Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian Talk About a Signature CD on Echoes

Hear Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian interviewed tonight on Echoes.

An album that is sure to be in the Echoes Top 25 for 2013 is Azam Ali and Loga R. Torkian ‘s Lamentation of Swans, a Journey into Silence.   They used to be in two different bands.  Torkian played guitar in the Persian fusion band, Axiom of Choice and Ali was half of the world fusion duo,  Vas.  They got together romantically and musically and formed the Persian electronica band,  Niyaz.  Now they’re a married couple with a five year old child and they’ve released their first album as a duo.  It’s called Lamentation of Swans, a Journey into Silence. Tonight on Echoes I go quietly with Azam Ali and Loga R. Torkian.

HIGHLIGHTS

Azam Ali on her Iranian roots: Wherever you’re born, that’s where your roots are.  And you can live your whole life in foreign countries, but that connection to where you are will always remain.

Loga R. Torkian on discovering the guitarviol:  As soon as I played the first note I knew this is a magical instrument.  And I told him in 10 minutes, Jonathon [Wilson], can you build one for me?

Azam Ali on her imaginary language:  There is a certain value to making it sound like a language because just the human mouth is capable of so many different kinds of sounds.  And when you add the syllables it changes the texture of a melody.  It breaks the note in a particular way, it affects the kind of ornaments you can use, and in so doing, there are so many emotions that can be experienced.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

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Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian on Echoes Podcast

Hear Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian interviewed on the ECHOES PODCAST

Azam Ali and Loga R. Torkian used to be in two different bands.  Torkian played guitar in the Persian fusion band, Axiom of Choice and Ali was half of the world fusion duo,  Vas.  They got together romantically and musically and formed the Persian electronica band,  Niyaz.  Now they’re a married couple with a five year old child and they’ve released their first album as a duo.  It’s called Lamentation of Swans, a Journey into Silence. Hear Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian whisper about music in the Echoes Podcast.

HIGHLIGHTS

Azam Ali on her Iranian roots: Wherever you’re born, that’s where your roots are.  And you can live your whole life in foreign countries, but that connection to where you are will always remain.

Loga R. Torkian on discovering the guitarviol:  As soon as I played the first note I knew this is a magical instrument.  And I told him in 10 minutes, Jonathon [Wilson], can you build one for me?

Azam Ali on her imaginary language:  There is a certain value to making it sound like a language because just the human mouth is capable of so many different kinds of sounds.  And when you add the syllables it changes the texture of a melody.  It breaks the note in a particular way, it affects the kind of ornaments you can use, and in so doing, there are so many emotions that can be experienced.

Hear them talk about their music in the Echoes Podcast.

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!

Persian Fusion Dervishes-Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian on Echoes

Hear Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian interviewed tonight on Echoes.

Azam Ali and Loga R. Torkian used to be in two different bands.  Torkian played guitar in the Persian fusion band, Axiom of Choice and Ali was half of the world fusion duo,  Vas.  They got together romantically and musically and formed the Persian electronica band,  Niyaz.  Now they’re a married couple with a five year old child and they’ve released their first album as a duo.  It’s called Lamentation of Swans, a Journey into Silence. Tonight on Echoes I go quietly with Azam Ali and Loga R. Torkian.

HIGHLIGHTS

Azam Ali on her Iranian roots: Wherever you’re born, that’s where your roots are.  And you can live your whole life in foreign countries, but that connection to where you are will always remain.

Loga R. Torkian on discovering the guitarviol:  As soon as I played the first note I knew this is a magical instrument.  And I told him in 10 minutes, Jonathon [Wilson], can you build one for me?

Azam Ali on her imaginary language:  There is a certain value to making it sound like a language because just the human mouth is capable of so many different kinds of sounds.  And when you add the syllables it changes the texture of a melody.  It breaks the note in a particular way, it affects the kind of ornaments you can use, and in so doing, there are so many emotions that can be experienced.

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!

New Music: Azam Ali and Loga R. Torkian & Roger Eno

Hear new music from Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian tonight on Echoes

Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkian, both play in the Persian Electronica band Niyaz, but you may also remember them from Ali’s group, Vas, and Torkian’s band, Axiom of Choice.  They’ve just released a new CD called Lamentation of Swans: A Journey Toward Silence that takes a more contemplative approach to their music. We’ll also hear new music by Roger Eno.  The pianist and one of the earliest Ambient Chamber Music composers teams up with Plumbline, an English electronic band on the album Endless City/Concrete Jungle.

Here’s a beautifully produced video of  Azam Ali & Loga R. Torkain’s for “Oceans” that puts together a smorgasbord of New Age mysticism.  The woman in the video is not Azam Ali.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Find your local Echoes station or streaming options here: http://www.echoes.org/stattime.html

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 July CD of the Month: Carmen Rizzo’s Looking Through Leaves.

Studio savant Carmen Rizzo crafts an album of electro-dream pop:  Looking Through Leaves

You’ve heard Carmen Rizzo a lot on Echoes, you probably just didn’t realize it.  He’s a member of the Persian fusion group, Niyaz, produced Israeli singer Inbar Bakal and collaborated with the Tuvan throat singing group, Huun-Huur-Tu.  He’s also a producer, programmer and keyboard player who has worked on dozens of recordings for people like Seal, BT, Alannis Morrisette and Michael Nyman.  He’s a behind the scenes player there, but even on his own albums, he stays in the background, writing music for a cast of great singers. He does that again on his third album of seductive songs called Looking Through Leaves.     It’s a mix of the sensual and the contemplative, a meeting of club music, electronica, and torch song ballads that are shaken and stirred into an intoxicating brew.

Rizzo has a penchant for sultry female vocalists. Shana Halligan from The Supreme Beings of Leisure and Bitter:Sweet, sings of haunted love on “Until You Find Another,” with a hint of Billie Holiday in her aching voice.  That jazz reference is amplified by Gabriel Johnson who adds a moody, Mark Isham-style trumpet solo.  Over a percolating electronic back-beat and surging textures, January Thompson’s voice echoes through a song of lost love and promise while Norway’s Kate Havnevik takes a dance floor beat and does a diva turn on “This Life.”

The most uplifting song may be “Bring the Mountain Down” with Grant-Lee Phillips, a singer-songwriter who Rizzo produced. He has a meditative take on a song that takes lyric inspiration from the story of Hanuman, the Hindu Monkey God. But with Phillips’ soulful vocal rendition over Rizzo’s lush lounge moods, it comes off sensual as much as spiritual.

Looking Through Leaves is rounded out by three electronic instrumentals that are a mixture of New Romantic moods and edgy angst.  That balance is perfectly matched on the opening track, “Through the Storm” which serves as an album prelude, the drifting ambiences of “Strada” and the albums closer, a Blade Runner homage called “Element of Hope.”

Most of the time, an Echoes CD of the Month is made for low lights and internal ruminations.  Looking Through Leaves is contemplative as well, as long as your doing it driving down the highway with the windows open and the stereo cranked.  Looking Through Leaves is the Echoes CD of the Month for July.

The Echoes program featuring Carmen Rizzo’s Looking Through Leaves will run on Echoes Weekend stations Saturday, July 10 and Sunday July 11.  Echoes On-Line subscribers can listen at any time.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Members of the Echoes CD of the Month Club will be getting Looking Through Leaves in the mail over the next few days.  You can join them by becoming a CD of the Month Club member.  It’s a way you can make sure you’re getting great music and helping to support Echoes at the same time.   You can sign up right here. 

John Diliberto’s Top 10 CDs for 2008

From Digitonal to the Dandy Warhols, John Diliberto’s Top Ten CDs for 2008.

While you’re pondering the Echoes 2008 Listener Poll, I’ve already been solicited for a few year-end lists. I usually give a different list to different outlets. My (uncredited) Amazon.com list is pretty strictly New Age and limited to  titles that are actually on Amazon.com, although as you’ll see, I stretch the definition of New Age quite a bit. The 25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2008 is limited to what I play on Echoes (Look for that in a week or so). But when WXPN solicited lists for my 10 Top CDs and songs for 2008, there were no limitations. So there are a couple of things here that I wouldn’t be playing on Echoes. This is my personal Top Ten.  

A lot of my top ten albums will be appearing right on top of the 25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2008. I’ve written about many of them already. Digitonal’s Save Your Light For Darker Days remains my favorite disc of the year and I say why in my  September CD of the Month review. Sumner McKane’s right up there and my paean to his psychamericana on What A Great Place to Be is in my October CD of the Month review. Saul Stokes’ entrancing electronic cycles on Villa Galaxia probably should have been a CD of the Month. I wrote about that in an Echo Location. The Persian fusion group, Niyaz  topped their debut with the double CD, Nine Heavens.  It could’ve been a CD of the month as well, but it came out in the midst of CDs we’d already selected by Jamshied Sharifi and Biomusique with similar exotic female singers.   We try and spread a little variety among CD of the Month Selections.  But I am intoxicated by Azam Ali’s  voice which taps into something beyond this world, while still living sensually in this world. Alu is a relatively new singer who made me think of early Kate Bush with her electronica cabaret on Lobotomy Sessions. I wrote about her in an Echo Location. Nik Bärtch’s Ronin has been making a cerebral brand of minimalist jazz for years and Holon spins like a melodic meeting of Dave Brubeck and Steve Reich. Lights Out Asia orchestrated a perfect mix of shoegazer rock and ambient electronics but on an epic scale on their enigmatically titled CD, Eyes Like Brontide.   You can also read about them and hear their music in an Echo Location.  Now we get to the two non-Echoes titles here. Beck‘s Modern Guilt, is another great album of insightfully poetic and ironic lyrics set in new variations of organic quirk, much of it provided by Danger Mouse from Gnarls Barkley who made my Top Ten Songs.    Earth to the Dandy Warhols is a brilliant pastiche of styles from jive-talking  jump-blues to Can, all distilled through their psychedelic sensibilities.   The German group, Qntal rounds out the list with Lucidia, a definitive example of their Medieval Electronica fronted by the haunting, imperious voice of Sigrid Hausen. The Top Ten list is below. I’ll have My Top Ten songs later, or you can just go to WXPN and see it there, sans sage commentary. While you’re in the neighborhood , vote in their year end poll, but while you’re here, vote in ours, The Echoes 2008 Listener Poll.  You might even win the Top 25 Echoes CDs for 2008.
John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

John Diliberto’s Top 10

TOP 10 ALBUMS
	FIRST-LAST/GROUP NAME	ALBUM NAME	SOURCES
1	Digitonal	Save Your Light for Darker Days
2	Sumner McKane	What A Great Place to Be
3	Saul Stokes	Villa Galaxia
4	Niyaz	Nine Heavens
5	Alu	Lobotomy Sessions
6	Nik Bartsch’s Ronin	Holon
7	Lights Out Asia	Eyes Like Brontide
8	Beck	Modern Guilt
9	Dandy Warhols	Earth to Dandy Warhols
10	Qntal	Qntal VI: Translucida

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

Ambient Chamber Music Reigns on Echoes Top 25 for June

Ambient Chamber music dominates top airplay at Echoes in June.
We’ve been tracking ambient chamber music since the beginning of Echoes when it was mostly Tim Story, David Darling and Kevin Keller, but the subgenre has exploded, in an ambient chamber music way, that is, gently and without many people noticing, partly because it falls in between genres from the ambient chamber world music of Biomusique and Jami Sieber to the Euro-minimalist classical of Ludovico Einaudi and Ronn McFarlane to the folk chamber music of William Ackerman and Gerry O’Beirne. Nine of the Top 10 albums fall into the category and 14 of the Top 25.  When I hear 20-somthing bands like Balmorhea citing 50-something composers like Ludovico Einaudi or the venerable Arvo Part, that tells me that something is happening.  This is another ebb and flow in the evolution of Echoes which has seen influxes of Celtic, space music, electronica and world fusion over the years.  There’s still plenty of electronica, world fusion and unclassifiable music that makes up the Echoes soundscape. Here’s the Top 25 with a few links to reviews.

ECHOES TOP 25 FOR JUNE

1 – Biomusique – The 10000 Steps  <Listen>
2 – Jami Sieber – Unspoken  <Listen>
3 – William Ackerman – Meditations
4 – Ronn McFarlane – Indigo Road
5 – Fernwood – Almeria
6 – California Guitar Trio – Echoes
7 – Ludovico Einaudi – Divenire
8 – Niyaz – Nine Heavens
9 – Eldad Lidor – Closer
10 – Gerry O’Beirne – The Bog Bodies and Other Stories <Listen>
11 – Qntal – Translucida
12 – Ahn Trio – Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac <Listen>
13 – Don Peyote – Peyote Dreaming
14 – Richard Bone – Short Waves
15 – Christopher Young – Sleepwalking
16 – v/a – Future Memories (v/a)
17 – Lisa Lynne & Aryeh Frankfurter – Two Worlds One
18 – Robert Rich & Ian Boddy – React
19 – The Orb – The Dream  <Listen>
 20 – Michel Banabila – Traces
21 – Bill Frisell – History Mystery
22 – Deobrat Mishra & David Michael – Himilayan Crossroad
23 – Kevin Bartlett – Glow in the Dark
24 – David Arkenstone – Echoes of Light and Shadow
25 – Rudy Perrone – The Language of Spirits