A Lighter Touch (Playlist 8-15-2010)

For this morning’s broadcast, I felt like dwelling in a “lighter” space — just didn’t feel like playing “darker” or particularly serious music this time around.  I love music along the lines of Klaus Schulze’s X and the orchestral music of Arvo Pärt.  But for this edition of “Neptune Currents,” we heard mostly quiet, contemplative music, with a little more emphasis on melody than usual — a serene, vaguely happy mood.  I featured the ‘bubbly’ sequencer based tracks from Steve Roach’s brand new Sigh of Ages album, having played the more sombre middle portion of this fine CD a week earlier.  Definitely one of the best releases of 2010 IMO!

During the last half hour, I even played some music that had humorous spoken-word portions (e.g. “Feathers” by the duo Dogon and also “Box of Sky” by Darshan Ambient).  Definitely a rarity on “Neptune Currents.”  This music puts a smile on my face! 🙂  Was going to follow those pieces with the conclusion of Laurie Anderson’s Big Science album, but had trouble finding my CD copy at home, or even the LP copy that I was sure was in KKUP’s library.  Oh well, some other time.

I know that I knocked New Age music in my introductory post of this blog, but that doesn’t mean that all New Age music is bad.  I believe that the early days of the New Age movement offered some innovative music (e.g. Iasos’ Angelic Music at the beginning of this morning’s broadcast).  It’s when the movement became more commercially successful — when the major labels got involved in the mid to late 1980s — that the decline happened rapidly.  Fortunately, other genres (e.g. dark ambient, tribal ambient, ambient dub) emerged to fill the void.

Apologies to Al Gromer Khan and the late Klaus Wiese for my speaking over “The Alchemy of Happiness” from the CD of the same title.  This is a very nice album, similar to the long form ambient works of Brian Eno (e.g. Thursday Afternoon and Neroli).  Will have to devote more time to Alchemy… soon.

Anyway, here’s my playlist for Sunday August 15th:

(ARTIST — TITLE — ALBUM — LABEL)

8:00 AM  (starting w/ the program’s theme music):
Gustav Holst (cond. by Simon Rattle) — “Neptune the Mystic” — The Planets —
EMI Classics
Iasos — “Angel Play” (~1st 10 min) — Angelic Music — Inter-Dimensional Music
David Michael & Randy Mead — “Heartscape” _and_ “Wings at Dawn” — Heartscape — Purnima Productions
P.C. Davidoff — “Santosh I” (~1st 21 min) — Santosh — Garland of Letters, Inc.
Robert Scott Thompson — “Moonbeam Splashes on Water” — Poesis Athesis —
Lens Records

~9:00 AM
Al Gromer Khan & Klaus Wiese — “The Alchemy of Happiness” (excerpt) — The Alchemy of Happiness — Rasa/TeaTime Music
Steve Roach — “The View from Here” _and_ “Return of the Majestic” (1st half) —
Sigh of Ages — Projekt
Stu Jenks — “Molino Falls Blue” — West of the Fire: Soundtrack for Photographs, Vol. 2 — Fezziwig Music

~9:40 AM
Jean-Paul L’Heureux & Marc Laperle — “August Moon” — Crepuscule/Dusk —
Third Ear [cassette only]
Mychael Danna & Tim Clement — “Sparrow Hill” — Another Sun — Chacra Alternative Music
Scott August — “River of Stars” — Radiant Sky — Cedar Mesa Music

~10:00 AM
Blow Up Hollywood — “RKK” _and_ “Eos” — Take Flight — Blow Up Hollywood
Yes — “Close to the Edge (iii. I Get Up I Get Down)” — Close to the Edge — Atlantic

~10:25 AM
Robert Rich — “Moth Wings” — [unreleased version] — n/a
Dogon — “Feathers” — Notdunjusta — New Dog
Darshan Ambient — “Box of Sky” — Re:Karma — Lotuspike
Utopia XO — “Under a Blue Sky: Above You” — The Light — Birnam CD, Scotland
Utopia XO — “Under a Blue Sky: Together” (part) — The Light — Birnam CD, Scotland

~11:00 AM, after sign-off
Richard Bone — “Fractal Ashes” — Sudden Departure — Quirkworks Laboratory Discs

* voiceover music during breaks (except for break at 9 AM):
Steve Roach — “Immersion: Four” (~1st 7 min) — Immersion: Four — Timeroom Editions

Mandalas and Electro-choral Dreams (Playlist 8-08-2010)

I particularly enjoyed presenting the show today… listening to a lot of Peter Michael Hamel’s music recently.  So one of his compositions for overdubbed electric organs (“Aura”) was featured today, along with a similar piece for piano and electric organ by Terry Riley.  This music touches on several traits mentioned in my first post (minimalist structure, strong tonal center, Eastern musical influences, immersive timbral qualities).

The first hour of the show was especially dreamy…electronic music with an almost choral quality — sometimes created from tape loops of actual voices (e.g. the piece from Brian Eno’s ‘Music for Airports’), sometimes just very reminiscent of (very slow) choral singing.

Here’s my playlist for Sunday August 8th:

(ARTIST — TITLE — ALBUM — LABEL)

8:00 AM  (starting w/ the program’s theme music):
Gustav Holst –“Neptune the Mystic” — The Planets — Deutsche Grammaphon
     (this version performed by the Berlin Philharmonic w/ Herbert van Karajan, cond.)
Brian Eno –“2/1” — Ambient 1: Music for Airports —  Editions EG
Kevin Braheny — “Perelandra” (excerpt from middle, ‘chorale’) — The Way Home — Hearts of Space
Steve Roach — “Sentient Breath” _and_ “Morning of Ages” — Sigh of Ages — Projekt
Kevin Braheny — “Perelandra” (conclusion) — The Way Home — Hearts of Space

~9:00 AM
Peter Michael Hamel — “Aura” — Hamel — Wah Wah (reissue)
Terry Riley — “Journey from the Death of a Friend” — Les Yeux Fermes & Lifespan — Elision Fields

~9:50 AM
Irina Mikhailova — “Pusto Mladost” — Fearless — Elefaria
Vas — “Mandara” — Feast of Silence — Narada World
New Jakarta Ensemble — “Flea Market” (~1st 3 min) — Commonality — Siam Records
Stellamara — “Baraka” — The Seven Valleys — Lucidity Music

~10:30 AM
Mickey Hart — “Elephant Walk” — Spirit Into Sound — Grateful Dead/Arista
Anawaty/Russell — “Blue Years Day (and Night)” — Monjour — Pi2 (Singapore)
Rush — “The Camera Eye” — Moving Pictures — Mercury

* voiceover music during breaks:
Deep Chill Network — “If Only” (part) — Dreams 4 — Dark Duck
————————–

Oh, BTW, I played the Rush song at the end in honor of their concert appearance at Shoreline Amphitheater on August 9 — they’re playing the Moving Pictures album in its entirety on this tour.  A classic album in rock music, to be sure.

Peace,

Steve Davis