Interview Podcast – Echoes

He came to renown in the mid 1990s with his dance-fueled electronic hit, Children, but since then, Italian artist Robert Miles has pursued a course of electronic fusion, mixing jazz grooves and rock guitar, and world music elements into his sound. He has a new album called Thirteen that's a study in post-electric Miles Davis ambient textures.

In Norway, musicians seem to spin dream pop and electronic ambiences straight out of the arctic air. We'll hear one of the leading exponents of electronica, Royksopp, when they talk about their music from their surprisingly ambient new CD, Senior.

Will Romano, author of Mountains Come Out of the Sky - The Illustrated History of Prog Rock, was too young to experience the heyday of progressive rock, but he's gone back to explore the sounds of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, and more in this heavily researched book full of key interviews. We talk with Will Romano about the rise of prog.

In Sweden, Johan Agebjorn creates music of paradoxes. He's a fan of disco and has a hit group called Sally Shapiro. But he also makes deep ambient music. It's high-tech, but informed by Gregorian chants and recordings of trains his mother made. Join Echoes when Johan Agebjorn talks about his nordic electronica.

Fusing his Nashville background with influences ranging from finger-style iconoclast John Fahey to ambient pioneer Brian Eno, William Tyler picks out Americana songs tinged with deep atmosphere on his CD Behold the Spirit.

Cluster influenced a generation of musicians from Brian Eno to Johnny Rotten. The catalog of these German electronic legends is currently being reissued. Cluster founders Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius talk about their quirky, often home-brewed electronic sound from the 1970s and 80s.

Cellist and pianist Dave Eggar is a complicated musician who does session work for practically everyone, and has released albums from new age piano to sublime chamber works. His latest album finds him exploring Reggae music. Dave Eggar talks about music from Messiaen to Marley.

Near The Parenthesis is the performance name of Tim Arndt. He's a musician who mixes melodic piano lines with glitchy electronics and moody atmospheres. We go between the parentheses to find out the points and asides of his music.

Mark Preston was a rock drummer until he plugged in and found a deeper, personal space in electronic music. We talk with him about making his first album in high school and his latest CD, Nature and Design, an Echoes CD of the Month last November.

Nils Petter Molvaer is a 21st century trumpeter from Norway who employs electronic rhythms, free improvisation and elaborate processing on his trumpet for a breathy, introspective sound. He talks about his music and latest album, Hamada.