This week, we'll try a little empathy. The ability to understand and share another person's feelings, experiences and emotions. It is a power sorely missed these days. Research seem to suggest there is a genetic basis to empathy, that some individuals are more prone to perspective taking. Now would be a good time to step up in the face of intolerance.

This episode of Idyllic Music is brought to you by the number ten. It sits comfortably between nine and eleven, matches our fingers quite nicely and is the base for the decimal system nearly everyone uses every day.

This week, we'll look at the final season, the end of the cycle, of winters past and cold. It's a time many of us would like to hold up in bed for the duration, with it's shortened days and cold nights. Winter is a time for putting your head down and plowing ahead reassured by the certainty that this too shall pass. Our musical sweaters on this episode of Idyllic Music are Hungry Lucy, Winterstrand, Sara Grey, Mystral and Gorowski.

This week, we'll look at the effort it takes to pull yourself together after a relationship ends. Some seek sympathetic ears while other withdraw into solitude. We'll hear just what it takes from General Fuzz, Kognitif, BASIC, The Ganzfeld Effect, and Reflection.

This week, it's regrets and reconciliation. Regrets? I've had a few but by and large, I've moved on. It seems a measure of success by how little regret we take to our graves. The trick, of course, is in deciding how much of your personal past you are willing to overlook. Making that judgment on this episode of Idyllic Music are We came as Strangers, Surek, Vienna Ditto, Knoto, Zebrat, and Helicalin.

This week, we'll look at proximity and happenstance. The idea that just by being near another person or event can change the future for better or worse. Mostly the difference is unnoticable in the noise but sometimes you may just think you see a pattern.

This week we'll look at word salad with Peterloo Massacre, Broke for Free, Sweet Play, Daddy Scrabble, Northbound and Small Colin.

This week we'll try to imagine the ends of the universe. It's one way to restore some perspective while your world is spinning around you. The vast emptiness of space, its cold, hollow expanse is the fact that we ignore while conjuring up tales of Death Stars and Restaurants. Taking a more expansive view are Rukirek, Dive Index, Jagoa, Me Zion Dread and Strad.

This week, we'll look at recovery and contemplate the possibilities inherent in second chances. Do they bring new focus and opportunity or squandered through indecision and inertia. It is a dilemma facing those who have faced traumatic situations and survived. Is survival enough? Helping us sort it all out are Aris H, Garmisch, Nic Bommarito, Jazzafari, Citizen Crane, and Ishdub. Thanks for waiting.

This week we look at emotional isolation. It seems the more we reach out the less we feel. It might be the continuing reliance on the intrawebs or fragmentation of society but increasingly many of us are alone and not by choice. Next time you are at a restaurant and see a couple glowing with the bluish tint of their separate mobile phones or simply sitting together but not talking, you'll understand what I mean.

This week, we'll look at mirages. In particular the superior mirage known as Fata Morgana, named after the fairy shapeshifting half-sister of King Arthur. We come to rely on the normally stable optic perceptions that make up our daily experiences but now and again the physical world will throw you off. It's those moments that are the true reality of our existence.

This week, we'll explore the search for self. Looking for the light that makes us strive for something better. It might be the agonizing reappraisal of one's efforts and motives over a lifetime or the search for enlightenment contained in so many faiths. Finding your true self is so daunting a project that many simply never try. We'll hear from six of the bold ones on this episode of Idyllic Music. They are Dr Freebs, Cling, Twin Muses, PiliPili, Merlune and Dub One!

This week, we'll explore the belief that all that we know of God can just as easily be attributed to the sun. Of course, sun worship is as old as civilization and even in an Old Testament context, the sun can be just as punishing or life sustaining as God. So rather than worship, we'll marvel at the hope and happiness, love and warmth we get from the sun with help from Adam and Alma, Artemis, Blear Moon, Massive Attack, SackJo22 and Sunspot and Sect23

This week, we'll look at the wars men wage with all its glory and tragedy. How something so awful can be a source of honor and how Napoleonic ego can lead us into horrific conflict. It's the story of mankind for better or worse and war's moral paradox largely defines the human race. Informing us in ways large and small are Kate Martin, Drifting In Silence, Jelle, Bill Laswell, CC Asia and Peter Gabriel.

This week we'll look at tipping points. The value of the parameter in which the set of equilibria abruptly change. Sometimes we are quite aware of these changes other times not but they occur in everything from climatology and economics to personal relationships. We'll hear from Minds Of Infinity, Karmacoda, Zoungla, Phone Booth Robbers and Max Lilja. I'm Jim Nye.

This week, we'll marvel at the plant world. Turning the sun's energy into life from nutrients in the soil and atmosphere is so fundamental to our existence that it is hard to believe we would do anything to disrupt it. Taking us through the first trophic level are Rho, Hands Upon Black Earth, Analog Fury, Sitchin, and Seth Master.

This week we'll look at episodic or semantic memory. Where we store past events and learned meanings long-term. Memories of place,time and sounds. Memories we can't actually have had but still resonate are considered genetic semantic memory possibly harboured in our DNA. Think about that the next time you find yourself doing something you have no experience with.Remembering with us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Marushka, Scenery, Brujo's Bowl, Antonia Vai, Rob Viktum and Kaminanda. I'm...

This week, we'll look at the Chronology of the universe. Don't blink because most of the important stuff happens between 10 to the 43rd seconds and 1 second after the Big Bang. From the planck epoch to Heat death some 10 to the 150+ years from now. Hurrying up and waiting on this episode of Idyllic Music are Tycho, Skeleton Trees, Arne Mulder, Artemis, Chad Lawrence and Dubsalon. I'm Jim Nye

This week, we'll look at migrations and aspirations. For millennia, people have moved from one place to another seeking better lives. Whether it was for better hunting, soil or jobs the migration was like rivers to the ocean, constant and inevitable. The sorrow of leaving behind the old and struggles to establish the new have marked every one of us. Immigrant and resident alike.

This week, we'll look into the fire. Mesmerizing as it is, fire is a perfect metaphor for love, desire and passion. From the dazzling white of 1,500 degrees C to Dull Red of 700, fire's ability to warm, over the long term yet burn quickly or smolder for weeks matches our personal histories, relations and ourselves. Passing the torch for us this week are Home Video, Jerome Chassagnard, Sparrow Orange, Peter Gabriel and Aire Redtree. I'm Jim Nye.

This week, we'll examine the drought. At any one time a goodly part of the world experiences Meteorological Drought with consequences measured in tens of thousands or even millions of lives. The images of drought, the cracked and barren soil, the dust clouds and snapshots of fishing boats stranded in a dry lake bed speak to the loneliness of emotional drought. So too do the 6 songs on this edition of Idyllic Music.

This week, we'll look at intimacy. The need for, the mechanics, complications and consequences of. William Butler Yeats lamented that The heart-revealing intimacy,That chooses right, and never finds a friend. Opening up for us on this episode of Idyllic Music is C85, Howard, Hayward, Frith and Laswell, Alma-me-gretta, The Orb, Smooth Gene-star and Saltillo I'm Jim Nye.

This week we'll look at life along the world's great rivers. Despite the fact that nearly every major inland city is located along side a major waterway, life down on the banks is often rough, hard scrabbled and often dangerous. McCarthy's Cornelius Suttree personifies the descent from sophisticated urban living to the hand to mouth life along the river. He's not alone.

This week, we'll look at the illusion of permanence and the inevitably of change. The tricky thing about change is that it is often not even perceptible. Gradual and incremental, it often takes a change in perspective to see the change happening all around us. Pointing that out for us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Module, Canola Tenderfoot, Musetta, Scopes, Philip TBC and JIXJAX. I'm Jim Nye.

This week we'll look at beauty and terror as seen in the mythology of women. Stories though out history mostly told by men of power and tragedy, love and treachery featuring the likes of Aphrodite, Xi Shi, the Gorgon Medusa and Goddess Kali. These tales are endlessly fascinating yet rarely illuminating of the lives of actual women.