Featured Artists: December, 2009

It's a snowy day here in NY, so time to catch up on the blog. I've been kicking this idea around for a bit, so here goes. Every month I get lots of great music from lots of great artists. So each month I'm going to spotlight a couple of artists I feel are deserving of more attention. I thought about limiting it to one, but I'd rather give attention to more people. This is a little more subjective, but that's the point.

For December, I'm featuring two artists with ties to the Hudson Valley. First is Richard Lainhart, who's been around for quite a while. My introduction to his music was a CD titled These Last Days, which came out in 1987. He fell off my radar for a while, until I met up with him at the Electro Music 2009 festival. He's got a bunch of albums out, exploring different ambient sounds. He uses everything from early Buchla synthesizers to looped guitar sounds to even making music with his iPhone. I had the pleasure of having him come on the show in December, and he performed a few pieces with guitar and laptop. I urge you to check out his music at his website, O-Town Media.

http://www.otownmedia.com/

The other feature for December is the group Holosphere, which is Greg Waltzer and the Hudson Valley's own Jose Murcia (aka JEM). They both play in other more experimental electronic groups (Greg plays in Xeroid Entity, Fringe Element and Mutation Vector, and Jose plays in Symmetry and Fringe Element), but Holosphere is much spacier and more accessible. They played live on my show back in 2003, and they're still making great music. They have a new CD out called Parallel Universe, which JEM gave me back at the Electro-Music 2009 festival. I hope you'll all take a listen.

http://www.holosphere.us/

Scott Raymond
WVKR-FM