New Sounds

Listen to rhythmic music, whether for percussion, string quartet or vocal duet for this New Sounds. Hear works from percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum, Kelly Moran, and the Jasper String Quartet, and a vocal duet from Meredith Monk and Robert Een. From the recent record,  Unbound,  by the Jasper String Quartet, hear a non-stop motoring work by Judd Greenstein, “Four on the Floor.” Usually the term applies to thumping dance-club bangers, but in this work, pairs of instruments work “with and against each other, until they settle their differences and combine into a shared groove,” according to the composer. Hear music with rhythmic intensity, for prepared piano, with and without electronics from Kelly Moran, and her record,  Bloodroot , which is where minimalism and black metal collide .  Then, listen to music from Hauschka, who layers player piano with prepared piano. Also, listen to Inuit-style breathing games from Meredith Monk and cellist/vocalist Robert Een, from her long-form work, "Facing North," inspired by the Canadian wilderness.  Then, listen to increasingly tricky and complex rhythms in a work by David Crowell for percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum. Plus, hear a work –"Redwood"- involving saxophone and interlocking guitar parts from Empyrean Atlas, the band of composer/multi-instrumentalist David Crowell. And more.  PROGRAM #3960, We've Got Rhythms (First Aired: 3/15/2017)   ARTIST: Ian David Rosenbaum WORK: David Crowell: Celestial Sphere, excerpt [1:00] RECORDING: Memory Palace SOURCE: Vision Into Art INFO:  ARTIST: Jasper String Quartet WORK: Judd Greenstein: Four on the Floor [10:45] RECORDING: Unbound SOURCE: Sono Luminus/New Amsterdam INFO:  ARTIST: Kelly Moran WORK: Celandine [3:06] RECORDING: Bloodroot SOURCE:  ARTIST: Hauschka WORK: Constant Growth Fails [4:08] RECORDING: What If SOURCE:  ARTIST: Christian Frederickson, Jason Noble, Ryan Rumery WORK: To Be One Of Them [1:00] RECORDING: The Painted Bird: Amidst SOURCE/INFO:  ARTIST: Ian David Rosenbaum WORK: David Crowell: Celestial Sphere [9:50] RECORDING: Memory Palace SOURCE: Vision Into Art INFO:  ARTIST: Empyrean Atlas WORK: Redwood  [5:11] RECORDING: Empyrean Atlas SOURCE/INFO:  ARTIST: Christian Frederickson, Jason Noble, Ryan Rumery WORK: To Be One Of Them [1:00] RECORDING: The Painted Bird: Amidst SOURCE/ INFO:  ARTIST: Bang on a Can All-Stars WORK: Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink [5:57] RECORDING: Field Recordings SOURCE: Cantaloupe Music INFO:  ARTIST: Meredith Monk & Robert Een WORK: Keeping Warm & Arctic Bar [8:45] RECORDING: Facing North SOURCE: ECM #1482  INFO: 

Hear prog-marching band music from Chicago's Mucca Pazza, ambient-gothic Norwegian-Icelandic music from the duo Jo Berger Myhre & Ólafur Björn Ólafsson, jazz-tronic ambient minimalism from London's Portico Quartet, and new work from Danish experimental supergroup Girls in Airports. Also, hear new music by Molly Joyce for cellist Nick Photinos, new work from Kaki King & the Porta Girevole Chamber Orchestra, and more. Hear ambient-gothic music from Norwegian bassist Jo Berger Myhre and Icelandic drummer Ólafur Björn Ólafsson  in their composed work, “1000%,” which was recorded in an abandoned Reykjavik warehouse.  Also, listen to driving indie jazz from the Danish experimental ensemble, Girls in Airport, recorded live in Germany. Plus, hear a sample from Brooklyn's own Afrobeat big band,  .  There’s a new release from Chicago’s “interdisciplinary instrumental music and performance ensemble” – or circus-spectacle alt marching band, Mucca Pazza. It’s a bit proggy (Yes, Weather Report, Rush) and perhaps hard to march to, but “[t]he band spent eight years practicing counting to seven before they were ready to record this piece.” There’s also a new work by Terry Riley for Del Sol String Quartet, “Dark Queen Mantra,” featuring guitarist Gyan Riley. Plus listen to music by Kaki King - arranged for guitar and orchestra from her forthcoming  Live At Berklee  release. Listen to music from Eighth Blackbird founding cellist Nick Photinos; it’s a work by Molly Joyce, originally for for baroque cello and pre-recorded electronics, called “Sit and Dance.” Also, there’s music from London-based composer & producer Leah Kardos, which was made using analogue instruments and technologies, from her record,  Rococochet. August & September 2017 New Releases (Special Podcast) (Similar to Show #4018, airdate: 8/31/2017)    ARTIST: Jo Berger Myhre & Ólafur Björn Ólafsson WORK: 1000%, excerpt [1:00] RECORDING: The Third Script SOURCE: Hubro Music INFO:  ARTIST: Mucca Pazza WORK: Andy Deitrich: Barbarous Relic [3:30]  RECORDING: Barbarous Relic SOURCE/INFO:  ARTIST: Leah Kardos WORK: Malio Malio [2:35] RECORDING: Rococochet SOURCE: Bigo & Twigetti INFO:  ARTIST: Portico Quartet WORK: Current History [6:07]  RECORDING: Art In The Age Of Automation SOURCE: Gondwana Records INFO:  ARTIST: Antibalas WORK: Gold Rush, excerpt [1:30] RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, 9/15/17  SOURCE: This tune appears on Where the Gods are in Peace INFO:  ARTIST: Jo Berger Myhre & Ólafur Björn Ólafsson WORK: 1000%  [6:42] RECORDING: The Third Script SOURCE: Hubro Music INFO:  ARTIST: Girls in Airports WORK: King's Birthday [3:28] RECORDING: Live SOURCE: Edition Records EDN1097 INFO:  ARTIST: Nick Photinos WORK: Molly Joyce: Sit and Dance [6:34]  RECORDING: Petits Artefacts SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records INFO:  ARTIST: Del Sol String Quartet, Gyan Riley WORK: Terry Riley: III. Dark Queen Mantra [11:49]  RECORDING: Dark Queen Mantra SOURCE: Sono Luminus 92215 INFO:  ARTIST: Kaki King, Porta Girevole Chamber Orchestra, Gabriela Sofia Gomez Estevez, student conductor WORK:  Magazine [5:30] RECORDING: Live At Berklee SOURCE: BIRN Cooperative Recordings INFO: 

Hear music that begins with classical instruments, like the string quartet, piano, or an orchestra, but which is then augmented, enhanced by electronics, percussion, or preparation. Listen to works by English violinist, pianist, and composer Poppy Ackroyd, Netherlands-based composer Peter Adriaansz, and cinematic music from the augmented string quartet amiina. The versatile Dutch pianist Saskia Lankhoorn plays a specially-prepared piano over a bed of droning sine tones in a work by Seattle-born, Netherlands-based Peter Adriaansz, “Attachments III.” Then, hear music by the Icelandic outfit, amiina, which was once the touring string quartet with Sigur Ros, and has now expanded to include percussion & electronics. From amiina, hear selections from their standalone original live score to the 1913 film Fantômas, that lord of terror, creator of fear, and genius of evil who initially came to live in the crime fictions of French writers. Then, listen to "Rave," music for piano and pre-recorded electronics by Molly Joyce for longtime friend and collaborator, pianist Vicky Chow from her record, Aorta.  Also, hear music for percussion and electronics by John Luther Adams, featuring Glenn Kotche, from the long-form work, Ilimaq. Plus, listen to grand music for amplified orchestra by English composer Andrew Poppy from a record released on ZTT Records in the mid-eighties. PROGRAM #3927,  classical instruments, contemporary sounds  (First Aired 12-8-2016)         ARTIST: Andrew Poppy WORK: 32 Frames for Amplified Orchestra, excerpt [1:00] RECORDING: The Artefact Series SOURCE: ZTT Records 186 INFO:     ARTIST: Saskia Lankhoorn, piano WORK: Peter Adriaansz: Attachments III [7:52] RECORDING: Enclosures SOURCE: Ergodos ER 25 INFO:  ARTIST: Poppy Ackroyd WORK: Birdwoman [5:36] RECORDING: Feathers SOURCE: Denovali Records INFO:  ARTIST: George Hurd Ensemble WORK: Tethering Bird, excerpt [:38] RECORDING: Navigation Without Numbers SOURCE: Innova 937 INFO:  ARTIST: Amiina WORK: Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson: Crocodile [5:39] RECORDING: Fantômas SOURCE/INFO:  ARTIST: Andrew Poppy WORK: 32 Frames for Amplified Orchestra [8:39] RECORDING: The Artefact Series SOURCE: ZTT Records 186 INFO:     ARTIST: Amiina WORK: Solrun Sumarlidadottir: Café [3:25] RECORDING: Fantômas SOURCE/INFO:  ARTIST: Restroy WORK: Skin, excerpt [:46] RECORDING: Saturn Return SOURCE: Milk Factory Productions  INFO:  ARTIST: Vicky Chow WORK: Molly Joyce: Rave [11:17] RECORDING: Aorta  SOURCE: NWAM083 INFO:  ARTIST:  John Luther Adams & Glenn Kotche WORK: John Luther Adams: Ilimaq , Ascension [3:06] RECORDING: Ilimaq SOURCE: 

Guitarist and educator Shane Parish is a sonic adventurer, perhaps best known as the mastermind behind the Asheville, North Carolina-based avant instrumental jazz-mathpunk band Ahleuchatistas, formerly a quartet, now a duo. Besides the jazz and mathrock, their musical stew also includes elements Chinese folk music, minimalism, and lots of other stuff. But Parish has just released a solo record of “weird old Americana” entitled  Undertaker, Please Drive Slow  on John Zorn's Tzadik label, recorded in an old cabin in the woods. He joins John live in the studio to perform some of them on acoustic guitar. Parish has taken these old timey songs, and “abstracted them in utterly fascinating ways, evoking the haunting and brooding world of the American South” writes John Zorn. Comparisons wouldn’t be out of place to American Primitive guitarists like John Fahey or Robbie Basho, but in the spaces that Parish creates, one might also think of Morton Feldman. In Parish’s ever-evolving reworkings of these folky blues tunes, the songs straddle keys; he’s not content to remain firmly in one or the other. Then, on a song like Geeshie Wiley’s “The Last Kind Words,” Parish takes the vocal melody and makes it more abstract, turning it into a prepared guitar percussion piece in a John Cage way, via paper clips and a slide. Shane Parish's prepared guitar (John Schaefer/WNYC)   PROGRAM #3928,  With Shane Parish  (First Aired 12-12-2016)         ARTIST: Ahleuchatistas WORK: Requiem for the Sea [6:46] RECORDING: Heads Full of Poison SOURCE: Cuneiform Records INFO:  ARTIST: Shane Parish WORK: Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground (Blind Willie Johnson) [4:29] RECORDING: Live, WNYC Studio, Dec. 2016 SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.  INFO: Appears on  Undertaker, Please Drive Slow , out now on Tzadik Records 4016 ARTIST: Shane Parish WORK: Oh Death [3:45] RECORDING: Undertaker, Please Drive Slow SOURCE: Tzadik Records 4016 INFO:  ARTIST: Shane Parish WORK: The Maid Freed From the Gallows [7:04], The Last Kind Words (Geeshie Wiley) [5:25] RECORDING: Live, WNYC Studio, Dec. 2016 SOURCE: his performance not commercially available.  INFO: Appears on  Undertaker, Please Drive Slow , out now on Tzadik Records 4016 ARTIST: Tim Sparks WORK: I’ll Fly Away [5:37] RECORDING: Chasin’ the Boogie SOURCE: Tonewood  INFO: 

“Indian music does not stop and start with Ravi Shankar.” So says tabla master Zakir Hussain, who, along with young sitar virtuoso, Niladri Kumar, joins John in the studio for a live performance.   Zakir Hussain, son of  , isn’t just a genius Indian tabla player and composer, as well as a virtuoso improviser - he is, bar none, one of the world’s great percussionists working in many genres. Zakir is a global citizen open to all kinds of collaborations, playing with everyone from George Harrison to the Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, from John McLaughlin's Shakti and Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Project; he’s laid down beats for Scottish fiddlers Charlie McKerron (Capercaillie) and Patsy Reid   (formerly of Breabach), and performed and recorded with scores of Indian classical musicians. Then, there was the recording by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin of a triple concerto featuring fellow soloists Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer, along with Zakir Hussain’s own showcases of otherworldly drum wizards, the Masters of Percussion.  Now, Niladri Kumar, who made his first public performance at the age of 6, comes from a long line of sitar players -which goes some five generations back; his father was Pandit Kartik Kumar. Niladri also did recording sessions for Hindi films from a very young age, and happens to be in a band called  , a global fusion of Hindi film music, Indian classical, and Western music. He’s even gone electric, creating an invention called the Zitar, a combination of sitar and guitar. It has fewer strings (5 instead of 20) with an electric pickup inside, so that Niladri can get a rock guitar sound out of it. OH – and he plays chords on the sitar. Niladri Kumar has been part of the Masters of Percussion tour, and this is his second duo tour with Zakir Hussain. Niladri Kumar and Zakir Hussain perform a radio-friendly (short) Raga Charukeshi, for Rupak Tal (a seven beat rhythmic cycle) and Raga Bhairavi in Teental (16 beats.)  Not to gush, but Zakir Hussain can communicate in so many languages – Persian, Gujarati, German, English- that it’s no wonder that he is also versed in many musical languages – like being able to speak jazz or Afro-Cuban rhythms, Nigerian talking drums, or Indonesian gamelan.  To him, improvising is like speaking that language. (Perhaps for percussion nerds,) Zakir also treats us to a spoken drum conversation, or “reciting the Bols” – the syllables that correspond to the strokes of the tabla- like “Dha ti ra ki ta” and “na ga dhin na dhin na gin na.”