This week we’ll look at the life serving skill of reason. The process in deciding if something is true. It’s based on reducing assumptions and making the best choice under the circumstances. The simplest answer isn’t always the truest. This week we’ll hear from six artists who gradually peal back layers to get to that essence. They are Advanced Suite, Kazuki, Lovement, The Microgram, D-Echo Project and Culture Horn. I’m Jim Nye.
Aug 13, 2023•30 min•Ep. 218
This week, we’ll listen to The City at Night. From the time the sunsets until dawn, the city changes neighborhood by neighborhood, from glittering to gritty, from evening to the early morning it sound different, somehow more distant than daytime.
Mar 15, 2023•32 min•Ep. 217
This week we’ll hear from 7 artists who are not what they seem. Not entirely anyway. We make assumptions and have expectations that are not always met at first blush. Like the name of a band or the music from a particular place.
Dec 09, 2022•27 min•Ep. 216
This week we’ll lay out a spread of Cheesy Beats and Firecrackers. Embracing the schmaltz and finding our inner groove. It's cinematic music with modern beats nostalgic for camp Hollywood tropes and tv variety shows but ultimately it all leads back to Walter Wanderley’s elevator classic ‘Summer Samba’.
Sep 04, 2022•25 min•Ep. 215
This week we will reflect on how artificial intelligence is influencing music culture. People's ability to learn from each other, from teacher to student, from mentor to novice, is how we build knowledge and transmit culture.
Jun 03, 2022•30 min•Ep. 214
This week we take a look at the second generation of electronic music artists. Standing on the shoulders of giants like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Wendy Carlos, a decade later these artists were marrying a dyi-punk ethos with the widespread availability of synths.
Feb 07, 2022•29 min•Ep. 213
This week we’ll look at Anima Mundi or the ‘Soul of the World’. Thought to be a vital force that permeates the world, the Anima Mundi is believed to be the feminine creative power of God.
Sep 29, 2021•27 min•Ep. 212
This week we will celebrate our Crystal or 15th anniversary of podcasting independent Downtempo Music and Artists. Looking back I am happy to report most continue to make music or have a presence on the web. We will hear from six artists from our freshman year who, 15 years later, are still going strong.
May 06, 2021•26 min•Ep. 211
This week we’ll look at the luminescence of candles, of wax and tallow. Mostly used in celebrations and ceremonies these days, candles brought light to the darkness for early lives constrained by the rising and setting of the sun. It meant extra hours beyond daily work to gather, socialize and create. Candles lit the way and we followed.
Jan 28, 2021•31 min•Ep. 210
This week we will focus on mind wandering. When your attention drifts from the task at hand. Most of us feel this mild disassociation routinely. When you feel a million miles away. While it can be distracting daydreaming can lead to more creativity through decoupling and self reflection. We will hear six tracks that exhibit some of this dreamlike quality including Red Wine Riots, Aphilas, Dreza, Eva Schlegel, Azoora and Just Banks.
Oct 08, 2020•29 min•Ep. 209
This week we will look at personal correspondence. Any private communication revealing private thoughts usually between just two people. It is often easier to put your true feelings down on paper. Shared thoughts of devotional love. Despair and hope of lovers on the edge. The loyalty of close friends and letters written with no intention of ever being sent.
Jul 11, 2020•30 min•Ep. 208
This week, we will look at change beyond the tipping point. The “no going back.” Before and After. How we accept and adapt to our new situation will take every effort. Embracing a new future takes courage and a sense of practicality. Seeing it as a new morning requires faith and adaptability.
Apr 17, 2020•33 min•Ep. 207
This week it is Pastoral Beats. Warm gentle Electronica that evokes memories of carefree and less stressful times. It is music of comfort and consolation led by deceptively simple melodies over increasingly intricate rhythms. The arty side of chill-out where each has their own unique style of swing.
Jan 15, 2020•27 min•Ep. 206
This week we will look at our tricky relationship with darkness and light. Light shows what is apparent and actual. We see things for what they transparently are but in the darkness all things are possible. It is where we keep our anxiety, fears and desires. It allows us to keep secrets. Darkness does not judge.
Nov 20, 2019•29 min•Ep. 205
This week we will look at espionage. It is spies and spooks, coups and active measures. It is a shadowy world. All cloak-and-dagger. Carried out by those we will never know. Of the things that are supposed to stay secret. Aiding with the reconnaissance on this episode of Idyllic Music are Karmacoda, Hector Zarate, Frank Dorittke, Tommy Ptolemy, DTR, and the Policy Wonks.
Aug 17, 2019•29 min•Ep. 204
This week, we look back at the golden age of online music distribution. For much of the past two decades netLabels and OMD communities have provided a safe and easy way for musicians to upload their songs for distribution via a Creative Commons copyright.
Jun 19, 2019•29 min•Ep. 203
This week, we'll look at the ability to forgive. It's a mistake to think forgiveness is universal. While nearly everyone agrees the aggrieved and forgiven find the experience positive, not everyone is wired with the ability to move on from an insult. Research seems to suggest it could be genetic. Sharing a mixed of views on the subject are Dive Index, Fascinating Earthbound Objects, Soft and Furious, Rich Sudney and Down Review.
Mar 17, 2019•28 min•Ep. 202
This week, we'll look to quiet the mind. It's a defense mechanism really as we try to cope with a world that has seemingly sped up beyond our capacity to keep up. The stress and anxiety it creates is often covered over by the cacaphony that is 21st century life.
Jan 12, 2019•30 min•Ep. 201
This week, on the 200th episode of Idyllic Music, regular listeners of this podcast will find another best of mix unencumbered by the usual patter so that you can burn them directly to the blank CD of your choice. We have a podcast mp3 file of nearly 60 minutes worth of the best music featured over the past years.
Dec 05, 2018•59 min•Ep. 200
This week, it's headphone electronica. Music created with the meticulous detail that only listening through headphones can reveal. It's electronica mixed, produced and, ultimately, consumed by people wearing headphones. It's created by indie musicians working with twenty first century tools to create, edit and sometimes perform their work. Headphone electronica isn't for dancing yet it can be danceable rather it is for focusing or letting your mind drift.
Nov 02, 2018•28 min•Ep. 199
This week we'll examine a life at sea. Joseph Conrad wrote that "There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting and enslaving." More troubling is what lies beneath the swells and awful stirrings of what Melville called the "hidden soul beneath. Hoisting the main sail for us on the episode of Idyllic Music are Band of Mad Women, IOTA, MMPSUF, Sleepy Town Manufacture, beat.dowsing and Leon Somov.
Sep 15, 2018•31 min•Ep. 198
This week, we'll listen for harmonics. We mostly think of harmonics as an element of music but there is a more fundamental physical quality underneath it all. Wave patterns are all around us. We know its how sound and light move and that changes in these wave can influence our perceptions and moods. Checking the frequency with us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Sleepy Koala, Garaz, Dlay, MindsEye, Cutside and DU3normal.
Jul 25, 2018•29 min•Ep. 197
This week, we'll try a little empathy. The ability to understand and share another person's feelings, experiences and emotions. It is a power sorely missed these days. Research seem to suggest there is a genetic basis to empathy, that some individuals are more prone to perspective taking. Now would be a good time to step up in the face of intolerance.
May 20, 2018•31 min•Ep. 196
This episode of Idyllic Music is brought to you by the number ten. It sits comfortably between nine and eleven, matches our fingers quite nicely and is the base for the decimal system nearly everyone uses every day.
Mar 15, 2018•30 min•Ep. 195
This week, we'll look at the final season, the end of the cycle, of winters past and cold. It's a time many of us would like to hold up in bed for the duration, with it's shortened days and cold nights. Winter is a time for putting your head down and plowing ahead reassured by the certainty that this too shall pass. Our musical sweaters on this episode of Idyllic Music are Hungry Lucy, Winterstrand, Sara Grey, Mystral and Gorowski.
Jan 09, 2018•28 min•Ep. 194
This week, we'll look at the effort it takes to pull yourself together after a relationship ends. Some seek sympathetic ears while other withdraw into solitude. We'll hear just what it takes from General Fuzz, Kognitif, BASIC, The Ganzfeld Effect, and Reflection.
Nov 29, 2017•30 min•Ep. 193
This week, it's regrets and reconciliation. Regrets? I've had a few but by and large, I've moved on. It seems a measure of success by how little regret we take to our graves. The trick, of course, is in deciding how much of your personal past you are willing to overlook. Making that judgment on this episode of Idyllic Music are We came as Strangers, Surek, Vienna Ditto, Knoto, Zebrat, and Helicalin.
Sep 07, 2017•30 min•Ep. 192
This week, we'll look at proximity and happenstance. The idea that just by being near another person or event can change the future for better or worse. Mostly the difference is unnoticable in the noise but sometimes you may just think you see a pattern.
Aug 24, 2017•25 min•Ep. 191
This week we'll look at word salad with Peterloo Massacre, Broke for Free, Sweet Play, Daddy Scrabble, Northbound and Small Colin.
Jun 24, 2017•30 min•Ep. 190
This week we'll try to imagine the ends of the universe. It's one way to restore some perspective while your world is spinning around you. The vast emptiness of space, its cold, hollow expanse is the fact that we ignore while conjuring up tales of Death Stars and Restaurants. Taking a more expansive view are Rukirek, Dive Index, Jagoa, Me Zion Dread and Strad.
May 06, 2017•30 min•Ep. 189
