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For this second installation of Robert Fripp's Soundscapes as part of New Sounds Live, we present performances that were recorded on the evenings of both Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, 2010.  These performances might possibly have been the last major public outings for the English guitarist, composer, and founder of the prog-rock band, King Crimson.

For this New Sounds program, we’ll listen to part two of the New Sounds Live/Ecstatic Music Festival concert with Dan Deacon.  Hear  Deacon’s “An Opal Toad with Obsidian Eyes,” as an entire movement of the work is set to a wooden block click track.  The performance / classical instrument dance party features the NOW Ensemble, the Calder String Quartet, and Deacon's live processing.

For this New Sounds program, we’ll listen to some more highlights from the New Sounds Live concert series at Merkin Hall, collaborating with the 2012 Ecstatic Music Festival.  Hear Dan Deacon’s large-scale work for the NOW Ensemble, the Calder String Quartet, and live processing, “An Opal Toad with Obsidian Eyes.” 

From the New Sounds Live concerts, we'll hear “The Miners’ Hymns,” a film score from the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.  The work is a brass-heavy elegy to the coal mining culture in Northeast England, with the brass elements hearkening back to the colliery bands, which used to be the local entertainment. 

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.

Held until now, hear some of the music from the New Sounds Live with Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) & yMusic from March of 2011 on tonight's show.  At that concert, Worden wore both her composer and performer hats, treating us to a preview of songs on the  forthcoming "All Things Will Unwind." Highlights from the night will hopefully include live performances of "Be Brave," "There's a Rat," "She Does Not Brave the War," and others, featuring yMusic, percussionist Brian Wolfe, and guest vocals by DM Stith at Merkin Concert Hall's Ecstatic Music Festival.

Fresh from the shrinkwrap, the internet, and live burial on John Schaefer's desk, it's this month's new releases!  However we might have tracked these down, we can assure you that these are the pick of the piles, things that might live up to the blog/media hype, and the newest, weirdest, most appealing music you might hear all month. 

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, Anonymous 4, the famed early music vocal quartet, teams up with violinist Darol Anger and guitarist Scott Nygaard to revisit early American folk spirituals, shape-note hymns, and Gospel blues. This is part 2 of 2, featuring this revival of 19th century American hymnody.

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, Anonymous 4, the famed early music vocal quartet, teams up with violinist Darol Anger and guitarist Scott Nygaard to revisit early American folk spirituals, shape-note hymns, and Gospel blues.

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, the post-jazz piano trio Bad Plus performs their striking mix of rockin’ originals and equally rockin’ covers – of Stravinsky and other classical works.  And the Benevento/Mathis/Barr trio, also a keyboard-based, post-jazz band, plugs in and plays both originals and surprising covers.

Cued Up dives head first into the fearless, mystical sound world of composer-vocalist Meredith Monk. Recorded live in The Greene Space, Monk and Vocal Ensemble and the Todd Reynolds Quartet perform her original pieces.

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, the string quartet Ethel plays music by Dutch composer Jacob TV (Jacob ter Veldhuis), including the controversial “Take A Wild Guess,” based on sound clips of prison inmates, and the lighthearted “Body of Your Dreams,” built around samples of TV infomercials.