aworks :: "new" american classical music

aworks top ten :: today's listening #perchance #modularsynth

1. William Tyler - Man of Oran. Deseret Canyon
2. Jon Hopkins - Open Eye Signal. Immunity
3. Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld - And Still They Move. Never Were the Way She Was
4. The Modern Jazz Quartet - Bags' Groove. The Modern Jazz Quartet (Bonus Track Version)
5. Judd Greenstein / Now Ensemble - City Boy. Dreamfall
6. Gloria Coates / Susan Allen - Perchance to Dream. Postcard from Heaven. Not quite typical harp music.
7. Steve Flato - I'll Never Be Able to Afford a Modular Synth. Poverty Electronics.  The artist "is concerned with impurity, taking processes and concepts and freely interchanging them without the process necessarily dictating form."
8. William Tyler - The Sleeping Prophet. Deseret Canyon
9. Ornette Coleman - Ramblin'. Change of the Century.
10. Steve Gunn - Water Wheel. 2015-01-11 Rough Trade, Brooklyn, NY

aworks top ten :: today's listening #possibility #difficulty #railroad

1. Aidan Baker - Doors as Possible. Souvenirs of the Eternal Present EP
2. David Lang - The Difficulty of Crossing a Field. A new and interesting recording from Cantaloupe Music. 
3. Modern Jazz Quartet - Bag's Groove (Live). The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige & Pablo Recordings
4. Steve Gunn - Dive for the Pearl. Melodies for a Savage Fix
5. Steve Gunn - Topeka AM. Melodies for a Savage Fix
6. Atheus - Deploy. Occult Symphony (Unmixed)
7. Steely Dan - Do It Again. Can't Buy a Thrill
8. Charles Ives / Stephen Drury - The Celestial Railroad. Faith, The Loss of Faith, And The Return of Faith. The album is a mis-mash of Ives, Liszt, Beethoven and Stockhausen.
9. Rolling Stones - Stray Cat Blues. Live at University of Leeds / 1971. Earlier this year, I read a Brian Jones biography and was repulsed by how he was treated by Jagger, Richards and others. But I'm past it and back to listening.
10. Modern Jazz Quartet - Gershwin Medley: Soon / For You, For Me, Forever More / Love Walked In / Our Love Is Here to Stay

aworks top five of the day :: ssingggg, cat people

1. Ssingggg Sschlllingg Sshpppingg. Charlemagne Palestine
2. Musica de Palladium. Dan Román
3. Retrospectos. Dan Román
4. Sometimes I Feel So Deserted. The Chemical Brothers
5. Cat People (Putting Out Fire). David Bowie

Palestine: I may have mistyped that name above but apparently this is a new recording, on the idiosyncratics label although Google only returns six results when searching. In any case, this is a noisy, creative 51 minute stream, if not river, of music and beyond.

Román: A native of Puerto Rico, the composer writes lyrically and rhythmically. Innova calls it "post-minimalism with the traditions of Puerto Rican music."

The Chemical Brothers: Song from an upcoming album. 

Bowie: Something reminded me yesterday to listen to some music by Giorgio Moroder which led me to this stale hit from David Bowie.

 

aworks weekly top ten :: cage, gunn, caribou...

1. The Unavailable Memory of.  John Cage; Philipp Vandré - Vol. 37: Complete Short Works For Prepared Piano
2. Milly's Garden. Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather
3. The Ensemble Chord In C With A Major 7th And A Guitar Base. Duane Pitre - Organized Pitches Occurring in Time
4. Dollars and Cents. Radiohead - Amnesiac
5. Melody Day. Caribou - Andorra
6. Desperate Man Blues. John Fahey - Return Of The Repressed
7. Song of the Path Guides. Eliane Radigue - Songs of Milarepa
8. Way Out Weather. Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather
9. Phantom Waltz. Meredith Monk; Ursula Oppens, Bruce Brubaker - Monk: Piano Songs
10. Sundialing. Caribou - Andorra

aworks favorites :: nov 30, 2014 #unavailable #struggle #knives

american classical:

• John Cage - The Unavailable Memory of. Philipp Vandré - Vol. 37: Complete Short Works For Prepared Piano [Mode]
• Alan Splet - Space travel w/ changing choral textures. An Anthology Of Noise & Electronic Music [Sub Rosa]

beyond:

• Sir Richard Bishop - Algeciras. Decompositions []
• Sir Richard Bishop - Event Horizons. Graviton Polarity Generator [Social Music Records]
• Nau-Zee-auN - Testosterphone. Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused and Recycled [Important Records]
• Gurdjieff, George & Thomas de Hartmann - The Struggle of the Magicians Part 3, from 'The Music of Gurdjieff'. 'I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age in America 1950-1990' [Lita]
• Radiohead - Dollars and Cents; Knives Out. Amnesiac [Capitol]
• Dietrich Buxtehude - Passacaglia in D Minor. Eric Lubrun - Organ Music for Funerals [MONTHABOR Music]

aworks favorites :: nov 29, 2014

american classical:

• Meredith Monk - Urban March (Shadow); Tower; Railroad (Travel Song). Bruce Brubaker, Ursula Oppens - Monk: Piano Songs []

 

aworks favorites :: nov 28, 2014 #four2 #souvenir #bopknot

american classical:

• John Cage - Four2. Latvian Radio Choir - Mythes Étoilés [Aurora]
• John Cage - Souvenir. Teodoro Anzellotti - John Cage: Cheap Imitation, Souvenir & Dream [Winter &  Winter GmbH]
• Morton Feldman - Trio for Flutes. Dorothy Stone - None but the Lonely Flute [New World Records]

beyond:

• Viderunt Omnes - Pérotin. The Hilliard Ensemble - Pérotin [ECM New Music]
• Antipop Consortium - A Knot In Your Bop. Antipop Consortium Vs. Matthew Shipp [Thirsty Ear]
• Odessa Chen - Small Birds. Winter 2013 Mixtape

aworks favorites :: nov 26, 2014 #ives #electro-magnetic #testosterphone

american classical:

• Charles Ives - Central Park in the Dark. The American Avant-Garde In The 20th Century: Music And Modernism [LTM]. Neither the liner notes nor the Internet indicate performers.
• Alan Tormey - Black Pudding. Theories of Place [New Focus Recordings]. "...an assertion of noise as the mediating force in a dialog between avant-garde classical music and the mechanical & electro-magnetic infrastructures that undergird contemporary American life." Actually, that's an apt description of the music.

beyond:

• White - Spring House; Build a Link. White [Open Note]
• Nau-Zee-auN - Testosterphone. Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused and Recycled [Important Records]

links:

• Robert Ashley's music is surprisingly contemplative but few people showed up to listen to a performance by Thomas Buckner. [Boring Like a Drill]
• A Berkeley happening: "The Thingamajigs eventually convened around Oliveros, all clutching cardboard tubes to their ears, like a living sculpture." [East Bay Express via Avant Music News]

aworks favorites :: nov 25, 2014 #yetanothersonatasandinterludes

American classical:

• Nothing today. I did listen to yet another recording of John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes. Yawn.

Beyond:

• Steffen Basho-Junghans - The River Suite. Rivers and Bridges [Strange Attractors Audio House]
  Basho-Junghans' long-form guitar music may even surpass John Fahey's.
• Masami Akita - Looping Jane. Merzbow - Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused and Recycled [Important]
• Sir Richard Bishop - Cultured in D Minor (w Ben Chasny at Great American Music Hall). Decompositions
• Michael Stearns - As the Earth Kissed the Moon (excerpt), from 'Planetary Unfolding' (1981). 'I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age in America 1950-1990' [Lita]
• Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - When the World Was Young. Walking into Clarksdale [Atlantic]

aworks favorites :: nov 24, 2014 #guitar #space

American classical:

• Steve Reich - Nagoya Guitars. David Tanenbaum Guitar Recital [New Albion]

Beyond:

• John Fahey - Juana. Sea Changes and Coelacanths: A Young Person's Guide to John Fahey [Table of the Elements]
• Abdel Gadir Salim - Umri Ma Bansa. Desert Blues: Ambiances Du Sahara [Network Medien]
• Weather Report - Mysterious Traveller. Mysterious Traveller [Columbia]
  Funky and spacey, with excellent playing by Wayne Shorter. 
• The Beatles - Eight Days a Week. Beatles for Sale [Capitol Records]
• Led Zeppelin - Four Sticks. Led Zeppelin IV [Atlantic]
• Steffen Basho-Junghans - Blue Mountain Raga. A Raga for Peter Walker [Tompkins Square]
  I also listened today to music from the source, Peter Walker, but nothing particularly compelling.
• Steffen Basho-Junghans - Autumn II. Rivers and Bridges [Strange Attractors Audio House]

Links: