Night After Night

Days between: New York Times writing, August 20–November 10, 2013

The second in an occasional (though not occasional enough) series that started with a blog post in October, here's another omnibus entry covering all of my writing for The New York Times between the Bard Music Festival in mid-August and the New York Philharmonic concert of November 14, both blogged up individually elsewhere. The first date refers to the event, the second to publication.

Julianna Barwick at Judson Memorial Church, August 20, 2013
August 24, 2013

Ms. Barwick’s songs — chiefly wordless vocals, electronically looped — materialize out of ether, saturate a sonorous atmosphere, then dissolve. Environment trumps event.

Joshua Bell with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, August 21, 2013
August 23, 2013

Mr. Bell is easily taken for granted by classical music cognoscenti, not least because of his extra-musical celebrity. What other violinist would accept an invitation to judge the Miss America pageant?

International Contemporary Ensemble at the Clark Studio Theater, August 22, 2013
August 24, 2013

The alternation of movements grew familiar, if never altogether comfortable. Great! Comfort, after all, is highly overrated.

Taka Kigawa at Le Poisson Rouge, August 26, 2013
August 28, 2013

…anyone can appreciate how the wonder and joy Mr. Kigawa conveys in talking about his repertory during a concert is also manifest in the way he performs it.

Fred Frith and Laurie Anderson at the Stone, August 27, 2013
August 30, 2013

…the first set on Tuesday, played for a capacity audience, was a textbook example of how free improvisation can provide common ground for musicians of wildly disparate styles and temperaments.

Charlemagne Palestine, Joe McPhee and Steve Dalachinsky at Issue Project Room, September 3, 2013
September 5, 2013

Mr. Dalachinsky, beholden to the Beats but seasoned by meaner times, recited with a jazz-horn flow. He rushed one phrase and elongated the next; occasionally he stuttered on a single syllable, and then released the pent-up tension in a gush.

Contagious Sounds with Iktus Percussion and t8ts at Cornelia Street Café, September 4, 2013
September 7, 2013

…for plenty of players now swimming the city’s musical currents, DIY is already second nature. Case in point: Vicky Chow, the prodigious Canadian pianist currently embedded in the Bang on a Can All-Stars, de facto house band of the entrepreneurial revolution.

Object Collection "No Hotel" at St. Mark's Church, September 7, 2013
September 9, 2013

As Mr. Just’s music murmurs, natters and erupts into spasmodic punk-metal hammering, Mr. Glickstein, Mr. Nelson and Ms. Peker embrace, dance, exchange wigs, blurt non sequiturs and repeatedly murder one another.

Dedalus Ensemble at Roulette, September 9, 2013
September 11, 2013

Not every substantial American debut by an acclaimed European ensemble comes packaged with oversize fanfare, media hype and an obligatory guest appearance by Yo-Yo Ma.

"In 25 Years, Miller Theater Has Transformed the Arts Scene"
September 15, 2013
---> Web extra: "25 Years at Miller Theater"

"The more specialized the program, the more open it is to an outsider. If you go to a Monet retrospective, you come out, and you say: Hey, I love these pictures of Monet. I hate these. I love the lilies. I hate the lilies. You suddenly can say something, where before you were illiterate."

Pauline Oliveros and Olivia Block at Issue Project Room, September 14, 2013
September 16, 2013

Each has developed strategies for creating music that is not only distinctive and individual but also intentionally and necessarily permeable to sensations from the everyday world.

Éliane Radigue/Xavier Veilhan "Systema Occam" at Florence Gould Hall, September 19; Charles Curtis at Issue Project Room, September 20; and Charles Curtis, Yoshi Wada and Pitreleh at Issue Project Room, September 21, 2013

Each deliberate stroke ignited a pale corona of resonating harmonics, offering a lambent glow akin to dust motes swirling in a pale beam of light.

John Zorn "Zorn@60" orchestral music at Miller Theater, September 25, 2013
September 27, 2013

Mr. Zorn’s language conjures Ligeti and Schoenberg, sure. But the essential DNA of "Contes de Fées," augmented with not just one but two wind machines, reaches back further, to Berlioz fever dreams and macabre showpieces by Saint-Saëns and Mussorgsky.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, September 27, 2013
September 30, 2013

I’m not a big fan of gala opening nights, which tend to be all about fancy dress, floral arrangements, celebrity guests and a feel-good repertory that extends from canon fodder to bonbon.

John Zorn "Zorn@60" marathon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 28, 2013
October 3, 2013

…the chutzpah needed to envision Mr. Zorn presenting his music surrounded by some of the art that inspired him, and to facilitate an audience tramping after him during an otherwise typical Saturday, is something new for the institution.

Ethel "Documerica" at the BAM Harvey Theater, October 2 and 3, 2013
October 7, 2013

You saw smokestacks, barnyards and big-city parades, with folks coifed in styles now seldom seen outside early Richard Linklater films and certain corners of Brooklyn.

Georg Friedrich Haas Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre, October 10, 2013
October 12, 2013

…the music billowed and heaved fitfully, its bruised harmonies, obsessive repetitions and sudden, stark silences an almost shockingly intimate conjuring of the emotional intensity at play in the words.

Lise de la Salle at Washington Irving High School Auditorium, October 12, 2013
October 15, 2013

…Ms. de la Salle offered freshness and lucidity in Debussy, her measured approach providing tantalizing whiffs of fragrance instead of heavy perfume.

Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, October 13, 2013
October 15, 2013

…Mr. Levine focused past Carter’s complexity to engage the drama and voluptuousness of this score, which for all its tangles and whorls contains not a single uninteresting or unlovely measure.

"In His Hands, Bach Meets Bluegrass – Chris Thile Will Play Sonatas and Partitas at Zankel Hall"
October 21, 2013

“I just thought, ‘So you can have it all,’ ” he said. “You can get me moving, and be playing some of the most profoundly well-organized music that humans could possibly imagine. It’s visceral, but everything’s in its right place.”

Ronald Shannon Jackson, Composer and Avant-Garde Drummer, Dies at 73
October 24, 2013

“Everything we do has a foundation,” he continued in that article. “I think the African phrases are very obvious. I think the funk phrases are very obvious. I think the Oriental phrases are obvious. I think the Bulgarian rhythms are there — I hear all of it.”

"An Eternal Youth, Now 90 – Celebrating Ned Rorem's 90th Birthday"
October 27, 2013

Coming out was not an easy prospect for Mr. Blier. “The idea that Ned had written a song about my river, and that he shared my secret, was huge for me,” he said.

"Compositions Created to Be Seen…as Well As Heard – Michel van der Aa's 'Up-close' at White Light Festival"
October 28, 2013

“What I found is that there are so many similarities between filmmaking and composing: the way you handle time, the way you handle phrasing, the editing of the film,” he said.

Hotel Pro Forma "War Sum Up" at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, November 1, 2013
November 4, 2013

…the provocative force of “War Sum Up” is in the ambiguity of its message and the allure of its high-gloss finish. If only more New Yorkers could have seen it.

"More Than Shadows: Stars of Strauss – 'Die Frau ohne Schatten' with Schwanewilms and Goerke"
November 3, 2013

Presented with the same speculative exercise in summarizing “Frau,” Ms. Goerke laughed heartily. “Somebody said, ‘In two sentences, can you describe this opera you’re in?’ ” she recalled. “I said, ‘Nope.’ ”

Hilary Hahn "In 27 Pieces" at Greenwich House Music School, November 3, 2013
November 7, 2013

…the violinist Hilary Hahn was at the center of a social whirl, which could be variously described as a marathon concert, a school day and a carnival.

New York Philharmonic Contact! at SubCulture, November 4, 2013
November 8, 2013

Good news: With the fifth season of Contact!, the contemporary-music series the New York Philharmonic inaugurated in 2009, comes a performance space that finally suits the informal tone the orchestra desired but never previously delivered.

"November 21, 1963 – The Day Before" at Symphony Space, November 8, 2013
November 12, 2013

Musical tributes similarly ranged from heavy-weather art song to pop-derived whimsy, much of it by composers not yet born when Kennedy died.

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, November 10, 2013
November 12, 2013

Hammering repetitions in the first of five movements echo choral dramatists throughout the ages, from Mozart and Beethoven to Orff and Philip Glass.

Related:

Days between: New York Times writing, March 23–August 12, 2013

New audio: Noveller, ARTIFACT

"And you can tell everybody that this is your song…"

Just out from Noveller – a.k.a. guitarist/looper/soundscaper Sarah Lipstate – is ARTIFACT, a new compilation of 12 short solo tracks, each created for an individual who purchased a copy of the limited-edition DVD box set of the same title that Lipstate released in 2011.

The set was originally offered in an edition of 50 copies; in the end, only 20 were made. I'm glad to have purchased one, and proud to see that my personal loop – with the best (and only?) possible title! – is now track #9 on this new audio-only collection, available for download via Bandcamp. Lipstate produced a limited-edition tour CD-R version of the album last year, and I believe that a double-LP set is still planned, but this is the first general release for this music.

Personally, I couldn't be more pleased with "Night After Night," whose muzzy, indistinct rumble reminds me (oddly enough) of the similar cello murk at the very start of King Crimson's "Fallen Angel," and whose sunny, half-buried melody makes me think of Sonny Sharrock's solo-guitar music.

Thanks, Sarah – I'm happy to share my song with the world.

New audio: Toshimaru Nakamura, Ken Ikeda and Tomoyoshi Date, Green Heights

There's no reason why I should be surprised to find anything on Bandcamp nowadays… and anyone who knows me even a little, in person or online, also knows what an avid ’camper I am. Still, I admit that I was pleasantly taken aback to find a respectable representation of a favorite artist whose work I'd never sought out on Bandcamp previously: Toshimaru Nakamura, sublime master of the no-input mixing board – seriously, Google "no-input mixing board" and his name is the top result.

What it means is that Nakamura connects a mixing board's output line to its input, then manipulates the feedback that results. He's one of the purest musical minds I've ever encountered, and a performer who has interacted fruitfully with Keith Rowe and David Sylvian. If those names don't mean anything to you, substitute "a really, really wide span of artistic temperaments."

Bandcamp doesn't have an overwhelming selection: many of Nakamura's essential recordings are absent because they're on labels that don't do downloads. Still, it's a decent fistful, ranging from early albums (No-Input Mixing Board [3] is a pretty good starting point) to his latest solo disc (No-Input Mixing Board #8, evidently issued in both April and September 2013), plus collaborative projects like his endearing, enduring duo with guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama.

Green Heights, an October release on the Baskaru label and apparently the newest Nakamura recording available through Bandcamp, finds him working alongside Ken Ikeda, whose work I'm aware of but don't know especially well, and Tomoyoshi Date, who's completely new to me. The first two tracks are tranquil and spacy, like alien lullabies. Things get itchier and more tactile during the next two tracks – "Balcony II" might be my favorite for the gentle, complementary unfolding of its constituent parts – before returning to the tranquility of the initial cuts for the end. Just lovely.

Here's a nice little video produced by Sylvian's Samadhisound label, in which Nakamura talks about his work and motivations, and you can see his grandmaster concentration in action.

New audio: GE Stinson, masters of the abstract (an homage)

Left coast guitar artist GE Stinson, a founding member of seminal New Age/fusion ensemble Shadowfax who moved onward to all manner of rich, gripping projects, has just reposted this 2011 "homage to some of the masters of abstract jazz and improvisation." I was going to contact him in order to identify his excellent collaborators – the brash saxophonist and bomb-dropping drummer on "He Talked with the Spirits," and the note-clutching bassist on "Tongue and Groove," to name just a few examples. Then I learned via Facebook that it's all Stinson: a bona fide one-man show, with deft use of digital magic.

Amazing, and worth considerably more than the five bucks he's charging. I especially love that "Delicate Errors," Stinson's tribute to Derek Bailey, doesn't sound a thing like that inimitable forebear, yet sounds completely fitting and poignant. Go, get this while you can, and keep up with Stinson's latest doings on the Soundcloud page for his current project, halfmonk.

New audio: 3:33, Bicameral Brain

New death-ambient hip-hop drone by 3:33, who cite Yoshi Wada, Terry Riley, Whitehouse and La Monte Young in the press release for their forthcoming 2CD album, Bicameral Brain, due October 29 on Parallel Thought. From the group's label bio:

Too frequently, experimental music has automatically fallen under the generic label of “new” or “different”. Perhaps what is needed is a return to primitive principles, a devolution of sorts. 3:33 is a group that looks to do just that. Evolving from the groundwork of Musique Concrete composers like Pierre Shaeffer and John Cage, their music is tense and fiercely experiential; a roller coaster ride through moody beats, haunting jangles, and shrieks that will disquiet the soul.

 

There will be more to say about this one, I'm sure. For now, just have a taste.

New audio: Keith Fullerton Whitman, Greatest Hits

Keith Fullerton Whitman, electronic-music maven and proprietor of the early-electronica archival label Creel Pone and the brilliant avant-music e-tailer Mimaroglu Music Service, makes everyone's morning with a new, very personal project uploaded to Soundcloud this morning. Here, in his own words, the explanation of Greatest Hits:

On the eve of my 30th birthday, I began rendering "automatic" "enhancements" of only the most salient points of the pop music of my youth; a line, bar, or fragment of a particular song (after being heard out in "the wild" in the present; akin to running into an old friend on the street & having that awkward, stilted conversation) was chosen based on how much my nostalgic recollection of it differed from its contemporary reality.

Each edit was played back at exactly half-speed, then run through a series of time- and gain-based processes that slowly and meticulously chewed through the audio, revealing hidden layers of content, context, and temporal/spectral production details… shining a flashlight into the dark corners of each selection, exposing the hidden ghosts lurking within.

New audio: M. Geddes Gengras, Collected Works Vol. 1

Compilations aren't generally things I spend much time recommending. But in the case of an artist as madly prolific as California synth muso M. Geddes Gengras, Collected Works Vol. 1, a new anthology from Mexican label Umor Rex, is a godsend. Subtitled The Moog Years, it concentrates on a specific segment of Geddes's output, culling tracks from four previous cassette-only releases. Not are the chosen cuts great representations of the artist's dreamier, more blissed-out side, but they also hang together remarkably well, resulting in a coherent album worth getting to know. It's available on limited-edition vinyl from the label website; you can also buy downloads in a variety of formats via Bandcamp.

Video: Fred Frith and Evelyn Glennie improvisation, May 19, 2013

Fred Frith and Evelyn Glennie
Moers Festival, May 19, 2013

New audio: Jim O'Rourke, Steamroom series

A hefty, heady trove of new and recent music by Jim O'Rourke has just turned up on Bandcamp, priced inexpensively and available in a variety of file formats, lossless and otherwise. I've just bought Steamroom 1, a 2012 recording O'Rourke pressed up for his recent Japanese tour with Christoph Heemann and Will Long (Celer), but I can feel the other seven releases clamoring for attention already. Go, indulge.

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?)