PRX: Echoes Interview Podcast

Sound Unbound: Big Ears Festival Preview with Ashley Capps in Echoes Podcast

In the echoes Podcast a preview of the Big Ears Festival 2023. Founder Ashley Capps had his musical epiphany with The Mothers of Invention and their second album, Absolutely Free which, like all early albums from Frank  Zappa, had the Edgar Varese quote, “The modern day composer refuses to die.”  Capps took that to heart with his musical exploration and Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN.   He tells us about some highlights of the line-up that includes John Zorn, Morton Subotnick, Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell and Ibeyi and more. Open your ears wide on Echoes from PRX.

Big Ears Festival 2023 Feature Playlist

Gyan Riley – High Tide – Shelter in Space

Decoding Karmacoda and Sunroof's Joy of Wires and Knobs: The Echoes Podcast Interviews

Get your soul shoes on when we talk to Karmacoda.  They started out as a trip-hop inspired band but have transitioned into a sound that is more 70s R&B. We talk to the singer Jessica Ford and instrumentalist and singer Brett Crockett about their soulful affinities, their new album, Lessons in Time, and American Idol. It all connects in the music of Karmacoda.

Daniel Miller ignited electronic pop with The Normal and launched the careers of Depeche Mode, who were produced by Gareth Jones. They get together in an electronic project called Sunroof that explores the outer edges of electronic music. In 2021 they released Electronic Music Improvisations Vol.1 and they just released the follow-up, Electronic Music Improvisations Vol.2.  We talked to them in 2021 and we take a return trip to that feature as they take through electronic history into a possible future when we talk to Sunroof on Echoes.

Hammock Delivers Us from the Void: The Echoes Podcast

The ambient guitar duo Hammock talk about their latest album, Love in the Void. It’s a post-pandemic release and one of their most energized albums in years. Hammock’s Love in the Void sounds like an album from a band who has emerged from a long dark tunnel. The music they made in that tunnel was deep and immersive, wrapping you in a cocoon of sound. But Love in the Void carries you on a lighter, also more aggressive plane.

Marc Byrd: Honestly, Love in the Void is a reaction to everyone telling us how much they sleep to our music.  And what did you say, Andrew?

I suspect that it’s an album I’ll be listening to much more, wide awake.  Hammock’s Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson talk about the emotions and events that fueled the album from sobriety to love, loss to anger, and joy..

Read John Diliberto’s review of Love in the Void

Brian Eno-Totally Wired-The Complete Interview

Brian Eno should need no introduction to any music fan. A member of Roxy Music, architect of Ambient Music, producer at the edges of Pop, his mark has been felt across music, from classical to rock and beyond.  In 1987, I conducted the first of several interviews with Eno across three  decades. Bits and pieces have been heard in the 80s radio series Totally Wired-Artists in Electronic Sound and on Echoes.  But it has never been heard in its 64-minute entirety. Here’s the story.

In the 1980s I produced a radio series called Totally Wired, Artists in Electronic Sound which contained interviews with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Depeche Mode, Kate Bush, Vangelis, Steve Roach and about 130 more artists across the music spectrum. It started in 1982, and it took us five years to snag Brian Eno, which we finally did in 1987. At that time, albums like Another Green World, Ambient 1-Music for Airports, and Apollo had already reshaped music concepts, and his latest release was 1985’s deeply ambient Thursday Afternoon. Also behind him was his Low-Heroes-Lodger collaborations with David Bowie. We talk a lot about those releases, as well as Oblique Strategies, his card set designed to prompt creativity.

I conducted the interview in his apartment in the Kensington section of London. Brian sat in an heirloom-looking easy chair while I stuck my Electro-Voice 635A microphone in his face, switching it back and forth between us as we spoke. His manager, Anthea Norman-Taylor, prepared tea, of course. They would be married the next year. Settle in your own easy chair for this wide-ranging, deep dive into Brian Eno in the Echoes Podcast.

Marconi Union's A Live Connection in Echoes Podcast

Marconi Union are a UK electronic trio that rarely performs live, but they’re releasing concert film called Marconi Union: A Live Connection. We talk to them about bringing their moody, atmospheric sound to a live setting. It’s a pay-per-view video which will be available on a limited-time basis.

Premium Ticket buyers will also be able to stream Signals, an additional film featuring the band performing material from their most recent album Signals which was an Echoes CD of the Month in 2021. . Both films will be released to stream from 19.00 (GMT) Thursday February 23rd and will continue to be available to view on-demand until Sunday  February 26th 23.59 (GMT)

Stream Tickets available from Concert Vision.

Hear Marconi Union Interview 2021

Hear Marconi Union’s 2006 Live Echoes Performance

Imaginary Voices. Meredith Monk: The Echoes Podcast Interview

Hear the voice of the collective subconscious in Meredith Monk. Before Elizabeth Fraser, Lisa Gerrard and Azam Ali, there was Meredith Monk, singing in her own, abstracted language, creating a sound like folk songs from another planet. A 13-CD set of her music, The Recordings on ECM Records has just been released. We talk with Meredith Monk about ritual, aural ascension, and mysterious voices, on the Echoes Podcast.   

A Trio of Resister Sisters: The Echoes Interview with Cosey Fanni Tutti in Echoes Podcast.

Throbbing Gristle was an English band at the bleeding edge of Industrial rock. Cosey Fanni Tutti was at the center of that band and and one half of the duos, Chris & Cosey and CarterTutti, both with her husband and ex-TG member, Chris Carter. In her acclaimed 2017 autobiography, Art Sex Music, she talked about her career in music as well as her work in stripping, pornographic films and magazines, which she used for her own art works. She’s now released her second book, called Re-Sisters, which draws parallels between medieval mystic Margery Kempe, electronic pioneer Delia Derbyshire and Cosey herself. Hear her in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Jimi Hendrix at 80: Producer Eddie Kramer Looks Back

Jimi Hendrix would’ve turned 80 this past November 27th.  We celebrate by talking to Eddie Kramer, producer and engineer of Hendrix’s first three albums and many of the posthumous releases as well as John McDermott, Hendrix curator for Experience Hendrix and author of several books on the legendary guitarist.  We talk about the new release, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Los Angeles Forum, April 26, 1969, a tour de force of the Experience’s live performance near their peak. Hear it in the Echoes Podcast.

World Fusionists Ricky Kej & David Vito Gregorio: The Echoes Podcast

American multi-instrumentalist David Vito Gregoli and Indian producer and keyboard player Ricky Kej take us on the journey of their album, Wild Monsoon. It’s an east-west fusion of electronics and Indian music that turns into a global fusion where shredding guitars meet Taiko drums, tabla and electronics. David Vito Gregoli and Ricky Kej talking about breaking down walls in the Echoes Podcast.

Sheila Chandra's Global Vocal Fusion: Monsoon at 40: The Echoes Podcast

Sheila Chandra is now a heralded singer lauded for her unique vocal style and global fusion heard on many albums including her ground-breaking trilogy on Real World Records: Weaving My Ancestors Voices, The Zen Kiss and Bonecronedrone. But that all began 40 Years ago with the group Monsoon featuring Sheila on vocals. They had a massive hit in England with the song “Ever So Lonely” and now, their debut and only album Third Eye is being reissued. Sadly, due to some complicated medical issues, Sheila cannot sing anymore and she rarely talk,s but she opened up to John Diliberto as they took a walk back to Monsoon’s Third Eye and the new deluxe package that has rare live performances, alternate takes, demos and B-sides.