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
July 2008
New Releases July 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
It's that time of the month again for the new releases show on New Sounds. Now that the dust has cleared from the move, John Schaefer carefully sorts through the stacks, and boatloads of new CDs which have actually reached his desk over the past month to present some of the finest new releases. What we can see from here includes the new release from Nico Muhly, "Mothertongue," an opera from John Adams, based on a south Indian fairy tale, "A Flowering Tree," and a beautiful collection of choral music by Tarik O'Regan. All this and much more.
Bang On A Can Marathon 2008, Part II
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
There's more music from the 2008 edition of new music’s biggest annual party, the Bang On A Can Marathon at the World Financial Center. For this New Sounds, expect music from Caleb Burhans, who is running in multiple music circles these days, with Alarm Will Sound, and the chamber duo itsnotyouitsme, along with his vocal career as a countertenor. We'll also hear old Brian Eno, his work "Discreet Music" as played by the ensemble Contact, and a recent work by Steve Reich, "The Daniel Variations." Plus, music by Bora Yoon, a multi-instrumentalist/composer who DJ Spooky has called "a one-woman orchestra." And more.
A Musical Travelogue
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Listen to a musical tour through cities of Eastern Europe (mostly) on this New Sounds program. There's music from German composers Max Richter, and the mischievous Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann), along with Italian Ludovico Einaudi, and Serbian-American composer Milos Raickovich. Hear musical portraits of Prague, Belgrade, Warsaw, and Yerevan, the Armenian capital. Plus, a musical portrait of Baghdad.
World Music and Then Some
Monday, July 28, 2008
For this New Sounds, we'll hear from Nawal, a singer from the Comoros Islands, whose acoustic-accompanied songs and trance-inducing chants draw from her Sufi heritage and Indian Ocean island rhythms. Also, guitarist and singer Tcheka plays an alluring hybrid of traditional Cape Verdean music and sun-kissed jazz. His second album, Nu Monda, won him the prestigious Radio France International “World Music Prize.” Plus, there's music from the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, a global cast of immigrant musicians based in Rome, and more.
New English Choral Music
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Up on this New Sounds program, hear some new choral music representing three different generations of English choral composers, including the recently premiered work "Path of Miracles" by Joby Talbot. Based around the 500-mile Catholic pilgrimage from Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees to the grave of St James at Santiago di Compostella in north-west Spain, the a capella song cycle’s four movements move with the ancient pilgrimage through privation and celebration. There’s also music by Ivan Moody, his Canticum Canticorum I, written for the Hilliard Ensemble. Plus, hear some of the mystical minimalism of John Tavener.
New Irish Folk
Saturday, July 26, 2008
This New Sounds is devoted to new music from the Irish folk tradition, including music by the late Mícheál O Domhnaill. O Domhnaill was a guitarist who, according to some, created the blueprint for subtle and driving guitar accompaniment in Irish music. The guitarist and composer helped found one of the pivotal bands in the Irish folk revival, The Bothy Band, and went on to form the US-based outfits Nightnoise, Relativity, Puck Fair, and to play in various other settings that often moved well beyond the Gaelic tradition.
The Brazilian Guitar
Friday, July 25, 2008
Listen to highlights from the New York Guitar Festival Brazil-athon at the 92 Street Y from early 2008, featuring live music by Sergio Assad and Odair Assad, and the amazing 7-string player Yamandu Costa. Plus, there's music from Brazilian jazz guitar whiz Romero Lumbambo and something from guitarist/composer/singer/percussionist Celso Machado, among others.
Music With Narration
Thursday, July 24, 2008
For this New Sounds, there's an hour of offbeat words and music. From Aussie composer Ernie Althoff to Toby Twining with John Ventimiglia (from "The Sopranos"), we'll hear tales of misbehaving robots, blows to the head, and what our future looks like - maybe. Listen to "Saturday Stories" by Ernie Althoff along with "Wandering" by Toby Twining. Plus, David Byrne's "In The Future" and David Lang's "Are You Experienced."
Bang on a Can Marathon 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Hear excerpts from new music's biggest annual event - the 2008 edition of the annual Bang On A Can Marathon, recorded live at the World Financial Center on this edition of New Sounds. There's music from Alarm Will Sound tackling the Beatles' Revolution #9, and perhaps a bit of post-rock pulsetronica from Dan Deacon. Plus, the Crash Ensemble performs Terry Riley's recent work "Loops for Ancient Giant Hairy Nude Warriors Racing Down the Slopes of Battle" complete with electric guitar and ass-whooping distortion. And much more.
World of Choral Music
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
For this New Sounds, listen to choral music from around the world. Hear works from the Republic of Georgia and Corsica, along with the Ensemble Organum. Plus, gorgeous music from UK composer Joby Talbot, and more.
Much Ado About Water
Monday, July 21, 2008
What would there be without water? For this New Sounds, there'll be concert works aplenty about - and even using - water. Hear a piece from Karen Tanaka, called "Water And Stone" which draws on her love of nature and concern for the environment. Also, there's Tan Dun's work, "Water Passion" which actually incorporates the sound of water, and water stones (specified to have been taken from a river or the ocean.) Plus, music from Uakti, whose instruments are made of glass, wood, metal, water, PVC pipe tubes, and other found objects; one such instrument is the "aqualung," which is played by running water through it. We'll hear music from their release "I Ching." And much more.
New Music from South Asia
Sunday, July 20, 2008
For this New Sounds, experience gamelan pop from Indonesia, by Uun Budiman and the Jugala Gamelan Orchestra. Budinam Uun, got her start singing for puppet theatres, but was recruited to sing in the Jugala Orchestra led by Gugum Gumbira. It’s definitely a new and unusual unique sound, sort of a combo plate of traditional gamelan-type music with a bit of pop song form to it. Plus, there’s Indian classical music by the sitar master Shujaat Husain Khan from the most recent release "Gayaki Ang," where he "avoids the lure of showy, pointlessly virtuosistic playing" and opts instead for a more languid, fluid feeling. And lots more.
Slightly Eccentric Journey
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Michael Brook, the longtime electric guitarist, producer, instrument builder, inspired collaborator and composer joins us for this New Sounds program. He is responsible for the music behind the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," and contributed compositions to Gregory Colbert’s traveling exhibition, “Ashes and Snow,” and has scored the film "Who Killed the Electric Car," which premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Inventor of the "infinite guitar," the Canadian ambient composer has done extensive work with Brian Eno, worked on many musical creations involving 4AD artists, contributed to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s “Mustt Mustt” and collaborated with him for “Night Song.” Brook’s latest solo release is called "RockPaperScissors," and he’ll present selections from this “slightly eccentric” travelogue, (along with tunes from a storied 25-year career of making music with folks like Daniel Lanois, Brian Ferry, The Pogues, and the Armenian duduk flute master Djivan Gasparayan.)
Cherchez la femme
Friday, July 18, 2008
Contrary to the origins of the phrase, this New Sounds program showcases works celebrating the female voice. Hear music that spans centuries and crosses cultures, including creations from Lisa Gerrard, Mediaeval Baebes, and Muriel Louveau. Also, Canadian vocalist and composer Laurel MacDonald contributes richly-textured music featuring eclectic instrumentation and soundscapes concocted by producer and sound designer Philip Strong. And the co-founders of Elysian Fields Jennifer Charles & Oren Bloedow team up for renditions of Sephardic and Ladino songs.
Relentless Minimalism
Thursday, July 17, 2008
This New Sounds program hails the return of the long out-of-print KMH: Music in the Continuous Mode, a remarkable blend of technical virtuosity and relentless minimalism from the Ukrainian/Canadian composer Lubomyr Melnyk. Melnyk's music is dramatic enough for the stage yet meditative enough for deep listening, an approach he developed while working with dancer/choreographer Carolyn Carlson in Paris during the 1970's. Somehow lush and full, his pianistic minimalism is executed at a speed that suggests multiple pianos playing together in harmony. Also on the show, Philip Glass's musical portrait of Chuck Close, and other keyboard works.
New Music for Guitar
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Listen to music for guitars, acoustic and electric, and sometimes both on this New Sounds, including a bit from guitarist Andy Bole from a reissue of his 1984 “Ramshackle Pier.” Bole is a fret-whiz, adeptly handling bouzouki, mandolin, and Weissenborn acoustic slide guitar with the greatest of ease. Also, we’ll hear Stewart Wallace’s - “Blind Woman Hashkiveinu,” a bit from a larger piece called “Skvera for Electric Guitar and Orchestra,” which takes a refrain from the Hashkiveinu and repeats it over and over again, each time more aggressively. Written for the guitarist Marc Ribot, the work was inspired by a trip to Skvera, the shtetl Wallace’s grandparents left at the time of the Russian revolution to come to America. Plus, music from guitarist/composer Michael Nicolella’s release “Shard” and more.
Unusual Lead Instruments
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
For this New Sounds, hear from a parade of instruments you might never have expected to be front and center. Listen to music from composer and sound artist John Morton, whose manually and electronically reconfigured music boxes are pulled apart, sampled and then finished off with layers of toy pianos and mbiras. Plus the musical duo from Basle, Stimmhorn, puts old alpenhorns to new use, with a radical deconstruction of traditional Alpine music: yodelling, accordions, overtone singing and alpenhorn blowing. There’s also music for up to 8 harps, on Robert Moran’s “Ten Miles High Over Albania." New music for oud as the lead with piano and bass by Yitzhak Tedid rounds out the show.
Turn up that Cello
Monday, July 14, 2008
On this New Sounds, hear music for processed, looped, and electrified cellos. We'll dig into works by Zeno Gabaglio, Giovanni Sollima, Maya Beiser, and more. Listen also for music from on-the-road guy Matt Haimovitz, and the many cellos of Rasputina.
New Sounds Live Post-rocks Part II
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Bassoon rock. Chamber jazz. Delicate drums. Paradoxes or Post-Rock? That's for you to enjoy and if you like, decide, on this edition of New Sounds. Recorded from a recent New Sounds Live event at Merkin Hall, listen to concert hall instruments doing the rock thing, rock instruments plucked and finessed in something of a classical vein, and experimental music veering in a jazz improv way. This is part two of the concert, where you can hear some of each set of music from the Kentucky ensemble Rachel’s and NY-based group Clogs, plus a special encore tune.
Solo Strings
Saturday, July 12, 2008
On this New Sounds, hear some solo works for plucked and hammered strings by the likes of pianists Eleanor Sandresky and Robin Holcomb, and avant-garde harpist Hélène Breschand. Paris-based Breschand is a creative harpist from the new-music end of things, though she’s also a member of several improvising ensembles. "Le goût du sel" is her first solo album as a leader where she finds a place between written music and risk-taking improvisation. Also, Eleanor Sandresky is a self-titled “Choreographic Pianist,” stemming from her idea of the concert-as-theatre. Her work, “A Sleeper’s Notebook,” which we’ll hear parts of tonight, is a cycle based on kinds of sleep, both rapid eye movement and dream states. The live experience of this piece intertwines music and dance, while exploring the connections between sound and how one creates it physically at the piano. Plus, there’s also the fragile solo piano pieces of Robin Holcomb and more.
Globetrotting Electro-acoustica
Friday, July 11, 2008
Up on this New Sounds, electro-acoustic music from Japan, Austria, Ireland, and the U.S. Listen to an unusual work by London-based Pete M. Wyer, called “Four Bridges.” Recorded at four different locations in India, America Germany, and UK, musicians play from the same time-coded score, which specifies what kind of improvising to do and how long to do it. Then, in a most unusual weave, Wyer pieced these acoustic recordings together as a tape work. Also, we’ll hear from Irish composer Linda Buckley, Austrian sound artist Bernhard Fleischmann, Brooklyn-based pianist Marco Benevento, and Ryuichi Sakamoto as well.
Big Bottoms
Thursday, July 10, 2008
On this New Sounds, there's new music for bass, both electric and upright, bowed, plucked, or slapped, some bottom-heavy and grounding, some emotive and noodley - like the moody suite for electric bass by Jeffrey Roden, called "Seeds of Happiness." There's also music about salt. Yes, salt and salt marshes. Listen for texture-rich music for by Marie-Soleil Belanger and Normand Guilbeault which pairs violins or erhu (Chinese two-stringed fiddle) with double bass. Plus, Tom Johnson's "Failing – a very difficult piece for bass," music by Basso Bongo, Robert Black, and more.
New Folk Routes
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Names like “freak folk” and “folktronica” have been used to try to describe yet another generation of musicians falling under the sway of the British tradition of murder ballads, broadsides, and the like. We’ll hear old favorites like Vashti Bunyan and Fairport Convention, as well as newcomers like Tunng and Espers on this New Sounds.
Beatles a la New Sounds
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Listen to unusual covers of Beatles songs for this edition of New Sounds, including versions by vocalist Ann Dyer, trombonist Josh Roseman, viola da gamba player Roy Weldon, and more.
New Sounds Live Post-rocks
Monday, July 07, 2008
Bassoon rock. Chamber jazz. Delicate drums. Paradoxes or Post-Rock? That's for you to enjoy and if you like, decide, on this edition of New Sounds. Recorded from a recent New Sounds Live event at Merkin Hall, listen to concert hall instruments doing the rock thing, rock instruments plucked and finessed in something of a classical vein, and experimental music veering in a jazz improv way. Hear some of each set of music from the Kentucky ensemble Rachel’s and NY-based group Clogs, where everyone had a great time.
'Round Midnight
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Listen to an hour of reinterpretations and deconstructions of Thelonius Monk’s classic song, 'Round Midnight on this edition of New Sounds. Hear arrangements by American composer George Crumb, Afro-Cuban drummer Anga, “downtown” guitarist Elliott Sharp, vocalist Bobby McFerrin, and more.
Slavic Rocker Gets Serious
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Goran Bregovic, guitarist and composer, was a rock hero in the former Yugoslavia with his band Bijelo Dugme (White Button.) When he tired of that, he moved on to film scores, making incredible music to accompany the films of Emir Kusturica (Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream, Undreground.) Bregovic has written for Iggy Pop, Ofra Haza, and Cesaria Evora, to name a few. His compositions marry the sounds of a gypsy brass band with traditional Bulgarian polyphonies, those of an electric guitar and traditional percussion with an unmistakable rock accent. A rowdy brass band, bagpipes, a string ensemble, a tuxedo-clad all-male choir from Belgrade, and traditional Bulgarian and gypsy singers make up his dynamic Orchestra for Weddings and Funerals. Tonight, on this edition of New Sounds, John Schaefer talks with Goran in the studio and samples some of his music.
New Blues
Friday, July 04, 2008
Take part of some new blues on this edition of New Sounds. As part of the overwhelmingly successful film (and its soundtrack), "O Brother Where Art Thou," Louisiana bluesman Chris Thomas King seems to be a bridge between blues and hip-hop, with his rapped lyrics and dj scratching. We’ll listen to some music by King along with music from Cassandra Wilson’s latest rootsy jazzy, electronica-y blues release, "Thunderbird." And as always, lots more.
A Private Reel - the Old Studios
Thursday, July 03, 2008
For this edition of New Sounds, we'll revisit live performances from WNYC's old performance studio. Listen to hi-tech guitar/sampling from Andre La Fosse, and mystical Jewish niggunim from Andy Statman and his Quartet. Plus, hear impressionist cello/piano music by David Darling and Ketil Bjornstad along with Indian-inspired music from composer Michael Harrison and his band Mandalla Jones. There's also traditional Persian music by the Mojdeh Ensemble and more.
Give the Drummer Some More
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Drummer/composers take center stage in music on this New Sounds. Hear from the talented Aaron Alexander and his double-drumming punk-klezmer project Midrash Mish Mosh, and sample the sometimes melodic and fluid music of Jim Black's AlasnoAxis. Plus, drummer Brian Blade teams up with guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel for an improvisational foray into the gorgeous, dynamic and restless spaces where loops against loops enable Blade to pick up a guitar as well. Not to be outdone, there's music from Savage Aural Hotbed, who have dubbed themselves the house band for the Orc Prom. Also, listen for the percussive kalimbas through blown-out amps and beatings on car parts of Konono #1, the middle-eastern rockingness of Raquy Danziger and more.
Mighty Winds
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Listen to the clarinet textures and eerie cello of Erik Friedlander's recent release Prowl, along with other arresting combinations of instruments like kora, saxophone and Slovenian music, all artfully woven together from Igor Leonardi. Plus, hear music from Canadian saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff, whose release Magic Numbers combines an improvisational sax jazz trio and a neo-classical string quartet for a catchy funky sinewy twist into worlds between Sabbath and Stravinsky. Rounding out the show is music from Robert Stillman, whose wind-driven music contains brilliant melodic washes and Twin Peaks-y buildups.
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