PRX: Echoes Interview Podcast

Echoes Podcast: We remember Low Roar's Ryan Karaziya Ryan Karaziya of Low Roar Live on Echoes 2014 On the Echoes Podcast, we go back to a couple of Echoes features that ran in 2011 and 2014.  Both were with the group, Low Roar , whose founder and principal creator, Ryan Karaziya , left the planet on October 29 th . I was saddened to hear that Ryan had left us. He was only 40 years old. Ryan was on...

Delay Tactics Return: The Echoes Interview The progressive rock band Delay Tactics returns after 38 years with three of the original members:  Carl Weingarten, Walter Whitney and David Udell. They talk about their new album, Elements of Surprise and the influence of space age bachelor pad music , Giorgio Moroder, Fripp & Eno  and Tangerine Dream  with John Diliberto on Echoes from PRX . Hear o...

Rebecca Pidgeon's Yoga Journey: The Echoes Interview John Diliberto and Rebecca Pidgeon Rebecca Pidgeon may be best known as an actress from films like Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner , and State and Main . But she’s also released a string of really good solo albums. However, her latest is a departure. Inspired by her yoga practice she explores themes of the mind, consciousness and chakras. I...

Bob Moog's Electronic Dream-The Story of the Moog Synthesizer Author and composer Albert Glinsky talks about his book, Switched-On, Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution . It’s a deep dive into the inventor who changed the face of modern music with the Moog Synthesizer and Mini-Moog . From avant-garde obscurity to Switched-On Bach, to the popular music mainstream, we hear the tale of this...

Daniel Lanois-Past, Present, Piano: The Echoes Interview John Diliberto and Daniel Lanois Daniel Lanois is the famed producer of U2 and collaborator with Brian Eno . He’s a a musician who is usually found behind an acoustic, electric and pedal steel guitars or a mixing console. But he has created an album of ambient piano works called Player, Piano . It will take you back to the piano rumina...

The Ambient Waiting Lounge of Airport People: The Echoes Interview in Echoes Podcast In the Echoes Podcast, we talk with Airport People . That’s not the many travelers suffering with airline delays, but ambient chamber music artist Leon Todd Johnson . He’s released an album of creaky piano centered compositions called From Nine Mornings . But he’s also a child of the Civil Rights...

Lumenette's Songs of Despair, the Spirit and Sex in Space: The Echoes Interview Singer Christine Byrd has emerged out of the Christian music scene and backing vocals for the band Hammock to forge her music of liberation, loss and atonement as Lumenette . Each song on her debut, All Around My Head taps into the emotional waveforms of Christine Byrd. She composed the album over the last several year...

Echoes Podcast: Otyken's Siberian Groove Experience the Siberian sound of Otyken . They are marrying a tribal sound of the native Chulym people with modern production and the ferocious voice of Azyan . We talked to them from their studio in Siberia where Azyan and Svengali Andrei Mendonos talk about horsehead fiddles, Jaw harps and the primal voice of Azyan. Their latest full-length album is Kykak...

Tone Ranger Giddy-ups Into Ambient Country Space in Echoes Podcast   Hit the trail with Tone Ranger. That’s the moniker of Alex Simon who has been immersing himself in country gone psychedelic sounds for a long time. Now he’s taken influences from the desert southwest, soundtracks, country music, electronic music and more, creating desert southwest landscapes merging electronics w...

Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn turns 55 and Electronic Legend Klaus Schulze Would've been 75 Today, August 4th is something of an auspicious date. This was the day, 55 years ago, that Pink Floyd released their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn . And 20 years before that on August 4, 1947, electronic Legend Klaus Schulze was born. So I thought we’d take a flashback to our inter...

Steve Tibbetts's Hellbound Sound: The Echoes Podcast We ride a Hellbound Train with Steve Tibbetts . Among my friends and many musicians, Steve Tibbetts has been a legend since his second album, YR came out in 1980. And his first release was really good too. He’s released twelve albums in the last 40 years, eight of them on ECM Records . Each one has been a journey of the most unique world f...

Echoes Podcast: Animalweapon's Electronic Songs of Love, Depression and Constraints Animalweapon sounds like it could be either the name of a heavy metal band or the moniker of music comedy troupe. But no. It’s the stage name for Patrick Cortes who brings us a melancholy sound confronting depression and shattered relations on his latest album, Set of Constraints . Patrick Cortes:. I had alwa...

Zola Jesus Fends Off the Arkhons: The Echoes Interview When you hear a name like Zola Jesus you think of something either sanctified or blasphemous. In the case of singer Nika Danilova, who uses Zola Jesus as her stage name, it’s definitely on the sanctified side, though not necessarily religious. On her new album, she tackles Arkhons. Zola Jesus: Arkhons which is a Gnostic term. The Arkhons...

Steve Reich Cycles Through Time: The Echoes Interview John Diliberto and Steve Reich 2006 There is hardly a musician on Echoes who does not cite Steve Reich as an influence, especially his 1978 work, Music For 18 Musicians.  Reich has moved away from that cyclical sound over the years but his new album, Reich/Richter brings him back. Richter is Gerhard Richter, the German abstract painter.    Stev...

Röyksopp Deciphers Profound Mysteries in the Echoes Podcast John Diliberto & Royksopp An exploding puff ball mushroom is the inspiration for the name of Norway’s Röyksopp, a duo whose music has ranged from ambient to pure dance pop. Their new album, Profound Mysteries , finds a place somewhere between that spectrum with icy instrumentals and collaborations with singers like  Alison Goldf...

Animals, Art and Angst with Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg: The Echoes Interview Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater talks about their new album, The Great Awakening . It’s a subtle work of ambient songs employing nature sounds that Meiburg recorded in South America.  Using natural sounds in music, recorded from the environment, has become a staple tactic in music, especially in New Age recordings...

All Aboard for Michael Whalen's Ride on Imaginary Trains in Echoes Podcast Electronic artist Michael Whalen grew up on the new sounds of 70s and 80s European electronic music like Tangerine Dream , Klaus Schulze , Vangelis and Kraftwerk .  He pays tribute to his roots on a new album called Imaginary Trains . It was Echoes May 2022 CD of the Month . Michael Whalen talks about his homage in the Echo...

Echoes Podcast: Vangelis Remembered In the Echoes Podcast this week, we remember Vangelis . The legendary Greek electronic composer died on May 17 th  in Paris after complications from the Covid-19 virus. He was 79 years old. Today, we’re going to replay our feature on Vangelis, originally produced in 1999 as he was one of the 10 Icons of of Echoes back then. I reproduced it with newer mater...

Echoes Podcast: Sherry Finzer In the Echoes Podcast this week, flutist Sherry Finzer goes into The Tank.   That’s an abandoned water tank in Colorado that has been turned into a naturally reverberant recording studio. Flutes played in deep reverb have a long tradition, which began in modern times with Paul Horn’s 1968 album, Inside . That album was recorded within the deep echo of the...

Echoes Podcast: David Helpling Takes us Inside his album "In" and we remember Electronic Legend, Klaus Schulze. John Diliberto & David Helpling In the Echoes Podcast, David Helpling takes us inside his new double CD that’s just titled IN . The title is simple but the music is an expanse of dynamic ambient orchestrations for guitar and synthesizers. David Helpling talks about the personal meani...

The 40th Anniversary of Laurie Anderson's Big Science: Echoes Podcast It’s the 40th Anniversary of Laurie Anderson ‘s Big Science,   released on April 19, 1982.  Hear an extended version of the broadcast feature in the Echoes Podcast. “This is the time and this is the record of the time.” That’s a line from Laurie Anderson’s “From The Air,” One of the songs off her album, B...

Michael Stearns Unfurls the Story of his ambient Masterpiece, Planetary Unfolding in the Echoes Podcast Michael Stearns creates music that’s like the universe expanding. That’s why he’s picked to score Imax films and movies like Chronos and Baraka . In 1981, Stearns released Planetary Unfolding , an album length work of seminal ambient electronics that would go on to influence a...

Wouter Kellerman & David Arkenstone's World Fusion Dream and Vonavi in the Ukraine War Zone: The Echoes Podcast 2022 Grammy Nominees David Arkenstone and Wouter Kellerman talk about their world fusion album, Pangaea . They worked on it during pandemic, with South African flautist Kellerman trapped by Covid travel regulations in Australia, and Arkenstone in Southern California. Their album is a hym...

The Royal Arctic Institute's Ambient Guitar Moods: The Echoes Interview The Royal Arctic Institute . They aren’t a science organization, although two of them are in the medical field. This band grew out of a lot of music including punk, psychedelic music and jazz. a few of the members have played with 60’s psychedelic rockers Arthur Lee (Love) , Roky Erickson   (The 13th Floor Elevator...

Hollan Holmes Sequencer Landscapes: The Echoes Interview Hollan Holmes & John Diliberto Texas-based artist Hollan Holmes paints south western landscapes and rusty artifacts by day, but he heads into electronic space at night, composing music like his CD of the Month, Emerald Waters . Hollan Holmes: I paint a lot of old rusty things and things of that nature.  That doesn’t really come across in...