Recordings

Witch Prophet. Gateway Experience Discovery and understanding are tenets of the work of Witch Prophet, aka Ethiopian-Eritrean Canadian musician Ayo Leilani. Her 2020 album DNA Activation was a prism reflecting the range of the African diaspora experience. On her third album, Gateway Experience, the Toronto-based artist[...] Read more

Recordings Leslie Ken Chu Issue 145

Spektral Quartet, Julia Holter, and Alex Temple. Behind the Wallpaper Behind the Wallpaper occupies the unknown space just before a transformation is complete. Inspired by composer Alex Temple’s gender transition, the album explores themes of renewal and realization and is performed by Chicago’s Spektral Quartet and singer-songwriter Julia Holter.[...] Read more

Recordings Vanessa Ague Issue 145

Rasmussen / Flaherty / Rowden / Corsano. Crying in Space Mette Rasmussen is a Danish alto saxophonist who has worked in diverse and distinguished contexts, including Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra and the all-star multinational quartet Hearth. Here she joins Connecticut-based saxophonist Paul Flaherty, a free-jazz warrior whose wily name for[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 145

Éliane Radigue. 11 Dec 1980. Quatuor Bozzini. Éliane Radigue: Occam Delta XV. In approaching the work of French composer Éliane Radigue, one is recommended to let go of any preconceptions of what music should sound like. The music moves outside the realm of rhythm patterns, melody, and fixed pitch, with slow and subtle changes in sound and in the layering of[...] Read more

Recordings René van Peer Issue 145

Roxanne Nesbitt / Ben Brown / Marielle Groven. Play Symbiotic Instruments A brief note accompanying the latest record from Montreal free-jazz purveyor Small Scale Music highlights things before players: The titular “instruments,” we read, represent “a collection of resonant objects and systems played by an ever-evolving group of musicians.[...] Read more

Recordings Brennan McCracken Issue 145

Joëlle Léandre. Zurich Concert During her long career, Joëlle Léandre has been a constant explorer of the possibilities of her string bass and of exploratory musical languages, moving from creative collaborations with composers John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi to a devotion to free improvisation. This June, L[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 145

Ingrid Laubrock. The Last Quiet Place In recent decades, tenor and soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has moved from her native Germany to an extended stay in England to her current American residency. Through the process she has become one of the most inventive members of the international improvising community, a central[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 145

Tim Hecker. No Highs Since his last release on Kranky, Tim Hecker has been busy with soundtrack work—most recently for Brandon Cronenberg’s science fiction horror film Infinity Pool. As a result, a directness of intent and execution has settled into his musical approach. The press release for No[...] Read more

Recordings Eric Hill Issue 145

Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide. Perpetual Motion. Satoko Fujii. Hyaku, One Hundred Dreams The pandemic was a productive time for the ever-prolific pianist Satoko Fujii. Along with her venture into virtual recording—most notably in some remarkable long-distance duets with the Berlin-based vibraphonist Taiko Saito—Fujii released a surprising pair of albums simply titled[...] Read more

Recordings Kurt Gottschalk Issue 145

Erin Rogers and Alec Goldfarb. Earth’s Precisions Within the lineage of improvised guitar-and-saxophone duo recordings, Earth’s Precisions sets itself apart with its stated aim: exploring a single simulated hybrid of the two musicians’ instruments. Across five expansive tracks, saxophonist Erin Rogers and guitarist Alec Goldfarb[...] Read more

Recordings Patrick O’Reilly Issue 146

Zeena Parkins. Lace Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Zeena Parkins was not initially inspired by lace, finding it “too ornate, too bourgeois, not [her] thing.” Despite this, she would collect bits of lace, among other textile treasures, from fabric stores on her travels. In 2008, on a[...] Read more

Recordings Monica Pearce Issue 146

Pantayo. Ang Pagdaloy Originating centuries ago in the southern Philippines, kulintang music is played on a set of brass gongs strung on a cord, sitting on a wooden resonator and hit by wooden mallets. Each gong has its own tuning and timbre, and players usually improvise over set rhythms with additional gongs[...] Read more

Recordings Mary Dickie Issue 146