PRX: Echoes Interview Podcast

Jade Warrior-World Fusion Pioneers 50th: The Echoes Interview.

It’s the 50th Anniversary of the greatest unsung band of Progressive Rock, Jade Warrior. Releasing their eponymous debut in 1971, they went on to create a quartet of the most brilliant world fusion albums.

Before Peter Gabriel moved from drum machines to Senegalese drummers, and when Andreas Vollenweider was still doing music for poetry readings, Jade Warrior was orchestrating a world fusion built up from a host of exotic instruments, searing electric guitar and a frightening amount of overdubs.  Initially a power trio with arty pretensions, guitarist Tony Duhig and flutist/percussionist Jon Field reinvented themselves in 1974 with the first of a quartet of albums for Island Records: Floating World, Waves, Kites and Way of The Sun. Back in 1985 we talked to Jade Warrior for the radio series, Totally Wired and it remains one of our favorite and most memorable interviews.  Tony Duhig died five years later in 1990, and despite a few attempts by Field to keep the name going, Jade Warrior effectively stopped, gone and nearly forgotten. That is just wrong.  Find out why in our sound portrait today on Echoes.

The Core Jade Warrior Albums

Jade Warrior 

Loreena McKennitt's The Visit Re-visited in the Echoes Podcast

It was 30 years ago that Loreena McKennitt released her breakthrough album, The Visit. Today we talk to this influential artist who turned Celtic music into world fusion while telling epic tales of “The Lady of Shallott” and “All Souls Night.” The album took the burgeoning Celtic craze of the 80s and launched it into a global fusion behind her eastern inflected arrangements, soaring soprano voice and ancient tales from Celtic realms. Now it’s been released in as The Visit – Definitive Edition with four CDs and a Blu-ray disc. McKennitt looks back on a signature work on Echoes.

Hear Loreena McKennitt’s 14th Icon of Echoes Profile

Will Ackerman, Jeff Oster & Tom Eaton: The Echoes Interview

Clockwise from top Left: Will Ackerman, John Diliberto, Tom Eaton, Jeff Oster

Guitarist Will Ackerman, founder of Windham Hill Records, horn player Jeff Oster and multi-instrumentalist Tom Eaton have gotten together on an album that might remind you of the halcyon days of Windham Hill.  It’s called Brothers, reflecting their longtime musical association, but their first ever full-collaboration as a trio. The cover even has the signature look of that label. We talk to the three musicians about new age nostalgia on in the Echoes Podcast.

Hear our profile on Will Ackerman, the 28th Icon of Echoes here.  See the complete list of the 30 Icons for 30 Years of Echoes.

Philosophical Electronics: Chronotope Project in Echoes Podcast

Jeffrey Ericson Allen talks about his spacious ambient music under the name Chronotope Project.  A cellist who has added electronics to his work, he tends toward the mystical and cosmic.  His latest album, Gnosis is the Echoes CD of the Month for September.. Allen uses ambient soundscapes to explore themes from Greek Philosophy to the Higgs Field. Join us in the universe of Chronotope Project in the Echoes Podcast..

Jomoro's Percussion Dreams: The Echoes Interview

Mauro Refosco – John Diliberto – Joey Waronker -Zoom

It’s a meeting of electronic and acoustic percussion and ethereal moods with Jomoro. This is the project of percussionists Joey Waronker and Mauro Refosco with guest artists including Sharon Van Etten and Lucious. Veterans of artists like David Byrne, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Atoms for Peace and more, they’ve conceived an album that’s like Can meets Tropicália meets the avant-garde on their debut album, Blue Marble Sky. We beat the drums of Jomoro in the Echoes Podcast.

Robot Koch: From Metal to Meditation: The Echoes Podcast

German Composer Robot Koch has gone from death metal to deep ambient chamber music in his career. We follow the course of this inventive artist up through his latest dive into deep ambient music. We’ll talk about his most recent album under his name, the ambient chamber sound of The Next Billion Years, his collaboration with violinist Savannah Jo Lack, Particle Fields and his new release under the guise of Foam and Sand, Full Circle, an album made from tape loops, as in reel-to-reel tape.  Walk the beaches of Robot Koch in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Hybrid and George Winston, the 30th Icon in Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast we go to the opposite ends of the Echoes spectrum. We’ll hear from the electronica duo, Hybrid and acoustic pianist George Winston, the 30th Icon of Echoes.

Hybrid takes us into the sometimes-dark world of their new album, Black Halo. Formed at the turn of the millennium, the husband-and-wife duo of Charlotte and Mike Truman have been forging an electronica sound hovering at the borders of EDM and dream pop.  Their new album explores themes of politics and fallen angels as well the orange man.

George Winston is the 30th Icon of 30 Icons for 30 years of Echoes.  We have arrived at the final icon of Echoes and the fact that this musician is last on the list just shows you what a heavy list it is, the 30 Icons for 30 Years of Echoes. George Winston is number 30. He helped boost Windham Hill Records into the upper atmosphere. His debut album on the label, Autumn has sold over 3 million copies. We’ll survey the music world of this pianist who brought contemporary instrumental music to popularity in the 1980s with commentary from Peter Kater, Moby, Philip Aaberg and Will Ackerman.

The World of Kitaro, 29th Icon of Echoes in the Echoes Podcast

From the top of Mt. Fuji, the 29th Icon of Echoes, Kitaro, arrives. The Japanese electronic composer has created a stream of otherworldly sounds since the late 1970s. We’ll hear a profile of this artist from his days in The Far East Family Band to his emergence as a solo artist and up through Kojiki and his long-lived career.

Kitaro and John Diliberto: Kitaro’s studio, Boulder, 1997/Kitaro, Keiko and John Diliberto, John’s living room, 2001

Will Ackerman-28th Icon of Echoes and Jon Hassell Remembered.

It’s hard to separate the guitarist Will Ackerman from the record label he founded, Windham Hill Records. We’ll hear a profile of this influential artist who released his first album, In Search of the Turtle’s Navel in 1976.  We’ll hear about the creation of Windham Hill, his influential approach to the guitar and listen to some of the music he’s created and fostered. Will Ackerman, the 28th Icon of Echoes.

Hear Will Ackerman performing live on Echoes from 2005 here.

Then we remember Jon Hassell, the brilliant, innovative trumpet player who brought a new sound to the instrument and created an entirely new genre of music with his Fourth World concept. He passed on June 26 at age 84.  He collaborated with Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, David Sylvian and many more, while releasing some 20 albums that were like transmissions from a 21st century global village.  We’ll hear a feature on Jon.

Daniel Miller ignited electronic pop with The Normal and launched the careers of Depeche Mode who were produced by Gareth Jones. There might not be electronic pop without them.  But when they get together in a new electronic project called Sunroof,  they explore the outer edges of electronic music in free, modular improvisations.  It’s a trip through electronic history into a possible future when we talk to Sunroof on Echoes.

Hammock swing in as the 27th Icons of Echoes. Both Sigur Ros and Ricky Gervais are fans and they are only one of four Icons who started their career in the 21st century. This band has defined both ambient guitar and ambient chamber music over the last two decades. We’ll hear an extended profile of this influential and powerful duo.

Hear Hammock’s Echoes Concert Streaming here.

Review of Raising Your Voice, Trying to Stop an Echo, January 2007 CD of the Month

Review of Chasing After Shadows, Living With the Ghosts, May 2010 CD of the Month

Review of Departure Songs, December 2012 CD of the Month

Review of Oblivion Hymns, January 2014 CD of the Month

Review of Everything and Nothing May 2016 CD of the Month

Review of Universalis, December 2018 CD of the Month