New Celtic music was a rarity when Echoes began, but inspired by
the likes of Clannad, Enya and Nightnoise a new Celtic sound
emerged in the early days of Echoes and shows no signs of
abating. Musicians from Ireland and Scotland as well as musicians
who have never set foot outside of America have been inspired to
create a Celtic music that owes a debt to Celtic Bard Turlough
O'Carolan, but this sound is far from shamrocks and leprechauns.
Essential Albums:
Various Artists "Celtic Twilight"
Ambient is that sub-genre of music spawned by Brian Eno in the
mid 1970s and reborn in the late 1980s as the spacy side of
Techno. Ambient pioneer Brian Eno lays the groundwork and
disciples Steve Hillage, The Future Sound of London, The Orb,
Aphex Twin and David Toop pick up the threads.
Essential Albums:
Brian Eno "Music for Airports"
The Orb "The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld"
Until a few years ago, the sounds of Native America were
relegated to Pow-wow chants and kitsch versions of the tribal
drum beat. R. Carlos Nakai changed all that, first bringing the
Native flute into the modern world, then collaborating with
musicians of all-strips to create an organic native fusion.
We have explored the results of that fusion with Nakai, Douglas
Spotted Eagle, Jim Wilson, and others.
Essential Albums:
R. Carlos Nakai "Feather, Stone & Light"
In many ways, Techno-Tribal is a sub-genre of World Fusion, but
these musicians explore a darker, more rhythmic and electronic
sound world. Steve Roach initially coined the term, before it
was usurped by ambient and techno musicians. Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Jorge Reyes,
Tuu, Loop Guru and others are taking primal sounds and
using technology to turn them into modern soundscapes.
Essential Albums:
Steve Roach "Dreamtime Return"
Jon Hassell "Power Spot"
Early on in Echoes it seemed like a Middle Eastern fusion might
be emerging, and over the last few years it has reappeared. Musicians
are entranced by the sensual rhythms and sinewy melodies that
come out of the Middle East. Purveyors of Middle Eastern fusion
including Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Jamshied Sharifi, Vas, and Sussan
Deyhim & Richard Horowitz have been taking an ancient
music into the modern world.
Essential Albums:
Omar Faruk Tekbilek & Brian Keane "Beyond the Sky"
Jamshied Sharifi: A Prayer for the Soul of Layla"
The world was caught by surprise when monks from an obscure
monastery in Santo Domingo, Spain had a world wide hit doing what
monks have been doing for a millennium: chanting. But many
musicians weren't content to simply intone ancient hymns. They
heard a new music in these ancient sounds. Several artists have created a
Chant Fusion, re-inventing hymns from Abbess Hildegard von Bingen and
Anonymous. Richard Souther and Sister Germaine Fritz of Vision, Jocelyn
Montgomery and David Lynch, Sheila Chandra, the hilliard Ensemble and and others
are making a new music rooted in traditional practices.
Essential Albums:
Richard Souther "Illumination"
Jan Garbarek & the Hilliard Ensemble "Officium"
In recent years, electronic musicians have been going back to the
future, reinvestigating the sounds and instruments of the space
music that emerged in the 1970s out of places like Berlin with
Tangerine Dream. The space music sound they created still sounds
fresh today as artists like Red Shift, Ian Boddy, Ron Boots, and
more are traveling the spaceways again.
Essential Albums:
Red Shift "Ether"
Spacecraft "Hummel"
With the advent of modern instrumental music came a new sound for
old instruments. It was a style that was neither folk nor
classical, but emerged out of both to breath new life into
traditional instruments. New Acoustic Music revitalized the
acoustic guitar, gave a new avenue of expression for solo
pianists and conjured up a world of unusual ensembles working an
acoustic chamber sound. George Winston, Michael
Hedges, Nightnoise, and many others have created a New Acoustic Music.
Essential Albums:
George Winston "Autumn"
Nightnoise "The Parting Tide"
Michael Hedges "Oracle"
In the ten years of Echoes, we've been hearing voices. Voices
singing in forgotten tongues, voices singing in a dialect of the
imagination. We have heard the myth and meaning behind the voices of
Lisa Gerrard and Dead Can Dance, Vas, Adiemus, Sheila Chandra and
Cocteau Twins' Elisabeth Fraser: women who sing in mysterious ways.
Essential Albums:
Lisa Gerrard "Duality"
The Cocteau Twins "Victorialand"
The World fusion trend was peaking just as Echoes was
launched and continues strong 10 years later. World Fusion is the
sound of our times, a collision of cultures and technology, the
ancient and the modern, the primitive and the computerized.
Essential Albums:
Paul Winter "Greatest Hits"
Ancient Future "Dreamchaser"
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook "Night Song"
