New Sounds Archive
February 2007
February 2007 New Releases
Wednesday, February 28, 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 to find a sampling of new releases worthy of showcasing in tonight's New Sounds program.
Cross-Cultural Sampler
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
New Sounds offers some cross-cultural music spanning the traditions of several different continents on this program. There’s delicate Arabic-Andalusian folk rock by Algerian singer/songwriter Souad Massi, with some flamenco underpinnings. Also, listen to danceable Persian-inflected worldtronica from Niyaz - a trio of vocalist Azam Ali, instrumentalist Loga Ramin Torkian and producer/mixer Carmen Rizzo. Stay put, (if you can) for the Romanian gypsy horn madness of Fanfare Ciocarlia, 12 musicians (horns, trumpets, clarinets and timpani) who are masters of intricate rhythms and dizzying speeds. Plus, sample from Congotronics, Vol. 2, where more heavily-distorted electrified thumb pianos, more DIY amplification are joined by an array of buzzing drums, swirling guitars and hypnotic balafons. It’s the most recent collection of traditional trance music to come from Kinshasa.
New Acoustic Guitar
Monday, February 26, 2007
Listen to balmy fingerstyle guitar shapes and patterns from South African guitarist Guy Buttery on this edition of New Sounds. Buttery also plays the mandolin and sitar, and together with special guest violinist Angus Kerr, and double bass, hear some of his acoustic experimental tone poems. Plus, treat yourself to the musical narrative of fellow fingerstyle player, the Italian Pino Forastiere, who falls in the Michael Hedges camp, with his tapping, muting, and alternate tunings. We'll also hear from New York's own Dominic Frasca, the inventive guitarist who builds his own instruments to have more than just 6 strings available to take on transcriptions and original works. And much more.
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Sunday, February 25, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, listen to the many musical sides of Ryuichi Sakamoto. The Japanese pianist, producer, songwriter, classical composer, actor, and DJ has recorded early music (Danceries), film music (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), “glitch” music with Alva Noto, moody songs with David Sylvian, even moodier orchestral music (Discord), and classic Brazilian tunes with the trio Morelenbaum2Sakamoto. Hear some of all of these, and more.
Modern Jazz Pop Chamber Rock
Saturday, February 24, 2007
The Four Bags, with trombone, accordion, guitar and clarinet or saxophone, are an adventure into chamber music by way of modern jazz, rock and pop. Hear music from their latest release, "Off Shore" on this New Sounds Program, along with the ambient foggy swells of Terje Rypdal and "After the Requiem" by Gavin Bryars. Plus, music from the ambitious new record by the Pat Metheny Group, "The Way Up."
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Friday, February 23, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, listen to the many musical sides of Ryuichi Sakamoto. The Japanese pianist, producer, songwriter, classical composer, actor, and DJ has recorded early music (Danceries), film music (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), “glitch” music with Alva Noto, moody songs with David Sylvian, even moodier orchestral music (Discord), and classic Brazilian tunes with the trio Morelenbaum2Sakamoto. Hear some of all of these, and more.
New Music for Silent Films: The Eagle, The General
Thursday, February 22, 2007
From the New Sounds Live/Silent Film series, the Alloy Orchestra performs new music for the silent films “The Eagle” and “The General,” on keyboards, clarinet, accordion, percussion, and their famed “ton of junk,” at the World Financial Center.
New Eastern Orthodox Singing
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Listen to new choral music from Eastern Europe, or based on Eastern Orthodox singing on this edition of New Sounds, including John Tavener's Out of the Night, a gentle, simple setting for tenor and viola of the single word Alleluia. Also, listen to Alfred Schnittke's Psalms of Repentance, whose texts are taken from a 16th-century collection of Old Russian writings, and reflect the melodic and rhythmic inflection of Russian liturgical chant. Plus, music by Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, and the Bulgarian Women’s Chorus.
Mardi Gras Music
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Today is Mardi Gras, and to celebrate, here's an hour of music inspired by the brass bands and Mardi Gras bands of New Orleans. We'll take a listen to David Byrne's The Knee Plays, Frank London & The Klezmer Brass All-Stars festive Carnival Conspiracy, and the ultimate party band the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble. Plus, music by Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, and more.
Mostly Acoustic Indie Chamber
Monday, February 19, 2007
Can you imagine a show where you hear violas, french horn, trumpet, bassoon, stand-up bass, organ, guitars, drums, xylophone, steelpan, accordion and typewriter all together in the same hour-long program? Well, just give a listen to the adventurous music of several hard-to-describe jazz/classical/experimental/post-rock ensembles on this New Sounds show. First off, we’ll peek at the most recent Clogs record, Lantern, an intimate song-based affair. Also, there’s music by the Bell Orchestre. (For those keeping score, it could be worth noting that Clogs includes guitarist Bryce Dessner and violist Padma Newsome from The National, and Bell Orchestre features The Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry and Sarah Neufeld.) Plus, listen to lyrical jazz-ish folk chamber music by Gato Libre, with an unusual combination of trumpet and accordion anchored by guitar and bass. There’s also music by the Australian combo Coolangubra (it’s Aboriginal for skull of kangaroo), slow-core electric guitar dreamy rockers Slow Six, and more.
Battleship Potemkin
Sunday, February 18, 2007
From the New Sounds Live/Silent Film series at the World Financial Center, The Clubfoot Orchestra plays a new score by Richard Marriott for Sergei Eisenstein’s famous silent film “Battleship Potemkin.” One of the most renowned films of the century, "Potemkin" contains one of the best-known sequences in cinema’s entire history – the harrowing fall of a baby carriage down the Odessa steps. Eisenstein’s depiction of political oppression and violence portrayed the Russian revolution in microcosm and was banned worldwide for years after its premiere.
Acoustic Ambient Music
Saturday, February 17, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, there’s brand new music from the composer and founder of the recently revived Cold Blue Music label, Jim Fox. Brooding and beautifully ominous, the piece is called “Descansos, past,” and was written in memory of composer/performer John Kuhlman, who died a few years ago. Also, listen to music from Anton Batagov, who explores musical mathematics and harmonic ratios as hidden in the ten-dot pyramid, the Tetractys. Plus Harold Budd’s swan song - Avalon Sutra, a carefully chosen path between ambient music and the “m” word. Budd is the composer and pianist who has declared that he is quitting the composing life, explaining he has said all he wants to and does not mind disappearing.
New Music from Threatened Cultures
Friday, February 16, 2007
Dig into some music from threatened cultures on this New Sounds program, including the Garifuna of Central America, the Sami of northern Scandinavia, the Wulu Bunun of central Taiwan, and more. Listen to music from Watina by Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective, which strives to keep the Garifuna culture alive and relevant. There's also the Sámi oral tradition of joiking, through the music of Ande Somby and the group Vajas, who fuse voice, violin and arctic sound voyages. Plus, cellist David Darling & The Wulu Bunun, music by Telek, Mari Boine, and others.
New Music for Silent Films: Blackmail
Thursday, February 15, 2007
From the New Sounds Live/Silent Film series, the Alloy Orchestra performs their score to the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Blackmail" on keyboards, clarinet, accordion, percussion, and their famed “rack of junk,” at the World Financial Center.
Essentials: Contemporary Classical
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
To wrap up the New Sounds Essentials recommendations, listen to some contemporary classical music on tonight’s program. There’s music by California-based Ingram Marshall, with his work “Fog Tropes,” where the highly processed sounds of the San Francisco bay are blended with foghorns and a brass sextet. There’s also Einojuhani Rautavaara’s “Cantus Arcticus,” or “concerto for bird [voices] and orchestra,” featuring the taped cries of wild birds from arctic regions. Plus, sample some of Phil Kline’s provocatively intense Zippo Songs, chamber-rock art song settings of "poems" inscribed on army-issue Zippo lighters by American GIs in Vietnam. Music from the Philip Glass opera Satyagraha, based on a portion of the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, rounds out the show.
Essentials: World Music
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
New Sounds presents another night of recommended recordings, this time in the “world music” vein. Sample works by Wally Brill, from his release, Covenant, which combines the sounds of Jewish incantations with ambient and dub-tronica, yet manages to be both intensely reverent and danceable. Also, hear selections by the Algeria-born and San Francisco-based DJ Cheb I Sabbah who has layered Sufi devotionals and ragas atop trancey warped swirls of drones and suffused them with innovative percussion patterns. Plus works by the rich-voiced Brazilian singer songwriter, guitarist and producer Celso Fonseca, Ethiopian soul singer Mahmoud Ahmed, and others.
Essentials: Traditional Music
Monday, February 12, 2007
It's the middle of WNYC's Winter Fund Drive and for this edition of New Sounds, John Schaefer offers a guide to traditional music. Listen to recommended recordings of music from Sunda, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Tibet, Chile, India, and more.
Turntablist Guitarist
Sunday, February 11, 2007
The digital, digitized, and digitally refracted guitar-based music of Andre LaFosse is on this edition of New Sounds. LaFosse's latest release of "turntablist guitar" music - call it something like funk/glitch/hip-hop - just happens to have been performed live, on solo electric guitar. Actually, for live shows, La Fosse prepares his guitar to go through five Echoplex units simultaneously - creating endless looping possibilities and a lot of brain-freeze.
Phantom of the Opera
Saturday, February 10, 2007
From the New Sounds Live/Silent Film series at the World Financial Center, The Clubfoot Orchestra plays a new score by Richard Marriott for the Lon Chaney silent film “Phantom of the Opera.” Lon Chaney’s phantom is the quintessential horror film demon – both touching and terrifying, while Marriott's music underlies the mysterious phantom who is mad with love for Christine.
The Indonesian Reach
Friday, February 09, 2007
Hear some traditional and pop music from Indonesia, and the music it’s inspired on this New Sounds program. Dip into music by the Canadian-based contemporary gamelan group the Evergreen Club, along with some rare cuts by E. Koestyara and Group Gapura. Plus, listen to the singer Idjah Hadidjah, as accompanied by hand drums, gongs, and mallet instruments, from a Nonesuch Explorer CD. There’s also music that makes liberal use of gamelan orchestra by Lou Harrison, Evan Ziporyn, Patrick Grant, and more.
Totally Tubular
Thursday, February 08, 2007
When you force air through a tube, sound results – whether that tube is an Australian didjeridoo, a length of plastic hose, a toy whirly, or the human throat. Each gets a workout on this New Sounds program in pieces by Michael Fahres, Wendy Mae Chambers, Sarah Hopkins, and Nick Didkovsky.
New York Guitar Festival Sampler
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, listen to highlights from the biannual New York Guitar Festival Marathon, including performances from Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz (on electric and lap steel guitar, respectively) and Brazilian music from the Assad Brothers. Plus, listen to music from flamenco player Dennis Koster, guitar designer and new music arranger Dominic Frasca, pawnshop-style guitarist Ed Gerhard, and more.
Global Pop
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Listen to the Caribbean-infused music - with a bit of French and West African roots for good measure - by Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective on this edition of New Sounds. From "Watina," hear personal songs, short, with simple lyrics, with rhythms extracted from ritual music, like that of a traditional healing ceremony, or from a kind of wake, but each with the intent of keeping the Garifuna culture alive and relevant. Plus, hear the latest from Vieux Farka Touré, the son of Ali, featuring guest appearances by kora player and guiding hand Toumani Diabaté. Also, global pop by Celso Fonseca, and more.
Drumworld
Monday, February 05, 2007
This New Sounds offers music for an iron-smelting party alongside the ethereal breezes of bowed and rubbed percussion. Listen to music by Savage Aural Hotbed, the hottest dance band for the Orc prom in Middle Earth. These four players, with the monster chops of the Terminator doing Taiko drumming, cobble together instruments from wrecking yards, surplus stores, and the Home Depot. We'll hear music from their new record "The Unified Pounding Theory." Also, there's music from So Percussion, SA Hotbed's musical brothers in arms. They similarly equip themselves with homemade hardware to keep the excitement in their beating. This trio shapes melodies by combining glockenspiel, toy piano, vibraphones, bowed marimba, melodica, tuned and prepared pipes, metals, a wayward ethernet port and programming for something completely trippy. Plus, there's music from Synergy, Frank Perry, and Fritz Hauser.
Harmonic Meditations
Sunday, February 04, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, there's music by David Hykes, founder of the Harmonic Choir and a leading proponent of Asian-inspired “overtone chant.” Hykes presents his recent cd “Harmonic Meditations,” which includes music for Khyentse Norbu’s film “Travellers and Magicians,” set in the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan.
Plundering the Archives
Saturday, February 03, 2007
We’ll be mining the New Sounds Live archives on this edition of New Sounds with performances going all the way back to the 1980’s, featuring pianist, composer and arranger Mark Kirkostas. Also, hear the quirky Austrian band Die Knodel from a concert recorded at Merkin Hall in 1995. Their goofy blend of Zappa instrumentals meet Fellini film music somehow rides the divide between pop and art. Plus, there’s world music from Brian Keane and his collaborator Omar Faruk Tekbilek, also from a New Sounds Live concert, and much more.
Twittering Machines
Friday, February 02, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, experience music driven by a relentless pulse. There's music by the "superminimalist" and "machinist" Lithuanian composer Rytis Mazulis. His work, "Twittering Machines" is computer-controlled mechanical piano organized into dense layers whose insistent rhythmic patterns gradually shift over time. Then, listen to "AC/DC," from a brand-new CD by the Italian new music group Sentieri Selvaggi. Plus, hear a work by electronic music innovator Morton Subotnick for chamber orchestra and computer based on a surrealistic novel by Max Ernst - "The Key to Songs."
New English Pastoral
Thursday, February 01, 2007
There’s music in the English “pastoral” tradition on this edition of New Sounds. Some 30 years ago or so, after the success of “Tubular Bells,” the newly-financially liberated composer Mike Oldfield retreated into the English countryside to make more music. We’ll hear a work infused with serenity, Mike Oldfield’s second masterpiece “Hergest Ridge.” We also sample "15 Wild Decembers" by Geoff Smith, a compilation of songs using texts by 19th-century poets (including Shelley, Emily Brontë, and Keats), all of whose lives were cut tragically short either by illness or suicide. Plus, Michael Nyman’s music from the Peter Greenaway film, "Drowning by Numbers" rounds out the show.
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