A rotary electric motor has a stator with a plurality of separate and ferromagnetically isolated electromagnet core segments disposed coaxially about an axis of rotation. Core materials such as a soft magnetically permeable medium that is amenable to formation of a variety of particularized shapes. The core segments are supported by a non-ferromagnetic structure. The rotor comprises a plurality of permanent magnets with surfaces that face an air gap separation from the stator, the surfaces having a common geometric configuration. The stator pole surface geometric configuration and the rotor magnet surface geometric configuration are skewed with respect to each other. The effect of this skewing arrangement is to dampen the rate of change of the magnitude of the cogging torque that is produced by the interaction between a rotor magnet and a pole of a non-energized stator electromagnet as the permanent magnet traverses its rotational path.