Afro Celts Simon Emmerson in Echoes Podcast

Smells Good & Sounds Good: Afro Celt’s Simon Emmerson’s Fresh Handmade Sound
Hear about it in the Echoes Podcast

Simon Emmerson smells good.  Not because he’s necessarily so hygienic, but because for the last four years or so he’s been creating custom made spa soundtracks for Lush Spas.  They’re mostly in the UK,  but now they’ve opened  in the US in New York City and Philadelphia.  Spa music usually has me going more manic than serene as I plow through stacks of CDs that are generically bland at best, crass, calculated and corny at worst.  But these soundtracks for Lush Spas, released under the umbrella of Fresh Handmade Sound have Simon Emmerson’s name attached.  Just say Afro Celt Sound System and that’s all the authenticity and credentials I need.

Emmerson was a co-founder of the that band which brilliantly fused sounds and musicians from Africa, Asia, Ireland and England into an electronically brewed ecstasy.  Now he’s joined by artists like Simon Richmond, who is another Fresh Handmade Sound composer and musicians like sitarist Sheema Mukkerjee from Transglobal Underground and singers like Jackie Oates, Eliza McCarthy, Martha Tilston and Rosie Doonan to make albums that would be considered brilliant works of lush downtempo fusions, ambient music and dream-pop if they weren’t marketed as spa music with generic covers.  You can hear them talk about their music in the Echoes Podcast.

Simon Emmerson, Sheema Mukherjee, Simon Richmond on Echoes

The Fresh Handmade Sounds recordings aren’t easy to get.  You’ll find them scattered in Lush Stores and even more scattered on-line.

Here are the ones I’d try to track down

Synaethesia
The Nightjar Orchestra is the ad hoc group put together for this album.  Besides Emmerson, it also features Richard Evans who has recorded extensively at Real World Records and worked with Peter Gabriel and Michael Brook among many others.  Synaethesia is lush, folk based and string laden with expansive, acoustic based tracks like “The Great Western.”

The Sound Bath
This one approaches ambient more than most with subtle keyboard fugues under nature sounds, the plaintive sound of Afro Celt’s N’Faly Kouyate singing and playing the kora on “Hand Bells” and Enoesque themes like “Bluethroat.”

A Hard Days Night Treatment
This album shouldn’t be so good.  They take Beatles tunes from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Golden Slumbers” and turn them into lysergic folk music.  In particular the array of female vocalists, from Eliza McCarthy to Jackie Oates are entrancing.  Unfortunately, this might be the hardest to get at this time.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

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!

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get  Lyla Foy’s Mirrors the Sky, the April 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.

 

 

An Afro Celt Drops Musical Bath Bombs

Simon Emmerson, Sheema Mukherjee, Simon Richmond on Echoes

Simon Emmerson smells good.  Not because he’s necessarily so hygienic, but because for the last four years or so he’s been creating custom made spa soundtracks for Lush Spas.  They’re mostly in the UK,  but now they’ve opened  in the US in New York City and Philadelphia.  Spa music usually has me going more manic than serene as I plow through stacks of CDs that are generically bland at best, crass, calculated and corny at worst.  But these soundtracks for Lush Spas, released under the umbrella of Fresh Handmade Sound have Simon Emmerson’s name attached.  Just say Afro Celt Sound System and that’s all the authenticity and credentials I need.

Sheema Mukherjee on Echoes

Emmerson was a co-founder of the that band which brilliantly fused sounds and musicians from Africa, Asia, Ireland and England into an electronically brewed ecstasy.  Now he’s joined by artists like Simon Richmond, who is another Fresh Handmade Sound composer and musicians like sitarist Sheema Mukkerjee from Transglobal Underground and singers like Jackie Oates, Eliza McCarthy, Martha Tilston and Rosie Doonan to make albums that would be considered brilliant works of lush downtempo fusions, ambient music and dream-pop if they weren’t marketed as spa music with generic covers.  You can hear them talk about their music tonight on Echoes.

The Fresh Handmade Sounds recordings aren’t easy to get.  You’ll find them scattered in Lush Stores and even more scattered on-line.

Here are the ones I’d try to track down

Synaethesia
The Nightjar Orchestra is the ad hoc group put together for this album.  Besides Emmerson, it also features Richard Evans who has recorded extensively at Real World Records and worked with Peter Gabriel and Michael Brook among many others.  Synaethesia is lush, folk based and string laden with expansive, acoustic based tracks like “The Great Western.”

The Sound Bath
This one approaches ambient more than most with subtle keyboard fugues under nature sounds, the plaintive sound of Afro Celt’s N’Faly Kouyate singing and playing the kora on “Hand Bells” and Enoesque themes like “Bluethroat.”

A Hard Days Night Treatment
This album shouldn’t be so good.  They take Beatles tunes from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Golden Slumbers” and turn them into lysergic folk music.  In particular the array of female vocalists, from Eliza McCarthy to Jackie Oates are entrancing.  Unfortunately, this might be the hardest to get at this time.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

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!

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get  Lyla Foy’s Mirrors the Sky, the April 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.

 

 

Psychedelic to Serenity: Mike Wall Echoes Interview

We get a lot of music in here with titles like “Music for Massage,” “Music for Yoga,” “Music for Meditation.”  They almost never make it onto the show, but every now and then we get one that has a little bit more going for it, than pretty sounds and contemplative moods.  That’s the case with Mike Wall’s A Time For Healing.  It is indeed, an album for massage but Wall brings in a darkness and textural depth you usually don’t hear, as well as some influences that go back in time.  “I had Hendrix on my mind for sure,” he says.  “On ‘Healing Touch,’ the song ‘Third Stone from the Sun’ was very much on my mind when I did that improvisation and that melody. ” Wall thinks of his compositions as psychedelic music, slowed down.

You can hear more of Mike Wall’s music and interview tonight on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.   CD of the Month Club members will be getting Darshan Ambient’s Little Things 10 days before its released.  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!

Shaman’s Dream Interview Podcast from Echoes

Hear Shaman’s Dream Interviewed in Echoes Podcast

Craig Kohland and Evan Bartholomew, best known as Bluetech, come from different worlds.  Kohland began in the New Age Scene, playing percussion with his group, Shaman’s Dream and creating trance global grooves.  Bluetech began in the techno and electronic world settling in a career that oscillates between seductive downtempo moods and experimental electronic music.  On the Big Island of Hawaii, they got together for a sound that is a meeting of worlds on their CD, Prana Pulse.   They talk about it in the Echoes Podcast.

~John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

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.