New Releases October 2009

Friday, October 30, 2009

It's the most wonderful time of the month - new releases! On this New Sounds program, listen to the pick of the piles. There'll probably be new music by Tyondai Braxton (of Battles), Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and music by our player Anouar Brahem. Plus, some music by Mapstation, guitar music from the Threefifty Duo, music performed by cellist Matt Haimovitz, and more.

Inadvertent Songs

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Be careful what you say – it could wind up as lyrics to a song. Just ask Donald Rumsfeld, Miss Teen USA, President Bush, and the anonymous posters on Craigslist, all of whom found their way into songs. For this New Sounds, hear Donald Rumsfeld's words as lifted from various Pentagon briefings, and skillfully set by Phil Kline - about the looting in Iraq, known unknowns and near-perfect clarity. Also, listen to Ted Hearne's "Katrina Ballads," where "Brownie, You're Doin' a Heck of a Job," the infamous sentence spoken by George W. Bush, gets cut up and delivered in a rapid-fire repeating staccato. Not to be outdone, Sam Sadigursky's "Miss Teen USA" - is a setting of 2007 pageant contender Miss South Carolina's answer to "Recent polls have shown 1/5 of Americans can’t locate America on a world map. Why do you think this is?" to like, such as - music. Plus, Gabriel Kahane's "Craigslistlieder," yes, based on unedited posts from Craigslist.org. And more!

New Music for Silent Art Films

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

For this New Sounds, hear three works of music for silent art films, including “The BQE,” a film and musical suite by Sufjan Stevens exploring New York City's infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The work premiered in 2007 and was scored for a wind and brass ensemble, string players, a horn section, projected film footage of the expressway and five hula hoopers. We’ll also hear selections from Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass, and another contemporary silent film with live score – “Light Is Calling” from Michael Gordon.

"Folk Songs"

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Why the quotation marks? For this New Sounds we’ll hear tunes that might sound like folk songs, but are actually new songs in the folk tradition. Some actually are traditional tunes, as in those from the Carter Family repertoire – in the case of a Bill Frisell offering, and some are extensions of the tradition, which draw from rural Appalachian and early Americana. Listen to distinctive and fresh takes on old tunes from indie folk/rockers Among the Oak and Ash and new music from the Wiyos and the Chicago post-rock band Califone. Plus tunes involving the mbira, the African thumb piano, and some folktronica from the English band Tunng.

Signal & Steve Reich

Monday, October 26, 2009

For this edition of New Sounds, we’re joined by Brad Lubman, the leader of Signal, New York's new-music "supergroup," a flexible army of 13-30 musicians who combine the intimacy of chamber music with the power of a compact orchestra. The bandsemble includes all of So Percussion, along with members of Alarm Will Sound, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, punkass-thrash jazz quartet Gutbucket, and other leading New York ensembles. Signal made their giant splash at the 2008 Bang on a Can Marathon, performing music by Steve Reich. Listen to Reich's "Eight Lines," an excerpt from "Tehillim," and something from "City Life" on this program.

Poetry and Music

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Poetry and music trip merrily together off into the sunset on this New Sounds. Dan Kaufman and the band he founded, Barbez, are a theremin-marimba-vibes-guitar-bass-drum combo who work the rock, Eastern European folk, downtown experimental, and punk-cabaret angles. We'll hear from Kaufman's homage to 20th Century poet and Holocaust survivor Paul Celan, from his latest, "Force of Light" on this program. Also, listen to John Hollenbeck's "Joys and Desires" (with poetry by William Blake), along with Material's "Seven Souls" (with poetry by William S. Burroughs), and more.

Classics Revisited

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Listen to New Sounds-style reworkings of classical pieces on this program. There's music by Clogs and Ralph Towner, along with The John Dowland Project. Plus, we'll liberally sample the latest from Taraf de Haidouks, a CD of arrangements called Maskarada. On this, their latest release, there's Bartók, Khachaturian, Albeniz & a piece featuring distinguished singer/cimbalom player Virginica Dumitru, the first-ever female Taraf guest instrumentalist.

Cross-Cultural Music

Friday, October 23, 2009

Listen to this New Sounds for some cross-cultural music, including a brand-new collaboration between violinist Joshua Bell and Anoushka Shankar called "Variant Moods." We'll also dig into the WNYC Archives for a work from 1967 concert at the U.N., featuring Anoushka's father, Ravi Shankar, performing a sitar and violin duet with the late classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin, accompanied by the late tabla master Ustad Alla Rakha. Plus, something from Polish folksters Warsaw Village Band and something from Kroke, a Polish folk band who play Jewish Gypsy-Balkan music. Posibly rounding out the show is music from violinist Shankar, and some Baaba Maal.

Singular Electric Guitars

Thursday, October 22, 2009

This New Sounds program showcases electric guitarists who have developed their own singular sound, usually in conjunction with electronics and processing. We'll hear from the distinctive guitar hero Vernon Reid, longtime member of the band Living Colour as featured in a duo recording with none other than Bill Frisell. There’s an arresting collection of various guitars, guitar synths, the occasional banjo riff - plus 1980's drum machines! Then listen to a collaborative composition from David Torn, Elliot Sharp and Vernon Reid, along with soundscapes from both David Torn and Robert Fripp. Just a reminder that Vernon Reid performs his WNYC-commissioned "Artificial Africa" a multimedia work for video installation, guitar and processing this Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 8PM at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden.

PROGRAM #2993, Singular Electric Guitars (First aired on Thurs. 10-22-09)

EuroMinimalism, Part II

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

For this New Sounds, listen to a follow-up to last night’s show, with minimal and post-minimal music from Michael Nyman, Anton Batagov, Ludovico Einaudi, Nik Bärtsch, and others. Nik Bartsch’s Ronin make "ritual groove," with repetitive motifs that gradually evolve. We'll also hear music from the Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi, and English minimalist Michael Nyman. Plus there's some music from the Russian keyboard player/composer Anton Batagov, who self-produces electronic and experimental works and releases them on his own private label. And as always, much more.

EuroMinimalism, Part 1

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Though it developed in the States, Minimalism has spread, and now post-minimal music can be heard on both sides of the Atlantic. We'll hear music by Hauschka, Howard Skempton, Max Richter, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Wim Mertens, and more. Hauschka is the alias of German pianist/composer Volker Bertelmann, who playfully explores the ‘prepared’ piano in his works. We'll hear something from his latest release - "Ferndorf." There's also music by British composer Howard Skempton, Belgian minimalist Wim Mertens, and much more.

WNYC Commissions

Monday, October 19, 2009

For this New Sounds, we'll hear the early music vocal group Anonymous 4 performing works commissioned by WNYC by both Richard Einhorn and Steve Reich. Richard Einhorn’s “A Carnival of Miracles,” an exploration of different kinds of freedoms - religious, scientific, artistic, cultural, sexual, and political - was composed for A4 and 2 cellos. The title refers to the medieval idea of Carnival, a time when the social order is ritually upended and all is allowed. We’ll also hear Steve Reich's “Know What is Above You,” premiered by A4, recorded live at The Arts At St. Ann's in Brooklyn. Plus, listen to the live recording of the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis' Concerto for Toy Piano and Chamber Orchestra, another WNYC commission. Written especially for toy piano player Margaret Leng Tan, she and the new music band Alarm Will Sound, 20-members strong performed the reverberant and percussive piece in the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden.

New Americans: China

Sunday, October 18, 2009

For this New Sounds, part of the New Americans series, we focus on foreign-born artists from China. Listen to music by pipa virtuoso Min Xiao Fen, along with works by David Mingyue Liang, Tan Dun, Zhou Long, and Bun Ching Lam.

Keyboard Music

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Listen to an hour of keyboard music for this New Sounds Program. There are liberal helpings of the recent 3 CD set by Marco Benevento, an accordion and piano tune from Guy Klucevsek & Alan Bern, tango music, and more. Plus, hear music by Seth Kaufman and Michael Nyman.

Sacred Music of the Near East

Friday, October 16, 2009

Sample some Islamic, Christian, and Jewish music from the Middle East on this New Sounds program. Listen to a performance by Sheik Ahmed Al-Tuni from Upper Egypt, recorded live at the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. Also, hear Moroccan cantor Emil Zrihan, presently the cantor of the main synagogue in Ashkelon, Israel, music by Sister Marie Keyrouz from Lebanon, and much more.

PROGRAM # 2841, sacred music of the Near East (First aired on Mon, 9/8/08)

Big Bands, New Sounds-Style

Thursday, October 15, 2009

We’re all about music for big bands on this New Sounds, and that’s certainly not the 1930’s swing bands. Listen for elements of rock, classical, and minimalism to crop up in music from Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society. We’ll also hear one or two arrangements of Bjork tunes by Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra. Plus, there’s also a long-form suite of music from John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, along with music from the Industrial Jazz Group as well.

Orchestral Songs

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Once the province of classical or “adult contemporary” singers, the orchestra is increasingly being heard backing up adventurous rockers. On this New Sounds program, we’ll hear Thomas Feiner, Bjork, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom, and Anne Ternheim, among others.

In C Remixed

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Listen to a sneak peak at new take on minimalist icon Terry Riley’s “In C” by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble and some of the most imaginative DJ's, remixers and composers around. Insistent and propulsive, In C is based on a series of 53 interlocking phrases, repeated any number of times, that merge to form an ever-changing tapestry of sound. On a new 2-CD collection of remixes, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang, ambient/hip hop master DJ Spooky, cello innovator Zoë Keating, the ubiquitous genre-hopper Nico Muhly, and many more took the raw tracks from the GVSU New Music Ensemble, and played with them on their laptops. For this New Sounds, we’ll hear some of their results.

Volans: a Committed Modernist

Monday, October 12, 2009

Kevin Volans studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in Cologne and later became Stockhausen’s teaching assistant. While in Cologne, he and his colleagues explored the idea of cross-fertilizing different musical traditions (i.e. African and European), to arrive at a new musical perception - a bit like "introducing an African computer virus into the heart of Western contemporary music." He concentrated on the interlocking techniques, shifting downbeats, the energy and the joy in traditional African music, while he eschewed bringing "exotic instruments" into Western music. Sticking to homemade harpsichords, along with the whooping, nasal sound of the viola da gamba, he experimented with new techniques and new aesthetics. Jump up to the 21st Century, where the South African-born, Irish-based composer Volans considers himself "a committed modernist," and on this New Sounds, we'll hear some of his recently recorded works.

Revelation: Music Meet Math

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Guest Michael Harrison presents "Revelation," a major work for piano in the alternate tuning system known as "just intonation." Today, rather than referring to a specific historical tuning, "just intonation" represents an almost infinite variety of tunings which are based upon the principles of whole number ratios. (Like how an octave is a 2:1 ratio, where the higher note vibrates twice as fast as the lower note.) When certain complex ratios are used in "just intonation" -like the 64:63 ratio that Harrison has used in "Revelation" - the music shimmers with exotic resonance, or depending on your viewpoint, phase-shifts, beats, and bends unsettling tones between the notes of the scale that our Western ears might not be used to. On this new recording of "Revelation," Harrison uses his "harmonic piano," where it is possible to play 24 notes per octave. Just listen to the results on this New Sounds.

Contemporary Traditional Music

Saturday, October 10, 2009

We hear from a recent recording by Yo Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble, "New Impossibilities," which interprets tradition-based and/or newly composed works inspired by the historic splendors of the Silk Road. Also, new music ghazals from the Indian-born Canadian Kiran Ahluwalia, who now lives in New York City.

Global Appalachia

Friday, October 09, 2009

This New Sounds mixes up traditional songs from the Appalachian mountains with the traditions of Mali, China, and beyond. Hear from Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko on a new project "Africa To Appalachia." There's also pipa player Wu Man & banjo-man Lee Knight collaborating on "I’m Going Back To North Carolina." Listen for an arrangement of "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow," and more.

Another Musical Travelogue

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Another musical travelogue is in store on this edition of New Sounds, with stops in Tokyo, Berlin, Bandung (Java), and other ports of call. Listen for works by Max Richter, Ute Lemper, Sabah Habas Mustapha, Gato Libre, and more.

A Journey Off the Silk Road

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Hear music from Armenia, Iran, and Brooklyn, as New Sounds takes a journey off of the Silk Road for this program. There are works from the new music quartet Brooklyn Rider, with and without kamancheh (Persian spiked fiddle) player Kayhan Kalhor. We'll also listen to music from Duduk virtuoso Gevorg Dabaghyan and Yo Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble as well.

Party Band Invasion

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

High energy party bands invade this New Sounds program. We'll hear from the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble out of Boston, the MarchFourth Marching Band from Portland, OR, and the Chicago-based party band Mucca Pazza (Mad Cow.) When your numbers are some 15-30 strong, the band can't help but be a rollicking good time wherever they go. Plus, there's some Balkan music by way of Brooklyn and Berlin, along with Cajun-klezmer group The Zydepunks from New Orleans to keep the party stomping. With luck, there's enough space for Orchestre Baobab and Krakatoa as well.

Old Folk, New Folks

Monday, October 05, 2009

Listen to some new takes on traditional folk songs for this New Sounds programs. Hear Nico Muhly's work "The Only Tune," from his latest, "Mothertongue" a collection of works which began as he tried to reconnect with the folk music of my childhood. Muhly recounts, "I remember my parents singing the ballad of the two sisters - one murdering the other in a river - and I remember a disjuncture between the simple beauty of the song and the intense violence of the words. I still shiver at the memory of the miller fishing the girl's body out with 'his long, long hook,' and the ensuing phrases, in which the girl's corpse is slowly turned into a fiddle, are continuously haunting." Also, more reworkings of old folk songs, including several from The Carter Family, in renditions by Justin Adams, Carla Kihlstedt, Bill Frisell, and Joel Harrison.

Music for Prepared Piano

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Popularized by John Cage to approximate the sound of a percussion orchestra, the prepared piano has been used by composers like Arvo Pärt, Mikel Rouse, and of course Cage himself. In Cage's use, the preparations consist of nuts, bolts and pieces of rubber to be lodged between and entwined around the strings, and can sound like mbiras, marimbas, bells, wood blocks, Indonesian gamelan instruments, to name a few. Mikel Rouse digitally incorporated sampled sounds of John Cage’s prepared piano into"International Cloud Atlas," the score to a Merce Cunningham dance piece "eyeSpace." Plus, Arvo Pärt made extensive use of a prepared piano in his double concerto for two violins, string orchestra, and prepared piano, "Tabula Rasa." Perhaps we'll also hear from Jason Moran, and more.

Big Works, Big Ideas

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Relatively small excerpts from relatively large-scale works fill this New Sounds program. We'll hear from David Borden's 12 part musical cycle, nearly 3 hours long - "The Continuing Story of Counterpoint." Dubbed the "Goldberg Variations" of minimalism, Borden mixes strict counterpoint with dense textures and high energy electronics. Also, we'll listen to a portion of Michael Gordon's 52 minute monster, "Trance," whose layers of short riffs and noisy phrases start to feel like a dangerous multi-car pileup on the freeway. Plus, listen to some of the ginormous 4 hour work by Philip Glass, his "Music in Twelve Parts," from a new live recording by the composer himself and the Philip Glass Ensemble to celebrate his 70th Birthday year.

Bang On A Can Marathon 2008, Part II

Friday, October 02, 2009

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.

The Buddhist Influence

Thursday, October 01, 2009

For this New Sounds program, listen to Buddhist-inspired music, including new music from the elusive composer Anton Batagov who has just put a recording of his music, with chants by the leading Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader of the Kalmykia people into John Schaefer’s hands. We’ll also hear selections from the Steve Tibbetts collaboration with the Tibetan Buddhist nun, Chöying Drolma - “Chö.” Then there’s the sounds of traditional Tibetan Buddhist instruments in music from David Parsons. Plus music from Philip Glass’s soundtrack to the movie Kundun (about the young Dalai Lama coming of age and escaping Tibet with his life, during the time frame of 1937 to 1959.)