PRX: Echoes Interview Podcast

The Exotica Lounge of Kinobe: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast, electronic artist Kinobe takes us into his ethereal lounge inspired by Sinatra-era strings and singers, exotica lounge music, 90s’ trip-hop, and the French duo, Air.

Kinobe: I grew up in a household where I would hear Nelson Riddle at least once a day, my parents are big Sinatra fans. They like all of the crooners and then artists like Percy Faith. I love those sounds.

Kinobe’s new album, Out of the Blue, is nothing short of entrancing, a dream journey to exotica. Kinobe is Julius Waters and John Diliberto talks with him in the Echoes Lounge from PRX.

A Global Music Journey with Joe Boyd: The Echoes Podcast

Joe Boyd is a legend in music, from producing Pink Floyd (“Arnold Lane”), Nick Drake, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Muzsikás, to his Hannibal world music label, and more. A few years ago he wrote a great book that was a memoir of his life in the rock and roll world, White Bicycles. Now he’s written a deep dive into the influence of world music on western culture called And the Roots of Rhythm Remain – A Journey Through Global Music. From Ravi Shankar, to Flamenco, from South Africa to Paul Simon, Desi Arnaz to Dizzy Gillespie, it is a long, sometimes convoluted trip, all in search of an authentic music presence. We talk to this global traveler in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Trentemøller's Shoegaze Dream Pop and Michael Garrison, a Pioneer Remembered: The Echoes Podcast

Danish composer Trentemøller, the performance name of Anders Trentemøller, a Danish Dream Pop musician who emerged out of the techno scene at the turn of the century. But since his 2006 debut, his music has evolved considerably and become more song focused and richly textured. That continues on his 7th studio album, Dreamweaver, It taps his influences from dream-pop to shoegaze, Nick Drake to Julee Cruise. Join John Diliberto when he talks with Trentemøller in the Echoes Podcast.

It’s an Ancient Echoes when we look back on Michael Garrison. He is one of the earliest American space musicians preceded only by Larry Fast and Synergy.  Based in Oregon, he put out 9 studio albums between 1979 and 1998.  His sound was instantly engaging, distilling the influences of his European inspirations.

MICHAEL GARRISON: The intensity of the rhythm of the music is fulfilling as far as the idea of being alive. And the mental aspect of the heavy rhythm is the idea of travel. It just happens now we’ve covered our planet earth and are now looking toward the sky. And the idea of being able to travel through that sky and space and time needs an aura around it. Music is a good way to bring out the idea of traveling through space.

Sadly, Garrison took his last ride into space at the young age of 47 in 2004.  We go back to a 1984 interview with him from the Totally Wired series. It’s in the Region of Sun Return in the Echoes Podcast.

David Arkenstone's Quest for the Runestone: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast we go on a quest with David Arkenstone. A five-time Grammy nominee, he’s been a fixture in instrumental music since his 1987 debut, Valley in the Clouds. Many of his 70 or so albums are based in themes of fantasy and mythology and his latest goes that way full bore.

David Arkenstone: Yeah, you know, people like it. I missed it. There were characters and titles and activities and a giant and all these things that were very inspirational for me write music to.

David Arkenstone returns to fantasy themes and epic orchestrations on his latest release, Quest for the Runestone. Join John Diliberto in the land of myth in the Echoes Podcast.

Artist – Title – Album

From Transistors to Trans: Jaymie Rose Hennegan-The Echoes Podcast

Vic Hennegan is an artist who has been on the show many times over the last two decades. The last appearance was broadcast in 2023 from a 2022 Echoes performance. Back then Hennegan was black, bald and masculine. He’s still black, but everything else has changed since the transition to Jaymie Rose Hennegan. Everything except, the music.

Jaymie Rose Hennegan: I have photos of me at like 19, 20 years old putting dresses on. You know, I’ve always been very much in touch with my feminine side. It’s always been a part of me. I think it’s a big part of my music too, is that feminine energy that rides with me.

We hear about Jaymie Rose Hennegan’s transition and her debut album Transition, recorded live at Cosmic Crossings and Star’s End Radio, tonight on Echoes.

Artist – Title – Album

Rich Ruth's Eclectic Fusion & Steve Roach Structures from Silence at 40 in Echoes Podcast.

Rich Ruth with Mikaela Davis at Johnny Brenda’s Photo: J.Diliberto

First in the Echoes Podcast we talk to Rich Ruth. That’s the performance name of Michael Ruth, a multi-instrumentalist from Nashville.  With Rich Ruth, you can hear 4 or five influences in any song. One track alone might conjure up John Coltrane, Brian Eno, Gong, Black Sabbath and King Crimson. Yet it all holds together in Rich Ruth. He has a new album out, Water Still Flows on Jack White’s Third Man records. His basic music philosophy is, wherever it goes he follows.

Rich Ruth: Essentially, it’s all made in like a laboratory with me spending hours and hours and hours, just like manipulating and, adding and subtracting until things feel right and just listening over and over and over again and getting inspired and tracking a bunch of guitars or synths or something and then sending it to people and so it just becomes this hodgepodge of all these different voices that I’ve arranged in these weird ways

His music is a flow from ambient to free jazz to parts unknown. We talk with Rich Ruth in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Rich Ruth – God Won’t Speak – Water Still Flows

Steve Roach circa 1984 in Original Timeroom

Steve Roach has made over a hundred recordings in the last 42 years, but two of them stand out.  One is Dreamtime Return, his first foray into techno-tribal sounds, and the other dates back 40 years to his third album, Structures from Silence.  It was an album that took ambient music to the next level, from Brian Eno’s experimental abstractions, to a music forged in a contemplative crucible and born purely of electronic instruments. Originally self-released, then picked up by the Fortuna label, Projekt Records has just put out a deluxe triple CD anniversary edition.  We go back in time with Steve Roach to hear about the foundation of Structures from Silence.

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Tim Blake's Crystal Cognition from Gong to Hawkwind to Crystal Machine: The Echoes Podcast

Electronic artist Tim Blake was there at the beginning, playing synth for space rockers Gong and Hawkwind and launching his own project of synthesizers and lasers, Crystal Machine. Now a triple CD box of his first three albums has been released as Crystal Presence. It includes his albums, Crystal Machine, Blake’s New Jerusalem and Magick. John Diliberto gets in the teapot with Tim Blake on Echoes from PRX.

ARTIST – Title – Album – (Original Album)

Nanocluster Fun with Immersion's Colin Newman and Malka Spigel: The Echoes Podcast

Colin Newman is part of the iconic post-punk band Wire. Malka Spigel is from the Israeli group Minimal Compact. Together they record as Immersion.  With their new series of albums, Nanocluster, they work with collaborators, sort of Immersion Plus, and that music is different depending on who they collaborate with. Their new album, Nanocluster Volume 2, with Thor Harris (Swans,Thor & Friends) and Cubzoa, takes them into minimalism and dream pop. These are two musicians who were around 10 years old when the Beatles emerged and changed their lives, but now entering their 70th year, they are as exploratory as ever.

Malka: We’re not only active, probably we are more adventurous and experiment than we ever did. So it’s a matter of, uh, state of mind. And Rather than age, I guess.

Colin Newman and Malka Spigel now recording as the electronic duo, Immersion. They have a new album out, Nanocluster Vol. 2. We talk to them in the Echoes Podcast.

Wire – Once Is Enough – 154

Zanias! #1 in The Best of Echoes 2024, So Far: The Echoes Podcast Interview

This week we dropped our list of The Best of Echoes 2024, So Far Top 30. It’s our trip through our favorite recordings as we hit the mid-point of the year. Topping that list at number one is an artist who many people probably still don’t know even though I’ve been playing her endlessly on Echoes. Her name is Zanias and her album is Ecdysis.  Zanias usually sings words, but on her latest album, she takes inspiration from Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard as well as hallucinogenics.

I’m just so incredibly fascinated by consciousness and the human mind and everything that it’s capable of. So I had to explore everything that I read about when I was a teenager. And I was actually very young when I first experienced psychedelics. It was in Asia and it was magic mushrooms. And they made me just think in such an interesting way and feel things in such an interesting way.

Zanias was a member of the band Linea Aspera and Keluar, but on her albums Chrysalis and Ecdysis, she makes her own deeply grooved, psychedelic sound that tunnels into your psyche. We trip out with Zanias’ Allison Lewis when we talk to her in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

See The Best of Echoes 2024, So Far Top 30

Artist – Title – Album

Carl Craig's Revolutionary Art: The Echoes Podcast

In the Echoes Podcast,  a giant of techno music  Carl Craig. His music burst through all the stereotypes of techno to create a more symphonic sound and he’s even had his music played with a symphony. Under many names, he’s been releasing solo music and remixing everyone from Tori Amos to Manuel Göttsching to Depeche Mode. A new documentary, Desire: The Carl Craig Story debuts in June at the Tribeca Film Festival. I had my own conversation with Carl talking about everything from the Sound Gizmo to the sound of Detroit Techno.

Carl Craig:  And what we were doing was we were not trying to make something that sounded like electronic versions of music that was made with instruments. We were really trying to create new soundscapes.

The beat is transformed with Carl Craig on Echoes from PRX.

Carl Craig – Technology – The Album Formerly Known As