” or the “ELYSIAN FIELDS.”  It was described as an “Isle of the Blessed”— an earthly paradise where the righteous, the heroic, and the chosen were sent by the Greek gods to enjoy a perfect afterlife— pursuing their favorite athletic and artistic activities in a realm of beauty, tranquility, and abundance.

On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, a journey to a virtual Isle of the Blessed, and an intimate contemporary sanctuary of sound, on a program called “ELYSIUM.” Music is by DAVID HELPLING, with SCOTT REICH & JON JENKINS, STEVE ROACH & SERENA GABRIEL, DRIFTING IN SILENCE & E J R M, and ASHERA.

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PGM 1421 “FLAMENCO FUSION 2” : may 8-15

The traditional acoustic sound of Flamenco…or rather, Flamenco Fusion: a mixture of cultural influences from the medieval world to the 20th century, looking forward to the Ambient spaces of today.

From its medieval roots in the 8th century Spanish province of Al-Andalus, after the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula, the music of the Spanish region of Andalusia has been a cultural melting pot, absorbing Moorish influences from North Africa, Sephardic Jewish songs and melodies, and European folk music. With the addition of Romani gypsy influences in the 18th and 19th centuries, the music we now call Flamenco, with its fiery rhythms, dark harmonies, and passionate soul was born. It’s a genre with a signature ambience and feeling that’s attracted devoted fans all over the world.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we catch up with the evolving sound of Flamenco as it encounters Ambient space and sensibility, on a program called “FLAMENCO FUSION 2.” Music is by ADAM DEL MONTE, BILLY WHITE, TONY SILVA, ZSÓFIA BOROS, ESTÁS TONNÉ, and OTTMAR LIEBERT.

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