ETHEL Quartet’s forthcoming release (June 2010, Thunderbird Records) chronicles their series of collaborations with eleven young composers from the Chickasaw nation; the first-ever recording of Native American student composers.
Q2 has posted podcasts about the recording project here, providing a preview and some context for this fascinating endeavor.
Over the years, Ethel has engaged in a number collaborations with Native American musicians. Here’s a video of them performing with Navajo singer James Bilagody.
The Kronos Quartet is in residence at Carnegie Hall this week from Mar. 11-14, presenting four concerts in Zankel Hall and mentoring emerging string quartets.
I’m writing about their 3/11 concert for Musical America. Devoted entirely to the music of Terry Riley, it featured a number of new works by one of the founding fathers of the minimalist school of composition.
On Sunday I’ll be attending Kronos’ Music Without Borders concert, which features guest performers Dohee Lee (Korea), rubâb master Homayoun Sakhi (Afghanistan), and Azerbaijani mugam performers Alim and Fargana Qasimov. The latter artists also perform on Kronos’ latest recording for Smithsonian Folkways, Music of Central Asia, Volume Eight (CD/DVD).
He’s performed with Darker my Love, the Fall, and is a member of the Strange Boys; but Tim Presley is currently recording his debut album under the moniker White Fence. The self-titled recording is slated for release on Woodsist on April 26, 2010. In the meantime, Presley’s released a teaser MP3, “The Love Between,” for your listening enjoyment. It’s a smoky slice of promising post-psych pop (Say that three times fast!).
“Orchestral pop” duo Olney Clark write moody, witty, and, yes, gracefully orchestrated pop songs. Their debut self-titled LP is slated for release in April 13, 2010.
The band is sharing a teaser track, “Josefin the Writer,” available below.
35 years into their tenure, Belgian chamber rock outfit Univers Zero has just released a new LP, Clivages. Chamber rock? Well, calling the band “chamber rock” or even “instrumental prog” is reasonably descriptive; but its kind of like calling Wilco “roots-inflected indie rock:” it gets you in the vicinity of their oeuvre,  but it doesn’t get close to the guts of what the band’s really about. Univers Zero is one of the few outfits who entirely convince me that classical instruments can be successfully incorporated in a rock context without robbing the music of any power.
Indeed, how many other prog bands feature bassoon solos alongside skronking bass clarinet, as UZ does on the extended cut”"Warrior”? There’s more than a taste of the Stravinsky Octet in the elegant frequent metric shifts of “Vacillements” and “Soubresauts.” Meanwhile, “Earth Scream” moves us closer to the world of ambiance, sampling, and free improv.
Courtesy of the label’s site, we have an audio stream of “Les Kobolds,” a cut that combines both their neoclassical and rocking modes of music-making.
Chicago indie folk singer-songwriter Judson Claiborne releases his sophomore recording, Time and Temperature, via on April 6, 2010. In advance, he’s sharing “Song for Dreaming,” a moody, nocturnal ballad, as a teaser track (MP3 download below).
Tunng releases “And Then we Saw Land” on Thrill Jockey in April. They’ve just release a tease video featuring snippets of material from the album. While one could perhaps do without the merchandise tie-in ads that appear along the way, the music is certainly tantalizing!
The band’s also release their new single, “Hustle,” for previewing here.
And here’s another goody, the video for “Bullets.”
This Sunday, the Prism Quartet is celebrating 25 years of concertizing and the release of various CDs with a show at Le Poisson Rouge (details below). The show will feature music from their recording catalogue, focusing on their most recent projects. They’ve also shared a sneak peek at their set list, with audio clips below.
The quartet’s latest CD, Antiphony, is a collaboration with New Music from China. It includes works by Wang Guowei, Zhou Long, Lei Lang, Chen Yi, Tan Dun, Ming-Hsiu Yen.
Thus far I’m really enjoying the title work, by Zhou Long. In addition to the saxophones, it features Erhu, Daruan, and percussion in a piece that explores folk resonances and microtones in a finely sculpted modernist-tinged amalgam. Yen’s Chinatown lands on the other side of ‘town,’ stylistically speaking, but is equally fetching. Zesty minimal ostinati are juxtaposed against Sun Li’s vibrant pipa playing. It’s a postmodern audio travelogue that indeed captures its eponymous neighborhood’s energy and diversity. I’m still seeking out scores for the Tan Dun and Chen Yi works; more once I’ve had time to digest them.
25th Anniversary CD Release Concert
Le Poisson Rouge
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Doors open at 6:30 PM, show at 7:30 PM
158 Bleecker Street, New York City
Information and ticketing: 212.505.FISH (3474),
Audio clips previewing their set list for the LPR gig:
Steven Mackey: Jackass from Animal, Vegetable, Mineral Roshanne Etezady: Keen Jacob TV: Jesus is Coming William Albright: Pypes Jacob TV: Pitch Black Lei Liang: YUAN
Domino is slated to release These New Puritans’ sophomore release, Hidden, on March 2nd.
The band is sharing a teaser MP3, “Orion,” here. The song clearly takes arranging cues from the burgeoning indie classical movement, featuring the New London Children’s Choir, Japanese Taiko drums, chains, roto-toms, etc.
While it is nice to see so many bands incorporating contemporary classical signatures into pop music, one likes it even more when the results as as fetching as those on “Orion.”
from Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
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