Will Ackerman on Windham Hill and Philip Aaberg, R.I.P. in Echoes Podcast

Today we were just going to bring you our interview with Will Ackerman, the founder of Windham Hill Records as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of that label. But then we got the news that pianist Philip Aaberg, a stalwart Windham Hill artist, had left the planet on May 23. So first we will hear our Will Ackerman interview but after that, I’ve got our last interview with Philip Aaberg.

Will Ackerman is not only a distinctive guitarist with several signature works, but a producer and collaborator who brought us George Winston, Liz Story, Michael Hedges and many more on the Windham Hill label. He released the dbut album, just to give copies to friends. That album, The Search for the Turtle’s Navel (now titled In Search of the Turtle’s Navel) He’s going to tell us the story of all that.

Then we go to one of the artists Will discovered, pianist Philip Aaberg. His albums, High Plains and Out of the Frame were Windham Hill Classics. Phil appeared on Echoes twice, performing live. We’ll hear Phil from an early 2003 interview where he took us through his career and influences.

Read John Diliberto’s Tribute to Philip Aaberg

The Complete Derek Shulman Interview-The Tale of a Gentle Giant in Echoes Podcast

Almost everyone is familiar with the big progressive rock groups of the 70s like Yes, Genesis, King Crimson and Emerson Lake and Palmer. But one of the bands bubbling just under the surface was Gentle Giant. To true aficionados of the progressive rock genre they were icons. Early this year, the lead singer of the band, Derek Shulman, released a memoir, Giant Steps. At the time I interviewed Derek and produced a nice feature from that on Echoes and in the Echoes Podcast. But there was a lot of good stuff in there that got left out so today in the podcast, I’ve got the complete interview. It includes the influence of Elton John on the band, who they actually turned down as a possible member, their interaction with English gangsters along with Black Sabbath, and bouncing on John & Yoko’s bed at Abbey Road Studios. We also talk about his transition to the corporate side of music. And then there is the outhouse.

Derek Shulman: Certainly in Portsmouth, for a long time, we had an outhouse, no bathroom. So, you know, getting up in the middle of the night to go outside for a pee or whatever you have to do, That was not a lot of fun, especially in the middle of winter. But yeah, that’s how I grew up.

Gentle Giant was a family affair, centered by Derek Shulman on vocals and saxophone, Ray Shulman on violin and Phil Shulman playing wind instruments and trumpet. They all actually played a lot more. They were joined by guitarist Gary Green and the classic edition of the band included drummer John Weathers. They started out as Simon Dupree and the Big Sound and had hits in England under that name.  But their transformation to Gentle Giant was revolutionary.

Behind Derek Shulman’s clarion call vocals, Gentle Giant layered intricate melodies, complex rhythms and multi-sectioned songs. We all thought this was high-art, not that derivative, corporate produced pop. But while we were being snobby elitists, Shulman took a turn into the corporate rock world and signed Bon Jovi, Nickelback, AC-DC, and more. This is an extended version of our feature which was broadcast this past Monday. We’ll hear about Derek Shulman’s journey from the outhouse to the executive suite.

Hear the produced version of this interview with music.

From Apes to Humanity - Felsmann & Tiley: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, techno DJs Felsmann & Tiley take the ambient classical pill and dial up a cinematic electronic sound on their second album, Protomensch. They come in from the cold of hard techno for a warmer, more hypnotic sound that is a long way from the dance floor.

Patrick Tiley: “We were a bit more youthful and energetic then for DJing club music and now we’re sort of making more music for the reclining chair.”

Their new conceptual release, Protomensch, manages to be hard hitting and political as well as poignant and thoughtful as they explore the idiocy and ingenuity of mankind. We talk to Felsmann & Tiley in the Echoes Podcast

Craig Padilla & Marvin Allen's Post-Rock Space Music for the 21st Century: The Echoes Podcast

Craig Padilla: We did the first song, and when it was done, Marvin goes, “Padilla, make another sequence.” And so he and my wife would go into the kitchen and just talk and I’d be out here just working on some other song ideas and then he’d go, “Ooh, that sounds good.”

Craig Padilla and Marvin Allen. You can hear so many influences in their music:  Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Steve Hackett, Robin Trower, and more. But they distill these influences into their own post-cosmic brew, a meeting of psychedelic moods with inventive synthesizer arrangements and tastefully pyrotechnic guitar. It’s post-rock space music for the 21st century.

They talk about their journey and reveal the story behind “Jammin’ with Buddha” in the Echoes podcast.

Read John Diliberto’s review of Unfolding Skies and explore the Echoes CD of the Month Club.

Flore Laurentienne's Prog Rock Inspired Ambient Chamber Music: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast,  an interview with Canadian composer Mathieu David Gagnon who records ambient chamber music as Flore Laurentienne. He mixes acoustic instruments with vintage analog synthesizers including the Mini-Moog. He recently released the inauspiciously titled album, Volume III. He’s making a more lush brand of ambient chamber music emerging from progressive rock and Bach.

Mathieu David Gagnon : I’m not coming from classical music. I studied piano, but all my teenage years were very focused on progressive rock. A lot of Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, the first album of Yes, I really loved keyboard sounds like the the Hammonds and electric piano and back in the day there was no internet so I always wanted to know what were those sounds. So I saw Hammond and I saw like Wurlitzer and Mellotron and I don’t and I wasn’t able to put a name on each sound so it was very poetic period in my life to love something that I don’t understand and trying to know a bit more about those sounds. So this is where I think the passion for old keyboards began and after that I discovered the music of Johann Sebastian Bach when I was like 20, 21 and that changed my life and the way I wanted to do music.

John Diliberto crosses the St. Lawrence River to talk with Flore Laurentienne in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Joan La Barbara's Vocal Circus: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast we have avant-garde icon Joan La Barbara. I have avant-garde vocal icon Joan La Barbara, who, along with Meredith Monk, change the way a voice could sound in music, opening up a world of deeper expressions. We play a lot of singers on this show who create imaginary languages. Vocalists like Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance and Azam Ali of Vas and Niyaz. But two singers in the avant-garde world preceded them. One is Meredith Monk. The other is Joan LaBarbara.  Her debut album was a declaration of independence called Voice is the Original Instrument.

Joan La Barbara: Voice Is the Original Instrument is really a kind of statement or manifesto. When I started exploring the voice, it was to say, yes, it is the original instrument.

Today, we profile Joan La Barbara’s career which includes collaborations on signature works with John Cage, Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Morton Subotnick. She was also the voice of Ripley’s baby Alien in the movie, Alien Resurrection. We interviewed her in 2024 at the Big Ears Festival and are finally bringing it to air. Get ready to have your minds blown, one way or the other with Joan La Barbara tonight on Echoes

Antique, Vintage and Transcendent: The Sound of Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore in the Echoes Podcast

The harp is often thought of as a heavenly instrument plucked by angels. And gothic voices have certainly called to the heavens. Those are attributes that harpist Mary Lattimore and singer and electronic musician Julianna Barwick attain on their album, Tragic Magic. Mary Lattimore isn’t your typical classical harpist. She channels her instrument though a looping device and can be heard in numerous, often avant-garde situations where hell is right next to heaven. Julianna Barwick has been creating looping choirs and ambient synth sounds for years now. The two have been playing together for a while now and it all comes together on their debut album as a duo. Tragic Magic was recorded at the Musée de la musique of the Philharmonie de Paris using antique harps dating to the 18th century and synthesizers dating back to the 1970s along with the voice of Barwick, dating to transcendent. We talk to them in the Echoes Podcast.

Flipping the Script-Gentle Giant's Derek Shulman's Journey from Prog Singer to Pop Executive

There are many progressive rock bands that still stalk the earth. Yes, King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator. But not Gentle Giant. They made all their records during Prog Rock’s glory years in the 1970s and then called it quits. While their legacy continues on as one of the most innovative and expansive bands in the genre, their co-founding member and lead singer, Derek Shulman, went from the stage to the record executive suites working for Polygram, Atco and Roadrunner records and signing acts like Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Dream Theater and Pantera. His journey is chronicled in his new autobiography, Giant Steps: My Improbable Journey from Stage Lights to Executive Heights. John Diliberto takes that journey with Derek Shulman in an extended version of the broadcast feature which includes his encounter with London’s mob. Hear it in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

A Blitz of Sounds from the Edge - Big Ears Festival 2026: the Echoes Interview with Ashley Capps

In the Echoes Podcast it’s our annual interview with Ashley Capps, the founder of Big Ears Festival. He also created Bonaroo and resurrected Moogfest. We cover Big Ears because they often have a lot of Echoes artists and they are just the best, most civilized and most surprising festival in America.

Ashley: what we’re trying to avoid is the bland and the innocuous, know, are just things that, know, you know, just nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, you know. That doesn’t really interest me.

Big Ears is anything but bland. It will take place in Knoxville, TN March 26-29, 2026. There will be over 200 acts including Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, SUSS, Pat Metheny, multiples of John Zorn, Hania Rani, Nik Bartsch’s Ronin and Nels Cline. The first hour of Echoes will be all music from the forthcoming Big Ears Festival 2026 and our interview with Ashley Capps who talks about putting the festival together. Ears are wide open on Echoes.

Head into Deepspace with Deepspace: The Echoes Podcast

When you name yourself deepspace you better live up to it. Mirko Ruckels, who is deepspace, has been doing that since 2007. His album, Neon Blue Utopia was a CD of the Month this past January and he has a new one called Water Planets. You might tell from those titles that Ruckels is influenced by science fiction.

Mirko Ruckels: “I’ve always loved science fiction and I’ve always loved, I’ve always been searching for that perfect kind of ambient science fiction scenario, you know, you know, exploring, exploring a planet by yourself, it speaks to that inner world.”

We talk to deepspace’s Mirko Ruckels about autism, Water Planets and of course, deepspace, on Echoes.

Read our review of Neon Blue Utopia, deepspace’s January 2025 Echoes CD of the Month