Interview Podcast – Echoes

On the Echoes Podcast, two masters of strings, from guitar to ngoni, when we talk to Joss Jaffe and Jim “Kimo” West. Jaffe is a musical explorer. West is a guitarist with a reputation for Hawaiian slack key music but he also plays with Weird Al Yankovic. Go figure. Jaffe studied tabla drum in India and has picked up instruments from around the world. Together they’ve made a serene recordings called Santhi and it includes instruments like the West African ngoni, Indian tablas and bansuri flute, and e-bow guitar.

Jim “Kimo” West: We didn’t want to go heavily Indian or heavily African or heavily Hawaiian. We just wanted to have a blend of these different influences, stuff that we like from around the world and just do it naturally, just play what we like.

John Diliberto will when he talks to Jim “Kimo” West and Joss Jaffe on Echoes from PRX.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius at 90: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes podcast  we celebrate the 90th Birthday of German Composer, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, born on October 26, 1934. He was a founding member of the bands Cluster and Harmonia, two groups who influenced artists like David Bowie on his Berlin Trilogy and especially Brian Eno, who went on to make music with these musicians as well. But while Roedelius began in the electronic zone, at 90, he says he’s unplugging and just playing acoustic piano. But he was part of the breakthrough to a new sound in Germany in the 1970s.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius: In the late ‘60s, everything in the field of arts, any art, was because we had after Hitler, there was a big hole, a big black hole in the culture of Germany.  So we had to, we had to find out to, to go a different way.

While most of us call him Roedelius, his friends call him Achim. The entire hour will be filled with his music and we’ll hear a feature with Roedelius that takes us through his life and career including time in a Stasi prison in East Germany.. He was not only an electronic pioneer, but a pioneer of ambient chamber music. Hear Roedelius as well as Lloyd Cole and Tim Story. If you’re not super familiar with him, wait until you hear the sounds he created in the late 60s. He turns 90 on October 26 and he’s still going.

I Sing the Song AI-Tony Gerber and the Singing Poet Society: The Echoes Podcast

AI is everywhere and so many places you don’t even know it. Last year we even programmed an entire echoes using AI. It was pretty good, but dated. You know AI is in pop and library music, but there is one musician trying to use it for Art. His name is Tony Gerber and you’ve heard him with the electronic trio Spacecraft, Giles Reaves and Phil Keaggy and on many solo releases. He had the idea of taking classic poetry, setting it to AI manipulated music and using AI singers. It’s called the Singing Poet Society.

Tony Gerber: Another, another point is that, you know, without the advent of AI to assist acting kind of as an assistant in this particular case, this idea would never have even come to fruition or even come about.

Tony is one of  the least AI musicians you can imagined. We had him playing live pre-pandemic with Giles Reaves and I’m sure he was actually playing. Discover Tony Gerber’s journey and the music he’s creating in the Echoes Podcast.

Love, Loss Alienation with London Grammar: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, the British dreampop trio, London Grammar. We talked to them in 2021 about their career and album, Californian Soil, an Echoes CD of the Month. Now they are back with their fourth album, The Greatest Love, also a CD of the Month. We’ve been told it’s a rare thing to get all three member, Hannah Reid, Dot Major and Dan Rothman together for an interview, but you will hear all three today in the Echoes Podcast. They talk about the usual: love, loss, alienation as well as Hannah Reid’s greatest love, her newborn child. But that’s not what the song is about.

Hannah Reid: You know, it’s funny, I’ve said to Dan a few times that sometimes it feels like my lyrics are a bit prophetic in a way. This song was actually written long before I had my son, but it does take on a new meaning for me now. I do think of him when I think of this album.

London Grammar has been on of the most singular acts of the 21st century. They released their debut album called If You Wait,  in 2013, lead by a single they first dropped independently on the internet, “Hey Now.” We were instantly seduced by the voice of Hannah Reid and the orchestrations of Dan Rothman and Dot Major. We talk to them in the Echoes Podcast.

Read John Diliberto’s review of The Greatest Love.
Read John Diliberto’s review of Californian Soil

A Global Music Journey with Joe Boyd: The Echoes Podcast

Last week we brought you the broadcast version of our interview with Joe Boyd.  Well, it was a pretty deep, wide-ranging interview that was hard to condense into 15 minutes so today I’m giving you our entire conversation in the Echoes Podcast..  Just to remind you you, Joe Boyd is a legendary producer and discoverer of new music from Pink Floyd (“Arnold Lane”), Nick Drake, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Muzsikás, to his Hannibal world music label, and more. A few years ago he wrote a great book that was a memoir of his life in the rock and roll world, White Bicycles. Now he’s written a deep dive into the influence of world music on western culture called And the Roots of Rhythm Remain – A Journey Through Global Music. From Ravi Shankar, to Flamenco, from South Africa to Paul Simon, Desi Arnaz to Dizzy Gillespie, it is a long, sometimes convoluted trip, all in search of an authentic music presence. We bring you our complete interview with this global traveler in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

The Exotica Lounge of Kinobe: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, electronic artist Kinobe takes us into his ethereal lounge inspired by Sinatra-era strings and singers, exotica lounge music, 90s’ trip-hop, and the French duo, Air.

Kinobe: I grew up in a household where I would hear Nelson Riddle at least once a day, my parents are big Sinatra fans. They like all of the crooners and then artists like Percy Faith. I love those sounds.

Kinobe’s new album, Out of the Blue, is nothing short of entrancing, a dream journey to exotica. Kinobe is Julius Waters and John Diliberto talks with him in the Echoes Lounge from PRX.

A Global Music Journey with Joe Boyd: The Echoes Podcast

Joe Boyd is a legend in music, from producing Pink Floyd (“Arnold Lane”), Nick Drake, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Muzsikás, to his Hannibal world music label, and more. A few years ago he wrote a great book that was a memoir of his life in the rock and roll world, White Bicycles. Now he’s written a deep dive into the influence of world music on western culture called And the Roots of Rhythm Remain – A Journey Through Global Music. From Ravi Shankar, to Flamenco, from South Africa to Paul Simon, Desi Arnaz to Dizzy Gillespie, it is a long, sometimes convoluted trip, all in search of an authentic music presence. We talk to this global traveler in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Trentemøller's Shoegaze Dream Pop and Michael Garrison, a Pioneer Remembered: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, two features with Trentemøller and Michael Garrison

Trentemøller

Danish composer Trentemøller, the performance name of Anders Trentemøller, a Danish Dream Pop musician who emerged out of the techno scene at the turn of the century. But since his 2006 debut, his music has evolved considerably and become more song focused and richly textured. That continues on his 7th studio album, Dreamweaver, It taps his influences from dream-pop to shoegaze, Nick Drake to Julee Cruise. Join John Diliberto when he talks with Trentemøller in the Echoes Podcast.

MICHAEL GARRISON

It’s an Ancient Echoes when we look back on Michael Garrison. He is one of the earliest American space musicians preceded only by Larry Fast and Synergy.  Based in Oregon, he put out 9 studio albums between 1979 and 1998.  His sound was instantly engaging, distilling the influences of his European inspirations.

MICHAEL GARRISON: The intensity of the rhythm of the music is fulfilling as far as the idea of being alive. And the mental aspect of the heavy rhythm is the idea of travel. It just happens now we’ve covered our planet earth and are now looking toward the sky. And the idea of being able to travel through that sky and space and time needs an aura around it. Music is a good way to bring out the idea of traveling through space.

Sadly, Garrison took his last ride into space at the young age of 47 in 2004.  We go back to a 1984 interview with him from the Totally Wired series. It’s in the Region of Sun Return in the Echoes Podcast.

David Arkenstone's Quest for the Runestone: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast we go on a quest with David Arkenstone. A five-time Grammy nominee, he’s been a fixture in instrumental music since his 1987 debut, Valley in the Clouds. Many of his 70 or so albums are based in themes of fantasy and mythology and his latest goes that way full bore.

David Arkenstone: Yeah, you know, people like it. I missed it. There were characters and titles and activities and a giant and all these things that were very inspirational for me write music to.

David Arkenstone returns to fantasy themes and epic orchestrations on his latest release, Quest for the Runestone. Join John Diliberto in the land of myth in the Echoes Podcast.

DAVID ARKENSTONE PODCAST PLAYLIST

Artist – Title – Album
David Arkenstone – Galadriel’s Mirror – Music Inspired by Middle Earth
David Arkenstone – The Palantir – Music Inspired by Middle Earth
David Arkenstone – Taverns of Azeroth – World of Warcraft
David Arkenstone – Prophecy – Quest for the Runestone
David Arkenstone – Ancient Magic Awakens – Quest for the Runestone
David Arkenstone – Eyes of Skata – Quest for the Runestone
David Arkenstone – The Arbos Stirs – Quest for the Runestone
David Arkenstone – Oceans of Ice – Quest for the Runestone
David Arkenstone – Secrets of the Runestone  – Quest for the Runestone
David Arkenstone – Path o the Mountains Bones – Quest for the Runestone
David Arkenstone – Inscriptions – Quest for the Runestone
David Arkenstone – Stars Without Limits – Quest for the Runestone

From Transistors to Trans: Jaymie Rose Hennegan-The Echoes Podcast

Vic Hennegan is an artist who has been on the show many times over the last two decades. The last appearance was broadcast in 2023 from a 2022 Echoes performance. Back then Hennegan was black, bald and masculine. He’s still black, but everything else has changed since the transition to Jaymie Rose Hennegan. Everything except, the music.

Jaymie Rose Hennegan: I have photos of me at like 19, 20 years old putting dresses on. You know, I’ve always been very much in touch with my feminine side. It’s always been a part of me. I think it’s a big part of my music too, is that feminine energy that rides with me.

We hear about Jaymie Rose Hennegan’s transition and her debut album Transition, recorded live at Cosmic Crossings and Star’s End Radio, tonight on Echoes.

JAYMIE ROSE HENNEGAN FEATURE PLAYLIST

Artist – Title – Album
Vic Hennegan – A Moment in Time – A Moment in Time
Jaymie Rose Hennegan – Among the Seers – Transition
Jaymie Rose Hennegan – The Wings of Eternity – Transition
Jaymie Rose Hennegan – Inanna’s Dance – Transition
Jaymie Rose Hennegan – Garden of the Sacred Moon – Transition
Jaymie Rose Hennegan – Changing of the Tide – Transition
Jaymie Rose Hennegan – Dusk of Europa – Transition
Jaymie Rose Hennegan – Heart of the Sky Pt.1 – Transition

Rich Ruth's Eclectic Fusion & Steve Roach Structures from Silence at 40 in Echoes Podcast.

Rich Ruth with Mikaela Davis at Johnny Brenda’s Photo: J.Diliberto

In  a double-shot Echoes Podcast we’ll hear from Rich Ruth and Steve Roach talking about the anniversary of Structures from Silence

First in the Echoes Podcast we talk to Rich Ruth. That’s the performance name of Michael Ruth, a multi-instrumentalist from Nashville.  With Rich Ruth, you can hear 4 or five influences in any song. One track alone might conjure up John Coltrane, Brian Eno, Gong, Black Sabbath and King Crimson. Yet it all holds together in Rich Ruth. He has a new album out, Water Still Flows on Jack White’s Third Man records. His basic music philosophy is, wherever it goes he follows.

Rich Ruth: Essentially, it’s all made in like a laboratory with me spending hours and hours and hours, just like manipulating and, adding and subtracting until things feel right and just listening over and over and over again and getting inspired and tracking a bunch of guitars or synths or something and then sending it to people and so it just becomes this hodgepodge of all these different voices that I’ve arranged in these weird ways

His music is a flow from ambient to free jazz to parts unknown. We talk with Rich Ruth in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Rich Ruth Feature Playlist
Artist – Album – Title

Rich Ruth – God Won’t Speak – Water Still Flows
Rich Ruth – No Muscle, No Memory – Water Still Flows
Rich Ruth – Aspiring to the Sky – Water Still Flows
Rich Ruth – God Won’t Speak – Water Still Flows
Kansas Bible Company – Summer Seance – Paper Moon
Kansas Bible Company – The Desert She Screams – Hotel Chicamauga
Rich Ruth – Coming Down – Calming Signals
Rich Ruth – Blue Shell – Water Still Flows
John Coltrane – Ascension Pt.1 – Ascension
Rich Ruth – Crying in the Trees – Water Still Flows
Rich Ruth – Desensitization and Reprocessing – It’s Over, I Survived
Rich Ruth – Heavy and Earthbound – It’s Over, I Survived
D.G. Godman – If You Were Someone I Loved – Space and Time
Rich Ruth – Thou Mayest – It’s Over, I Survived
Pharoah Sanders – Astral Traveling – Thembi
David Bowie – Warzawa – Low
Rich Ruth – Somewhere In Time – Water Still Flows
Rich Ruth – Action at a Distance – Water Still Flows
Dying Fetus – Subject to Beating – Reign Supreme
Rich Ruth – God Won’t Speak – Water Still Flows

Steve Roach circa 1984 in Original Timeroom

Steve Roach has made over a hundred recordings in the last 42 years, but two of them stand out.  One is Dreamtime Return, his first foray into techno-tribal sounds, and the other dates back 40 years to his third album, Structures from Silence.  It was an album that took ambient music to the next level, from Brian Eno’s experimental abstractions, to a music forged in a contemplative crucible and born purely of electronic instruments. Originally self-released, then picked up by the Fortuna label, Projekt Records has just put out a deluxe triple CD anniversary edition.  We go back in time with Steve Roach to hear about the foundation of Structures from Silence.

PLAYLIST FOR STEVE ROACH STRUCTURES FROM SILENCE FEATURE

Artist – Title – Album
Steve Roach – Reflections in Suspension – Structures from Silence 40th Anniversary Edition
Steve Roach – Mysteries Continue – Traveler
Steve Roach -Structures from Silence – Structures from Silence 40th Anniversary Edition
Steve Roach – Beyond – Structures from Silence 40th Anniversary Edition
Steve Roach – Below – Structures from Silence 40th Anniversary Edition
Steve Roach – Reflections in Suspension –Structures from Silence 40th Anniversary Edition
Steve Roach – Quiet Friend – Structures from Silence 40th Anniversary Edition

Tim Blake's Crystal Cognition from Gong to Hawkwind to Crystal Machine: The Echoes Podcast

Electronic artist Tim Blake was there at the beginning, playing synth for space rockers Gong and Hawkwind and launching his own project of synthesizers and lasers, Crystal Machine. Now a triple CD box of his first three albums has been released as Crystal Presence. It includes his albums, Crystal Machine, Blake’s New Jerusalem and Magick. John Diliberto gets in the teapot with Tim Blake on Echoes from PRX.

TIM BLAKE FEATURE PLAYLIST

ARTIST – Title – Album – (Original Album)
Tim Blake – A Return to Clouds – Crystal Presence (Magick)
Gong – The Pothead Pixies – Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible Pt.1)
Tim Blake – Last Ride of the Boogie Child – Crystal Presence (Crystal Machine)
Tim Blake – Midnight – Crystal Presence (Crystal Machine)
Pink Floyd – See Emily Play – A Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Deep Purple – Shield – The Book of Taliesyn
Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze – Are You Experienced? 
Tim Blake – Crystal Presence  – Crystal Presence (Crystal Machine)
Gong – Radio Gnome Invisible – Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible Pt.1)
Gong – A Sprinkling of Clouds – You (Radio Gnome Invisible Pt.3)
Tangerine Dream – Phaedra – Phaedra
Tim Blake -Synthese Intemporelle – Crystal Presence (Crystal Machine)
Tim Blake – Blake’s New Jerusalem – Crystal Presence (Blake’s New Jerusalem)
Tim Blake – Lighthouse – Crystal Presence (Blake’s New Jerusalem)
Hawkwind – Lighthouse – Live Seventy-Nine
Tim Blake – The Strange Secret of Ohm-Gliding – Crystal Presence (Magick)
Tim Blake – Floating – Caldea
Tim Blake – Song for a New Age  –Crystal Presence (Blake’s New Jerusalem)
Tim Blake – A Return to Clouds – Crystal Presence  (Magick)

Nanocluster Fun with Immersion's Colin Newman and Malka Spigel: The Echoes Podcast

Colin Newman is part of the iconic post-punk band Wire. Malka Spigel is from the Israeli group Minimal Compact. Together they record as Immersion.  With their new series of albums, Nanocluster, they work with collaborators, sort of Immersion Plus, and that music is different depending on who they collaborate with. Their new album, Nanocluster Volume 2, with Thor Harris (Swans,Thor & Friends) and Cubzoa, takes them into minimalism and dream pop. These are two musicians who were around 10 years old when the Beatles emerged and changed their lives, but now entering their 70th year, they are as exploratory as ever.

Malka: We’re not only active, probably we are more adventurous and experiment than we ever did. So it’s a matter of, uh, state of mind. And Rather than age, I guess.
Colin: Yeah, I mean, retiring is weird. Retiring is what you do from a job you don’t like.

Colin Newman and Malka Spigel now recording as the electronic duo, Immersion. They have a new album out, Nanocluster Vol. 2. We talk to them in the Echoes Podcast.

Immersion Feature Podcast

Wire – Once Is Enough – 154
Minimal Compact – New Clear Twist – The Figure One Cuts
Immersion – Oscillating Between – Oscillating
Immersion – Not About Me – Nanocluster Vol. 2
Thor and Friends – Dies in Paris – 4
Immersion – Rotations – Nanocluster Vol. 2
Immersion – The Wizard’s House – Nanocluster Vol. 2
Cubzoa – The Tin Man – The Tin Man
Immersion – As Long As – Nanocluster Vol. 2
Immersion – I’m Barely Here – Nanocluster Vol. 2
Immersion – Other Ways – Nanocluster Vol. 2
Immersion – In The Universe – Nanocluster Vol. 2

Zanias! #1 in The Best of Echoes 2024, So Far: The Echoes Podcast Interview

This week we dropped our list of The Best of Echoes 2024, So Far Top 30. It’s our trip through our favorite recordings as we hit the mid-point of the year. Topping that list at number one is an artist who many people probably still don’t know even though I’ve been playing her endlessly on Echoes. Her name is Zanias and her album is Ecdysis.  Zanias usually sings words, but on her latest album, she takes inspiration from Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard as well as hallucinogenics.

I’m just so incredibly fascinated by consciousness and the human mind and everything that it’s capable of. So I had to explore everything that I read about when I was a teenager. And I was actually very young when I first experienced psychedelics. It was in Asia and it was magic mushrooms. And they made me just think in such an interesting way and feel things in such an interesting way.

Zanias was a member of the band Linea Aspera and Keluar, but on her albums Chrysalis and Ecdysis, she makes her own deeply grooved, psychedelic sound that tunnels into your psyche. We trip out with Zanias’ Allison Lewis when we talk to her in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

See The Best of Echoes 2024, So Far Top 30

ZANIAS FEATURE PLAYLIST

Artist – Title – Album
Zanias – Ecdysis – Ecdysis
Zanias – Departure – Chrysalis
Linea Aspera – Malrone – Linea Aspera
Zanias – To the Core – To the Core
Zanias – Swim- Ecdysis
Zanias – Duneskipper- Ecdysis
Dead Can Dance – Echolalia – The Serpent’s Egg
Dead Can Dance – Nierika – Spiritchaser
Zanias – Earthborn – Ecdysis
Zanias – Bloodwood – Ecdysis
Zanias – Lovelife – Ecdysis
Zanias – Habenula – Ecdysis
Zanias – Closing – Chrysalis

Carl Craig's Revolutionary Art: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast,  a giant of techno music  Carl Craig. His music burst through all the stereotypes of techno to create a more symphonic sound and he’s even had his music played with a symphony. Under many names, he’s been releasing solo music and remixing everyone from Tori Amos to Manuel Göttsching to Depeche Mode. A new documentary, Desire: The Carl Craig Story debuts in June at the Tribeca Film Festival. I had my own conversation with Carl talking about everything from the Sound Gizmo to the sound of Detroit Techno.

Carl Craig:  And what we were doing was we were not trying to make something that sounded like electronic versions of music that was made with instruments. We were really trying to create new soundscapes.

The beat is transformed with Carl Craig on Echoes from PRX.

Carl Craig Feature Playlist
Artist – Title – Album

Carl Craig – Technology – The Album Formerly Known As
A Number of Names – Shari Vari – Shari Vari Remixes Double ep
Sound Gizmo
Funkadelic – You’ll Like It Too – Who’s A Funkadelic
Hot Butter – Popcorn – 28 Big Ones
Kraftwerk – Computer World (Live) – Minimum-Maximum (Live)
Afrika Bambaata and Soul Sonic Force – Planet Rock – Planet Rock (Single)
Psyche – Neurotic Behavior – Neurotic Behavior PE 20 Remix
Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer – Symphonie Pour un Homme Seul – Symphonie Pour un Homme Seul
Public Enemy – 911 Is a Joke – Fear of a Black Planet
Carl Craig – Dominas – More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art
Tori Amos/Carl Craig – God (The Thinking Mix) – God (The Thinking Mix) Single
Vittoria Fleet – Return – Entangled ep
Vittoria Fleet – Return (Carl Craig Remix) – Return (Single)
Carl Craig – Darkness – Versus
Carl Craig – Desire – Versus
Carl Craig – Meditation 1 – Masterpiece
Carl Craig – From Beyond (C2 2023 Mix) – From Beyond
Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald – Attenuator – Attentuator

Sean Ono Lennon: The Complete Echoes Interview

A couple of weeks ago, I brought you our produced interview with Sean Ono Lennon. But that interview was so good and so wide-ranging, I thought you might like to hear the entire interview. Lennon is, of course, the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and we talked about that, especially their use of astrology. And we talk a lot about music because Lennon is something of an omnivore when it comes to different genres. And of course, we talk a lot about his own music, which has a decided bend toward psychedelia.  That’s something that comes out on his new album, Asterisms, inspired by The Inner Mounting Flame record from The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and other things.

Sean Lennon: I remember taking mushrooms and listening to Inner Mounting Flame actually. So it was actually me and a bunch of friends and .. .It blew our minds so much we jammed for hours afterwards and had a really good time.

We talk a lot more about altered states of mind with to Sean Ono Lennon in the Echoes Podcast.

A Conversation with Jeff Oster, Vin Downes & Tom Eaton About Seven Conversations: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, one conversation with three artists who have put out an album called Seven Conversations. They are trumpeter Jeff Oster, guitarist Vin Downes and 6 multi-instrumentalist Tom Eaton. These are three musicians you’ve heard a lot on Echoes with their solo albums as well as collaborative works in FLOW, the trio of Jeff Oster, Tom Eaton and Will Ackerman trio and numerous Will Ackerman productions. But as this trio, they’ve created an album of true ambient improvisation; Three musicians in intuitive communion.

Tom Eaton: I think this project is something we could only make with the three of us sitting together in a room. I couldn’t even imagine doing this, like, as overdubs. Like one of us starting something and sending it off to the other guy or whatever. It just, it wouldn’t make any sense. So I think it has to happen with the three of us together.

This is what great music sounds like when musicians actually perform together in one room. We talk to them in three different rooms across three thousand miles or so in the Echoes Podcast.

Read John Diliberto’s review of Seven Conversations, Echoes May CD of the Month

Oster-Downes-Eaton Feature Playlist

Oster-Downes-Eaton – Hushed – Seven Conversations
FLOW – Arrival – Flow
Tom Eaton – Weathering – Weathering
Vin Downes – Each Other’s Home – Good Light to Go By
Oster-Downes-Eaton – Summiting – Departure-Live at Echoes 10/8/17/17
Oster-Downes-Eaton – Unexpected Guest – Departure-Live at Echoes 10/8/17
Oster-Downes-Eaton – Words Overheard – Seven Conversations
Oster-Downes-Eaton – Subliminal – Seven Conversations
Oster-Downes-Eaton – Her Wisdom – Seven Conversations
Oster-Downes-Eaton – A Confession – Seven Conversations
Chris Isaak – Wicked Game – Wicked Game
Oster-Downes-Eaton – A Reckoning – Seven Conversations
Oster-Downes-Eaton – Hours Slip By – Seven Conversations

The Transcendence of Trio Mediaeval: The Echoes Podcast

Trio Mediaeval at Bg Ears Festival with John Diliberto Photo: Jeff Towne

In the Echoes Podcast, the celestial sounds of Trio Mediaeval. This extraordinary group of singers channel sounds from the Middle ages up through contemporary composers. We talk to them about their quarter-century journey into the past.  They are Linn Andrea Fuglseth, Anna Maria Friman and Jorunn Lovise Husan. Their latest album is An Old Hall Ladymass.  Although they sing mostly in Latin, it’s not the words that will seduce you.

Linn Andrea Fuglseth: I just love the sound of the language, I must say. It’s also very poetic, the use of the words, like, the different descriptions of the Virgin Mary for instance. Like the Queen of the Seas and the Star of the Skies.It’s just really beautiful.

This ensemble of Norwegian singers are making a music that can bring you to tears. Just listen to Roger Eno when he reacts to the trio after seeing them live at Big Ears Festival for the first time. You’ll hear that as well as what these three women listened to growing up in Norway. It wasn’t polyphony and plainsong. It’s Trio Mediaeval in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Trio Mediaeval Feature playlist

Artist – Title – Album

The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos – Puer Natus Est Nobis: Introit- Chant

Enigma – Principles of Lust/Sadeness – MCMXC a.D.

Richard Souther – For the Trinity – Vision

Trio Mediaeval – Alma Mater – Words of the Angel

Trio Mediaeval – Words of the Angel- Words of the Angel

ABBA  – Take a Chance on Me – The Album

Trio Mediaeval – O Maria, Stella Maris – Stella Maris

Trio Mediaeval – Sanctus – An Old Hall Ladymass

Trio Mediaeval – St.Birgitta Hymn: Rosa Rorans Bonitatem – Rimur 

Julia Wolfe/Trio Mediaeval – Destiny – Steel Hammer

Trio Mediaeval – Sol Lucet – An Old Hall Ladymass

Trio Mediaeval – Gloria – An Old Hall Ladymass

Trio Mediaeval – Kyrie – An Old Hall Ladymass

Sean Ono Lennon's Inner Mounting Psychedelia: The Echoes Podcast

In this weeks Echoes Podcast we’re I’m thrilled to bring you an interview with Sean Ono Lennon. Yes, he’s the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono but if your knowledge of him ends there you are in for a pleasant surprise. He’s been creating his own music over the years with a decided bend toward psychedelia and it’s something that comes out on his new album, Asterisms, inspired by The Inner Mounting Flame record from The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles’ Davis’s 60s electric period and . . . . some other things.

Sean Ono Lennon: I remember taking mushrooms and listening to Inner Mounting Flame actually. So it was actually me and a bunch of friends and .. .It blew our minds so much we jammed for hours afterwards and had a really good time.

We talk to Sean Lennon about his all-instrumental rave up album Asterisms in the Echoes Podcast.

SEAN ONO LENNON FEATURE PLAYLIST

Artist – Title – Album
Sean Ono Lennon – Asterisms – Asterisms
The GOASTT – Animals – Midnight Sun
Sean Ono Lennon – Asterisms – Asterisms
Mahavishnu Orchestra – Mieeting of the Spirits – The Inner Mounting Flame
Sean Ono Lennon – Heliopause – Asterisms
Miles Davis – Bitches Brew – Bitches Brew
Sean Ono Lennon – Thinking of M – Asterisms
Sean Ono Lennon – Starwater – Asterisms

Dark Sky Alliance - Progressive Ambient: The Echoes Interview

It’s a meeting of artists creating an ambient world, when we talk to Dark Sky Alliance featuring Peter Gabriel drummer Jerry Marotta, guitarist David Helpling, keyboardist Rupert Greenall from The Fixx, and electronic artist Eric “The” Taylor. Their sound is what happens when New Age and New Wave double-date with Progressive Rock and Ambient. Their debut album, Interdwell, is a study in ambience and soundscaping released on the ambient Spotted Peccary Music label.. John Diliberto signs us up with Dark Sky Alliance in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Dark Sky Alliance Feature Playlist

Artist – Title – Album
Dark Sky Alliance – Search – Interdwell
Dark Sky Alliance – Linear – Interdwell
The Fragile Fate – Lilliam Ocean – Lilliam Ocean
Dark Sky Alliance – Fortunate One – Interdwell
Dark Sky Alliance – The Slow Train Home – Interdwell
Dark Sky Alliance – The Desert Mind – Interdwell
Dark Sky Alliance – Warm Inlet – Interdwell
The Fixx – Saved by Zero – Reach the Beach
Dark Sky Alliance – Trè Pur- Interdwell
Dark Sky Alliance – Interdwell – Interdwell

Limina's Orchestral Music Between Worlds: The Echoes Podcast

Take Sigur Ros, add in strings and a more classical sensibility, and you wind up with Limina. That’s the project of Tyler Durham. He’s a journeyman film composer who creates additional music to accompany scores by Pinar Toprak and James Newton Howard. But Limina is his own expression. He creates his music electronically, but then takes his string and orchestral parts to a real orchestra to perform.  Then he messes with that electronically.  The result is a haunting album called Coming Home, that tells a tale of travel and hidden thoughts. John Diliberto talks to Limina on the Echoes Podcast.

LIMINA FEATURE PLAYLIST

Artist – Title – Album
Limina – Expand – Hidden Spaces
Limina – Let It Take You – Coming Home
Limina – Beginnings – Coming Home
N’Sync – Tearin’ Up My Heart – N’Sync
August Burns Read – White Wah – Constellations
Ray Chen – Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D, op.35
Sigur Ros – Andvari – Takk
Limina – Where I Am – Coming Home
Limina – Boarding – Coming Home
Limina – Dissolved – Coming Home
Limina -Flows Back – Coming Home
Limina – Sanctum – Coming Home
Limina – We Are Bound – Coming Home

A Long Psychedelic Trip with Zanias: The Echoes Podcast

Zanias usually sings words, but on her latest album, Ecdysis, she takes inspiration from Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard and as well as hallucinogenics.

I’m just so incredibly fascinated by consciousness and the human mind and everything that it’s capable of. So I had to explore everything that I read about when I was a teenager. And I was actually very young when I first experienced psychedelics. It was in Asia and it was magic mushrooms. And they made me just think in such an interesting way and feel things in such an interesting way.

Zanias was a member of the band Linea Aspera and Keluar, but on her albums Chrysalis and Ecdysis, she makes her own deeply grooved, psychedelic sound that tunnels into your psyche. We trip out with Zanias’ Allison Lewis when we talk to her in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

ZANIAS FEATURE PLAYLIST

Artist – Title – Album
Zanias – Ecdysis – Ecdysis
Zanias – Departure – Chrysalis
Linea Aspera – Malrone – Linea Aspera
Zanias – To the Core – To the Core
Zanias – Swim- Ecdysis
Zanias – Duneskipper- Ecdysis
Dead Can Dance – Echolalia – The Serpent’s Egg
Dead Can Dance – Nierika – Spiritchaser
Zanias – Earthborn – Ecdysis
Zanias – Bloodwood – Ecdysis
Zanias – Lovelife – Ecdysis
Zanias – Habenula – Ecdysis
Zanias – Closing – Chrysalis

A Journey in Ambient Classical Music with Roger Eno: The Echoes Podcast

John Diliberto and Roger Eno

Brian Eno is a giant figure in modern music and certainly here on Echoes. But in Eno’s shadow resides his brother, Roger Eno, 11 years younger. While Brian used to say he was a non-musician, Roger is very much a classically trained musician, and now he’s on the most legendary classical label, Deutsche Grammophon.

Roger Eno: I’m now on Deutsche Grammophon, which to me is a huge accolade. When I was at music college, that was the label, you know, that had these stern Germans doing serious things on it.
Well, now they’ve got a giggling little half Belgian on their books.

Roger Eno is one of the pioneers of Ambient Chamber music. But over the last few years his music has become more neo-classical with albums on Deutsche Grammophon. At Big Ears Festival, Roger Eno takes us down his pastoral path when John Diliberto sits down with him in the Echoes Podcast.

ROGER ENO FEATURE PLAYLIST

Roger Eno – That Which is Hidden – The Skies, They Shift Like Chords
Roger Eno – Aove and Below (Crepuscular – The Skies, They Shift Like Chords
Roger Eno – If Only for a Moment – The Skies, They Shift Like Chords
Roger Eno – Japanese Rain Garden – The Skies, They Shift Like Chords
Brian Eno – Always Returning – Apollo
Roger Eno – Arms Open Wide – The Skies, They Shift Like Chords
Roger Eno – Through the Blue (Crepuscular) – The Skies, They Shift Like Chords
Roger Eno – The Turning Year – The Turning Year
Roger Eno – A Place We Once Were – The Turning Year
Morton Feldman – Rothko Chapel – Rothko Chapel
Roger Eno – Ringing Glow – Between Tides
Roger Eno – Clearly – The Turning Year

An Electronic Life with Le Morte d'Abby: The Echoes Podcat

Le Morte d’Abby means “the death of Abby,” but Abigail Lentz, who assumed that artist name, is very much alive and creating some exhilarating electronic music. She was a military brat, but she was also a goth. Now she marshals sequencers, getting them in line. She’s living at the intersection of electronic space music and EDM, modular synthesis and computer synths. IN fact there is much that is in between with this artist, whose real name is Abigail Lentz.  She recently released the album “In Those Days” a melodic sequencer ride. Join John Diliberto when he talks to Le Morte d’Abby on Echoes from PRX.

LE MORTE D’ABBY PLAYLIST

Le Morte D’Abby – In Those Days – In Those Days
Le Morte D’Abby – Putting (Up with You)  – Putting ep
Le Morte D’Abby – Putting (Things On Top of Other Things mix) – Putting
Le Morte D’Abby – Streetlights Reflected – Impermanence
Bauhaus – Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bela Lugosi’s Dead
Le Morte D’Abby – Melancholia – Aberrant
Le Morte D’Abby – Eclipse – In Those Days
Le Morte D’Abby – In the Snow (Both Ways) – In Those Days
Le Morte D’Abby – Through the Static – In Those Days
Le Morte D’Abby – Woe to Earth- In Those Days
Le Morte D’Abby – Ataxia – In Those Days

A Kaleidoscopic View of Kaleida: The Echoes Podcast Interview

On the next Echoes, the British-American Duo, Kaleida talk about their album, In Arms. It’s an album fraught with biblical, personal and political references.

Christina Wood: It was meant to have a double meaning. It was meant to be like holding babies in arms but also arming yourself to keep on going.

This British-American-German dream pop duo are creating an entrancing sound, much of it emerging from their trans-oceanic separation and from their new born babies. They are millennials who wrote a song criticizing their generation. Cicely Goulder-Levy was scoring films when she got seduced by electronic music. Christina Wood wasn’t really in music at all. She was an environmental engineer.  But they got together, across a couple of continents then, and an ocean now, to create three entrancing albums. Hear their story on Echoes.

KALEIDA INTERVIEW PLAYLIST

Kaleida – Choices – In Arms
Kaleida – Hansaplast- In Arms
Kaleida – Hollow- In Arms
Cicely Goulder – Adjudication – Quirky Underscores
Kaleida – Stranger- In Arms
Kaleida – Think – Think (EP)
Kaleida – Hey Little Precious – In Arms
Kaleida – Endless Youth – In Arms
Geeshie Wiley – Last Kind Word Blues – Presenting Geeshie Wiley
Kaleida – Seagull Nun – In Arms
Kaleida – Don’t Turn Me Out – In Arms
Kaleida – Kilda – In Arms

Echoes Podcast: The Ministry of Quiet Resonance and Ashley Capps Opens Our Big Ears

It’s Quiet Resonance on the next Echoes when we talk to Tony Pounders. As Quiet Resonance, he composes guitar orchestrations that range from ambient to pastoral to pure space. He also has another side to his life that might surprise you. He’s from Mississippi, a place with a deep musical heritage but not a fountain of ambient, electronic or new age music. If you love Jeff Pearce, Suss and Lanterna you may want to hear Quiet Resonance.  He made our year end Best of Echoes Top 30 in 2024. He’s just released a new album, Endless Beginnings. John Diliberto goes to church to talk to Quiet Resonance in the Echoes Podcast.

QUIET RESONANCE PLAYLIST

Quiet Resonance – Frostbite – Snow Blind
Quiet Resonance – Hialeah – Flight Patterns
Quiet Resonance – Days to Months Before – Behave
Rush – A Farewell to Kings – A Farewell to Kings
Quiet Resonance – Expanse – Someplace Else
Quiet Resonance – Schooner – Coastal
Def Leppard – Hysteria – Hysteria
Quiet Resonance – Prospects for Wisdom – Prospects for Wisdom
Quiet Resonance – Managua – Flight Patterns
Quiet Resonance – Run – Duck Fat Fries
Quiet Resonance – Duck Fat Fries – Duck Fat Fries
Quiet Resonance – Falling Upward – Prospects for Wisdom

It’s Big Ears on the next Echoes. We’ll talk to founder Ashley Capps about the Big Ears Festival 2024, which includes performances from Laurie Anderson, King Britt, Andre 3000, Laraaji, Roger Eno and about 200 more. This is a mammoth festival in Knoxville that ranges from singer-songwriters to avant-garde string quartets to electronic artists to free jazz and multiple intersections of all those things. And you can’t see all of the 200 or so acts so leave FOMO behind.

Ashley Capps: That to me, John, is the secret of the festival. And it’s kind of an interesting metaphor for our world of distraction that we live in every day, where so many things are pulling you in so many different directions. But ultimately, satisfaction emerges from being in the moment and completely engaged in whatever situation you happen to find yourself in.

If you’ve got big ears, join us in the Echoes Podcast.

Read John Diliberto’s Path Through Big Ears Festival 2024

BIG EARS PLAYLIST

Kronos Quartet – The Cusp of Magic – Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic
King Britt – Beyond the Sun – Fhloston Paradigm
Andre 3000 – I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a Rap Album But This is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time – New Blue Sun
Andre 3000 – BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000 Shirt Embroidered – New Blue Sun
King Brit – Back2Black – Back2Black
Carl Craig – Return by Victoria Fleet Remix – Single
Laurie Anderson – O Superman – Big Science
Laurie Anderson – From the Air – Big Science
Brad Mehldau – Paranoid Android – Largo
Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow -The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage – Maiden Voyage
Herbie Hancock – Chameleon – Headhunters
Herbie Hancock _Court and Spark – River: The Joni Letters
Tord Gustavsen – The Gift – Extended Circle
Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus – Hope A Hope – Sprit of Nuff . . .Nuff
Suzi Analogue – Time To – Boom
Secret Chiefs 3 – Vajra – Book M
Adrianne Lenker – Cradle – abysskiss
Charles lloyd – Booker’s Garden – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
Colleen – The Crossin – The Tunnel and the Clearing

Big Ears Festival Founder Ashley Capps Exploding Music Show!

Today in the Echoes Podcast we explore Big Ears Festival 2024. This is the annual new music extravaganza in Knoxville, Tennessee of bleeding edge sounds, free jazz, deep ambient and very much more since 2009. This years festival features Andre 3000, Herbie Hancock, Laraaji, Laurie Anderson, King Britt and about 200 other performers across four days from March 21-24. I’ve been talking to founder Ashley Capps annually about the festival since 2015. We’ll go a little deeper not just about who is playing the festival, but why.

Ashley Capps may be one of the most innovative concert promoters of the last 20 years. He founded the Bonaroo Festival in 2002 and produced the two best Moogfests as well as the Mountain Oasis Music Festival. But Big Ears is his passion project, so much so that he gave up those other gigs to form a non-profit to produce it. Big ears is one of the most ear challenging, as well as one of the most civilized, taking place in downtown Knoxville in multiple, enclosed venues from large concert halls to small clubs and a few odd locations as well, like a cathedral. Every year, Ashley and I sit across from each other on screen and survey the Big Ears landscape. Hear it now in the Echoes Podcast

The 50th anniversary of Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra and The Tangerine Dream Documentary

In the Echoes Podcast, head into psychedelic space on the 50^th anniversary of Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra. This is a seminal album of electronic music that essentially launched the whole sequencer school of electronics. We’ll hear a meditation on Phaedra with Moby, Mark Shreeve, Ian Boddy, Steve Roach, and Ulrich Schnauss as well as most of the Phaedra album. 

Then as a bonus, we’re putting up our documentary on Tangerine Dream which includes interviews with all the members the classic line-up, Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann and Christoph Franke. We also hear from later members Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss as well as Moby, Mark Shreeve, Ian Boddy, Steve Roach and Jah Wobble,

Read John Diliberto’s Meditation on Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra.
Hear our complete 1982 interview with Edgar Froese here.
See our list of Ten Tangerine Dream Albums to Blow Your Mind.
Hear our interview with the current edition of Tangerine Dream here.

21st Century Mediaeval Hymns; Kevin Keller-The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, we go to the monastery when Kevin Keller talks about his album, Evensong. It’s partly based on the chants and hymns of 12^th century Abbess Hildegard von Bingen.

You might recall the chant craze of the 1990s when The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo singing gothic hymns were topping the charts, and artists like Enigma were adapting chants into their music. But rising above them all were the 12th century compositions of Abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Her music was recreated by artists like Gothic Voices, Sequentia and Anonymous 4 and adapted for 20th century ears by Richard Souther, Vox, and David Lynch with Jocelyn Montgomery. Now composer Kevin Keller has created his own beautiful renderings of her music on the album Evensong, a CD of the Month in November.

Today we might call Hildegard a polymath. She was a writer, philosopher, mystic, and medical practitioner. But she is best known for her music: heavenly plainchant hymns that call to the heavens in the most sensual way. Many of these came to her in visions, and that’s how Kevin Keller’s album, Evensong arrived.

Kevin Keller: At the risk of sounding a little too mystical, this album did sort of come to me in a vision. It arrived fully formed in my brain two years ago in October of 21. And just in like the space of a couple of hours, I had the album title, the concept, and I knew right from the beginning that it was going to involve songs by Hildegard of Bingen and that there would be eight songs.

We talk to Kevin Keller about bringing these gothic sounds into the 21^st century.

Hear it tonight or Right Now at Echoes On-Line.
Read John Diliberto’s CD of the Month Review of Evensong

PLAYLIST FOR KEVIN KELLER FEATURE

Sequentia – O Virdissima Virga, Ave – Canticles of Ecstasy
Sequentia – O Vis Aeternitatis – Canticles of Ecstasy
Richard Souther – Vision – Vision: The Music of Abbess Hildegard von Bingen
Kevin Keller – Evensong 7 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 4 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 3 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 1 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 7 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 8 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 4 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 5 – Evensong

Riding the Storm with Russel Walder: The Echoes Podcast

Our CD Of The Month in November was Speak to the Storm by Russel Walder.  It was so compelling we had to talk to the oboe player who we first knew as one half of the duo Ira Stein and Russel Walder on Windham Hill Records.  The music he makes on his own in his adopted home of New Zealand, is quite a bit darker than anything he recorded with the duo. When he says speak to the storm, he means it.

Russel Walder: I absolutely believe that the internal conscious state of existence is a storm that never ends, ever.

Russel Walder. We’ll be talking to him and weathering the storm in the Echoes Podcast.

Read John Diliberto’s review of Speak to the Storm .

RUSSEL WALDER FEATURE PLAYLIST

Ira Stein & Russel Walder _ The Underground – A Door in the Air
Russel Walder – The Longer Journey – Speak to the Storm
Russel Walder – Walk on Water – Speak to the Storm
Ira Stein & Russel Walder – Engravings – Transit
Russel Walder – Trusting the Invisible – Speak to the Storm
Russel Walder – The Time Finds Us – Speak to the Storm
Russel Walder – Path to Path – Speak to the Storm
Russel Walder – Conception – Speak to the Storm
Russel Walder – Hidden But Seen – Speak to the Storm
Russel Walder – Beyond Doubt- Speak to the Storm