Duets for Extended Chapman Stick & Guitar with Tom Griesbraber & Bert Lams on Echoes

Tom Griesgraber & Ber Lams in Echoes Living Room

Bert Lams & Tom Griesgraber play Live tonight on Echoes.

Bert Lams &Tom Griesgraber are both post-progressive rock veterans.  Bert Lams is the best known as part of the California Guitar Trio. Tom Griesgraber is lesser known with one previous album out, but he’s been creating progressive music for Chapman Stick for many years now.  The two got together to create an album of duets that turned into a conceptual CD called Unnamed Lands.  It’s an imaginary trip to the American west in Conestoga wagons.  Their wagon train pulled into the Echoes living Room this year and they played a beautiful set for us live.  Hear it tonight on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Hammock’s Oblivion Hymns is our January   CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR PICK UP

TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Echoes Top 25 for December 2013

Here’s the last Top 25 list for 2013.  And like our 25 Essential Echoes CDs and The Best of Echoes Listener Poll, it reveals just what a great year 2013 was.  There are seven Echoes CD of the Month picks on it including December’s selection, David Helpling & Jon Jenkins’ Found.  That’s unusual, but that’s because of the Best of show and the 12 CDs of the Month for 2013 show.  But there’s a couple of CDs there that easily could’ve been CDs of the month, notably, Jeff Johnson, Brian Dunnings & Wendy Goodwin’s Winterfold, a wonderful album of atmospheric winter pastorals, Bombay Dub Orchestra’s Tales from the Grand Bazaar, a CD that get’s into a serene, ambient chamber music sound but with eastern edges and subtle dub grooves, and Azam Ali & Loga Ramin Torkian’s Lamentation of Swans, a deep dive into Persian atmospheres with a lush merging of extoci strings, throbbing percussion and synthesizer atmosphere’s all topped by the sensual wordless vocals of Azam Ali.  And next Month’s CD of teh Month is here as well, Hammock’s Oblivion Hymns. Here‘s the list.

ECHOES TOP 25 FOR DECEMBER 2013

1. David Helpling & Jon Jenkins – Found (Spotted Peccary)
2. Moby – Innocents (Mute)
3. Jeff Johnson Brian Dunning & Wendy Goodwin – Winterfold (Ark Records)
4. Olivier Libaux – Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age (Music for Music Lovers)
5. Tonight Sky – Tonight Sky (Tonight Sky)
6. Moya Brennan – An Irish Christmas (BFO Records)
7. Ólafur Arnalds – For Now I Am Winter (Mercury Classics)
8. Tom Griesgraber and Bert Lams – Unnamed Lands (Inner Knot)
9. Divine Matrix – Hydrosphere (AD Music)
10. Akara – The World Beyond (Merkaba Music)
11. Euphoria – E4 (Instrumental) (Euphoria)
12. Hammock – Oblivion Hymns (Hammock Music)
13. Bombay Dub Orchestra – Tales from the Grand Bazaar (Six Degrees)
14. Ulrich Schnauss – A Long Way to Fall (Ulrich Schnauss)
15. Brad Hoyt – Far Away from Every Day (Harp Guitar Music)
16. Juliette Commagere – Human (Aeronaut Records)
17. Ludovico Einaudi – In a Time Lapse (Ponderosa Music & Art)
18. Azam Ali and Loga R Torkian – Lamentation of Swans (Terrestrial Lane Productions)
19. Mary Fahl – Love & Gravity (Mary Fahl)
20. Eklipse – Electric Air (The End)
21. Frankie Rose – Herein Wild (Fat Possum Records)
22. Lotte Kestner – The Bluebird of Happiness (Saint Marie)
23. The Piano Guys – A Family Christmas (Portrait)
24. Courtney Barnett – A Sea of Split Peas (House Anxiety)
25. Grails – Black Tar Prophecies Vols 4-6 (Temporary Residence)

See 25 Essential Echoes CDs and The Best of Echoes Listener Poll

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

GIVE THE GIFT OF THE ECHOES CD OF THE MONTH CLUB

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club now and you can put David Helping and Jon Jenkins’ Found under somebodies Christmas tree.  It’s our December  CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR

GIVE THEM THE GIFT OF TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Duets for Extended Chapman Stick & Guitar with Tom Griesbraber & Bert Lams on Echoes

Tom Griesgraber & Ber Lams in Echoes Living Room

Bert Lams & Tom Griesgraber play Live tonight on Echoes.

Bert Lams &Tom Griesgraber are both post-progressive rock veterans.  Bert Lams is the best known as part of the California Guitar Trio. Tom Griesgraber is lesser known with one previous album out, but he’s been creating progressive music for Chapman Stick for many years now.  The two got together to create an album of duets that turned into a conceptual CD called Unnamed Lands.  It’s an imaginary trip to the American west in Conestoga wagons.  Their wagon train pulled into the Echoes living Room this year and they played a beautiful set for us live.  Hear it tonight on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

GIVE THE GIFT OF THE ECHOES CD OF THE MONTH CLUB

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club now and you can put David Helping and Jon Jenkins’ Found under somebodies Christmas tree.  It’s our December  CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR

GIVE THEM THE GIFT OF TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Tom Griesgraber & Bert Lams Happy Trails Echoes Podcast

Bert Lams & Tom Griesgraber talk about their concept album, Unnamed Lands in the Echoes Podcast.

Bert Lams &Tom Griesgraber are both post-progressive rock veterans.  Bert Lams is the best known as part of the California Guitar Trio. Tom Griesgraber is lesser known with one previous album out, but he’s been creating progressive music for Chapman Stick for many years now.  The two got together to create an album of duets that turned into a conceptual CD called Unnamed Lands.  It’s an imaginary trip to the American west in Conestoga wagons.  I hit the trail with Bert Lams and Tom Griesgraber in the Echoes Podcast.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

ECHOES CD OF THE MONTH CLUB SPECIAL

New members of the Echoes CD of the Month Club will get Moby’s Innocents album, our November CD of the Month and a BONUS CD of Bombay Dub Orchestra’s Tales from the Grand Bazaar.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.  You’ll also get the new Echoes CD, Transmissions: The Echoes Living Room Concerts V19, You can do it all right here. You

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Westward Ho! with Tom Griesgraber & Bert Lams

Bert Lams & Tom Griesgraber talk about their concept album, Unnamed Lands tonight on Echoes.

Bert Lams &Tom Griesgraber are both post-progressive rock veterans.  Bert Lams is the best known as part of the California Guitar Trio. Tom Griesgraber is lesser known with one previous album out, but he’s been creating progressive music for Chapman Stick for many years now.  The two got together to create an album of duets that turned into a conceptual CD called Unnamed Lands.  It’s an imaginary trip to the American west in Conestoga wagons.  I hit the trail with Bert Lams and Tom Griesgraber.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Hammock’s Oblivion Hymns is our January   CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR

Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

 

Sticks & Strings-Greisgraber & Lams Live on Echoes

Hear Chapman Stick Player Tom Greisgraber & Guitarist Bert Lams Live on Echoes Tonight

Tom Griesgraber & Bert Lams on Echoes

We know Bert Lams as one head in the three-headed, six-armed monster of the California Guitar Trio.  Tom Griesgraber plays the Chapman Stick, enhancing his two-handed tapping with atmospheric effects.   They come in to the Echoes Living Room to play music from their album, Unnamed Lands.

Hear them tonight on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.   CD of the Month Club members will be getting Akara’s The World Beyond.  Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club and see what you’ve been missing.

Support Echoes by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Think of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.

Join the Echoes Sound Circle and keep the soundscapes of Echoes flowing!

Echoes Top 25 for September-Ambient Leads the Way

Digitonal tops the Echoes Top 25 for September, and will no doubt be near the top for the next several months. But right behind is Marconi Union, topping their own record as the highest placing digital download recording on Echoes. October’s CD of the Month, Sumner McKane’s nostalgia-tinged ambient americana masterpiece, What A Great Place to be, is already near the top in September at #4. New Entries include Darshan Ambient, Jeff Pearce, General Fuzz, Anja Lechner & Vasillis Tsabropoulos , Peter Kater, and Wolfert Brederode.  Over-all, another month of chilled moods and exotic grooves from across the Echoes spectrum. It’s been a good year, and it’s not over yet.  You can read print reviews and hear audio reviews with music from several of them,  including Sumner McKane, Digitonal, Marconi Union, Ron McFarlane, Michael Brook & Djivan Gasparyan,  Ottmar Liebert, Solas, and General Fuzz.

John Diliberto

ECHOES TOP 25

SEPTEMBER 2008    

1.	Digitonal	Save Your Light for Darker Days	Just Music	Read the Review!
2.	Marconi Union	A Lost Connection	MU Transmissions
3.	Ronn McFarlane	Indigo Road	Dorian
4.	Sumner McKane	What A Great Place to Be	Don’t Hit Your Sister Records
5.	Darshan Ambient	From Pale Hands to Weary Eyes	Lotuspike
6.	Michael Brook/Djivan Gasparyan	Penumbra	Canadian Rational
7.	Ottmar Liebert	The Scent of Light	Spiral Subwave Records Int’l
8.	Solas	For Love and Laughter	Compass Records
9.	William Ackerman	Meditations	Compass Productions
10.	Fernwood	Almeria	Self Released
11.	Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Tim Story	Inlandish	High Wire Records
12.	Niyaz	Nine Heavens	Six Degrees
13.	Jeff Pearce	Rainshadow Sky	Jeff Pearce Music
14.	Jesse Cook	Frontiers	Koch Records
15.	David Cullen	Guitar Travels	Solid Air
16.	General Fuzz	Soulful Filling	Self Released
17.	California Guitar Trio	Echoes	Inner Knot
18.	Peter Kater	Cloud Hands	Point of Light Records
19.	David Arkenstone	Echoes of Light and Shadow	Gemini Sun Records
20.	Joan Jeanrenaud	Strange Toys	Talking House Records
21.	Anja Lechner and Vasillis Tsabropoulos	Melos	ECM Records
22.	Michel Banabila	Traces	Tapu Records
23.	Forastiere	Why Not?	Candyrat Records
24.	V/A	Harp Guitar Dreams	Harp Guitar Music
25.	Wolfert Brederode Quartet	Currents	ECM Records

Digitonal’sSave Your Light for Darker Days was the Echoes CD of the Month for September 2008 Read the Review!

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www.echoes.org

Echoes Top 25 For August: Ottmar Liebert Leads and Electronica Returns

Ottmar Liebert’s The Scent of Light, our August CD of the Month tops the Echoes Top 25 for August, but electronica and ambient music make a comeback after a few months off. They include Marconi Union who repeats their Top 5 performance with A Lost Connection, a download only release.  Joining them are Klaus Schulze and Lisa Gerrard’s Farscape, Darshan Ambient’s obviously ambient From Pale Hands to Weary Eyes and Sumner McKane’s What A Great Place to Be, are all electric/electronically based albums that debut in the Top Ten this month.   There are nine new entries this month in the Top 25.  Go to the Echoes Blog to read reviews and hear audio reviews of many of these recordings, including Marconi Union, Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard, Biomusique, California Guitar Trio, Sacred Earth and David Pritchard.

ECHOES TOP 25 FOR AUGUST 2008

1.	Ottmar Liebert	The Scent of Light	Spiral Subwave Records Int’l	Read the Review!
2.	Jami Sieber	Unspoken: The Music of Only Breath	Out Front Music	CDBaby
3.	Marconi Union	A Lost Connection	MU Transmissions
4.	Don Peyote	Peyote Dreaming	Don Peyote Recordings/Interchill
5.	Gerry O’Beirne	The Bog Bodies and Other Stories	Self Released
6.	Joe Euro	Souvenir	Joe Euro Music	Buy From CDBaby
7.	Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard	Farscape	SPV Recordings
8.	Darshan Ambient	From Pale Hands to Weary Eyes	Lotuspike
9.	Biomusique	The 10,000 Steps	Kosmic Music
10.	Sumner McKane	What A Great Place to Be	Don’t Hit Your Sister Records
11.	California Guitar Trio	Echoes	Inner Knot
12	Kevin Bartlett	Glow in the Dark	Aural Gratification
13.	Sacred Earth	Wind of the East	Red Feather Music
14.	Rodrigo Rodriguez	Beyond the Times	KZN Records
15.	V/A	Perceived Distances	Dataobscura
16.	Steve Roach	Empetus	Projekt
17.	Ronn McFarlane	Indigo Road	Dorian
18.	Hans-Jaochim Roedelius & Tim Story	Inlandish	High Wire Records
19.	David Cullen	Guitar Travels	Solid Air
20.	David Arkenstone	Echoes of Light and Shadow	Gemini Sun Records
21.	David Pritchard	Vertical Eden	Morphic Resonance Music
22.	Niyaz	Nine Heavens	Six Degrees
23.	Joan Jeanrenaud	Strange Toys	Talking House Records
24.	Forastiere	Why Not?	Candyrat Records
25.	Fernwood	Almeria	Self Released

Ottmar Liebert’sThe Scent of Light was the Echoes CD of the Month for August 2008

Echoes Top 25 for July: Marconi Union first Download recording to crack Top 5

Ambient chamber music still dominates the Echoes Top 25 for August, but for the first time, a download only album cracks the the Echoes Top 5. That CD is the purely ambient A Lost Connection by Marconi Union. Their album, Distance, from 3 years ago was among our favorite CDs that year, and A Lost Connection was definitely worth the wait. The album is full of plaintive electric guitar lines draped across a mesh of subtle, insinuating beats, synth pads full of melancholy and glitchy effects dropping in from the fringes. This album is more poetic and almost classical in spots compared to their first two albums. The mellotron-like flutes of the “Endless Winter” lend a somnolent chamber music sound across the insistent, but downtempo bass thud. Expect to hear that  song frequently on Echoes Winter Solstices to come and A Lost Connection frequently on Echoes. Right now, the only place to get A Lost Connection is from the Marconi Union website.

To my ears, there’s a very short distance between the classical Ahn Trio and the ambient Marconi Union.  In that light, ambient chamber music remains strong, although only 10 out of 25 discs fit broadly into that camp, compared to 14 last month. The Ahn Trio, Ronn McFarlane, and Jami Sieber remained important players this month.  Ottmar Liebert’s The Scent of Light made an impressive debut at #14. Look for that to be number 1 for August since it’s our CD of the Month.   You can read a Print Review  here, including an Audio Review with music.  Over all, there was a 50% turn-over in the Top 25 for August.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

ECHOES TOP 25 FOR JULY  1 – Sacred Earth (Peter Kater, Joseph Fire Crow, Arvel Bird) – Wind of the East (Print Review or Audio Review)

  2 – Ahn Trio – Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac <Listen>

 3 – Marconi Union – A Lost Connection

 4 – Biomusique – The 10000 Steps <Read Review or Listen>
5 – David Cullen – Guitar Travels 

6 – David Arkenstone – Echoes of Light and Shadow

 7 – Kevin Bartlett – Glow in the Dark

 8 – Ronn McFarlane – Indigo Road

9 – Michel Banabila – Traces
10 – Jami Sieber – Unspoken < Listen>

11 – Eldad Lidor – Closer
12 – Hans-Joachim roedelius & Tim Story – Inlandish

 13 – California Guitar Trio – Echoes (Read Article)
14 – Ottmar Liebert – The Scent of Light (Print Review or Audio Review)

15 – Skala – Tundra
16 – Kaki King – Dreaming of Revenge
17 – Balmorhea – Rivers Arms

18 – Under the Radar – I Was There But I Can’t Remember When
19 – Hammock – Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow
20 – William Ackerman – Meditations

 21 – Niyaz – Nine Heavens
22 – Fernwood – Almeria
23 – David Pritchard – Vertical Eden
24 – Joan Jeanrenaud – Strange Toys

 25 – Don Peyote – Peyote Dreaming

Echo Location: Tangled up in Strings-California Guitar Trio & David Pritchard

The California Guitar Trio and David Pritchard are acoustic fingerstyle players who aren’t taking the lonley solo route. 

You can also hear an Audio version of this Echo Location, with music.

If you think one acoustic guitar is good, there are some musicians who think 2, 3 or 4 is even better. The California Guitar Trio has embraced this concept. As the name suggests, there are three of them, Paul Richards, Bert Lams and Hideyo Moriya, but despite the name, none of them live in California. They’re graduates of Robert Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitarists and for seventeen years they’ve been making music that sounds like one musician, with 30 fingers. Their new album is a CD of cover tunes called Echoes.

They cover Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Lynard Skynard‘s “Freebird” (probably in response to smart-assed requests from the audience), and something from a guy named Ludwig Van Beethoven.
CGT write some beautiful original tunes, but they’ve always done a lot of covers in their music, creating unlikely adaptations like this for their 3 guitars. They expand a little bit with a few other musicians and really stand out on remakes of Pink Floyd‘s “Echoes” and Mike Oldfield‘s “Tubular Bells.”
CGT haven’t been acoustic purists for a while. They amp up their acoustics so they sound like
electrics at times and aren’t wary of using some electronic processing and a few other musicians to obtain the sound they want.
Unlike the California Guitar Trio, David Pritchard actually lives in the Golden State. He started doing the multiple guitar thing just before CGT in 1990 with his album, Air Patterns. Sometimes he plays one guitar. Sometimes he plays five. He’s a jazz guitarist with classical chops composing a lush minimalist music for multiple guitar players, although sometimes they are all named David Pritchard.

On the title track to his new album, Vertical Eden, he overdubs himself playing 5 acoustic guitars. But he brings in four other guitarists when he plays live. Like the California Guitar Trio, he’s expanded his palette on CD with other musicians, but multiple guitars, contrapuntal arrangements and what Guitar Player magazine once called “arpeggios from hell,” remain the cornerstone of his music.
You can get tangled up in strings with David Pritchard’s Vertical Eden and the California Guitar Trio’s Echoes.

You can also hear an Audio version of this Echo Location, soundings for new music.

John Diliberto July, 2008
(((echoes)))