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.

In last week’s episode of The Edges of Dreaming, we played new releases by existing artists. Mistakenly programming a couple of older tracks by an artist new to the station gave me the idea to present all new artists this week. These folks have been doing their thing for a while, but have become part of the RadioSpiral family in the past few months.

So we’re pleased to present tracks by Off Land, Spaghetti Eastern Music, Ocean In a Bottle, Sheleah Nahshon, Kelly Woodrow, Sonic Bodhi, Schneefels, and Hendu’s Groove.

At the end of the episode yours truly plays a live set. Enjoy!

This edition of The Edges of Dreaming focuses exclusively on new releases. We’ll be hearing brand new, hot-off-the-press tracks from Forrest Fang, Michael Meara, Off Land, Bing Satellites, Piers Adams and Larry Lush, Another Neglected Hobby, and Robert Scott Thompson — who just published a gorgeous series of four related albums.

As the weather cools and turns to winter, the skies above the Pacific have been utterly stunning. The wind, the rain, and massive thunderheads (yes, even in Southern California) make for breathtaking beauty. This edition is all about the skies.

Last week’s episode featured stories read by yours truly and set to music by several artists. The last story, which was expected to be done live, had some technical failures, so we are doing it again. This time, the music for it is provided by Thomas Jackson Park and Mike Metlay, and it went a little more smoothly.

Other tracks for today include two more, shorter tracks from Liebesträume, a collaboration with Juta Takahashi; another collaboration with Scott Lawlor from the “Nevermore” challenge (can you believe that was five years ago already??); two tracks with Cousin Silas; and finally, a track by Chris Russell from the “River of Road” challenge, and a brand new track from Michael Brückner — it doesn’t have words, but definitely feels story-like — called “The Unanswered Question”, from his brand new release, The Undercurrent.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a storytelling episode! Now that winter is closing in around us, the nights are longer and colder, the days are shorter, it’s time to settle in for some lovely (sometimes creepy) stories.

Today we’ll be doing a retrospective of some of the stories your host has done with musicians around the world. We’ll hear stories with Scott Lawlor, Cousin Silas, Juta Takahashi, and Gianni Intili. In the broadcast, I started telling one of my own stories, but hit enough technical issues (and timing issues) that I had to bail. Fear not! It’s on the next episode!

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Today’s edition of Edges of Dreaming contemplates the Tree of Life in all its meaning: leaves, lives, leaving, falling, fall, autumn, and the circle of life.

The death of every living being is in the natural order of things; it follows life as surely as summer follows spring. Let us consider the symbol of the Tree of Life. The trunk and branches of the tree represent all the living world, and each leaf a life – appearing one spring, flourishing for a season, and then falling to nourish the roots for following generations.
The physical presence of the individual life has gone, but the tree remains. In fact, it is now even stronger because of that life – and the ending of that life. So it shall be for all of us, in time.

We’ll hear tracks by Altus, Druhá Smrt, Megatone, Robert Scott Thompson, Darren Harper, Andrew Lahiff, Chris Russell, Disturbed Earth, Samsa, Vir Unis, Resonant Drift, Michael Brückner, Cousin Silas, Jack Hertz, DeepWarmth, Elve, WolfProject and Johan Tronestam, and Syndromeda. Plus the waves. You’ll definitely hear the waves.

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Edges of Dreaming is finally back this week with an episode about healing. Life has […]