aworks :: "new" american classical music

aworks album log :: august 31, 2014

American classical:

1. Elena Gragera - Joaquín Nin-Culmell: Obra Para Canto y Piano
   Nin-Culmell was a Cuban-Spanish composer and professor at UC Berkeley. This is a recording of vocal works with piano. [Columna Música]
2. Albert Atenelle - Joaquín Nin-Culmell: Obres Per a Piano 
   Works for piano. Presumably, obres is Spanish for works. [Anacrusi]
3. Andrew McKenna Lee - Solar/Electric 
   An excellent recording of Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint. [Still Sound Audio Recordings]
4. Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador 
   Kahane is a classically training musician and son of Jeffrey Kahane. This is not classical song in the traditional sense but it will be staged at BAM and UCLA. Each song is about a particular LA address. AllMusic calls the album "audacious." [Sony Masterworks]

Beyond:

1. Charlie Parr - Hollandale
   Best album cover of the day. Guitar instrumentals are also good. [Chaperone Records]

Rdio:

Related articles

Stress Position, for solo amplified piano (2008). Drew Baker /goodbye, pre-20th century/

Gabriel Kahane's Assortment of Gnarly and Effortless New Sounds

Gabriel and Jeffrey Kahane intriguing, perplexing, at SummerFest

aworks album log :: august 30, 2014

American classical:

1. John Mauceri , Danish National Symphony Orchestra - Music for Alfred Hitchcock 
   Strangers, North, Rear W., Dial, The Man Who etc. [Toccata Classics]

Beyond:

1. Tim Hecker - Dropped Pianos
   Nine related, minimal sketches. Mostly compelling.[kranky]
2. Tim Hecker - My Love Is Rotten to the Core
   An early Tim Hecker concept album deconstructing Van Halen songs and interviews, to mixed results. [Sunblind Music]
3. The Moog Cookbook - Ye Olde Space Bande Plays the Classic Rock Hits 
   Born to Be Wild, Whole Lotta Love etc. in cheesy synthesizer mode. Only Sweet Home Alabama and More Than a Feeling were tolerable although Whole Lotta Love briefly quotes the Terry Riley-like keyboard passage from the Who's Baba O'Riley. [Ryko/Rhino]

Links:

1. Do and don't's for using a laptop on-stage. sonicscoop
2. Neville Marriner, at age 90, conducts the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. WQXR

aworks album log :: august 29, 2014 @lautenmusic @cage #indeterminism

American classical:

1. Simon Allen, Chris Burn, Lee Patterson, Mark Wastell - Four4
   I'm slowly realizing instrumentation and performance make a big difference in the John Cage number songs. This an example of an excellent interpretation (and here's a blog about Cage's indeterminate music). [Another Timbre]
2. Elodie Lauten - Piano Soundtracks
   Piano music from the late Elodie Lauten. This is a 2005 recording now available on rdio. Variations on the Orange Cycle is in the vein of a Terry Riley piece - floating, wandering, and long. New Sounds on the work:  "an exploration of the experience of time and based on earth tones, the 24-hour tone." Crossroads and Sonate ordinaire are equally appealing. She had posted on twitter early this summer. [4-Tay Inc.]
3. Various - Leon Kirchner: Works for Solo Piano
   A more modernist-traditional album but still substantial. Performers include Leon Fleisher, Peter Serkin, Max Levinson, Jonathan Biss and Jeremy Denk. [Albany Records]

Beyond:

1. Golden Triangle - Double Jointer
   Brooklyn pseudo-psychedelic group. The songs have fire and the album cover is vivid. [Hardly Art]
2. Jeroen Van Veen - Satie: Slow Music
   Well, it's definitely slow. [Brilliant Classics]
3. Golden Triangle - Golden Triangle
   A primitive, earlier album. [Mexican Summer]
4. Milford Graves & Bill Laswell - The Stone (Back in No Time)
   Drum and bass duet, recorded live at The Stone. [M.O.D. Tecnologies]
5. Wadada Leo Smith & Bill Laswell - The Stone (Akaschic Meditation)
   Trumpet and bass duet, recorded live at The Stone. Laswell only gets interesting in the second half. [M.O.D. Tecnologies]

Links:

• The BBC is omitting a Harrison Birtwistle work from a Proms TV broadcast. theguardian
• Harry Partch's Delusion of the Fury is "early pop music." theguardian
• Video of the old Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard in LA. Presumably, the Classical Annex across the street hadn't opened yet. Both now closed, of course. I stopped at the original Tower Records in Sacramento earlier this month, which is now a different store. Wax Poetics

aworks album log :: august 27, 2014 #shadow #inc #fourtet

American classical:

1. Bang on a Can All-Stars - In C
   A denser, less vibrant recording of the canonical minimal work by Terry Riley. AllMusic said it may be the "most innovative version of the work thus far." Great, I'm a traditionalist when it comes to minimalism. [Cantaloupe]
2. Xenia Pestova - Shadow Piano 
   Works for keyboards and electronics from composers new to me, American and British. There's a companion book of photography, obviously not part of the release on rdio. [Innova Recordings]

Beyond:

1. Four Tet - Beautiful Rewind 
   Parallel Jalebi and Our Navigation were interesting but I was particularly disappointed with Buchla, given the title and expecting retro-craziness. Still, Pitchfork gave it a 7.4 ("Beautiful Rewind echoes the ephemeral aspects of jungle, the infectious rush of the new..."). [Text Records]

aworks album log :: august 25, 2014 #victory #uncovered

American classical:

1. Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra - Victory at Sea and Other Favorites [Telarc]. I'm reading several books about the Pacific Ocean battles in World War II so it was time to listen to this old Richard Rodgers chestnut from an old TV series, albeit in a newer recording. Wikipedia says it was a favorite of Richard Nixon and played at his funeral. The album also has Colonel Bogey March etc.
2. Jan Boland, John Dowdall - Red Cedar Collection - American Music for Flute & Guitar [Red Cedar Chamber Music]. A nice respite after War in the Pacific, particularly Caprice by Katherine Hoover.
3. Maya Beiser - Uncovered [Innova]. Classic rock arranged for cello but with more intelligence than expected e.g. Black Dog by Led Zeppelin. There's also an arrangement of Moanin' at Midnight by Howlin' Wolf but it's just not the same when played as an instrumental. Beiser suggests the original songs are not typical formulaic pop. Evan Ziporyn arranged the tunes. As classical cover albums go, I prefer Renee Fleming's Dark Hope.

Beyond:

1. Sir Richard Bishop - Polytheistic Fragments [Drag City]. One of 14 albums by the guitarist free for download through the end of the month. I think the "Sir" in his name is just an affectation.

Wild Arc (2013). Lee Weisert #electro-acoustic #timpani

Lee Weisert is a professor at the University of North Carolina. Wild Arc is from a fresh sounding album of what I assume to be electro-acoustic music. In the work Wild Arc, it's "electronically manipulated timpani recordings and the acoustic source is not obvious, even if the end result is pleasing.