aworks :: "new" american classical music

aworks listening log :: zwerm

Larry Polansky & ZWERM (fabonthemoon)

Larry Polansky: The World's Longest Melody [New World Records]

• Ensembles of Note. ZWERM is an electic guitar quartet from Belgium and The Netherlands. Larry Polansky is a composer, and was an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz.
• tooaytood. Less than two minutes in length, yet divided into many sections, I can't begin to understand this.
• for jim, ben and lou. "the percussionist retunes the strings to different just intonations as the piece progresses." Before, I said this music was even stranger than the music of Charlemagne Palestine. It's more stimulating than I remember, as well. #favorite
• ...getting rid of the glue..." 
"The title quotes the famous description of the music of Cage, Feldman, Brown and Wolff by Henry Cowell, who said that these composers were “getting rid of the glue” that connects sounds together"
• ivtoo
• World's Longest Melody. Complete with drum kit.
• Ontslaann (toontood). Larry Polansky is the fifth ZWERM on this recording. #favorite
• toovvivfor #favorite
• 34 Chords (Christian Wolff in Hanover and Royalton)

Underwater Princess Waltz: Collection of One-Page Pieces [New World Records]

• Gauss Cannon. Joel Ford #favorite
• Underwater Princess Waltz. Alvin Curran
• Her Waltzing with Her. Alvin Curran Another low-key track. #favorite. 
• Mayhem (the hammer). Leo and Nick Didkovsky. This one is not low-key, however.
• Burdocks, Part VII. Christian Wolff
• tween (k-tood #2). Larry Polansky. #favorite
• Mayhem (the arrow). Leo and Nick Didkovsky
• round round down. Clinton McCallum
• The Red and White Cows. Daniel Goode. Interesting if a little mysterious. #favorite
• December 1952. Earle Brown. Intense and dense.
• Mayhem (the blade). Leo and Nick Didkovsky
• Tiime Goes By. Karl Berger

$100 Guitar Project [Bridge Records]

• 100$ pedalfast

aworks listening log :: darius milhaud

Wikipedia

La Creation Du Monde / Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit / Suite Provencale - Orchestre National de Lille, Jean-Claude Casadesus [Naxos]

• La Creation de monde
• Le Boeuf ser le toit. #favorite
• Suite provencale

Darius Milhaud 1892-1974 - Francoise Choveaux [Saphir Productions]

• Trois Valses Extraites Du Film Madame Bovary, A Jean Renoir. This is from a recording of all Milhaud's piano works, which happened to be at the top of my rdio Heavy Rotation page today.
• Accueil Amical. Written after Milhaud moved to the US in 1940. Dave Brubeck later studied with him at Mills College.
• Une Journee. While in US.
• L'Album De Mme Bovary
• Quatre Romances Sans Paroles
• Saudades Do Brazil
• Printemps
• L'Automne
• Mazurka 
• Touches Blanches. While in US.
• Jeu. While in US.
• Choral
• Trois Rag-Caprices
• Four Sketches. While in US.
• La Muse Menagere. While in US.
• Le Tango des Fratellini 
• Suite
• Sonatine
• Sonata No. 1
• Sonata No. 2
• Hymne De Glorification. While in US.

Virtuoso Percussion Music - Rainer Kuisma, Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra [NIS]

• Concerto, for marimba, vibraphone & orchestra (or piano). While in US.

 

aworks listening log :: freddie hubbard

Wikipedia

Red Clay

• Red Clay. Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock (on guilty pleasure electric piano), Ron Carter, and Lenny White. From 1970, this was Hubbard's first album on CTI after leaving Blue Note Records.  Wikipedia classifies it as "Hard bop, jazz fusion, soul jazz." I still have a special affection for the playing of saxophonist Henderson.
• Delphia. Hancock on organ, this time. Hubbard's a "sentimentalist" and "semi-maudlin." Livelier than many of his later recordings.
• Suite Sioux. "A swing tune featuring complex chord changes." This album is one of 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener's Life list as it brought Hubbard's "daring, bellicose style to a wider audience." This song is not bellicose, though.

A Tribute to Miles - Jazz Jamboree Warsaw '91

• All Blues (Live). Subtle, if not tepid. Donald Braden on saxophone.

Neither Anvil nor Pulley (2010). Dan Trueman #relevant #stingynonesuch @sopercussion #digitalage

I'm a "recorded music guy" rather than a "let's go to the concert" person. So I take this stuff personally. I won't elaborate in this post why I am that way.

But one implication of this is that after a small rant about Nonesuch previewing rather than releasing their recordings into the rdio wild, I have even more good will towards labels who don't do that. (See also ABC Records).

Tonight's example is Cantaloupe Music with their recording, Neither Anvil or Pulley, composed by Dan Trueman. rdio link here. 

Best album I've ever heard? No. Meriting more listens? Yes. Causing me to pay more attention to all of Dan Trueman, So Percussion and, Canteloupe Music. Absolutely.

bangonacan.org: neither Anvil nor Pulley is, in short, a wordless musical epic that explores the man/machine relationship in the digital age. 

 

Home Stretch (2008). Timothy Andres #goodbyewilco #stingy #nonesuch

I happen to think that Timothy Andres is a promising composer and performer.

Unfortunately, my recent experience with his new recording, via rdio, is distressing.

4 of the 5 tracks are on preview. Fail. I've encountered a preview or two on a recording but never all-but-one.

In contrast, I just listened to Sally Whitwell's entire new album and I feel mildly guilty that, even though I listened to it 2.5 times today alone, she will receive pennies at most from rdio. But the next time I go to Amoeba, I'll buy it with no hesitation. And if we can ever convince her to perform in Northern or Southern California, I'll be shouting that fact via social media.

Listening is cumulative. At this point, I only vaguely remember that I listened to Home Stretch, amidst the wide range of music I've heard in the last day or so (Noël Akchoté, Orbital, Molly Hatchet, Frederic Rzewski, M.I.A., The Allman Brothers Band, Hauschka, Sally Whitwell etc.).

But I will remember for a long time that Nonesuch is neither fish nor fowl. Put it on rdio or don't. Putting mostly previews on rdio is worse that not being on rdio at all. Boo. Goodbye, Wilco etc.

Footnote: Mode Records is the counter example of not being online but I respect, understand and support that decison. And the counter-counter example is ABC Records. Maybe next time I go bricks and mortar, I'll think Australian.

Related articles

At the River (2011). Timothy Andres /repetitive figurations pay homage/

Zemanta shows other related links to this post but as long as we are being stingy...

aworks list of ten :: experimental guitar on last.fm #guitarmath

Range and (standard) tuning of a guitar (Wikipedia)

Here's a list of 10 plays on the "experimental guitar" tag radio station via last.fm, roughly sorted in order of preference. The tag's description and then the list:

"Using the guitar to make unorthodox sounds not normally associated with the traditional guitar vocabulary."

1. Hash Jar Tempo. Untitled 5 - Well Oiled. Pelt is listed as a similar artist and they did a great version of John Fahey's Sunflower River Blues (YouTube). This song is a long way from American primitive acoustic guitar, though.
2. Mukra. Outro - Vergölst. This is edgy, yet almost ambient guitar. It also has the "math" tag but don't know what that consists of. Note also that composer Milton Babbitt doesn't have the "math" tag.
3. Zechs Marquise. The High Anxiety Arkestra - Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare. Neo-psychedelia? Weird sounds on top of a pulse. Unlike the artists of the first two tracks, Zechs Marquise has an album on rdio.
4. Syd Barrett. Late Night - The Madcap Laughs. Spacey song but 43 years later, it's trad-psychedlia.
5. Scissor Shock. your chemistry theories are a waste of f*ing time - The Mars Travolta. From that hotbed of avant-garde music, Columbus, Indiana. I  almost took a job there 32 years ago. Nice civic architecture, though.
6. Alice Donut - Magdalene. The Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children. I'm not sure the guitar is particularly experimental. Nice drive to the song, though.
7. bygones. spray you with your own trip - by-. Guitar and drum hyper- and punkish-rock.
8. Raoul Björkenheim. I Told You So - I never meta guitar. This is the most unique guitar sound.
9. Pentagonic. Pure Skunk Joint. This sounds like it was recorded in a free-for-all session. From the artist page: "Emphasis on complicating matters of rhythm, melody and (dis)harmony, combining delirium with psychosis and spontaneity with higher-dimensional coherence."
10. Satanized. Perineal Wrath - Technical Virginity. A band from Philadelphia, they have also been tagged as "black metal" and "swedish." Mildly interesting guitar part.