When the idea for the 2020 Vision three-part challenge first surfaced, the world had no idea what was in store for us. We can’t really ever know our future, and that is never more obvious than now, when faced with an epic global pandemic that is keeping us isolated from each other and worried for our lives and the lives of those around us.

But in that time, we have witnessed acts of courage and kindness, like the fitness instructor who gives classes on the lawn outside his apartment complex in Spain for people watching from their balconies, or the entire block of apartment dwellers in Atlanta who cheer and applaud healthcare workers from their balconies at the change of every shift. National Geographic photographers are grounded, so they look around their restricted surroundings and find ways to document the extraordinary beauty found in ordinary environments.

And the music — oh, the music! — that is coming out of this terrifying moment in our collective history.

Artists, performance techs, and venues are among the hardest hit during this time, as gigs have suddenly disappeared with no help in sight. Yet this resourceful community comes together to collaborate online, create live stream experiences, and find ways to connect and share anyway.

Today’s program is the third of the three part “2020 Vision” challenge we started at the beginning of the year, and its topic is stunningly appropriate to the time: Unity. We’ll hear from Museleon, Daniel Robert Lahey, playman54, and Robert Scott Thompson. We’ll also hear a sampling of tracks from an album released last year called The Unity from aatma. As they say in the album notes:

The Unity is a concept, a belief in the affinity shared across a far-flung community of artists. It is about the deep and powerful connections we make to the music, and to the places it can take us. It is a celebration of various styles contained within a single genre, and the unifying ability of Art.

We are the Artists. This is the Unity.

There are more tracks from the RadioSpiral library as well, all on the subject of unity, connection, disconnection, distance, and togetherness in spite of it all.

After last week’s beautiful response to a call for tracks, we decided to extend the “Love” challenge. So many people either sent or suggested tracks for the topic that we had enough for two programs; we also received a few new tracks written specifically for the challenge! So today, we continue the love-fest.

It started with a vision: 2020 Vision, that is! Peace, love, and unity were the themes, and we need these things now more than ever, as the world turns upside down in the face of the virus pandemic.

Today we’ll hear challenge tracks from playman54, Disturbed Earth, Mr. Spiral, and ʞu¡0ɹʞS (in a live set). Then we hear recommendations from this amazing community, in tracks from Tantroniq, Keyboar (a new artist in the RadioSpiral family!), Meg Bowles, and two tracks from Scott Lawlor.

Edges of Dreaming is back on the air today after a few weeks off. We have gotten ourselves back across the country to our mountain home, and are settling in for a retreat from the world.

The news is dire all over, and we’re being told to do things that seem to run counter to our nature — “social distancing” is a sterile way of saying “disconnect”, “don’t touch each other”. Humans are by and large social creatures, so this is alien to many of us.

Today’s episode had originally begun as a challenge episode weeks back. The entire challenge is a three-part series called “2020 Vision”; part 1 was “Peace”, which we heard back in January; part 2, “Love”, was delayed a few weeks; part 3, “Unity” comes up at the end of March.

We received a single entry for the “Love” challenge, a track by George L Smyth, which we’ll hear to start the program.

And then the music community stepped up! Posting a day-of notice on Facebook yielded a program of very interesting and beautiful tracks that take up the rest of the program. We’ll hear works by Chris Stack, Shaping Mind, Cousin Silas (with yours truly telling a “yikes” true story about dating in the 21st century), Joe Howard, M. Peck, His Divine Shadow, Perceptual Defence, Kevin Hay, Doug Lynner, embral, Soundician, Symmetry2010, Usufruct, and Robert Scott Thompson.

PS: We received enough recommendations for this to spill over into a second show next week. To be continued!!

Put on your winter coats! This episode of Edges of Dreaming explores the cold in its various forms — cold air, cold moon, ice, and snow. It’s a beautiful program full of chilly music from some great artists, including Jack Hertz & Wolfgang Gsell, eyes cast down, Scott Lawlor, Lucette Bourdin, Pamplemousse, Tim Kays, and Shane Morris.

Stoke up the hearth fire, wrap up in blankets, cook up some cocoa and join us.

It’s in just about every dance movie, and it’s an easy earworm if you let it: the song “Sway” has become almost a trope. And thus it happened that your host woke up with that worm in her ear, and decided to do a rhythm show — it’s been too long! — the first of two this month.

This edition of Edges of Dreaming encourages you to bounce in your seat, or maybe even get up and move a bit. Slow dances, fast dances, and lots in between.

This edition of Edges of Dreaming is the first of our three-part challenge for 2020: Peace, and the first challenge of the year. We received some beautiful responses (and there is a live bit by yours truly) from playman54, George L Smyth, and Equinox Deschanel. The rest of the program is devoted to Peace as well, by way of RadioSpiral library tracks. We’ll hear music by The Lovely Moon, Phillip Wilkerson, embral, Syndromeda, onewayness, Robert Carty, and Daniel Robert Lahey.

“The only thing constant is change.”

Everything changes. The whole world is in constant motion, from the revolution around the sun, the rotation of the planet, all the way down to the constant movement of the subatomic particles that make it — and us — up.

Change is neither bad nor good; it simply is. Our response to change, however, demonstrates who we are as individuals and as a species.

This edition of The Edges of Dreaming is about a demonstration of constant change: flowing water. We’ll hear a variety of tracks from the RadioSpiral library, including works by Lutz Thuns and Glenn Sogge, Lucette Bourdin, Max Corbacho, Cousin Silas and Head Joint, Robert Carty, Juta Takahashi, Gypsy Witch, Thom Brennan, poemme, Dan Pound, Jaime Munárriz and Glenn Sogge, usr/sbin, and EugeneKha.

Sleep. Hibernation. Rest. Reflection. These are some of the ideas that often come with winter time. We draw inward, sleep more, reflect on the past year and look forward to the blank-slate possibilities of the future.

But sleep doesn’t always come easily, when the world is such an uneasy place. So today’s program is about that most fundamental of needs, sleep. We’ll hear great, long-form tracks from The Color of Sleep, Altus (Canada), Brother Saturn, Ombient, Glenn R Sogge with Boson Spin, Silvercord, Simon Wilkinson, poemme.

Today is the first Edges of Dreaming of 2020, so of course we’re sharing our “2020 Vision” with you! This will be a program full of optimism and intentions for positive changes in the new year and beyond. We cast our vision forth — Peace, Love, and Unity — and work to make it manifest in the universe. Join us! PS: It’s a beautiful collection of tracks.

This edition of Edges of Dreaming celebrates the Winter Solstice. It is the darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Some of us look inward (those that are not caught up in the holiday shopping frenzy), sip soup and warm drinks, delight in home arts and each other’s company, and other such winter activities. For some, it is a dark night of the soul as well, being afflicted by the missing sun, affected by loneliness, reminded of friends and family who have crossed the rainbow bridge…

And yet.

And yet, starting tomorrow, the sun begins to return to us, so it is also a time of hope and looking forward.

The first part of the program brings us tracks that were suggested or offered by artists as being relevant to the topic, from previous releases.

Most of this episode is devoted to the most recent challenge, where artists were to create tracks that felt to them like darkest winter. There were no other constraints. The results, as usual, are both varied and beautiful. Enjoy!

As usual, the challenge tracks are offered as an album on our Bandcamp shop: http://radiospiral.shop.