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Hearts of Space for April 21, 2008
10:30 PM - 11:30 PM
[Program Website]
Today's Highlight: ANCIENT EVENINGS
This week we continue our 25th Anniversary retrospective series. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we go back to the early days of the techno-tribal sound, with a 1988 program called ANCIENT EVENINGS.
After years of nonstop electrification of popular music, the 1980s saw a turn toward so-called "world music" from ethnic, traditional and even aboriginal cultures. World music fusions by popular artists like PAUL SIMON on GRACELAND and PETER GABRIEL on his solo albums "MELT" and SECURITY inspired spacemusic composers to ground the ethereal sound of electronic instruments by combining them with earthy rhythms, trance percussion and ritual sounds.
This program featured English composer GARRY HUGHES' second solo album ANCIENT EVENINGS, and STEVE ROACH's epic double album inspired by the ancient aboriginal soundscape of Australia, DREAMTIME RETURN — plus music by world frame drum percussionist GLEN VELEZ from SEVEN HEAVEN, by GRATEFUL DEAD drummer and ethno- musicologist MICKEY HART from DAFOS, and by spacemusic composers KEVIN BRAHENY and STEVE ROACH from WESTERN SPACES.
In the mythology of the Aborigines, the "Dreamtime" was a prehistoric era of continuous paradise. Documentary filmmaker DAVID STAHL met STEVE ROACH while working on a film about aboriginal rock paintings called ART OF THE DREAMTIME. DAVID STAHL writes: "The ancient magic the initiated knew in the bush may already be lost, yet a different magic, a universal subconscious longing for a Dreamtime Return is firmly planted today in the mind of modern man and in his heart."
These artists are all exploring a deeper, older sense of time and space, which we can share.
Hearts of Space brings you the ancient resonances of drums, bells, and flutes, the exotic tones of gongs and gamelans, and the digital sounds of the new Ambient frontier. As it moves into its third decade, the program continues to chronicle the best of the contemplative sound experience, with spacemusic from near and far out.
Hearts of Space grew out of producer Stephen Hill’s fascination with space-creating, contemplative music. Beginning in the early 1970s, Hill hosted a weekly late-night radio program in the San Francisco Bay area. What began purely as a labor of love eventually became the most popular contemporary music program on public radio. Over the intervening quarter century, Hearts of Space evolved into a multifaceted production and broadcast company encompassing radio, record production, and internet streaming.
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