Genre | Ambient music |
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Running time | 90 minutes, weekly |
Country of origin | Australia |
Language(s) | English |
Home station | 2MBS, Sydney |
Syndicates | Artsound, 5MBS and others throughout Australia via satellite |
Hosted by | George Cruickshank Neville Dorrington Marc "Kundalini" Cottee Jon Shapiro |
Created by | George Cruickshank |
Original release | 1 February 1989 – present |
Website | www.ultimathule.info |
Podcast | [1] |
Ultima Thule Ambient Music is a long-running, specialist ambient music radio show which has been broadcast on Australian community radio since 1989. The show has been described as one of the leading alternative music programmes on Australian radio. It is also available as a webcast and as a podcast. As at December 2007, Ultima Thule was the number one ambient music podcast on the iTunes Store.
Each broadcast is uninterrupted by back-announcing other than near the beginning and end of the show, and consists of a 90-minute musical soundscape created by segue mixing tracks from a number of different artists. The musical content of each show is eclectic and diverse, and can embrace ancient, mediaeval, contemporary classical, ethnic/world, cool jazz, film soundtracks and occasionally even popular idioms, in addition to mainstream ambient, new age and electronic music.
The duration of Ultima Thule has varied considerably over the years. Initially launched as a 90-minute programme, the duration was expanded progressively to 2, and then 3 hours, until settling back into a 90-minute slot from March 2001.
The project was conceived by George Cruickshank, and the first show aired on 1 February 1989, from the Narwee studios of 2NBC-FM. In early 1990 the show was moved to Australia's oldest and biggest community station, 2MBS-FM, where it has been based ever since.
From the show's foundation until late 1998, George Cruickshank was Ultima Thule's sole programmer and presenter. Towards the end of 1998, David Bassin, Candace Cappe, Victor Kay and Nev Dorrington joined Cruickshank as co-producers, although that arrangement proved impractical, and was terminated early in 1999.