PRX: Echoes Interview Podcast

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...

Trentemøller's Memories & Vonavi in the Ukraine War Zone: The Echoes Podcast Trentemøller & John Diliberto Trentemøller’s Electronic Memories and Vonavi’s Notes from the War Zone in the Echoes Podcast. Trentemøller is a Danish electronic musician who started out on the dance floor. But now he’s creating a more introspective music drawing upon his memories as well as his recen...

Chieli Minucci's Meditative Moods in the Echoes Podcast This week in the Echoes Podcast, a guitarist who came to renown in the later days of fusion,  Chieli Minucci . He is the founding member of the group Special EFX who recorded a string of albums on the GRP label as well as others. He also has a solo career and does soundtracks including scoring the long-running soap opera, Guiding Light . He&#...

Brian Dunning, Irish Flautist for Nightnoise and Jeff Johnson Remembered. We remember Brian Dunning . The brilliant flute player with Nightnoise, Puck Fair and numerous collaborations with Jeff Johnson. Many of the musicians you hear on Echoes are our favorites, but only a few of them are friends.  Brian Dunning was one of those.  He was an extraordinary flute player who breathed melody out of eve...

Sound Resounds at Big Ears Festival 2022 in Echoes Podcast Every year I look forward to the Big Ears Festival . It’s a massive event in Knoxville, Tennessee, that covers all kinds of music, most of it on the bleeding edge. The Festival began in 2009 and  every year since 2015 I’ve featured a preview of the show, interviewing founder Ashley Capps . I produced a preview in 2020, but ulti...

Brigitte Bardini - Psychedelic Depression Dreams in Echoes Podcast In the Echoes Podcast , we talk with Australian singer-songwriter Brigitte Bardini . She dropped out of her psychology major when she decided to become a musician. Her impressive debut, Stellar Lights , was an Echoes Top 30 album of 2021 . She talks about abandoned organs, psychedelic dreams and depression. We hear the story of thi...

Tori Amos - Personal Turmoil and Global Strife: The Echoes Podcast Hear a  sound portrait of singer-songwriter Tori Amo s. She talks about her pandemic brewed album, Ocean to Ocean . Isolated in Cornwall, England where she’s been living, she struggles with grief and the turmoil of the world and applies them through songs of driving intensity like the playful “Spies,” a lullaby fo...

Electronic Bliss-A Journey From The Past To The Future At The Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project in Echoes Podcast Synthesizer junkies enter paradise when we visit the Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project , or EMEAPP . It houses what must be one of the largest collections of electronic music instruments in the world, including many played by world famous artists. Dr...

Marconi Union Finds the Groove in the Echoes Podcast We hear from a true 21 st century band when we talk to Marconi Union . The British electronic trio has a new album called Signals that finds them tapping a more rhythmic, drum-driven sound, even though there are no drums. They talk about influences from 60s psychedelia, “but not the prissy stuff” and 70s German rock, and try to hide...

Echoes Podcast: Led Zeppelin - The Bob Spitz Biography: The Echoes Interview It’s a Whole Lotta Love for Led Zeppelin on Echoes when we talk with Bob Spitz , author of Led Zeppelin: The Biography . He takes us from poverty to Kashmir, drugs to death and heavy metal to heaven. Bob Spitz: Look, they were the kings of bad behavior on the road.  They brought bad behavior into the spotlight in ro...