Matt Borghi & Michael Teager on Echoes Podcast

Matt Borghi & Michael Teager on Echoes

Hear Two Musicians Who Begin at Zero

These days in contemporary music, most musicians don’t leave much to chance when they play live. They either adhere to note-for-note recreations of their recorded work or they just have it all in a computer, hit play and have a perfect, if frozen performance.  Ambient guitarist Matt Borghi and saxophonist Michael Teager don’t work that way.  They create their music in the moment, improvising on mood and texture.  Borghi has been at the ambient thing for years with several recordings of barely-there ambient guitar out.  Teager comes from more of a jazz tradition. The two musicians talk about the genesis of their music from a lounge act and jam band into their free form excursions tonight on Echoes. 

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

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OR

Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

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Start at Zero: Matt Borghi & Michael Teager on Echoes

Matt Borghi & Michael Teager on Echoes

These days in contemporary music, most musicians don’t leave much to chance when they play live. They either adhere to note-for-note recreations of their recorded work or they just have it all in a computer, hit play and have a perfect, if frozen performance.  Ambient guitarist Matt Borghi and saxophonist Michael Teager don’t work that way.  They create their music in the moment, improvising on mood and texture.  Borghi has been at the ambient thing for years with several recordings of barely-there ambient guitar out.  Teager comes from more of a jazz tradition. The two musicians talk about the genesis of their music from a lounge act and jam band into their free form excursions 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.

Heavenly Choirs from Julianna Barwick on Echoes

Julianna Barwick & Scott Bell on Echoes

Enya may not be putting out any new music but there are many artists who are taking that layered vocal sound in different directions.  One of them is Julianna Barwick.  The Louisiana born, Missouri raised and of course, Brooklyn based artist does something Enya doesn’t dare do, perform live, layering her voice in real time choirs.  Earlier this year Barwick released Nepenthe, an album of vocal music that seems to rise out of cemetery fog, a ghostly, amorphous sound ascending toward the heavens.  It’s a very rarefied released coming from the alt-rock heavy Dead Oceans label.

A very rarefied released coming from the alt-rock heavy Dead Oceans label, Nepenthe is ambient music for voice, with Barwick creating her vocal choirs in real time using looping and lots of delays and reverb.   It’s like Enya with the sweetness strained out through Joan La Barbara and looped in Frippertronics.     Joined by ambient guitarist Scott Bell, we’re going to hear Julianna Barwick do it live tonight on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.  This month,  CD of the Month Club members will be getting Moby’s  Innocents. 

                                                              SPECIAL FOR THIS MONTH
New and Renewing Echoes CD of the Month Club members will also got Bombay Dub Orchestra’s magnificent new album, Tales from the Grand Bazaar.

Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club and hear what you’ve been missing.

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.

Tonight on Echoes, Connections from 1967 to 2013.

60’s Psych-Progressions, 70’s Krautrock, New World Fusion
and Ambient Chamber music Tonight on Echoes.

I must be feeling a bit nostalgic today.  I find myself going back to some of my earliest musical influences and to the early days of Echoes.  From the 1960s, I’ve got a song by Donovan, an artist who I think is an underrated influence on contemporary singer-songwriters.  His Sunshine Superman, is, song-for-song, a beautiful document of 60s tripped out psychedelia and optimism.  We’ll hear a tune from that album that looks to the darkside.  Then it’s up to 1969 and the debut from King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King.  Unlike the contemporary editions of this band, early Krimson could knock out a few ballads, especially when Greg Lake was singing the words of Pete Sinfield.   Moving up a decade, I’ll be dialing up some krautrock by Michael Rother from his second album, Sterntaler, with that beautiful guitar sound, the motoric drumming of Jaki Liebezeit and production from the late-Conny Plank.  .

From the early days of Echoes, look for music by Patrick O’Hearn, a musician who has remained a signature artist on the show from day one.   Then there’s an album by Roger Eno & Kate St. John. Roger is Brian’s younger piano playing brother.  St. John played oboe in The Dream Academy.  They made an early album of ambient chamber music called The Familiar before going on to form the chamber rock group, Channel Light Vessel with Bill Nelson.  We’ll hear one of many haunting tracks from The Familiar.

But of course, this is Echoes and I have lots of new music for you.  We’ll hear from the new album by Bombay Dub Orchestra, Tales from the Grand Bazaar as they continue to be masters of eastern fusion.  Morcheeba returns with a new album,  Head Up High  featuring singer Skye Edwards,  and I have new music by Pieter Nooten.  You may remember him from Clan of Xymox, an 80s new wave band on 4AD.  He went on to record a much loved album, Sleeps with Fishes with Michael Brook.  Now he returns with a double CD of ambient chamber music, Haven.

It’s all there and more 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!

Rhian Sheehan’s Music Box Podcast

Hear Rhian Sheehan’s interview in the Echoes Podcast.

New Zealand artist Rhian Sheehan has been releasing electronic albums since 2001, but he started out playing acoustic guitar. He was good enough to jam with finger-style guitar icon, Tommy Emmanuel. But after forays into pure electronic music he has emerged with a sound that brings guitars, synthesizers, music boxes and orchestras into epic, sweeping compositions.  He’s just released his seventh album, Stories from Elsewhere.  That album will be the Echoes CD of the Month for May.  Watch for the review next Wednesday. But for now, hear this interview with Sheehan from his studio in Wellington, New Zealand.  Rhian Sheehan Echoes Podcast

Among his thoughts are:

“I’ve got this guy staring right back at me with evil eyes.”

“I was trying to instill a sense of magic within the music, really, this kind of naivety, childlike quality to the whole work.”

“The children toys, musical toy obsession has not disappeared at all.”

“I collect ukuleles as well. Shock! Horror!”

“The children toys, musical toy obsession has not disappeared at all.”

“I was in Avatar. I’m dressed in red, being lead off by the Na’vi into a spaceship.”

Hear more in the Echoes Podcast.

~John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Rhian Sheehan’s Stories from Elsewhere

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.  With the Echoes CD of the Month Club, you get great CDs likeFor Now I Am Winter.  Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club  and see what you’ve been missing.

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.

Echoes Top 25 for July: Marconi Calling.

ECHOES TOP 25 FOR JULY

MARCONI UNION TRANSMITS TO THE TOP

1. Marconi Union – Different Colours (Just Music)
2. Icebreaker – Apollo (Cantaloupe)
3. Todd Boston – Touched by the Sun (Gita Records)
4. Abalye Cissoko and Volker Goetze – Amanke Dionti (Motema)
5. Raygun Ballet – World That Wasn’t (Raygun Ballet)
6. Wall Matthews – The Dreaming Light (Wall Matthews)
7. Mike Wall – A Time for Healing (Open Ear Studios)
8. Sebastian Plano – The Arrhythmical Part of Hearts
9. Sync 24 – Comfortable Void (Ultimae)
10. Tom Caufield – It Happens to Eve (Bohemian Embassy)
11. Janel and Anthony – Where is Home (Cuneiform)
12. UMA – Meeting Unknown (Umamusic)
13. Daren Keck – Quiet Hillside (Wayfarer Records)
14. Erik Wollo – Airborne (Projekt)
15. John Surman – Saltash Bells (ECM)
16. Fall on Your Sword – Lola Versus (Original Score) (Lakeshore Records)
17. Adam Hurst – Obscura (Adam Hurst)
18. Alu – Madhouse Masquerade (Alu Music) 
19. Hilary Hahn and Hauschka – Silfra +
20. Niyaz – Sumud (Six Degress)
21. Coyote Jump – Waking from the Roots (Canyon)
22. Van Larkins – Wandering Hands (Candyrat)
23. Johann Johannson – Copenhagen Dreams
24. Stefano Barone – Danze Altalenanze (Candyrat)
25. Lights Out Asia – Hy-Brasil (N5md)

~© 2012 John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

The Echoes July CD of the Month was  Marconi Union’s  Different Colours.   Click on the link for review and several complete tracks.  You get great CDs like this by becoming a member of the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Follow the link and see what you’ve been missing.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind the next time a progressive rock fan dies.

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.

You can see past Top 25s here.

Harold Budd Tribute

The OKTAF RECORDS label is putting out what looks to be a very promising tribute album to Harold Budd with people like Biosphere, Marsen Jules,  and several artists I’m less familiar with.

Here’s the Press Release:

With “Lost In The Humming Air – Music inspired by Harold Budd” oktaf records announces an amazing collection of thirteen exclusive tracks made by a selection of some of todays best known ambient music producers giving their tribute to the outstanding piano legend Harold Budd.

The playlists features names as: Deaf Center, Loscil, Martin Fuhs, Biosphere, Xela, Marsen Jules, Andrew Thomas, Mokira, Christopher Willits, Taylor Deupree, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Porn Sword Tobacco and bvdub feat. Criss Van Wey.

Well known for his spaceful piano playing and his early cooperations with Brian Eno, Harold Budd has inspired a whole generation of modern protagonists of ambient, jazz and especially the so called modern classical genre. With his recent releases on David Sylvians Samadhi Sound label as well as on Darla, he is still showing his outstanding musical genius to the world.

“Lost in the Humming Air (Music inspired by Harold Budd)” will be released on April 9th (March 26th digital) on oktaf records. Exclusively distributed by Kompakt.

~© 2012 John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

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New Eno Produced Track from Seun Kuti & Egypt 80

Brian Eno in London Studio

Brian Eno is apparently out producing African music again.  He did a great job with Geoffrey Oreyema and Baaba Maal many years ago. This time he’s paired with Seun Kuti & Egypt 80.  I can’t say I hear much of an Eno-effect here and you’re unlikely to hear it on Echoes, but it’s a pretty good political chant in the mode of Fela Kuti, which makes sense since he’s the youngest son of the late-Nigerian icon.  Here’s the video.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Brian Eno’s Poetronica

Brian Eno has a new album coming out called Drums Between the Bells cut with poet Ric Holland.  Scheduled for a July 4 release, it’s a longtime project Eno has been incubating and a little of it came out on Another Day On Earth in 2005.  Echoes listeners may also recall hearing some of this music when we interviewed Eno in 2003.  Here’s a piece in it’s early stages that I think was called “Click.”

Now they’ve put up a track from the fruition of this project called “Glitch.”

Generally, poetry and music projects fall flat in the land of academic pretense and artful earnestness, but there is an energy to Eno’s work in this zone that I find compelling.  Maybe it’s Eno’s manic rhythm fragmentation with his KAOS Pads.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Jon Hopkins-Eno & Coldplay Collaborator

Jon Hopkins’ Quaint Electronica

You can hear an audio version of this interview with Jon Hopkins’ music.

Jon Hopkins Live on Echoes

You may not know Jon Hopkins, but you’ve heard him on albums by Coldplay, Massive Attack,  Imogen Heap and Brian Eno. On Coldplay’s Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, one of his tracks, “Light Through the Veins”  was transformed on  into the albums lead cut, “Life in Technicolor.”

Jon Hopkins: This track ended up becoming the intro and the outro to the album. I wrote it about a year before I met them, actually.  I think I was in the studio with them and I just played it to the band, and they just seemed to be really into it.  And I worked out a version with Chris [Martin] where there weren’t any drums, and it was kind of — it felt like an intro to something you know, and it just — that’s how it came about really.

Jon Hopkins seems like the most plugged in musician you could imagine, but he says much of his music begins on piano.

Jon Hopkins: A lot of this album was written on the piano, as almost every track has piano in it.

And not just any piano.

Jon Hopkins:  This is a piano I’ve had since I was about six, actually.  My parents got a piano for me.  And on It’s a small upright and on this album . this album, it’s all about this piano and the certain creaks.  Every time you press the left pedal, it creaks.

The debut album by Jon Hopkins, Opalescent, was beautifully melodic, but on his third CD, Insides, he goes for glitchy, angular lines and stuttering rhythms. He gets a lot of these effects using an electronic instrument called a KAOS Pad.  It allows you to manipulate sounds and sequences in real time by sweeping and tapping a touch pad with your fingers.  In our studio, Hopkins starts up a groove and instantly mutates it.

Jon Hopkins: So like I’m trapping that bit of sound and you can change the speed in which you trap it and how much you trap. Every time you let go it adds a new bit of sound. And then if you take it down to the right quadrant it reverses like that.  You kind of play it like a drum machine, but that’s only one effect, there’s a 100 different things you could do.

Jon Hopkins incorporates these moves into a composition like “Vessel.”

Jon Hopkins mixes poignantly beautiful melodies with head-snapping glitches, a sense of quaint nostalgia with post-most modern angst.  His latest album is Insides on Domino Records and he also has a very avant-garde download EP called Seven Gulps of Air.  Jon Hopkins plugs in and plays live on Echoes this Monday, including a new, unreleased track.  This has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))