The Audio Ecotone

 

"We have a tropical situation where there are thousands of 'species' of music around and they're all constantly cross-breeding and hybridizing. It's very exciting, but you can't keep up with it easily." -- Brian Eno

Ecotones are zones of transition between different habitats and often have a vibrant diversity of species. The Audio Ecotone explores the rich species diversity, cross-breeding, and hybridizing of music of the past 100 years: rock, jazz, pop, r&b, soul, country, ska, electronica, J-Pop/C-Pop/K-Pop, afrobeat, and many more from the 1920s to the 2020s.

DJ(s): 
Replays Sunday 4-5pm
Live Friday 3-4pm
Podcast
Music programs are only online for two weeks after they are broadcast.

Katrina + 20! Aug 29th, 2025

August 29, 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall along the Gulf of Mexico coast. In the days that followed, many areas of New Orleans (most famously the Ninth Ward) were inundated as the levees failed under the rising waters. Over one million residents were displaced to neighboring states, and 1300-1500 people lost their lives. Unsurprisingly, the storm and its long aftermath profoundly affected the city's musicians and artists -- financially, socially and spiritually. On this week's show, we commemorate the anniversary with songs released by NOLA musicians in the years following the storm. We also will preview some of the acts that are performing at this weekend's Chalk It Up! festival at Fremont Park in Sacramento.

Replay of Escape! (Jan 24th, 2025)

Have you ever had a week where you just wanted to get the hell out of Dodge? Yeah, this was one of those weeks. This week's Audio Ecotone features songs of Escape from Taj Mahal, Ella Fitzgerald, Oblivions, T-Bone Walker, The Inciters, Hot Club of Cowtown and more! 

We have also gone social! Get show previews, leave comments and more on Bluesky at @eddy-owt.bsky.social.

Meltdown! (Jul 18th, 2025)

We're having a Meltdown on the Audio Ecotone! A Mosswood Meltdown that is, as the annual festival of weirdo-music-meets-weirdo-art once again decends on Oakland's Mosswood Park hosted by the Auteur of Weirdos John Waters. This week, we're highlighting some of the artists who will performing -- including Devo, Bratmobile, Osees, La Luz and more -- so you don't have to FOMO the weird!

The Joy of Sax! (Jun 27th, 2025)

On June 28, 1846, Belgian musician and inventor Adophe Sax was granted a patent for his new instrument called the saxophone. The horn was designed to project as well as a brass instrument while retaining the harmonic feeling of a woodwind. While the horn gained some adoption in the military, ragtime and vaudville bands, it wasn't until the 1920s jazz boom that the foundation for the sax's place in popular music was established. On the eve of the 179th anniversary of Sax's patent,  The Audio Ecotone celebrates the saxophone with a wide-ranging selection of music from Charlie Parker, Albert Ayler, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Moon Hooch and a whole host of others. 

Sorry, no Yakety Sax on the playlist.

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