On Demand
WNYC's Coverage of the Republican National Convention
Live performances in Soundcheck's studios
Studio 360: Patti LuPone on playing Mama Rose
Selected Shorts featuring "The Trouble of Marcie Flint," by John Cheever
Radio Rookies: Brooklyn Broadcast Workshop
On the Media: Surviving Convention Coverage
Street Shots Challenge
New Sounds Archive
April 2008
New Releases April 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
It's that time again for the monthly program of new releases. John Schaefer picks through the bucketloads of CDs that have flooded his inbox to find new releases worthy of showcasing in tonight's program. Fact: a favorite game in the office is "Don't Tip the Waiter" making use of the stacks of CDs waiting for airplay on John's desk...
By the People, 2007
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
From the New Sounds Live concert series, 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.
Of Battleships and Baby Carriages
Monday, April 28, 2008
Back in February of 2008, New Sounds Live presented another in our silent film series: Sergei Eisenstein’s "Battleship Potemkin," featuring a new score from clarinet powerhouse David Krakauer and beat scientist Socalled, commissioned by Arts>World Financial Center. A visit to the legendary city of Odessa, (the location for Sergei Eisenstein’s classic, Battleship Potemkin), was the catalyst for these musicians’ first collaborative film composition. Hear the results on this New Sounds program.
New Music for Arab Lute
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Music for Arab lutes dominates this New Sounds program. Listen to Kabul-stylings of the Afghan rubâb player Homayun Sakhi, who is heir to a musical lineage steeped in the North Indian classical tradition. Also, there’s “shiny” oud music by a trio of brothers, Le Trio Joubran, sons in a long line of a family of luthiers, in this case, oud-crafters. Their music willfully plays with dividing lines between music of the classical Arab world and Indian classical music, Spanish flamenco, and American jazz. Plus, there’s spacious and absorbing trio work from the Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem, who is joined by Jean-Louis Matinier on accordion and François Couturier on piano.
Downtown Gamelan
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Listen to the clangorous sounds of gamelan-inspired music from New York’s "downtown" scene on this New Sounds. Gamelan is a group of instruments meant to be played together, generally struck or hammered, from the Javanese, "gamel," and can include tuned metallophones, various gongs, flutes, drums and other percussion. Hear works from the new music ensemble Gamelan Son of Lion, whose instruments were built by Barbara Benary using hubcaps, PVC pipes, steel keys and cans. There’s also music from composer David Simons, whose instrument textures range from theremin to the chain saw, and from the Slinky® to gamelan. Plus, music by Patrick Grant, and more.
Music for Women's Voices and Strings
Friday, April 25, 2008
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.
The Bushy-Wushy Rag
Thursday, April 24, 2008
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!"
2007 People's Commissioning Fund, Part 1
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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.
Organ Transplants
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
No longer the purview of churches and concert halls, the organ has made its way into new music. Hear several works on this New Sounds that pull out the stops, including music by Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Keith Jarrett, the Benevento-Russo Duo, and more.
Border-Bashing Combinations
Monday, April 21, 2008
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.
Story Ballads
Sunday, April 20, 2008
For this New Sounds, gather round for some story ballads, old and new. Traditional British and American ballads from Fairport Convention, Darol Anger, and Traffic meet their contemporary descendants in songs by The Knitters (members of X), Bill Morrissey, and The Decemberists. Listen to selections ranging from the story of the ill-fated leader of the Peasant’s Revolt to burials at sea, and possibly a version of "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair. Perhaps even a murder ballad will grace the mix, and more.
Indigenous Shrinking World
Saturday, April 19, 2008
For this New Sounds, sample some music whose instrumentation, tuning, and blend of styles reflects the collision of East and West, old and new, composed and improvised. This "indigenous music for a shrinking world" includes music by Ken Schaphorst, this time in a trio setting, from his release Indigenous Technology, which layers rich textures of cello, piano, and marimba. Plus, there’s music by Steven Mackey, whose work “Indigenous Instruments,” sounds like folk music from an invented world, what with the microtones, extended techniques and unusual sounds. And more.
The Doctor Is In
Friday, April 18, 2008
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.
Hardcore Folk
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Listen for the driving drone-based sound of bagpipes and the hurdy-gurdy from the English band Blowzabella on this New Sounds. Sample the Warsaw Village Band, punk-ass hard-rocking folk from Poland who also use the occasional hurdy-gurdy. We'll hear the reels and revels of Celtic folk via Quebec from Le Vent Du Nord (The Wind Of The North), oh - yes, perhaps with a side of hurdy-gurdy. There’s also music from Italy by the singer and sax player Enzo Avitabile based on a 14th Century tradition of turning farm implements into musical instruments. Plus, music from Scotland and a whole lot more.
Songs and Poems
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Composer Philip Glass and cellist Wendy Sutter present Glass's major new seven-movement work for solo cello, "Songs and Poems" for this edition of New Sounds. The pieces are intense, dark, and beautiful, at times reminiscent of Bach and but also steeped in the romantics. There is definitely an awareness of using the cello’s range to sing and approximate the human voice, and Sutter’s playing is lyrical and warm, invoking comparisons to late Mstislav Rostropovich, and less brutal Janos Starker. We’ll hear highlights from the recording, which also contains “Tissues,” for cello, piano and percussion (2002), written for the original soundtrack recording to Godfrey Reggio's Naqoyqatsi.
Sidewalk Saints
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
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.
Variations with Pulsing Strings
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Daniel Variations by Steve Reich brings together the biblical Book of Daniel and is a kind of memorial to the slain journalist Daniel Pearl. Nonesuch has recently released this work along with Reich's Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings. We'll hear the some of these Variations, and a larger work by John Adams on this edition of New Sounds.
New York-based Ensembles
Sunday, April 13, 2008
For this edition of New Sounds, tenor saxophonist Paul Shapiro stops by to present tracks from his latest exuberant release, “It’s in the Twilight” (another in John Zorn’s Radical Jewish Culture series.) The record is full of playful interactions that might be best described as Cuban-Jewish Blue Note soul that jumps, jives, and swings, while somehow merging the secular and the spiritual throughout. Listen for a traditional Passover Seder tune arranged for the band. Also, hear from drummer Bobby Previte’s latest project - The Coalition of the Willing - an all-star band doing guitar fueled instrumental rock/jazz, and much more.
Blues Fallin' Down Like Rain, part 3
Saturday, April 12, 2008
For this New Sounds, hear still more excerpts from the NY Guitar Festival concert series, reinterpretations of classic blues by Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Elizabeth Cotten, and Charlie Patton. Some of the live performers included Jorma Kaukonen, Taj Mahal, Toshi Reagon, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and many more.
New Music For Trombones
Friday, April 11, 2008
According to Daniel Goode, "there is a very special modernist tradition of writing for multiples of a single instrument." To be sure, Goode, the composer-performer member of Gamelan Son of Lion, has taken this idea and expanded on it, writing for a "flexible orchestra" made of multiple trombones AND contrasting timbres of other, smaller, differing groupings. We'll hear his work, "Annbling," on this edition of New Sounds. We'll also listen to the "Mass for Massed Trombones" (77 of them!) by Wendy Mae Chambers, along with works by Steven Peters and Stuart Dempster, among others.
Unconventional Concert Music
Thursday, April 10, 2008
There's music boxes, oboe d'amore, grand piano innards, electric bass and cello all on this one New Sounds program. Listen for some music by Eleanor Hovda, featuring oboe d'amore and electric bass. Then, there's music inspired by, and in memory of John Lennon by Aaron Jay Kernis. Plus, John Morton's unusual sound source of music boxes, sampled, processed, and then combined with piano and guitar. And more.
New Jazz or Nu-Jazz?
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
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.
American West
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Listen to music inspired by the American West on this New Sounds including a work by John Adams for two pianos called “Hallelujah Junction,” named for a small truck stop on Highway 49 in the High Sierras on the California-Nevada border. Plus, there's an excerpt from the Piano Concerto #2- "After Lewis & Clark"- by Philip Glass, along with music by Sasha Matson and Ingram Marshall.
20-String Slinger
Monday, April 07, 2008
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.
Music from East Africa
Sunday, April 06, 2008
It’s a musical journey through an overlooked part of Africa, with excerpts from the Ethiopiques series, the new Zanzibara series, and recordings by Nursery Boys, Samite, and more. For this program, we’ll dip into the Ethiopiques series, so far numbering 21 in a series of 30 releases, all kinds of hypnotic groove from the "golden" years of the late '60s and early '70s in "swinging" Addis Ababa. Hear the ska, funk, and blues which permeated the Ethiopian pop and jazz music of the day, some with ferocious horns, some with swirls of Latino and Middle Eastern sounds as well. Plus, there’s orchestral taarab music from the island of Zanzibar – from the brand new series called Zanzibara. With oud, ney, qanun (zither) and frame drum, augmented with violins and accordion, it’s a blend of sounds from the Arab world, India, Indonesia and the West, combined with the classical traditions of Swahili poetry, local rhythm and melody. And more.
Mobile, Solo Kotche
Saturday, April 05, 2008
The percussionist Glenn Kotche, best known as the drummer for the band Wilco, joins host John Schaefer for a tour through his new solo CD "Mobile," on this edition of New Sounds. It's an incredible feat that somehow Kotche plays with the patterns of Steve Reich's "Clapping Music," takes apart the Nonesuch Explorer recordings of Shona Mbira music, works through mobile sculpture, negative space and Wilco drumbeats, and nods to percussionists Tony Allen and Ed Blackwell in just 8 tracks. For the crowning masterpiece of the CD, he uses live crickets (looped), plastic piping, vibraphone, springs, gongs, orchestral bells, and a fruit basket to create an original percussive rendering of the "Monkey Chant," based on the Ramayana story of the abduction of Sita and her subsequent rescue by an army of monkeys.
New Music for Dance
Friday, April 04, 2008
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.
Piano Songs and Solos
Thursday, April 03, 2008
For this New Sounds, we'll hear from Melody Mountain by Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, along with the raspy singing and trigonometrical melodies of 101 Crustaceans' Ed Pastorini. Also, listen to music by Seth Kaufman, Francesco Tristano, and perhaps even something new by Meredith Monk.
New Medieval German Music
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
For this New Sounds, take a new look at the medieval German music, especially the Carmina Burana - the surprisingly earthy songs by monks which inspired Carl Orff's famous oratorio of that name. Listen to takes on these songs from a brand new record by John Potter and The Dowland Project. There's also something from the Berry Hayward Consort, music from Estampie, and more.
Music, Nature, and Technology
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
"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.
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