Night After Night

Playlist.

Charlemagne Palestine - Strumming Music (New Note)

Eliane Radigue - Adnos I-III (Important)

Innercity - Träumata (Cosmic Winnetou)

Creation VI - Akroamatikos (Cosmic Winnetou)

Jason Lescalleet - Archaic Architecture (NNA Tapes)

Kevin Drumm - Earrach (self-released > Bandcamp)

Catherine Lamb - periphery (Engraved Glass)

Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins - A Scarcity of Miracles (Panegyric)

Sylvian/Fripp - Damage (Virgin)

King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic: The Complete Recordings - CD1-3 (DGM)

Kayo Dot - Hubardo (Ice Level Music)

Playlist.

Günter Schlienz - The Sardinian Tapes (Earth Mantra)

Elliott Carter - 90+; Piano Sonata; Night Fantasies - Charles Rosen (Bridge)

Elliott Carter - Night Fantasies - Ursula Oppens (Cedille)

Elliott Carter - Piano Sonata - Paul Jacobs (Nonesuch)

Elliott Carter - Night Fantasies - Gilbert Kalish (live 2008.11.20, broadcast recording)

John Zorn - Carny - unknown pianist (YouTube)

David Fulmer - On Night - Eliot Gattegno, Argento Chamber Ensemble/David Fulmer (Tzadik)

Mike Shiflet - The Choir, the Army (Under the Spire)

En - The Absent Coast (Root Strata)

Hanns Eisler - Deutsche Sinfonie - Sophie Koch, Carolin Masur, Eike Wilm Schulte, Kurt Rydl, Radio France Choir and Philharmonic Orchestra/Eliahu Inbal (Naïve)

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 7 in E - London Philharmonic Orchestra/Stanislav Skrowaczewski (LPO)

Cecil Taylor Unit - Live in Vienna (Leo)

Atoms for Peace - Amok (XL)

Celer - Menggayakan (Analog Path > Bandcamp)

Pierre Boulez - Pli selon Pli - Christine Schäfer, Ensemble Intercontemporain/Pierre Boulez (Deutsche Grammophon)

Audio: Max Roach, "The Dream/It's Time"

Today's required listening, from Max Roach's 1981 LP, Chattahoochee Red. Not many musicians could pull this off with such decorum, gravity and conviction. The album is rare now, evidently, and is worth tracking down, not least because the band involved – Odean Pope, Cecil Bridgewater and Calvin Hill – was one of Roach's best, and remains underappreciated.

Playlist.

Gary Numan - Dance (Beggars Banquet)

Various Artists - I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age in America, 1950-1990 (Light in the Attic; due Oct. 29)

Julianna Barwick - Nepenthe (Dead Oceans)

Paul Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra; Concert Music for String Orchestra and Brass Instruments - Midori, NDR Symphony Orchestra/Christoph Eschenbach (Ondine; due Aug. 27)

Peter Evans - Rocket Science (More Is More)

Gary Numan - Cullen Auditorium, Houston, TX, 1982.10.17 (audience recording, origin unknown)

Gimu - Maybe Even Never (Bandcamp)

Bataille Solaire - Documentaíres (Constellation Tatsu)

Furthur - Radio City Music Hall, March 26, 2011 (Gnomes and Hobbits)

Grapefruit - Stolen Highway (Constellation Tatsu)

Panabrite - Cortex Meridian (Constellation Tatsu)

Marble Verse - Of Winds (VAALD)

Witchgrass - Sigil Infection (VAALD)

Husere Grav/Meditations - Gravitations (Anathema Sound)

Roped Off - Roped Off Lifts the Invisible Tile (Tranquility Tapes)

Afterlife - Afterlive (Tranquility Tapes)

Navel - Ambient 4: Luneburg Heath (Koppklys)

The Baijkonour Ghost - The Baijkonour Ghost (Cosmic Winnetou)

Former Selves / Aloonaluna - split CS (Cosmic Winnetou)

New audio: Anne Guthrie, Codiaeum variegatum

You might know Anne Guthrie's name from Sinter, the excellent CD she recorded with Richard Kamerman for the ErstAEU label, which is where I first learned of and heard this Brooklyn-baed composer, improviser and acoustician. Maybe you've heard her previous recordings on Engraved Glass or Copy for Your Records. I haven't, which is why I'm happy to learn about Codiaeum variegatum, a new full-length solo LP Guthrie has made for the Students of Decay label. The album is due in early November, but you can stream these three tracks right now to whet your appetite.

(Codiaeum variegatum. You saw what she did there, right?)

Bard Music Festival, Weekend Two, at Bard College, August 16-18, 2013

 

Jean Stilwell with the American Symphony Orchestra, by Cory Weaver

 

Bard Music Festival, Weekend Two, at Bard College, August 16-18, 2013
The New York Times, August 20, 2013

Here's a little something you probably figured out about me some time ago: I have a nearly pathological aversion to posting my work for The New York Times out of chronological sequence. Sounds pretty innocuous – except that it wreaks absolute havoc on regular blogging if I miss posting a review for a day, a week, a month and onward, causing everything newer to pile up behind it in a badly clogged pipeline.

#firstworldproblems, believe me, I'm well aware. Still, as someone who actually does aspire to do this better and more regularly again, it's a vaguely substantial issue. All of which is to say that I'm not going to spend a lot of time here talking about what in specific frustrates me in my Bard Music Festival review. Instead, I'm going to post it, move on, and figure out how to deal with the previous stuff I skipped over some time this weekend.

Yes, really.

If you are genuinely disappointed that I'm not conducting a postmortem on my review, or waxing philosophical about the festival itself, then I'll commend you to read the blog post to which last year's BMF review was attached. That was a pretty satisfying post; this one's sole purpose is to appear on Tuesday.

Postscript: Yes, I did eventually realize that I wrote all of the above on Wednesday.

Playlist.

Gary Numan - Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) (Machine Music; due Oct. 15)

Steve Moore - Positronic Neural Pathways (VCO Recordings)

King Crimson - El Mocambo, Toronto, Ontario, Oct. 22, 1981 (DGMlive)

Antoine Beuger - Sixteen Stanzas on Stillness and Music Unheard - Greg Stuart (l'innomable)

Gary Numan - Disconnection (Sanctuary)

Gary Numan - Telekon (Beggars Banquet)

Rebekah Heller - 100 Names (Tundra)

Rangefinder -Harmony State (A Guide to Saints)

Prince Rupert's Drops -Run Slow (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

Chubby Wolf - Seasick (Mystery Sea > Bandcamp)

Antoine Beuger - Cantor Quartets (Another Timbre)

Jump Rope - Hemp Breakers (Tabs Out)

Josh Mason - Conduit (Scissor Tail)

Gary Numan - I, Assassin (Beggars Banquet)

Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde - Kirsten Flagstad, Sabine Kalter, Lauritz Melchior, Herbert Janssen, Emanuel List, Choir of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London Philharmonic Orchestra/Fritz Reiner (VAI Audio)

Richard Wagner - Lohengrin - Elisabeth Grümmer, Christa Ludwig, Jess Thomas, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Choir of the Vienna State Opera, Vienna Philharmonic/Rudolf Kempe (EMI Classics)

Chubby Wolf - It's a Small Place to Be (Bandcamp)

Chubby Wolf - Bouquets of Vacant Jouissance (Live at KCRW) (Bandcamp)

Carcass - Surgical Steel (Nuclear Blast; due Sept. 17)

Juliana Barwick - Nepenthe (Dead Oceans; due Aug. 20)

FOODMAN -「IROIRO」(Digitalis)

Aloonaluna - A House Made of Cloud & Bone (Digitalis)

The Afternoon Exchange - The Afternoon Exchange (Digitalis)

Time Out New York: Live preview, Donna Lewis.

 

Donna Lewis, by Marvin Joseph

Donna Lewis
Time Out New York
Aug 15–21, 2013

Any self-respecting pop star would be delirious to have a hit like “I Love You Always Forever,” an irresistible bit of romantic treacle that launched Welsh singer Donna Lewis to global success in 1996. Same goes for “At the Beginning,” the uplifting duet with Richard Marx from the animated film Anastasia, which returned Lewis to the top of the charts in 1997.

But if you really listened past the earworm chorus and bubbly beat of Lewis’s debut hits, you quickly sensed that she was no flash in the pan. The classically trained daughter of a jazz pianist, Lewis had a breathy coo that could recall Kate Bush, and used it with a flexibility that few pop princesses could muster.

Still does, to judge by Brand New Day, a striking demo Lewis has just recorded with prog-jazz trio the Bad Plus. Produced by avant-guitarist David Torn, the collection addresses a personalized pantheon: Songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Burt Bacharach, Chocolate Genius and Gnarls Barkley mesh cozily and radiate congeniality. “I Love You Always Forever” merits its inclusion. At Drom, pianist Aaron Parks sits in with Bad Plus bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King for what’s certain to be an illuminating reintroduction.—Steve Smith

=====

Presumably the reason why the Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson isn't on this gig is because he's opening a run with veteran drummer Billy Hart's superb quartet at Birdland the same night. That band, with saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Ben Street, is also strongly recommended; read Hank Shteamer's 2012 Time Out feature on the band for more details. All of which said, Aaron Parks is an excellent choice for a sub with Lewis et al at Drom.

Live preview: Christina Vantzou + CC Carana

Christina Vantzou, by Julie Calbert

Christina Vantzou + CC Carana
Time Out New York
Aug 8–14, 2013

The ability to write music that can seize attention or fade into the background equally well is a unique skill, and Christina Vantzou has it in abundance—no surprise for a creator who started in visual art, film and animation. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, and now based in Belgium, Vantzou honed her feel for diaphanous meditations and luminous reverie in the Dead Texan with Stars of the Lid member Adam Wiltzie, then started creating her own intricate, sampler-based music. Connecting with Magik*Magik Orchestra's Minna Choi, Vantzou made No. 1, an achingly lovely collection of postclassical chamber music issued by Kranky in 2011.

Appearing this week as part of the dinner-at-an-exhibition series Monkey Town 3, Vantzou joins members of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble in gorgeous, haunting material slated for the forthcoming No. 2, plus a Clint Mansell arrangement, all accompanied by new films. Sharing the bill is Brooklyn troubadour CC Carana, whose arty warble floats sweetly through subtly akimbo terrain.—Steve Smith

Eyebeam Art and Technology Center; Aug 8

Time Out New York: Live preview, Jordan Klassen.

Jordan Klassen (Photograph: Rachel Pick)

Live preview: Jordan Klassen
Time Out New York
Aug 1–7, 2013

“Let me give, let me talk, let me live in your pillow / Kill your fear, whisper words in your ear,” Jordan Klassen intones reassuringly on “Go to Me.” Slipping easily between intimacy and grandiosity, the track is the first single from Repentance, the British Columbian singer-songwriter’s forthcoming album on Toronto label Nevado. That “Go to Me” was also the initial cut on Klassen’s 2012 EP, Kindness, and LP, Monastery, shouldn’t bother you—it’s that solid, elliptical lyrics and all.

Interviewed by a Vancouver newspaper in June, Klassen listed as his chief influences Belle and Sebastian, Paul Simon, Joanna Newsom, Nick Drake, Radiohead and Sufjan Stevens. You’d have guessed as much from spinning Repentance, a clutch of memorable tunes gently intoned by the singer, and whimsically adorned by producer Jonathan Anderson with ukulele, glockenspiel, toy piano, parade drums and whistling. Klassen’s writing earned him early cred, but comparing his fledgling self-releases with the imaginative refinement of Repentance, you hear the distance from aspiration to inspiration.—Steve Smith

Rockwood Music Hall; Aug 5
Mercury Lounge; Aug 6