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.
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.
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.
Dark tones echo across a stony gray-green
soundscape, ringed by gloom and decay. It’s a world of strange smoky
atmospheres and floating voices, punctuated by massive attacks and
harsh metallic sounds, both chilled…and fiery.
Sounds like some kind of trippy video game, doesn’t it?
Now imagine one that takes you on the journey, but without the game. That, spacefans, is what electronic music was born to do.
We mark this All Hallows’ Eve transmission of Hearts of Space in the
anxious year of 2009, with a journey through sonic underworlds —
gray-green and smoky black, adorned with crimson accents and diaphanous
silvery sounds — on a program called GHOSTS.
Music is by TOR LUNDVALL, HOPE SANDOVAL, RICHARD BONE, BUILDING THE CATHEDRAL, BETWEEN INTERVAL, JOE RENZETTI, MINGO, and TROUM.
