Apparently I love new age music. I know, but upon returning to St. Louis and its public radio station 90.7 and jazz station 88.7, I have to face the facts. I love the shows they play in the late evening, Echoes on 90.7 and Hearts of Space on 88.7. Don't get me wrong, I also love the hip hop show I heard on the community radio station, and the above mentioned jazz station (the best thing out of SIUE) always plays good jazz, not Kenny G jazz. There's a show called The World I heard on 90.7 that was awesome and, after some digging, realized is on MPR at 7pm. Will totally turn on radio now when there's nothing on tv at 7pm.
But back to my topic: these new agey, space musicy shows were a big love of mine growing up. They wrapped up a night out. I remember driving home from something, most likely from Maggie's house or from north county, when the drive was at least 20 minutes or so, and these programs turned the dark solitude into something comforting to my weird teenaged self. I remember driving in Iowa listening to one of these ambient, space music programs over Shannon's protests. There's something about this music in the midwest too, when its dark and cold or when I was on a deserted interstate, darkness and stars surrounding. Often the compositions are barely then, quiet, lacking vocals, maybe celtic in sound, often involving cellos. I freaking love cellos, so haunting and resonant. Some of it is more on the new agey end, others is much more Brian Eno-esque ambient, but it's all awesome to find on the radio. There are few commercials or interruptions, just weird quiet music, an occasional vocal, all pieced together by some awesome dj. Neither Echoes nor Hearts of Space are broadcast in the Twin Cities, in rural Minnesota yes, but not the cities.
