Echoes

Echoes feature - Hem

Hem is a Brooklyn-based band making a gentle dream-folk music that harbors songs of loss, turmoil and redemption. The group almost broke up making their latest album, Departure and Farewell, but it turned out to be a rebirth.

Echoes feature - Shaman's Dream

Shaman's Dream is a world fusion group tending towards the meditative side. It's headed by Craig Kohland, and on their latest album, Prana Pulse, electronica artist Bluetech joins the band. They talk about meditation and groove.

Echoes feature - Olafur Arnalds - Echoes CD of the...

Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds has released two albums in a row that truly seem to emerge from the heart of that country's winter darkness. If his 2010 album, And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness, was the sound of Iceland's sunless winter days, his latest release, For Now I Am Winter, turns the Nordic freeze into heroic rapture. Both sophisticated and edgy, Olafur Arnalds inhabits his own sonic universe, balancing emotions and mood on a laser's edge. For Now I Am Winter is the...

Echoes feature - Tina Malia

Tina Malia is a self-professed hippie chick. She also possesses a remarkable voice honed in her singer-songwriter music, Kirtan chanting and collaborations with electronica artist Bass Nectar. She talks about the darker, electronic dimensions of her new CD, The Lost Frontier.

Echoes feature - Ludovico Einaudi - In a Time Lapse

Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi mixes classism with minimalism and ambient moods on a CD of lush and melodically rich music that threads the line between pop and neo-classicism. His recording In a Time Lapse is the Echoes CD of the Month for March.

Echoes feature - Pat Metheny - Orchestrion Project Live

In 2010 Pat Metheny toured with his massive mechanical orchestra, the Orchestrion. Upon the release of a live album, we go back into the belly of the Orchestrion beast with the acclaimed jazz guitarist.

Echoes feature - Ulrich Schnauss - A Long Way To Fall

Ulrich Schnauss was one of the signpost electronic musicians of the 21st century's first decade. Now he's just released his first CD of the Twenty-Teens: a gorgeous work of melodic ambient spaces called A Long Way to Fall.

Echoes feature - Jon Durant and Colin Edwin

Colin Edwin is the bassist with English Progressive Rock band, Porcupine Tree. Jon Durant is a guitarist with ambient dimensions. They get together on a CD of darkly hued, atmospherically deep instrumentals.

Echoes feature - Hammock

The Nashville based ambient guitar duo has released an epic masterpiece called Departure Songs. We talk to them about their songs of loss and affirmation drenched in layers of reverbed guitar.

Echoes feature - Essential Echoes 2012

There are always three year end lists at Echoes. The first is John Diliberto's personal Top Ten which embraces all the music he listens to, not just what gets played on Echoes. Then comes the Best of Echoes 2012 listener poll, and finally, the 25 Essential Echoes CDs of 2012. These are the albums that the Echoes staff thought were the most significant releases of 2012 that were played on Echoes. We take a listen to some of the Essential Echoes for 2012.

Echoes feature - Kaki King

Idiosyncratic guitar phenomenon Kaki King returns to her acoustic guitar on her new CD, Glow. But this isn't just another finger-style sojourn. Kaki King takes acoustic guitar into new dimensions and talks about it on Echoes.

Echoes feature - Bryan Carrigan

We look through Windows with Bryan Carrigan. He has put out three CDs in the last year. We’ll hear him talk about his latest, an ambient excursion called Windows.

Echoes feature - John Cage - Beyond Silence

Echoes feature - Azure Ray

Azure Ray is the duo of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink, who have been making intoxicating dream pop for over a decade. Their music is deeply personal, including one of the saddest songs ever, "November." They talk about their new electronica direction on their CD, As Above So Below.

Echoes feature - Samsara

Samsara is the first "trip" film of the new millennium, a follow-up to the movies Baraka and Chronos. We talk to the film's director and producer, Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson and composer Michael Stearns about this global journey into the cycle of life.

Echoes feature - BJ Cole

He's the best-known pedal steel guitarist in England, but he'd rather play ambient music than Country and Western. BJ Cole talks about being inspired by Brian Eno, playing on the Icebreaker cover of Eno's Apollo album, and his own new CD, Transparent Music 2.

Echoes feature - Hillary Hahn and Hauschka

What happens when a famed classical violinist collaborates with a musician who puts bottle caps, duct tape, vibrators and chopsticks into his piano? Find out, when we talk to Hilary Hahn and Hauschka about one of the most unlikely collaborations of the year.

Echoes feature - Icebreaker

Brian Eno's Apollo is a seminal and influential album in ambient music. The English new music ensemble called Icebreaker has taken this electronic work and rendered it as a stunning live performance. Icebreaker's James Poke and pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole talk about adapting this iconic album.

Echoes feature - Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance have returned with Anastasis, their first studio album in 16 years. The CD and world tour reunites this group that defined an ecstatic gothic sound. Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry talk to us from Quivvy Church in Ireland about touching the spirit.

Echoes feature - Blue Foundation

Growing up in Denmark, Tobias Wilner had a troubled childhood in which he lived on the streets and became a skater boy. He's turned that youth into sensual dream pop with his Brooklyn based band, Blue Foundation. Tobias Wilner talks with John Diliberto about the psychological bricks in his group, Blue Foundation.

Echoes feature - Geigertek

Geigertek is the recording persona of Neil Fellowes. His recent CD, Soundtrack for City Living is an album of atmospheres ranging from the romantic to the dystopic with a gorgeous cover of John Foxx's Underpass. We talk to him about a different kind of urban electronic sound.

Echoes feature - Dickon Hinchliffe

He was a member of the popular English rock group, Tindersticks, but after the band composed scores for films by Clare Denis, Hinchliffe caught the soundtrack bug and now composes scores for movies, such as Winter’s Bone and Rampart.

Echoes feature - NEARFest Apocalypse

We talk to NEARfest creators, Chad Hutchinson and Rob LaDuca who look back on 14 years and 13 editions of this Progressive ROck festival.

Echoes feature - George Sarah

George Sarah is an LA-based electronic composer who merges electronics and orchestral strings, along with some great singers, for an evocative set of themes that could be on any one of his film scores. He talks about life between the cracks.

Echoes feature - Robin Guthrie, Harold Budd and Eraldo...

Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd are icons of ambient music. Eraldo Bernocchi is an eclectic Italian musician with ambient desires. They got together on a CD called Winter Garden that is like improvisations in reverb. We talk to Guthrie and Bernocchi about their collaboration.

Echoes feature - Low Roar

Ryan Karaziya, better known as Low Roar, is making a heart-wrenching brand of ambient pop with folk-like melodies and ethereal moods. Low Roar sings softly, and speaks that way as well.

Echoes feature - Frankie Rose

Frankie Rose is a singer-songwriter who has released an album of evocative electronica pop called Interstellar. She used to play with a group called the Outs, but she's in, on Echoes.

Echoes feature - Loreena McKennitt

The Canadian harpist, singer and global music explorer Loreena McKennitt talks about her return to traditional Celtic music on the albums The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Troubadours on the Rhine.

Echoes feature - Eric Tingstad

The acoustic guitar half of the long-lived, Grammy-award winning duo Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel, plugs in for a follow-up to his album Southwest with another CD of twangy ambient Americana. It's called Badlands. He talks about his country sound.

Echoes feature - Orbital

Interview: Orbital. Orbital is the long-lived English electronica duo who brought melody and humor to techno music. They've just put out their first new album in 8 years, Wonky. We get Wonky with the Hartnoll brothers who take us to Orbital's early daze and beyond.

Echoes feature - Gary Numan part 2

Interview: Gary Numan Part 2. We look at Gary Numan's latest album, Dead Son Rising, and how it links back to the dystopian themes of his ground-breaking 1978 recording, Replicas.

Echoes feature - Liftoff

With links to the eclectic downtempo strategies of the band Thievery Corporation, Liftoff brings the spirit and harmonies of 60s psychedelic pop into a downtempo electronic mode. We talk to all four members of the Washington, DC based band.

Echoes feature - Krusseldorf

Krusseldorf is a nom-de-plume used by Swedish electronic artist Simon Heath. He's created a beautifully melodic brand of downtempo electronica which seems to create kinetic sculptures before your eyes. We talk to him about it and his album, From Soil to Space.

Echoes feature - Iarla O'Lionaird

He was the soulful Irish voice of Afro Celt Sound System, but now on his own, Iarla O'Lionaird has teamed up with Brian Eno collaborator, Leo Abrahams. They made an album of deep and atmospheric Celtic Aires called Foxlight. We talk to Iarla about tapping the Celtic soul.

Echoes feature - Mazmoneth

Nigel Mullaney and Ray Sherwin are guitarists and keyboardists deeply into space music, progressive rock and the occult. They started out recording music for relaxation but now create a sound that propels you into the unknown. We talk to them about their album, Music by Mirrors.

Echoes feature - Throbbing Gristle

As Carter Tutti, Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti record delicate, introspective and personal music, in the 1970s and 80s they were one-half of the pioneering Industrial Rock band, Throbbing Gristle. The first five TG albums have just been re-released, so we talk to these artists who created some of the most confrontational music of the 1970s.

Echoes feature - Akara.

Akara is the duo of keyboardist Joshua Penman and singer Femke Weidema, and they say there is another dimension within ours. They sing lyrics written by beings in that dimension and create a global electronic soundscape around them. Back in this dimension, Akara talk about their mythological music.

Echoes feature - Azam Ali.

It's lullabies from the Middle East transformed by the voice of Iranian-born singer, Azam Ali. She updates these songs on a new CD called From Night To the Edge of Day. We talk to the singer, who has also been the voice of the Persian fusion groups Vas and Niyaz.

Echoes feature - Gentle Giant.

Gentle Giant wasn't the most popular progressive rock band of the 1970s, but it was one of the most respected. They were known for their complex compositions, madrigal singing, and conceptual albums that pushed the limits of rock. We'll hear their tale, including the story of Elton John almost becoming a member

Echoes feature - Lia Ices.

Lia Ices is an enchanting singer from Brooklyn who reveals the influences of Kate Bush and Enya in a music that is thoroughly her own. We talk to her about her album, Grown Unknown. The BBC said that "this is one many will be coming back to whenever stress levels flit into the red."

Echoes feature - Johanna and the Dusty Floor

Johanna is Johanna Cranitch, an Australian transplant with a vocal style influenced by Kate Bush and a sound honed in electronica. Her album Northern Lights is a song-cycle of haunted memories that includes a cover of Bush's tune Cloudbusting.

Echoes feature - Divine Matrix

A former dance music DJ plugs into his chilled and melodic side when we talk with Steve Barnes, better known as Divine Matrix. He talks about his music and the concept behind his ostentatious name.

Echoes feature - Balmorhea

Balmorhea is a quartet of musicians that should probably be playing rock and roll, and in their own fashion, they might be. Using acoustic guitars, piano, violin and cello, they orchestrate a haunting, pastoral sound tinged by country and born out of the landscapes of Texas.

Echoes feature - Karda Estra

Prompted by the release a couple of new recordings, we take a look back at our 2009 interview with Karda Estra, the recording persona of English composer Richard Wileman. He started out as a rocker but veered into composing classical works for chamber ensembles and electric guitar. His imagery tends to be gothic and his music dramatic. We'll talk to him about a sound that falls between progressive rock and classical cracks.

Echoes feature - Pat Metheny

Iconic guitarist Pat Metheny goes pop on a CD of 1960s cover tunes called What's It All About. The title comes from the lyrics to Alfie and that's one of the pop tunes Metheny covers, along with songs by Paul Simon, Carly Simon, and The Carpenters. Pat Metheny talks about his pop improvisations.

Echoes feature - Colin Vallon Trio

They actually want to be referred to as Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret and Samuel Rohrer. That's not very concise but it does speak to the collaborative nature of this piano trio, which explores intuitive improvisations and prepared piano. We talk about their latest ECM album, Rruga and the art of free improvisation.

Echoes feature - Finnouala Sherry

Fionnuala Sherry is half of the Irish - Norwegian duo, Secret Garden. She steps out on her own with a surprisingly textural, deeply ambient album called Songs from Before. From her home in Dublin, the violinist talks about spinning traditional tunes through an ethereal landscape.

Echoes feature - Moby: Destroyed

The avatar of ambient soundscapes and dance hits continues on his road to becoming an atmospheric singer-songwriter on his new CD, Destroyed. Moby talks about his new, introspective album concerning themes of love, loss and death. But it's much more life-affirming than that.

Echoes feature - Radio Massacre International - 2011

Despite their name, they don't hate radio, though but they do make music you won't hear broadcast much, except on Echoes. We'll hear from this English trio who can evoke early Pink Floyd one moment and Tangerine Dream the next.

Echoes feature - Sumner McKane

Always an exponent of Ambient Americana, guitarist Sumner McKane scores a soundtrack for a documentary called In the Blood, about Maine's logging industry in the early 20th century. He also produced the film. His score calls up folk themes and modern ambiences.

Echoes feature - Vicki Richards

Vicki Richards plays electric violin, and although she was inspired by the fusion music of the 1970s and 80s, her own sound is more introspective and drawn from personal experience. She talks about her new album, She Vanishes, the Echoes CD of the Month for April.

Echoes feature - Skuli Sverrisson

In his New York City apartment, Laurie Anderson's music director, Skuli Sverrisson, pulls out his bass, toy piano and more, when he reveals the concepts behind his subtle and complex ambient chamber music. His CD Seria II echoes Italian film composers Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota and sends them into atmospheric terrain.

Echoes feature - Heligoland

Heligoland is the name of an island off the coast of Germany, and also the title of a Massive Attack album, but it's also a group from Australia via Paris that creates an ethereal dream pop. Their new album, All Your Ships are White, was produced by ex-Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie. We talk to the band's founders, singer Karen Vogt and bassist Steve Wheeler, about Heligoland's journey geographically and musically.

Echoes feature - David Arkenstone

This composer and multi-instrumentalist built his reputation as the sultan of symphonic new age music, but on his new CD, Ambient World, he takes a more contemplative and textural approach. We talk with David Arkenstone about the Japanese influence on this album, which was our Echoes CD of the Month in February.

Echoes feature - Robert Miles

He came to renown in the mid 1990s with his dance-fueled electronic hit, Children, but since then, Italian artist Robert Miles has pursued a course of electronic fusion, mixing jazz grooves and rock guitar, and world music elements into his sound. He has a new album called Thirteen that's a study in post-electric Miles Davis ambient textures.

Echoes feature - Will Romano - Mountains Come Out of the...

Will Romano, author of Mountains Come Out of the Sky - The Illustrated History of Prog Rock, was too young to experience the heyday of progressive rock, but he's gone back to explore the sounds of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, and more in this heavily researched book full of key interviews. We talk with Will Romano about the rise of prog.

Echoes feature - William Tyler

Fusing his Nashville background with influences ranging from finger-style iconoclast John Fahey to ambient pioneer Brian Eno, William Tyler picks out Americana songs tinged with deep atmosphere on his CD Behold the Spirit.

Echoes feature - Dave Eggar and Deoro

Cellist and pianist Dave Eggar is a complicated musician who does session work for practically everyone, and has released albums from new age piano to sublime chamber works. His latest album finds him exploring Reggae music. Dave Eggar talks about music from Messiaen to Marley.

Echoes feature - Mark Preston

Mark Preston was a rock drummer until he plugged in and found a deeper, personal space in electronic music. We talk with him about making his first album in high school and his latest CD, Nature and Design, an Echoes CD of the Month last November.

Echoes feature -Boxharp

A boxharp is a zither instrument associated with Appalachian music and it's also the name of a quirky duo. Scott Solter and Wendy Allen create swampy, moody renditions of folk songs they've heard from people like Burl Ives. It's not your grandfather's Old Smokey.

Echoes feature - Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunning

Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunning are veterans of Celtic crossover playing keyboards and flute. On a new CD of seasonal music called Under the Wonder Sky, they re-imagine Christmas. Joined by violinist Wendy Goodwin, the trio talks about the meaning of Christmas and Under the Wonder Sky.

Echoes feature - David Lanz

Like many of us, David Lanz grew up on The Beatles and now he's paid homage to the fab four with a CD of impressionistic Beatles covers called Liverpool: Re-imagining the Beatles. With Gary Stroutsos playing Chinese Xiao flute, they turn Beatles songs into expansive chamber works. They tell us about their sojourn to Liverpool.

Echoes feature - Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto is the Academy Award winning, critically acclaimed, and willfully eclectic Japanese composer and pianist who has worked with David Bowie, David Byrne and many others. He also founded the pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra and has released a string of solo albums ranging in style from the romantic to the noisy. We talk about concepts of the noise of music with this innovative artist.

Echoes feature - Anil Prasad

On his website, Innerviews.org, Anil Prasad conducts introspective interviews with leading figures in music. Now he's written a book called Innerviews - Music Without Borders with new and expanded interviews with artists like Bjork, Chuck D, Tangerine Dream and John McLaughlin. We interview Anil Prasad about Innerviews - Music Without Borders.

Echoes feature - Nils Petter Molvaer

Nils Petter Molvaer is a 21st century trumpeter from Norway who employs electronic rhythms, free improvisation and elaborate processing on his trumpet for a breathy, introspective sound. He talks about his music and latest album, Hamada.

Echoes feature - Michael Rother

No one heard of them 40 years ago, but the 1970s German bands Neu and Harmonia are now cited in every other review of hip alt-rock bands. We talk to a founder of those groups, guitarist Michael Rother, who is still creating brilliant music on his own, and who recently toured the U.S.

Echoes feature - Goldmund

He plays piano like it's barely there, makes ambient music that whispers and has an electronica duo that seduces. His name is Keith Kenniff, but he records as Goldmund, Helios and Mint Julep. He talks about his fragile music and the new Goldmund album, Famous Places.

Echoes feature - On Fillmore

On Fillmore is a duo of audio landscapers. Glenn Kotche, the drummer from Wilco, and bassist Darin Gray use tuned percussion, acoustic bass, and assorted odds and ends to create soundscapes that are sometimes enveloping and sometimes discordant.

Echoes feature - Bruce Kaphan

Bruce Kaphan put the ambient in ambient Americana with his album Slider. Ten years later he returns with a new CD of pedal steel guitar melodies called Hybrid.

Echoes feature - Steve Hackett

When you mention guitar gods, Steve Hackett should be right in the thick of it. Coming to renown with the progressive rock group Genesis, Hackett's solo career is marked by expansive, dramatic compositions and solos that make him the Sultan of Sustain. At a triumphal performance at NEARfest 2010, we talk with Hackett about his music past and present.

Echoes feature - Dave Bainbridge

Guitarist Dave Bainbridge is best known for his work as founder of the Celtic progressive rock group, Iona. On his own and with Uilleann piper Troy Donockley, he sculpts meditative improvisations in cathedrals and expansively orchestrated studio works. We talk to him about a sound born in faith.

Echoes feature - Bluetech

Acclaimed downtempo electronic composer Bluetech gets his dub thing going on a new CD called Love Songs To the Source. Bluetech talks about his new electro-Jamaican Jams.

Echoes feature - Hungry Lucy

We hear ghost stories from Hungry Lucy. They're an electronica duo from Ohio who take their name from a horror tale and take their music from the interior dreams of singer Christa Belle and electronic artist Warren Harrison.

Echoes feature - Kaki King

She started out as a two-handed tapping, acoustic finger-style phenomenon, but over the last decade, Kaki King has remolded herself as a punky singer-songwriter wailing on electric guitar. We talk about her evolution and new CD, Junior.

Echoes feature - Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu

Jazz guitarist Ralph Towner from the group Oregon and Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu talk about their unique and intimate meeting born in intuitive interplay and improvisation on their ECM album, Chiaroscuro.

Echoes feature - Vangelis - An Icon of Echoes

The Greek synthesist Vangelis has been recording for over four decades, creating symphonic electronic orchestrations and dark ambient expanses. His work includes the films Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner and epic albums like Albedo 0.39 and Oceanic. As number 11 of 20 Icons of Echoes, we hear the Greek electronic giant talk about his career.

Echoes feature - Scott August

Scott August built his reputation as a player of Native American flutes, but on his new CD, he takes his flutes into space with a sound that reveals the influence of 70s space music. His CD is called Radiant Sky and Scott August illuminates it on Echoes.

Echoes feature - All India Radio

It's a transmission from All India Radio. They're not from India, though. They're a band from Australia that makes global ambient music full of Americana touches and inviting atmospheres. We talk long distance to All India Radio operator Martin Kennedy.

Echoes feature - Loreena McKennitt - An Icon of Echoes

We survey the music of Canadian singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt, a musician who has moved from folky Celtic harp music to global extravaganzas.

Echoes feature - Kevin Keller

Ambient chamber music composer Kevin Keller's In Absentia is a study in finely calibrated emotions dealing with the disappearance and likely death of his father-in-law. Keller talks about crafting this chamber music in his New York bedroom studio.

Echoes feature - Tangerine Dream - An Icon of Echoes

Bands are still borrowing from the sounds created by Tangerine Dream in the 1970s. We look back on over 40 years of space music from this German electronic band, which Echoes listeners voted one of 20 Icons of Echoes.

Echoes feature - Kori Linae Carothers

Pianist Kori Linae Carothers talks about her intimate chamber music, her recent CD Trillium, and playing with guitarist Will Ackerman and flugelhornist Jeff Oster.

Echoes feature - Michael Spriggs

Nashville guitarist Michael Spriggs talks about his evolution from country picking to ambient Americana with his album Neurasenia, our Echoes CD of the Month from December.

Echoes feature - Jon Hopkins

He's a collaborator with Brian Eno, played with Imogen Heap and is all over the last Coldplay album. On his own, Jon Hopkins makes a lyrical, glitch-strewn music based in acoustic piano. We talk with him about battered uprights and Kaos Pads.

Echoes feature - Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze

An African griot meets a German jazz trumpeter when Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze talk about their unlikely and serenely beautiful collaboration.

Echoes Interview feature - Robin Guthrie

His followers are legion. His layered, delayed and reverbed guitar sound instantly recognizable. Robin Guthrie talks about music after the Cocteau Twins, his influential 80s band and his new album, Carousel.

Echoes Interview feature - 20 Icons for 20 years of...

Listeners voted Steve Roach as number two of 20 Icons for 20 Years of Echoes. We'll look back at one of the most influential electronic artists of the last 30 years. From his CDs Structures from Silence to Dreamtime Return and Destination Beyond, Roach's music has been a touchstone of modern ambient and techno-tribal music.

Echoes Interview feature - Baaba Maal

Senegalese singer Baaba Maal talks about the evolution of the African Griot and his own ethereal new CD, Television, recorded with The Brazilian Girls.

Echoes Interview feature - Urban Nature

Urban Nature is the duo of guitarist Todd Boston and percussionist Ramesh Kannan. They're updating the East-West fusion of John McLaughlin's Shakti, adding looping electronics to their already diverse sound. We talk to these two musicians about their album, Coming Home.

Echoes Interview feature - Phil Keaggy and Jeff Johnson...

Keyboardist Jeff Johnson and legendary guitarist Phil Keaggy collaborate on a tone poem to the Frio river. It mixes multiple guitars and keyboard textures into one of the most perfect albums of the year. It's the Echoes CD of the Month for October.

Echoes Interview feature - Chris Bocast

Chris Bocast is a journeyman guitarist who plays ambient guitar. When he was living in Colorado, he teamed up with MJ Catalin, a Romanian drummer and electronic musician. The two have never met, but they create a virtual ensemble ambient sound on their album, Stratagem, which was our Echoes CD of the Month for August. Chris Bocast talks about his internet music collaboration

Echoes Interview feature - Banco de Gaia 2009

It was 20 years ago that Toby Marks and Andy Guthrie formed Banco De Gaia, an ambient oscillation that has fused techno and ethnic music, psychedelic moods and ambient designs. Only Toby Marks remains and he's just released a double CD called Memories, Dreams, Reflections that features cover versions of songs that influenced him by Pink Floyd and King Crimson, classic Banco tracks revisited, and live performances. Toby Marks looks back at 20 years of edgy bliss.

Echoes Interview feature - Ben Neill

Ben Neill is the sole player of an instrument called the Mutantrumpet. It has three different bells, two sets of valves, a mini-trombone slide and electronics. Neill deploys this contraption in electronica forays full of morphing rhythms and melodies that shift through timbral voices as if they were injected into a kaleidoscope. Ben Neill has been playing the mutantrumpet for about two decades and he talks about his latest moves in an album called Night Science.

Echoes Interview feature - Bear McCreary - Battlestar...

Battlestar Galactica was one of the most sophisticated science fiction shows on television and Bear McCreary composed a soundtrack to match. It's a score based on acoustic instruments, and very traditional ones at that. The fourth season soundtrack has just been released on CD.

Echoes Interview feature - John Luther Adams

It was John Cage who suggested that music was always in the air, and John Luther Adams has been tapping that sound for over 30 years. His evocative, atmospheric and sometimes stormy compositions evoke his longtime home in Fairbanks, Alaska. We talk with the noted composer about his life and his permanent ambient installation, The Place Where You Go To Listen, where music is triggered by seismic, magnetic and cosmological events.

Echoes Interview feature - Bill Frisell

Bill Frisell is not only one of the best guitarists of our age, but one of the most conceptual. Since his 1983 debut on ECM, he's charted a singular course, mixing country ambience and electronic distortion, weaving together music from Aaron Copland to Madonna, plus his own originals. He's a guitarist's guitarist, a musician's musician and he talks with us about his music, on Echoes.

Echoes Interview feature - Moby - part 2

Moby has made his most personal album yet. It's called Wait for Me and it's a CD of deep textures, soulful ruminations and unexpected turns. Moby says - It's really designed for one listener. It's not designed for a party, it's not designed for 20 people in a bar or night club to listen to. It's for someone lying in bed Sunday morning 9 o'clock when it's raining outside. We go inside Wait for Me when we talk with Moby.

Echoes Interview feature - Matthew Schoening

Matthew Schoening is in the second generation of looping cellists. He plays an instrument that looks like an electric stick, but it sounds like a string orchestra when he layers it in real time performance. Schoening talks about his journey from lapsed cellist to sound technician and back into the new world of music making.

Echoes Interview feature - Mono

Mono doesn't take its name from the audio configuration. This band is in full, glorious stereo, but they have a singular focus on making an orchestral rock guitar music that owes as much to Explosions in the Sky as Arvo Part. We talk with Mono founder, guitarist Takaakira Goto, about his dynamic music heard on the CD, Hymn to the Immortal Wind.