PRX: Echoes Interview Podcast

Iranian singer Azam Ali is a voice that launched a dozen love affairs. She was the sound of the world fusion group, Vas and then the Persian fusion band, Niyaz. Her intoxicating, sensual voice is heard in dozens of films including Thor: The Dark World, 300, John Carter and Priest.  She takes her love of modern electronic music to create her new album, Phantoms, her first with all-English lyrics. It will be October’s CD of the Month,  John Diliberto talks to Azam Ali about a sound born from social and political darkness and electronic grooves..

The Art of Electric Improvisation with John Swana, Tim Motzer & Doug Hirlinger in Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, John Diliberto talks about the art of improvisation with three veteran musicians, trumpeter John Swana, guitarist Tim Motzer and percussionist Doug Hirlinger. They are denizens of the avant-garde and new music scenes in Philadelphia and New York having played with David Sylvian, Jaki Liebezeit of Can, King Britt, Vernon Reid, David Torn, Donny McCaslin, Chris Potter, Pat Mastelotto of King Crimson and the Philadelphia Orchestra. They talk about intuitive free composition in a world of looping and electronics in the Echoes Podcast.

Mary Lattimore's Ambient Harp in Echoes Podcast

Mary Lattimore (Pic: Jeff Towne)

In the Echoes Podcast, Mary Lattimore, a diva of new music harp. She’s performed with Harold Budd, Kurt Vile, Sharon Van Etten, Thurston Moore and dozens of others with her electric harp. On her album, Hundreds of Days, she manipulates her instrument with electronics, distorting the sound and looping to create ambient landscapes. We pluck Mary Lattimore’s strings in the Echoes Podcast.

Hear Mary Lattimore’s earlier 2014 interview along with Jeff Ziegler in the an earlier Echoes Podcast.

Synth-Pop Artist Eve Maret Plugs into the Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, a wonderful musician named Eve Maret who is completely plugged in. She recently released her debut album, No More Running, and fans of 70s German electronic music and 80s New Wave will find a lot of resonance in there. We talk about that as well as the politics of gender and electronics because Eve thinks there aren’t enough plugged in female musicians in the world. But she’s trying to change that in more ways that one. She talks about depression, synths, pioneering electronic music and electronic voice with us in the Echoes Podcast.

Maps' James Chapman in Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, we have Maps. James Chapman is half of the duo onDeadWaves but on his own, he records as Maps, merging electronics with Ennio Morricone grandeur and Beach Boys exultant harmonies.  His new album is Colours Reflect Time Loss. We  talk to James Chapman about childhood memories, creating an orchestra, and The Beach Boys.  Just follow the Maps to the Echoes Podcast..

Heather Woods Broderick Interview in Echoes Podcast.

In the Echoes Podcast, we talk to singer-songwriter Heather Woods Broderick. She’s backed up singers like Sharon Van Etten but on her own, she makes a personal and atmospheric music of peacefully contemplated turmoil articulated through the imagery of nature on the Oregon coast. Her album, Glider was a CD of the Month in 2015 and she finally has another beautiful recording, Invitation. We bring you the Heather Woods Broderick story on Echoes.

Echoes Podcast: The Best of Echoes 2019, So Far

In the Echoes Podcast, John Diliberto dissects some of our picks in the top ten of The Best of Echoes 2019 So Far. It’s the midway point of the year which means it’s time to compile our Top 25 albums of the year to date. John Diliberto picks out a handful of those albums and talks about them in the Echoes Podcast. It’s another collection of music that reveals the diversity of Echoes.  We have solo acoustic guitarists, neo-classical composers, progressive rockers, and moody dream pop singers. Hear John’s take on the Best of Echoes 2019, So Far. See the complete list here.

White Noise and It's a Beautiful Day in a Double Flashback 50 in the Echoes Podcast.

It’s a Double Flashback 50 when we explore two albums from June 1969 that could not be more different.  From London, It’s White Noise with their debut, An Electric Storm and from San Francisco we’ll hear It’s A Beautiful Day.

In June of 1969, An Electric Storm  by White Noise was a curious artifact.  it was an electronic journey into the darker side of psychedelia.  Created by members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in their off-hours it has remained very much an underground recording but it would go on to influence people like Meat Beat Manifesto, The Orb and others. In a Flashback 50, we enter an Electric Storm with founding member David Vorhaus who tells us about the creation of the album and we’ll hear one of people he influenced, Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto.

On a much more pastoral note, we then take you to San Francisco, and It’s a Beautiful Day, the group who recorded classic songs like “White Bird,” “Girl with No Eyes” and “Hot Summer Day.” It’s a Beautiful Day seemed like they were late to the psychedelic faire. Although they formed in 1967, their debut album wasn’t released until June of 1969, two years into the fading afterglow of the Summer of Love. The album was a minor sales hit, charting at #47 on Billboard and earning a gold record, but it was a staple of 70s FM Radio. You can hear their sound, with the electric violin of David LaFlamme and the swirling keyboards of Linda LaFlamme presaging artists like Genesis and Yes, The Paul Winter Consort and Shadowfax and Loreena McKennitt.

We explore these two very different albums in a Double Flashback 50 in the Echoes Podcast. Turn On, Tune In, Trip out.

Meat Beat Manifesto in Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, Meat Beat Manifesto.  The legendary British electronic artist who came of age during the industrial and trip-hop sampling days of the 1990s.  Jack Dangers, the group’s founder, is a scholar of electronic music from Stockhausen to Cabaret Voltaire and beyond. He has a new MBM album out, Opaque Couché. We take an electronic trip with Meat Beat Manifesto in the Echoes Podcast

Massergy's Song of Tragedy and Psychedelic Ritual in Echoes Podcast

Massergy is the performance name of Eric Jensen. His story includes the loss of his brother, learning electronic music from scratch, psychedelics and recording his electronic music out in his yard. His album, Fire Opal was the Echoes CD of the Month in May.  We go behind this ambient electronic journey of an album, and the spirit behind it, in the Echoes Podcast. Listen here, in your Echoes App or download from Apple Music or other Podcast providers.