Stephen Hill has spent more than 50 years highlighting what he broadly calls “contemplative music.” Initially broadcasting his syndicated radio station “Hearts of Space” from Berkeley, the 81-year-old DJ has been based in Marin County since 1996 and now records from an idyllic hilltop in San Rafael: an ideal locale for a show that shies away from pop in favor of music that instills a visionary or spiritual perspective, or a slowed-down sense of time. This music often overlaps with New Age, a term that became attached to atmospheric music once artists and labels marketed it in connection with esoteric healing practices.
Though Hill has been broadcasting since 1973, the New Age boom in the 1980s brought “Hearts of Space” to prominence when it was picked up for syndication by NPR in 1983. Thousands of listeners over the years have been exposed to music’s more ethereal possibilities for the first time through “Hearts of Space,” including Daryl Groetsch, the Portland, Oregon, artist who records ambient synthesizer music as Pulse Emitter. “I don’t know where I’d be without ‘Hearts of Space,'” says the 48-year-old, who first heard it late at night in his parents’ garage.
Yet while beatless, instrumental, electronic- and synthesizer-based music makes up a solid portion of the music Hill has broadcasted over the years, he also highlights classical music, folk styles from around the world and any other music that can bring the listener into a sufficiently .