Chris Kennedy
Tuen Verbruggen & Arve Henriksen. Black Swan; The Bureau of Atomic Tourism. Second Law of Thermodynamics. These two recent CDs give a strong picture of the breadth of Belgian percussionist Tuen Verbruggen’s playing, showcasing a duo in studio and a live performance as part of a sextet. Verbruggen’s duet with the Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen was done[...] Read more
Antoine Beuger, Jürg Frey. Dedalus. This CD documents the performance of two compositions by flutist Antoine Beuger and one by clarinettist Jürg Frey at a side space of Les Instants Chavirés in Montreuil, France. Beuger and Frey are both longtime members of Wandelweiser Group, a collective of international composers[...] Read more
Christof Migone. Sonic Somatic: Performances of the Unsound Body. / Fingering. It comes as no surprise that the first word of Sonic Somatic is “Merdre!” Migone has long been a purveyor of bodily functions, putting out recordings of knuckle-cracks (Crackers, 1999), collected bottles of spit (Spit, 1997–1999), and crassly named music projects (Fingering,[...] Read more
Aki Onda. Cassette Memories vol. 3, South of the Border. When Aki Onda released the first two volumes of his Cassette Memories series almost a decade ago, part of their radical appeal was the idea that someone would continue to use cassette Walkman recorders as their medium. Onda not only used them, but wielded them like a DJ, creating dense and[...] Read more
Daniela Cascella. En Abîme: Listening, Reading, Writing (An archival fiction). Daniela Cascella’s En Abîme is a fascinating consideration of the art of writing about sound—the process of listening and re-listening and responding to what one has heard. The result of a moment of crisis, when Cascella’s ten years of writing seemed to her to carry[...] Read more
Burkhard Beins, Christian Kesten, Gisela Nauck, Andrea Neumann, eds. Echtzeitmusik Berlin: Self-Defining a Scene. Echtzeitmusik Berlin: Self-Defining a Scene is a welcome and expansive document on the improvised music scene in Berlin. The term “echtzeitmusik,” which translates into “real-time music,” is the current working description for the type of music practiced by such[...] Read more
Thomas Tilly & Jean-Luc Guionnet. Stones Air Axioms. One of the most striking things about medieval stone cathedrals is the massive volume of air that is encased in their naves. Upon entering one of these cathedrals, you feel the air pressure enveloping you with a stunningly present stillness. Any sound adds to this feeling, as you become[...] Read more
Keith Rowe & John Tilbury. E.E. Tension And Circumstance. In 2004, after a disagreement with collaborator Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe left the core AMM trio, whose other member, John Tilbury, remained with Prévost in AMM. Before then, Tilbury and Rowe had been playing together in various lineups for almost forty years. This duo[...] Read more
Le Quatuor de Jazz Libre du Québec. 1973. Le Quatuor de Jazz Libre du Québec was a free jazz ensemble that internalized the radicalism of the late ’60s and early ’70s into their actions and their music. Formed in 1967, they had by 1970 established an artists’ colony that had an affinity with Quebec[...] Read more
Craig Hilton & Tomas Phillips. le gout de néant. This beautiful recording is largely sourced from a performance of Craig Hilton playing the guzheng. The first track, Sans Mouvement I, is a relatively untreated sound recording of Hilton bowing the guzheng, with a slight reverb applied—creating a blissfully full sound that envelops the[...] Read more
Tim Brady. 24 Frames—Scatter. Tim Brady’s 24 Frames series (this double CD and its companion 24 Frames—Trance, from 2010) is about precision and virtuosity. Billed as a larger project of “24 compositions . . .atmospheres . . . scenarios . . . [and] ways of playing guitar,[...] Read more
Brandon LaBelle and Cládia Martinho, Editors. Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear, Vol. 2. Site of Sound Volume 2 follows a decade after the first volume, a period in time that has seen an increase in the activity of artists working with both sound and architecture. As LaBelle points out in the preface, the decade has also seen more discussion about the idea of the public and of[...] Read more