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January 2007

Philip Glass - A Private Reel

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Today, Philip Glass turns 70 - and to celebrate, this New Sounds program is full of music by the pioneering American composer. We'll hear exclusive live performances from both the WNYC archives, and private tapes given to us by Glass and other ensembles. Listen for excerpts from The Juniper Tree, Music In Similar Motion and its remix, and much more.


January 2007 New Releases

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

It's the end of the month round-up. John Schaefer once again picks through the bucketloads of CDs that have flooded his office since the new year began to find a sampling of new releases worthy of showcasing in tonight's New Sounds program.


Winter Songs

Monday, January 29, 2007

Almost no one’s favorite season, and yet it has inspired lots of evocative new music, including works by Aulis Sallinen, Wendy Carlos, Glen Moore, Edgar Meyer, and Dino Saluzzi. New Sounds goes deep freeze for this hour with music by David Byrne, the Modern Mandolin Quartet with Edgar Meyer, and perhaps Ralph Towner as well.


Commissioned for the People

Sunday, January 28, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, the Bang on a Can All-Stars perform a newly-commissioned work, revisit one of their first commissioned pieces, and more. Hear "Song Before Love Songs (a post-apocalyptic requiem for the human race)" by Cynthia Hopkins, and featuring the singing voices of the All-Stars. Plus, there's the work for a banana-eating percussionist - The Plonsey Episodes - by Dan Plonsey, and a special bonus encore piece by Philip Glass.


Commissioned for the People

Saturday, January 27, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, the Bang on a Can All-Stars perform two newly-commissioned works and a new music classic with special guest Philip Glass. Listen to "The Long and Short of It: a Brief History of Chatter," by Carla Kihlstedt, along with "Music In Similar Motion" by Philip Glass, featuring the composer at the keyboard. Plus, hear the menacing sounds of J. G. Thirlwell's new commission called "Anabiosis."


String Quartet Plus

Friday, January 26, 2007

Music for string quartet takes over this New Sounds program with help from additional musical and non-musical sounds. Listen to an “extreme composition” by Brad Lubman for string quartet with electronics called “Jumping to conclusions” – with a neat section acidly titled: “My Art Has No Value.” Also, music from the understated pinhole world of Amina, the string quartet who have toured as Sigur Ros’ texture-makers, and Steve Reich’ seminal “Different Trains,” which uses vintage train sounds from the 1930s and '40s, among other taped material.


Live Gloryland II

Thursday, January 25, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, Anonymous 4, the famed early music vocal quartet, teams up with violinist Darol Anger and guitarist Scott Nygaard to revisit early American folk spirituals, shape-note hymns, and Gospel blues. This is part 2 of 2, featuring this revival of 19th century American hymnody.


Classical Perspectives

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

On this New Sounds, we'll have new look at the old masters – from Uri Caine's inventive and improvisatory take on Mozart, to the Kamikaze Ground Crew making sense of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Also, the California Guitar Trio plays a famous piano piece by Beethoven, and various New York “downtown” types offer their perspectives on the music of Schubert. Also, Cuban arrangements of Chopin, and possibly even J.S. Bach on the banjo.


Musical Landscapes

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Listen to some finely-textured musical landscapes from film, the concert stage, and the studio on this edition of New Sounds. Kronos Quartet & Mogwai play the Clint Mansell score to the movie “Fountain,” Robert Fripp plays an electric guitar Soundscape from a New Sounds Live concert, and there's "glitch” electronica from Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto. And lots more.


Meredith Monk Live II

Monday, January 22, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concert series at the World Financial Center, hear the second half of a two-part tribute to vocalist/composer Meredith Monk, concluding her 40th anniversary season. Listen to “one of America’s Coolest Composers” along with her vocal ensemble as they perform excerpts from Book of Days, Atlas, Volcano Songs, and others. Hear a world premiere of an arrangement of “Lonely Spirit” for clarinets, along with other instrumental works. Plus, listen to Ms. Monk performing her classic “Gotham Lullaby” at the piano.


Lullaby and Goodnight

Sunday, January 21, 2007

For this New Sounds program, take a tour of the globe with lullabies from around the world. Actress, singer and composer Mariana Sadowska performs a lullaby in our studios, re-created and collected from old ritual songs she learned from women in Ukrainian rural villages. Some of these songs facilitate conversations between matriarchal ancestors, while at times, these recast songs sound as though they verge on possession, with her ululations and her mesmerizing delivery. Plus, listen to a sleepless lullaby from Canadian singer and composer Laurel MacDonald, whose yodels, whispers, and wails bewitch and resonate. Also, Deep Forest uses a lullaby from the Solomon Islands; and lots more.


Worms And Specks

Saturday, January 20, 2007

“America's multi-mediatrix” Laurie Anderson visits the studio on this edition of New Sounds to talk about and sample from her latest work, The End of the Moon. In it, she looks at the relationships between war, aesthetics, spirituality and consumerism while drawing from her travels, research, impression-packed journals, dreams, and theories in her post as artist-in-residence for NASA. Anecdotal, wide ranging and epic, this original work also features Anderson’s new music for violin and electronics and takes us on a music-theater journey that examines how we think about the scale of space and ourselves in relation to the rest of the planet. “We are really worms and specks. I find a certain comfort in that.” [from a New York Times Magazine interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON, January 30, 2005]


Born Into Brothels Live

Friday, January 19, 2007

Composer John McDowell’s score for the acclaimed documentary Born Into Brothels has become a live touring ensemble, performing live in the studio on this edition of New Sounds. We’ll hear their buoyant blend of Indian and Western music, featuring harmonium, tabla, bansuri flute, violin and piano, along with Indian vocalists Falu and Gurav. And much more.


Long Time Traveling

Thursday, January 18, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, Anonymous 4, the famed early music vocal quartet, teams up with violinist Darol Anger and guitarist Scott Nygaard to revisit early American folk spirituals, shape-note hymns, and Gospel blues. Straight out of the Ozark and the Appalachian mountains, A4 sing shape note tunes in the spare three-part harmonizations in which they first appear in the nineteenth-century tunebooks. With some instrumental accompaniment by former Turtle Islander fiddler/mandolin player Darol Anger and guitarist Scott Nygaard, there’s a folk/country/roots feeling to each deeply-researched sung poem, which tells a story of love and loss, hope and redemption.


Assassin Reverie

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Like the Energizer Bunny, some of the groundbreaking composers of the 1960s are still breaking ground today. On this edition of New Sounds, hear the latest from Terry Riley, the composer and keyboardist who brought Minimalism to the musical public in 1964, inspired The Who and many other European rockers in the 70s, and has become a sought-after classical composer. His latest, "Assassin Reverie," for saxophone quartet and tape, is a single movement in three sections with different sound material and stage direction for each section. One of the more disturbing pieces written by Riley, “Assassin Reverie” uses an aggressive sampling of gunshots and helicopter sounds in the middle section. Plus, listen to “Maarifa Street” by Jon Hassell and Steve Reich’s latest “Cello Counterpoint.”


Spacey Country Chamber Jazz

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

For this New Sounds, wander though European cities with the acoustic chamber jazz quartet Gato Libre from their latest effort, "Nomad." This band of Japanese musicians plays acoustic folk, using trumpet, guitar, bass, and accordion, doing tunes that mix up flamenco with Old World waltz, music that stirs up reggae with a touch of blues or a reel from a Scottish pub. Also, listen to country-swing folk jazz from the Tin Hat Trio (now operating as a quintet, and just Tin Hat) from their "Helium" release. Plus, there's the spacey countrified jazz from Bill Frisell's Quartet, and more.


Chant Wars

Monday, January 15, 2007

For this edition of New Sounds, listen to medieval chant and its contemporary descendants with music from the groups Sequentia, Chanticleer, Trio Medieval, The Mediaeval Baebes, and others. Sequentia teams up with the vocal ensemble Dialogos, on the CD, “Chant Wars,” which illuminates the legendary 9th-century confrontation between the Frankish cantors of the Carolingian emperors and the European chant traditions the emperor sought to replace with these ‘new’ musical repertoires and vocal styles. Perhaps we’ll even hear the lament on the death of Charlemagne. Also on the show, music from Chanticleer’s most recent CD of sacred chant, Sound in Spirit, drawing from traditions as diverse as Native American and Japanese, Byzantine and Tibetan, and even incorporating overtone singing. Plus, sample from Trio Medieval’s recent record of chants from the 13th century, and the latest from the Mediaeval Baebes.


Japan: 1000 Years of Music

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Dip into a new collection of 1000 years of Music from Japan on this edition of New Sounds. Listen to Shomyo, or Buddhist sutra chant, one of the oldest forms of vocal music in the world. These low pitched melodious drones are accompanied by metallic percussion, and are performed not as entertainment, but for traditional Buddhist ceremonies. Plus, Australia’s Synergy Percussion perform a recent work by the late Toru Takemitsu, and there’s a whole lot of other music of Japan from the span of centuries in between.


American Guitars

Saturday, January 13, 2007

There’s music by Ingram Marshall on this edition of New Sounds. Listen to Marshall’s “Soe-pa” for solo guitar with electronic processing, written for Benjamin Verdery. Also, hear Verdery and fellow guitarist Andy Summers (formerly of The Police), recorded live at Joe’s Pub during the annual NY Guitar Festival.American Guitars


New Music Soundtracks

Friday, January 12, 2007

New Sounds tackles film music for this program. Listen for excerpts from Angelo Badalamenti's “Twin Peaks,” and Carter Burwell's score from the movie, "Adaptation," among others. Plus, hear music by David Byrne - “Lead Us Not into Temptation” – a dark and lovely score for the film "Young Adam." The film is set along the canals of industrial Scotland and Byrne's score is somewhat noirish to match the mood of this picture. Guest contributing musicians on Byrne's project included members of Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Snow Patrol, The Reindeer Section, and others.


The 2006 Listener Poll Show

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Here's the rebuttal to last night’s program where the listeners weigh in on the best new music releases of 2006. Thanks to all of the listeners who voted. As we sorted through the responses, the color commentary isn't that different from years past. Some of the usual suspects ranked highly this year, and there were also some relatively new artists doing some groundbreaking and genre-less things, which we LOVE here at New Sounds. Listen for the shocking results...

Also, for the first year ever, there were a few new categories included in the poll, because they seemed like fun at the time: Best Reissue (although the New Sounds Assistant neglected to remember Byrne/Eno's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"), Best Download (only encompassing those included on New Sounds), and Best Cover Song (arbitrary picks that came to mind in a brainstorm as the survey was programmed.)

Best [New Music] Cover Song [aired on New Sounds]: Gutbucket's adaptation of Messiaen's Danse de la Fureur, pour les sept trompettes, from the Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Runner-up: Rodrigo y Gabriela - Stairway To Heaven

Best Reissue: Overwhelmingly, the listeners chose Patti Smith's "Horses," although none of the record was aired on New Sounds. The impulsive decision to include it in the poll was tied to the closing of the landmark CBGB's.
Runner-up: Robert Fripp's "Exposure" and Brian Eno, with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno - "Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks" were nearly tied for second place.

Best Download [aired on New Sounds]: Mikel Rouse's releases "The End of Cinematics," and "International Cloud Atlas"


The 2006 New Sounds Top 10

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

On this special episode of New Sounds, John Schaefer presents his annual, highly subjective, completely opinionated list of the ten best new-music releases of 2006. Listen to what made the cut this year: an Icelandic tribute to an obsolete mainframe computer, choral music from a brilliant English wunderkind, remixes of Balkan brass band tunes, epic gorgeous songs for harp and voice, chamber rock, shape-note singing, and so much more.


Meredith Monk Live

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concerts at World Financial Center, a celebration of the 40th anniversary season of vocalist/composer Meredith Monk. Listen to selected favorites and interpretations from Monk’s repertoire as rendered by the Pacific Mozart Ensemble, from points all over the huge glass atrium. Plus, there’s also a special performance of "Facing North" by singer Theo Bleckmann together with Meredith Monk herself.


Preaching to the Choir

Monday, January 08, 2007

The only show that could ever reach you, would be the one built around the voice of preachers. And that's what we'll hear on this episode of New Sounds. There's Steve Reich's classic "It's Gonna Rain," when he stumbled upon the out-of-sync patterns created with two cheap tape recorders, playing back the voice of a preacher man. Also, hear a work by Matthew Patton - "Speaking in Tongues" - composed for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, which takes as its model the voices of charismatic ministers from Southern Pentecostal churches who spontaneously erupt into soliloquies of unintelligible, language-like stutterances. Plus, listen to "American Standard"by John Adams, along with David Byrne & Brian Eno's "Help Me Somebody."


Unconventional Works for Piano

Sunday, January 07, 2007

On this edition of New Sounds, there’s music from Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, who fuses characteristics of traditional Azerbaijani music with modern Western techniques in her “Music for Piano.” Not incidentally, she is also known as a pianist who first brought the music of John Cage, Arnold Schoenberg and George Crumb to Azerbaijan. Speaking of Crumb, hear a mix of the ancient and modern with his seminal work “Makrokosmos." Each of these "Twelve fantasy pieces after the Zodiac for Amplified Piano," corresponds to a sign of the Babylonian zodiac, and draws on various non-Western traditions. To round out the show, Geoff Keezer take dubbed layers of piano to create exquisite textures along with other piano works in unconventional tunings and tonal colors.


American Eccentrics

Saturday, January 06, 2007

There's music from American eccentric Harry Partch, who among other things, was a composer, instrument-maker, musical dramatist, sometime hobo, piano teacher, and grape-picker. On this New Sounds, we’ll hear a work that fused Partch’s instrument building and composing - “And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma.” It's just full of complex textures and radical rhythms created by overlaying thirty-four one-minute instrumental verses, in combinations of duets, trios, and quartets, up to a concluding septet. Also, listen to "serious" orchestral music by the late guitarist, innovator, and American iconoclast Frank Zappa. Hear selections from a recent release of his music by the Ensemble Modern, the German new-music group that Zappa worked with late in life. Plus, there’s the strange and twisted sounds of Henry Kaiser’s re-invention of Stephen Foster’s song, “Autumn Waltz,” and music by La Monte Young, among others.


Extreme Spirituals

Friday, January 05, 2007

There's gospel singing in a new music context on this edition of New Sounds. Hear some extreme spirituals - rearranged, well known African-American spirituals and 19th century art songs - from the Boston-based chamber rock band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, in collaboration with Oral Moses. The resulting music is an unorthodox but deeply moving blend of Birdsongs' punk-proggy art rock instrumentation together with the strong and majestic voice of Oral Moses. We'll also listen to the intersection of Jewish music and Black spirituals from the Klezmatics release, "Brother Moses Smote the Water," a team effort with African-American gospel singer Joshua Nelson. Hear age-old Hebrew Passover songs, Nelson’s own brand of “kosher gospel,” and traditional Yiddish Klezmatic anthems, some featuring jazz singer/organist Kathryn Farmer. Plus, music by Bob Telson, Joel Chadabe, and others.


Music for Multiples

Thursday, January 04, 2007

For this New Sounds program, experience an hour of music for multiples of the same instrument. Take the dense layers of guitars in Glenn Branca’s Symphony No. 2, introduce gradual massive bursts, and incorporate metal percussion and drums and you have a massive soundmass. On the other hand, there’s music by Alex Shapiro - a work called “Bioplasm” for 4 flutes. It’s a squishy piece, something that she thought of as “an organism that oozes across the sonic floor.” Also, there’s a work by Mary Jane Leach for multiple female voices inspired by early music polyphony. Rounding out the show is music by Raphael Mostel for Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble.


Two by Two II

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

There's a lot of music for unusual duos on this edition of New Sounds, including music from the gypsy-esque acoustic indie madness of A Hawk and a Hacksaw. With an arsenal of accordion, percussion, violin and viola, along with some singing, these two have enlisted the help of the speed-Balkan masters Fanfare Ciocarlia on their latest release, "The Way the Wind Blows." Also on the show, an instrument combination not-to-be-missed of church organ and slide guitar from Norway. Plus, we'll hear some brand-new music featuring beat-boxing and the serene Tibetan vocals of Yung Chen Lhamo. And much more.


Harpie's Delight

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Hear some long and winding music from Joanna Newsom's arresting and spectacularly arranged record, "Ys," for harp and voice. Also, there's Catalan, Spanish and Arabic poems set to music by Arianna Savall (yes, daughter of Jordi, THAT Savall) from her release "Bella Terra," along with works by Paris-based new-music harpist Hélène Breschand, from her solo effort "Le goût du sel." Plus, music that sneaks between the cracks of chamber music and noise from harpist Shelley Burgon and bassist Trevor Dunn, a tune from Bjork with harpist Zeena Parkins and more.


New Music from Switzerland

Monday, January 01, 2007

On this New Sounds program, expect the occasional alphorn – but no yodeling. Hear lots of new music from Switzerland, including something from composer/violinist Franziska Baumann, whose sound installation work features the sound of glacial ice movements interspersed with voices. Also, listen to Michele Walther (violin), Matthias Gubler (soprano sax), and Luzian Jenny (accordion) from the vivacious collection of songs, "Orange Heart." Plus, the fun grooves of the Albins Alpin Quartet, whose music incorporates saxophone, accordion, toy piano, tuba and regular old drums. And so much more.