wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

On Demand

Program Schedule

Topics

New Sounds Archive

  • 1998
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
  • 1997
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
  • 1996
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
  • 1995
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
  • 1994
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
  • 1993
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
  • 1992
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
  • 1969
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec

April 2007

April 2007 New Releases

Monday, April 30, 2007

It's that time of the month again for our monthly program of new releases. John Schaefer once again picks through the spring flood of CDs that have been sent to his office to find new releases worthy of showcasing in tonight's program. [Oh if only we'd had a wide-angle lens to capture the REST of the office, and not merely the desk...]


Reimaginings

Sunday, April 29, 2007

For this New Sounds program, listen to an hour of unusual covers of popular songs. Hear Charles Lloyd's long and bleak take of Jacques Brel's chanson “Ne Me Quitte Pas" (If You Go Away.) Also, Vijay Iyer plays a radical solo piano version of John Lennon's "Imagine." Plus, “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” as rendered by Andy Haas and Don Fiorino, along with music from The Bad Plus and more.


To The Moon, Alice!

Saturday, April 28, 2007

For this New Sounds program, hear songs to the moon, about the moon, and higher than the moon. From Schoenberg to Pink Floyd, along with songs about Luna and lunacy by Savina Yannatou, John Cale, and Susana Baca, this nocturnal hour will be packed full of ebbs and flows. Plus, there’s music by Osvaldo Golijov, Daniel Melingo and Nick Drake, to name a few more.


Mellits, the "Post-Minimalist"

Friday, April 27, 2007

For this New Sounds episode, listen to “Brick” by Marc Mellits. The Baltimore-born composer wrote the piece for his mother, and most of the piece relates directly to her. Some movements seem to have been drawn from Mellits’ life experiences like “Purple Dandelion,” about the weeds that he’d picked for her when he was small; “Red Hammer,” so named after the Arnold Schwarzenegger of hammers, which was passed to him from his grandfather. Other movements might be entirely play, as Mellits likes to play rhythmic games, of which he says, “in a way, it is they that actually hold the music together, like the bricks in a house that are positioned in certain patterns, and still support the structure.” This new work, co-commissioned by WNYC through the Cheswatyr New Music Initiative, has already been taken on tour by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.


West Africa Unwired

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Listen to some acoustic music from an area now known largely for its electric Afropop on this New Sounds. We'll hear some works from West African singer and kora players Ballake Sissoko, Toumani Diabate and Mory Kante along with tunes from acoustic guitar legends Baaba Maal, Mansour Seck and Boubacar Traore - mostly from the recent compilation partnership with Amnesty International and Oxfam, "Think Global: West Africa Unwired." Plus, other bluesy sounds from Mali, Wodaabe music from the Sahelian savannah and Manding rhythms, and perhaps music from Senegalese star Youssou N'Dour as well.


Beats and Loops

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

For this New Sounds, listen to music by Rich O’Meara and Richard McCandless for percussion and electronics. Combining the broad sound spectrum of percussion and electronics with the intimacy of chamber music, McCandless's works are fully composed, while O'Meara's can sometimes blend composed and improvised elements. We'll hear McCandless’s "Voyager" for percussion and tape along with O’Meara's "Island Spinning" for vibraphone and four recorded marimbas. And much more.


"Voices of Light" Live

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concerts at World Financial Center, listen to the Richard Einhorn oratorio “Voices of Light” - music written to accompany the great silent film “The Passion of Joan of Arc.” Ensemble Sospeso, Anonymous 4, the New Amsterdam Chorus, and vocal soloists, led by conducter David Hattner perform at the WFC’s Winter Garden.


Inbetween Lines

Monday, April 23, 2007

For this program, hear some electroacoustic ensemble music that falls between conventional lines of musical categories, always a good thing on New Sounds. Listen to music from the group called Kneebody, who make jazz groove rock with wailing horn lines and crunchy guitars. There's also electro-acoustic techtronica, some veering into slapstick territory, from Secret Mommy, aka Andy Dixon. Perhaps some music from Jerome Sabbagh, featuring guitarist Ben Monder, and more.


New Music for Cello

Sunday, April 22, 2007

On this edition of New Sounds, listen to an hour of new music for cello, including music from cellist David Darling and The Wulu Bunun, an aboriginal tribe living in Taiwan. Also, hear the latest from Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Journeys- “Beyond the Horizon,” more collaboration with virtuoso musicians like China's pipa master Wu Man, and Armenian duduk player Gevorg Dabaghyan. Plus Chinese-born New York-based composer Tan Dun’s multimedia cello concerto called “The Map,” featuring the overtone singing style known as “Tongue Singing” of the young women of the Dong people of mainland China. And rounding out the show is music by French-Canadian singer-cellist Jorane.


Musical Storytellers

Saturday, April 21, 2007

For this New Sounds, read the titles and guess the theme of the show. Hear music by Neil Rolnick, and his “The Real Thief of Baghdad,” along with a work by Mikel Rouse entitled “A President up My Sleeve.” Plus, listen to Phil Kline's settings of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's unintentional poetry, “Three Rumsfeld Songs” and more.


Live Bang on a Can

Friday, April 20, 2007

On this New Sounds show, experience The Bang On A Can All-Stars, in concert. Listen to live recordings from several concerts by the All-Stars, including works by Marc Mellits, Brian Eno, Kurt Cobain/arranged by Evan Ziporyn, and Thurston Moore.


Mostly Acoustic Impressions

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Curran's electroacoustic classic, "Songs and Views from the Magnetic Garden" combines chanting, singing, the bells of Rome, the lapping of the ocean, and many other sounds, to create something of an impressionist cast. We'll hear that work along with other acoustic pieces on this edition of New Sounds. Listen for a water work by Takashi Kako which uses fluid, expressive colors while combining classical technique and improvisation - his Prelude dans L'eau. Also, works by Mark Pollard and Will Ackerman.


Carnival Comes to Town

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

On this New Sounds, it’s all about horns, groove, and the urge to shake one’s money-maker. Hear the latest from Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars, a Klezmer/Balkan/Brazilian/New Orleans-inspired collection “Carnival Conspiracy.” This record might help to temporarily reverse the social order, shake things up, and shock people into new ways of experiencing the world – along with bringing together the intellectual, the booty shaker, and the Hasid. Plus it’s fun! Also, listen for the combined sound of military brass bands, voodoo ritual chants and rhythms, scratchy American jazz records, with a dash of Fela’s Afrobeat that is Benin’s Gangbé Brass Band. And more over-caffeinated music from the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, something from the famed Wild Magnolias of New Orleans, and maybe we can make way for the Rebirth Brass Band.


New Music from Holland

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Home to one of Europe’s most active new music scenes, the small country of Holland has produced some big names in the music world. On this edition of New Sounds, we’ll hear from Louis Andriessen, Cornelius de Bondt, Jacob Ter Veldhuis (aka Jacob TV), Simeon Ten Holt, and more.


Classics Remixed

Monday, April 16, 2007

For this New Sounds program, DJ technology meets the concert hall as Miguel Kertsman remixes music from Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 while Uri Caine does the same for Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Also, we'll hear from the albums "Reich Remixed" and Handel’s Messiah Remixed, among others.


Hammers and Sticks

Sunday, April 15, 2007

It’s an action-packed hour of beatings on this edition of New Sounds with music for pianos, marimbas, and pianos together with marimbas. Listen to a somber and melodic new work for piano and percussion by Belinda Reynolds simply called “Play.” Also, from the Australian composer Ross Edwards, “serious” yet exuberant “Marimba Dances,” featuring rhythms derived from insect calls. Plus, music by Marimolin, a combination of marimbist Nancy Zeltsman and violinist Sharan Leventhal. Rounding out the show is a drifting piece for three pianos by composer Kyle Gann, “Long Night.”


Digital Dervish

Saturday, April 14, 2007

With one foot in Montréal, and one foot dancing and lingering in his native Turkey, the 21st century dervish Mercan Dede has taken the electronic groove and beats out of the DJ booth and melded them to traditional instruments like the darbouka, santur, and ney. The result is something like Arabic techno-folk and on this New Sounds, Dede presents tracks from his latest record, “Su.” The name means “Water,” and the CD features collaborations with Indian singer Susheela Raman, TransGlobal Underground sitarist Sheema Mukherjee, Tunisian singer Dhafer Youssef, and many others.


Guitar Marathon 2006

Friday, April 13, 2007

For this New Sounds program, there’s new music from the New York Guitar Festival Marathon 2006 at the 92nd Street Y, “450 Years of Spanish Guitar.” Listen to three newly commissioned world-premiere compositions — all inspired by Spanish themes: "Los Cambios Quedan Igual," by Gyan Riley for classical guitar; Variations on “La Follia” by Dominic Frasca, for guitar and laptop; and “Memorial” by Bryce Dessner, for guitar, viola, and percussion. There’s a Flamenco impression left by Riley’s work coupled with bluesy bends, while Dessner's piece is inspired by the traditions of ornamentation and improvisation in Spanish and Italian Renaissance lute music. And Frasca’s untitled piece, for 10-string guitar and computer, is a set of variations on La Follia, a well-known theme (based on a Spanish folk melody) that has been used in Western music since the Renaissance. These works and much more.


Guitar Hero

Thursday, April 12, 2007

No, not the game. Rather, Glenn Jones plays live music in our studio on guitar, in a style reminiscent of the late American guitar master John Fahey. Jones, an intimate guitarist coming from the American primitive guitar school, (for “primitive,” think raw and pure, rather than in relation to the over-produced pop which dominates most radio) is a member of the avant-rock band Cul de Sac, and has just-released his second solo CD, "Against Which the Sea Continually Beats." Plus, music by John Fahey.


Crash on in, Live!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy presents the American debut of the large electro-acoustic Crash Ensemble,in a piece that also uses tradition Irish sean nos singing; plus a work for piano and live electronics.


Trio Mediaeval Live

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, listen to Norway’s Trio Mediaeval perform a set of early music, alongside contemporary works written for them, and arrangements of Nordic folksong.


Not Exactly "Jazz"

Monday, April 09, 2007

What if you can’t quite call it “jazz”? Well, then it’ll probably end up on this New Sounds program, which is chock full of music that is jazzy, but not “jazz.” There’s music from the Benevento Russo Duo, two soul mates who take keyboards and drums and bring them to looser, scruffier, and funkier heights of rock-influenced chamber jazz. Also, listen to mysterious musical narratives by Robert Stillman, who takes saxophone, clarinet, drums, pump organs and out-of-tune old pianos to make something delicate and urgent, and sort of “jazzy,” even. Then there’s also the eclectic, mixed-up playfulness of Aksak Maboul, a band who squish together Gypsy music; primitive drum machines and demented "human sequencer" organ lines, along with assorted snatches of fake ethnic, fake jazz or fake classical music. Rounding out the show is music by the Lounge Lizards, who draw on anything from James Brown, Indian brass-band music, and Nino Rota to create their “not jazz” blend.


More Lullabies

Sunday, April 08, 2007

This New Sounds programs offers more lullabies – a whole hour of nocturnal works by Meredith Monk, Natacha Atlas, Taj Mahal, Harold Budd, and many others. From a new recording with the Brodsky Quartet, hear Meredith Monk’s wordless invocation, “Gotham Lullaby.” Also, listen to “Adam’s Lullaby,” a collaboration between English composer Jocelyn Pook and singer Natacha Atlas, whose Arabic vocals are lushly enveloped by the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Plus, lullabies from the Balanescu Quartet inspired by "Romania’s Edith Piaf," Maria Tanase.


Radiohead Revisited

Saturday, April 07, 2007

The English rock band Radiohead has attracted an unusual amount of attention from other-than-rock musicians. On this edition of New Sounds, listen to arrangements of their songs by Christopher O’Riley, Brad Mehldau, Geoff Keezer, Russell Donnellon, and a Radiohead piece built on a sample of electronic music by composer Paul Lansky.


Opening the Chamber Music

Friday, April 06, 2007

The distinctive and riveting saxophonist Ornette Coleman (arguably the pioneer of the free jazz movement), continuously defies categorization. On this New Sounds, we'll hear from his latest original, innovative, and groundbreaking release called "Sound Grammar," the first in over 10 years. Also, we'll sample some small ensemble works from Nico Muhly, who toes the lines between folktronica, pop, chamber, and minimalism on his release "Speaks Volumes." Plus, chamber music from a duo with inspirational roots in Argentinean traditions from bandoneon giant Dino Saluzzi and German cellist Anja Lechner. And much more.


"Rock Me Amadeus," part 3

Thursday, April 05, 2007

For part three of this New Sounds series, there's music from vocalist Bobby McFerrin and jazz pianist Chick Corea’s collaboration “The Mozart Sessions.” Also, English minimalist composer Michael Nyman builds his film score “Drowning By Numbers” around a Mozart Sinfonia Concertante and American Larry Austin creates a computer-driven Sinfonia Concertante that he subtitles “A Mozartean Episode.” Plus the Hampton String Quartet asks “What If Mozart Wrote ‘Born to Be Wild’?”


"Rock Me Amadeus," part 2

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

New Sounds continues the mistreatment of Mozart's music with the second of a three night series of programs. Listen to music from the influential Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s score “M is for Man, Music, Mozart.” Despite the “Mozart” in the title, there's a strong undercurrent of jazz in the piece. Plus, hear Brubeck's classic "Blue Rondo a la Turk," and American composer Robert Moran's Agnus Dei for Mozart’s unfinished Requiem. Rounding out the show, the world music band Brave Combo offers a somewhat kooky and rollicking polka version of Mozart’s “Rondo A La Turca.”


“Rock Me Amadeus,” part 1

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

On this edition of New Sounds, listen to the first of a three-part series “Rock Me Amadeus.” Hear from the unclassifiable cult musician Pascal Comelade, who has worked with PJ Harvey and Robert Wyatt, among others, in his long career as a non-musician who reclaims the subversive, iconoclastic and ironic spirit of the “avant-garde” Expect something prog-rockish perhaps with toy instruments, as the Frenchman sets to music a letter from Mozart to his young cousin. Mozart and his music are also treated rudely by German electronic pioneer Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream), American computer music wiz Carl Stone, and French world music producer Hughes Courson. Plus, composer/bassist Edgar Meyer bases his double concerto for himself and Yo Yo Ma on an earlier Mozart double concerto.


Music from Ireland

Monday, April 02, 2007

Now that the green beer has been cleaned up, listen to jaw-dropping works by accordion wiz Niall Vallely, and music from the groundbreaking 70s Celtic Folk supergroup Planxty. Plus, we'll hear from the contemporary group Dervish, who play traditional music from Sligo in the north west of Ireland and much more.


American Roots

Sunday, April 01, 2007

For this edition of New Sounds, there’s music by master guitarist Brandon Ross, a versatile musician who has worked with the likes of Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, Oliver Lake, and Cassandra Wilson. Listen to selections from his brilliant new CD, “Costume,’ which runs the gamut from acoustic guitar to twangily intense banjo, cornet to Chinese flute, and features the poetry and vocals of Sadiq Bey. But wait, there’s more. Hear the Turtle Island String Quartet play a slightly twisted but affectionate work dedicated to and named for the painter Grant Wood, known best for his “American Gothic.” Plus, a deconstructionist fantasy on “Louie Louie” from environmentalist mayor, former MTV rocker, and composer Phillip Kent Bimstein.