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New Sounds Archive
March 2007
Sacred Music, Irish and Otherwise
Saturday, March 31, 2007
The name Anuna derives from the ancient Irish name "An Uaithne," which collectively describes the three ancient types of Celtic music; lullaby, happy song, and lament (Suantrai, Geantrai and Goltrai, respectively.) This Irish group, who were the original “Riverdance” choir, blend Middle English, Scots Gaelic, Irish, Breton, Medieval Irish, Latin, and Greek choral music together in tunes ranging from folk songs to newly composed music based on ancient texts. On this New Sounds, we’ll hear from Anuna’s recent retrospective CD, along with other sacred works. Plus, selections from a stunning new release by Alexandra Montano of mostly medieval Spanish songs, called "Reflejo Medieval."
New Releases March 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
It's that time of the month again for the new releases show on New Sounds. John Schaefer carefully sorts through the stacks, bins, and boatloads of new CDs which have come across his desk over the past month to present some of the finest new releases. He'll skim off the cream. He'll pick the lentils from the ashes. He'll spin gold from straw!
By the People, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
From a New Sounds Live taped earlier this month, the Bang On A Can All-Stars perform world premieres of three new works commissioned by the people. Hear Joshua Penman's "Awakenings," Stefan Weisman's "Restless Legs," and a new work by Lukas Ligeti.
Wu Man And Friends
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
On her recent release, “Wu Man And Friends” the Chinese pipa (lute) virtuoso Wu Man teams up with musicians representing East African, Slavic, and Appalachian traditions. At first glance the combinations of the instruments from such disparate corners of the earth seems forced, however the musical scales of the Ugandan endongo and those of the pipa aren’t so dissimilar; the Ukrainian bandura is also a lute held upright like a pipa, held from behind and played with fingers of both hands; and some Appalachian folk tunes, when played on banjo, seem eerily close to certain Chinese folk melodies. On this edition of New Sounds hear some suggestive conversations between instruments and traditions from Wu Man’s record, with songs about rain in Chinese with accompaniment on Ugandan harp (adungu), a dance from the Appalachian mountains with mouth bow and pipa, and not to be outdone, there’s a pipa/bandura combination hinting at flamenco experimentation.
Unconventional String Quartets
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Over the years, New Sounds Live has played host to some truly remarkable performances that never saw the light of day as commercial recordings. On this edition of New Sounds, we raid those archives for some live recordings from the recent past. Listen to Richard Einhorn’s work for double electric string quartet, “The Silence” as performed by the Sirius String Quartet (formerly the Soldier String Quartet.) Also, the Modern Mandolin Quartet performs InterPlays with violinist/composer David Balakrishnan (from the Turtle Island String Quartet.) Plus, performances by the Kronos Quartet, Turtle Island String Quartet, and the Uptown String Quartet.
Music for Women's Voices and Strings
Monday, March 26, 2007
Hear music by the ethereal and precise Trio Medieval on this New Sounds program. In addition to arrangements of Nordic folk songs, this trio of women gives contemporary lift to medieval ballads and masses from England, France and Norway. Plus, listen to "immensely moving" selections from the new seven part cantata by Vladimir Godar, "Mater," featuring the "cultivated folk" vocal stylings of Iva Bittova. And much more.
A Private Reel
Sunday, March 25, 2007
It’s another in the series of programs on New Sounds called “A Private Reel,” featuring live performances from the WNYC studio. This time, hear music originally recorded for other WNYC programs: Omar Sosa & Mino Cinelu from the afternoon program Soundcheck, The Warsaw Village Band from “The Next Big Thing,” Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo from "Soundcheck," Mariana Sadovska from “Studio 360,” and Maggie & Suzzy Roche from “Soundcheck.”
Music from West Africa
Saturday, March 24, 2007
There’s music from West Africa on this edition of New Sounds. Listen to tunes from a new retrospective release by the veteran Malian singer-songwriter-guitarist Boubacar Traore. The selections for the CD, "The Bluesman from Mali," were hand-picked by Traore himself. Plus, hear the latest record from the legendary balafon master Keletigui Diabate, S"andiya." It's a gorgeous collection of music for mallets, solo and accompanied by kora, guitar, flutes and percussion, which features guest artists Habib Koite, Toumani Diabate, among others. And there’s much more.
The Modern Medieval
Friday, March 23, 2007
Listen to some new music that looks back – way back – on this New Sounds program. There’s “Proverb,” Steve Reich’s take on medieval French counterpoint, along with music from the medieval-looking Estonian Arvo Pärt. We’ll also hear a Requiem from Alfred Schnittke, the Soviet Union-born German-Jewish composer who brings together in his music several unlikely combinations of styles: Romantic, Classical, Baroque, modernist, and medieval. Plus, listen to highlights from Richard Einhorn’s oratorio, Voices of Light, written to accompany the Passion of Joan of Arc (the 1928 Carl Dreyer silent film.) Einhorn’s score pivots between Joan's time and now, using an authentic-sounding medieval style that develops into what NY Times writer Allan Kozinn calls a “post-Minimalist combination of repeating figures and lush neo-Romantic orchestration.”
People's Commissioning Fund, Part 1
Thursday, March 22, 2007
From New Sounds Live, the Bang On A Can All-Stars perform with legendary vocalist/composer Meredith Monk, onstage at Merkin Hall. Hear new arrangements of “Panda 1”, “Memory Song”, “Sacred Song”, “Double Fiestas” and “Last Song” by Bang on a Can Artistic Directors, Julia Wolfe and David Lang.
Border-Bashing Combinations
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
For this New Sounds, listen to border-bashing world music from unlikely combinations of styles and places. We'll hear from Boom Pam, an Israeli band that blends Balkan horns with surf guitar, along with music from a trio featuring kora & guitar with upright bass. Plus, there's music from Transatlantic NonStop, a collaboration between Andean and Azerbaijani musicians. Also, Deepika sings songs that represent her dual Norwegian and Pakistani background and there's much more.
The Doctor Is In
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Composer Nick Didkovsky, whose works range from his avant-rock band Doctor Nerve to electronically-altered chamber music, performs live music for laptop in the WNYC studio. Hear works from Didkovsky's most recent release, "Tube Mouth Bow String" on this New Sounds program. Plus, he composes two pieces for Doctor Nerve on-the-spot using a new version of his automated composition software.
Solo Sessions
Monday, March 19, 2007
For this edition of New Sounds, pianist/composer Matthew Shipp presents music from his latest album of nu-jazz, “One.” His first collection of original solo material in nearly a decade, (his last solo outing was a record of standards, not his own works), Shipp gleefully explores and savors where the music might take him, rather than resorting to pianistic pyrotechnics. “One” is not all swirling contemplative eddies, however, there is a streak of volatility in the tune “Electro Magnetism,” where Shipp’s fierce, low-end tones “threaten to shake the song loose from its floorboards.” (PitchforkMedia.com)
Music for Multiples
Sunday, March 18, 2007
What’s better than music for accordion? Music for 4 or 5 accordions, of course! On this New Sounds, hear musical works for small armies of one kind of instrument - clarinets, guitars, pianos, and accordions, among others. Listen to the World Guitar Ensemble –ten guitarists from eight different countries – who, with their sheer numbers of nylon strings, creatively fuse together pop, jazz, and classical with synthetic loops and distorted guitars so that anything is possible. Also, there’s music by the six pianist collective called Piano Circus, who only perform new music, most of it written specially for them. Rounding out the show is music from the Accordion Tribe, whose ringleader in both incarnations, I and II, is none other than Guy Klucevsek.
Luscinia’s Lullaby
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Canadian vocalist and composer Laurel MacDonald visits the studio for this edition of New Sounds. MacDonald's arresting new CD is called Luscinia’s Lullaby, and features eclectic instrumentation and soundscapes concocted by producer and sound designer Philip Strong. This richly-textured music ranges from trippy, groove-driven polyphonic chant to torch songs with slide guitar and liquid violins.
New Music from Germany
Friday, March 16, 2007
Listen to Ensemble Modern playing music of Frank Zappa, Haindling’s updated Bavarian folkmusic, Duo Sonare playing Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells,” and more on this New Sounds program. Hans-Jürgen Buchner, who is better known by the name of his German home town, Haindling, (Lower Bavaria), equally as fond of African drums and South-American congas as he is of his native tuba, borrows music from all over the world, yet somehow comes across as Bavarian. Not only does he sing, but he plays piano, synthesizer, tuba, trombone, tenor horn, alt horn, French horn, bass-trumpet, saxophone, percussion, accordion, singing saw and all kinds of exotic instruments himself. Sample from some of his music along with “serious” music by Frank Zappa, as played by Ensemble Modern, the German new-music group that Zappa worked with late in life. Also, a twosome of German guitarists, Thomas Offermann and Jens Wagner, known as Duo Sonare, render Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells into an entirely new work of art.
Sidewalk Saints
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Slide guitarist Ben Bowen King resurrects a forgotten tradition of American Gospel guitarists of the deep South on this New Sounds program as we listen to music from his most recent release "Sidewalk Saints." King is able to use his "gospel slide guitar" to 'preach' and 'wail in soulful beauty,' transporting you back to a lost chapter in American music. Hear some nearly unrecognizable arrangements of things like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," along with music from composer Thomas Albert and early music vocalists Anonymous 4, who look back at traditional American hymns like “Amazing Grace” and more.
Primarily Percussion
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, drink in some music where the drummers get the spotlight, like the debut recording from Afro-Cuban All-Star percussionist Miguel 'Anga' Diaz. His record, “Echu Mingua,” fuses traditional Cuban son, ritual Santeria call-and-response, hip-hop, jazz, salsa, and Malian groove as well, with a guest appearance by Baba Sissoko on n'goni and vocals. Also there's music from the tabla phenom Zakir Hussain and music from the show, Stomp, that uses human bodies, trash cans, brooms, and nearly anything else as a melodic drum.
The Bushy-Wushy Rag
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Phillip K. Bimstein uses an organic approach to digital samples, building pieces around stories told through speech, sound effects, and a singular musical wit. We’ll hear works about cows that roam and moo next to Bimstein's home, sin and salvation in Las Vegas, and about baseball. Listen to a special favorite, which focuses on the charming beer vendor Robert Logan, who calls himself "Bushy Wushy the Beer Man." For more than forty years, Bushy Wushy sold beer in Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. In "The Bushy-Wushy Rag," Bimstein fuses music, voices (including Jack Buck's call of a famous home run by Ozzie Smith) and sounds to create a musical narrative that celebrates baseball in St. Louis. "That's a winner!"
New Jazz or Nu-Jazz?
Monday, March 12, 2007
New Sounds asks the question and hears the answer from a variety of duos and trios. Listen to music from guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel and drummer Brian Blade, falling somewhere between a songlike worldfolk and bouncy Afrobeat with swing. There's also the rock-jazz of The Bad Plus, the trippy expansive sounds of the Benevento Russo Duo, the Neil Cowley Trio, and more.
Song of Realization
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Minnesota guitarist Steve Tibbetts faces east once again on his most recent release, Selwa, a follow-up to his 1997 collaboration with the Tibetan Buddhist nun Chöying Drolma. He joins us in the studio for this edition of New Sounds to talk about the new recording and its gorgeous layers of ancient ritual chants with electronic sounds, acoustic guitar and percussion.
Spiritual Strings
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Hear some new works for violins and other strings that draw from medieval sacred chant as a source of inspiration on this New Sounds program. Listen to “O Ignis” by the Swiss violinist and composer Paul Giger, which is actually based on music by Hildegard von Bingen and manages to create a blend of early music and improvisation. There's also ethereal music by Arvo Pärt and Sir John Tavener as well.
20-String Slinger
Friday, March 09, 2007
Hear new music for the 20-string koto on this New Sounds. The Japanese koto is an ancient instrument, but in fact there is only new music written for the 20-string version, which wasn’t invented until the 1960s by composer Minoru Miki. Koto player Yumi Kurosawa and shakuhachi (flute) master James Nyoraku Schlefer play live works for flute and koto in our studio. Also, music for 20-string koto by the late Tadao Sawai.
Gotham - a Filmic Symphony
Thursday, March 08, 2007
On this New Sounds, Listen to Michael Gordon’s “Gotham,” a filmic symphony in collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison. “Gotham,” brought to life by the team at the Ridge Theatre who put together Gordon’s 2001 multi-media experience “Decasia,” is structured along the Decasia model with the city of New York as its subject and star. The live concert version incorporates projections (including an opening sequence with a sheep), re-edited archival film, multi-tiered sets, and musicians who sometimes seem actually to inhabit the projected environment. For this program, these two artists discuss their ongoing collaboration of new music and old decaying silent film prints.
New Music for Dance
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Originally presented as a multimedia dance piece choreographed by Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Ken Field's "Under the Skin" is an extended suite of pulsing studies for multiple saxophones, acoustic and electric bass, drums, and percussion. Composer and saxophonist Ken Field, in addition to his Sesame Street cred, has worked for nearly two decades with Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, and more recently, with the Mardi gras-riffic Revolutionary Snake Ensemble. For this score, he pre-recorded himself playing with the rhythm section of bassist Jesse Williams and drummer Phil Neighbors, often overdubbing several saxophone parts on top of each other for a resulting score that is part jazz, part funk, playful, driving, flip, and filled with life and humor. We'll hear some of that score on this New Sounds program, plus a lot more.
New Celtic Music
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
For this New Sounds program, there’s a helping of Celtic music from the non-compromising traditional band Altan, named after the deep and mysterious lake behind Errigal Mountain in Donegal. The group was born of a combination of old Donegal fiddle music and unusual Northern flute tunes and later added a bouzouki-player a guitarist, a second fiddler and an accordion player. Their sound benefits from a deep knowledge and love of other music, as well as Irish, ranging through rock, blues, jazz and country to classical. Also on the show is the most recent record by Canadian singer Mary Jane Lamond – “Storas” (treasures.) Lamond elegantly delivers Scottish Gaelic ballads using modern instruments and progressive arrangements driven by the desire to let the songs breathe. Plus, music from the huge and expressive voice of singer/songwriter Susan McKeown, not just a Celtic singer, but an interpreter who can easily bridge into folk, rock, pop and blues. All that and a whole lot more.
Music, Nature, and Technology
Monday, March 05, 2007
"There is music in nature and nature in music. What may be most wonderful is that we can love and be immersed by both without needing to understand how the two are forever intertwined. It is enough to know that they are," says musician, composer, author and philosopher-naturalist David Rothenberg in "A Sense of Soundscape." Possibly on another side of the spectrum, is the musician and artist known as Scanner, a.k.a Robin Rimbaud, whose audio works range from the use of ‘found sound’ conversations which earned him the nickname ‘telephone terrorist’ to meditative use of tape-loops, ambient albums, and composed electronic soundscapes for film and ballet. For this New Sounds, listen to in-studio performance of music for clarinet and two laptops by David Rothenberg and the audio artist Scanner. Look forward to music with recordings of nightingales, grasshoppers, crickets, Beluga whales and an orgy of copulating animals.
You're From Where?
Sunday, March 04, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, look forward to unexpected collaborations across the continents, from Podjama & Saraswati, the Euro-jazz and Balinese gamelan project to Baka Beyond, the African-Celtic crossover band inspired by the music of a pygmy community in West Africa. Plus hear music by Bachir Attar, Frank London’s Brotherhood of Brass, and Charlie Mariano & The Karnataka College of Percussion.
Live Crafty Guitars
Saturday, March 03, 2007
On this edition of New Sounds, listen to an in-studio performance by the group Zum, an international guitar ensemble consisting of members of Robert Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitarists. The members of ZUM have been working in Guitar Craft for nearly a decade and have a knack for gorgeous and dynamic arrangements of works by Astor Piazzolla, the Beatles, and a wide range inbetween. Also on the program, there’s music from Bigtime, another international group who have worked in Guitar Craft, (they would have joined us live too, but for visa troubles), and more.
New Music from Spain
Friday, March 02, 2007
Mainly new music from Spain fills this New Sounds program. Listen to the flamenco blend of the unconventional cross-pollinators, Son de la Frontera. Their pounding flamenco footsteps over thundering guitars toes the line of Spanish-based traditions, and mixes in beats and melodies from Cuba, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. Also, there’s electroacoustic music from self-confessed musical alchemists Radio Tarifa. This trio draws from a wide variety of folkloric traditions: Castillian, Andalusian, Japanese, with diversions to Renaissance music just to keep you guessing. Plus, the “terrifyingly good technique” of Juan Martin (according to the Spanish paper El Mundo) as showcased in some medieval-inspired flamenco. And much more.
Chatter and Soundscapes
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Hear Paul Lansky's hiphop-inspired 'chatter' piece, on this edition of New Sounds. "Wordless. Chatter of Pins," is a response to an invitation by Keith and Mende Obadike to contribute a track of music inspired by hiphop. Also from his new release, Music Box, listen to the introverted lyricism of his "Pavane Noir." Plus, music by soprano saxophonist, improviser/composer, and acoustician Jonas Braasch. From his recent "Global Reflections," we'll hear pieces formed with nature's ability to align independent events to form interesting patterns. That and much more.
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