For the Record: December 27, 2024.
Calling 2024 a wrap, plus noteworthy releases due January–April 2025.
For the Record is a weekly column that rounds up details about new and pending recordings of interest to the new-music community – contemporary classical music and jazz, electronic and electroacoustic music, and idioms for which no clever genre name has been coined – on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, digital-only formats… you name it.
This list of release dates is culled from press releases, Amazon, Bandcamp, and other internet stores and sources, social-media posts, and online resources such as Discogs. Dates cited typically correspond to initial U.S. release, and are subject to change. (Links to Amazon, used when all else fails, do not imply endorsement.)
These listings are not comprehensive—nor could they be! If you’d like to submit a forthcoming recording for consideration, please email information to nightafternight@icloud.com. (Streams and downloads preferred.)
All opinions expressed herein are solely my own, and do not reflect the views of my employer.
Topspin.
So that’s 2024. This year required more personal change than any other in recent memory, and I’m still working through the ramifications of all that transpired—including what purpose this newsletter can and should serve.
I won’t be compiling anything designated a “Best of 2024” list, since I ended up not listening in a manner conducive to that annual flex. But I do intend to write something next week about recordings that helped to sustain me over the last 12 months.
Since I’ve seen no details about new recordings out today, I’ll wrap up this note with a big list of upcoming releases due early next year.
Upcoming releases.
☆ new since previous update
January 3
Dem - Absolutely (Carrier)
Avi C. Engel - Nocturne (Soundtrack for an Invisible Film) (Elephant Shrew Editions)
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra - LOLO80 (Adjacent)
January 9
☆ Diaphane - München (Neither/Nor)
January 10
William Basinski & Richard Chartier - Aurora Terminalis (Line)
Thea Farhadian - Tattoos and Other Markings (Other Minds)
Philip Glass - Aguas da Amazonia - Constance Volk, Third Coast Percussion (Rockwell)
Will Mason Quartet - Hemlocks, Peacocks (New Focus)
Sirius Quartet - Incantations - compositions by Gregor Huebner, Fung Chern Hwei, Sunjay Jayaram, and Jeremy Harman (Navona)
Sun & Rain (Nathaniel Morgan, Travis Laplante, Andrew Smiley, Jason Nazary) - Waterfall (Out of Your Head)
Nate Wooley - Henry House (Ideologic Organ)
January 15
Juno 3 (Han-earl Park, Lara Jones, Pat Thomas) - Proxemics (Buster and Friends)
John Zorn - Complete String Quartets - JACK Quartet (Tzadik)
January 17
Ambrose Akinmusire - honey from a winter stone (Nonesuch)
Tim Berne (Gregg Belisle-Chi, Tom Rainey) - Yikes (Screwgun/Out of Your Head)
Exceptet - tree lines - compositions by Katherine Balch, Paul Kerekes, and Sarah Goldfeather (New Focus)
Mark Kirschenmann - Tonics: 7 Melodies for Trumpet with Bamboo Mouthpipe (Infrequent Seams)
James McVinnie - Dreamcatcher - compositions by Nico Muhly, Meredith Monk, Laurie Spiegel, John Adams, inti figgis-vizueta, Gabriella Smith, Giles Swayne, Bryce Dessner, and Marcos Balter (Pentatone)
Stemeseder Lillinger + Craig Taborn - Umbra III (Intakt)
January 24
Britta Byström - Ink-Wash on Paper (OUR Recordings)
Kate Carr and Matt Atkins - Organelles (Flaming Pines)
Gloria Cheng - Root Progressions - compositions by Anthony Davis, Jon Jang, James Newton, Arturo O’Farrill, Linda May Han Oh, and Gernot Wolfgang (Biophilia)
Clemens Kuratle Ydivide - The Default (Intakt)
Satoko Fujii GEN - Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)
Natsuki Tamura/Keiji Haino – What happened there? (Libra)
January 29
Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet - Situation (Play On)
January 31
Pierre Gerard - Full Yellow Cylinder (Eliane Tapes)
Kenny Wheeler Legacy - Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores (Greenleaf Music)
Joachim Kühn - Échappée (Intakt)
Brandon López & DoYeon Kim - Syzygy, Vol. 1 (577 Records)
Peter Rehberg - Liminal States (Editions Mego)
Sarah Belle Reid + Vinny Golia - Accidental Ornithology (Infrequent Seams)
[something’s happening] - Buzz (Flaming Pines)
Stein Urheim - Speilstillevariasjoner (Hubro)
Jeong Lim Yang - Synchronicity (Sunnyside)
Also in January
Apartment House - GOMBERT - compositions by Nicolas Gombert and James Weeks (Another Timbre)
Morgan Evans-Weiler & J.P.A. Falzone - Penumbra (Another Timbre)
Jürg Frey - Longing Landscape - Prague Quiet Music Collective (Another Timbre)
Bryn Harrison - Towards a slowing of the past - Mark Knoop & Roderick Chadwick (Another Timbre)
Teodora Stepančić - OA | FG (Another Timbre)
February 2025.
February 1
Matt McBane - Buoy (Gradient Music)
February 3
Territorial Gobbing (Theo Gowans) - Hermit Card (scatterArchive)
Watt (Jean Dousteyssier, Jean-Brice Godet, Antonin-Tri Hoang, Julien Pontvianne) - Watt - compositions by Léo Dupleix, Caroline Marçot, Karl Naegelen, and Watt (Montagne Noire)
February 7
Max Andrzejewski - Summen - Ensemble Resonanz (SN Variations)
Christopher Dammann - Christopher Dammann Sextet (Out of Your Head)
Danish National Vocal Ensemble/Martina Batič - O Listen! - compositions by Else Marie Pade and Uroš Krek (OUR Recordings)
Philip Golub - Loop 7 (Greyfade)
Gyan Riley - Winter Sun (self-released)
February 14
Benjamin Appl - Lines of Life: Schubert & Kurtág (Alpha Classics)
Peter Brötzmann/John Edwards/Steve Noble/Jason Adasiewicz - The Quartet (Otoroku)
Stephen Davis Unit - The Gleaming World (577 Records)
duo B. (Lisa Mezzacappa & Jason Levis) - Luminous Axis (Queen Bee)
Lei Liang - Dui - performances by Maya Beiser, Wu Man, Steven Schick, Cho-Liang Lin, Zhe Lin, Mark Dresser, and loadbang (Islandia)
John Patitucci - Spirit Fall (Edition)
February 18
Daniel Carter, Ayumi Ishito - Endless Season (577 Records)
February 20
Julek ploski - Give Up Channel (Mappa)
February 21
Laura Cocks - FATHM (Relative Pitch/Out of Your Head)
Nina Garcia - Bye Bye Bird (Ideologic Organ)
Jon Irabagon - Server Farm (Irabbagast)
Jules Reidy - Ghost/Spirit (Thrill Jockey)
February 28
Reiko Füting - distant: violin. sound - performances by Miranda Cuckson, Doori Na, Jing Yang, Longleash, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Quartet121, Noise Catalogue, and SchallSpektrum (New Focus)
David Grubbs - Whistle from Above (Drag City)
Mystery Sonata (Mina Gajić & Zachary Carrettin) - Aequora - compositions by Maria Huld Markan Sigfusdottir, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Daníel Bjarnason, and Pall Ragnar Palsson (Sono Luminus)
Anna Thorvaldsdottir - UBIQUE - Claire Chase, Cory Smythe, Katinka Kleijn, Seth Parker Woods (Sono Luminus)
March 2025.
March 4
Dennis Egberth - The Dennis Egberth Dynasty (577 Records)
March 7
Claire Cope’s Ensemble C - Every Journey (Adhyaropa)
Green Mitchell Trio - Nature Channel (Queen Bee)
March 14
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson - Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)
Sean Hickey - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Vladimir Rumyantsev (Sono Luminus)
Adam O’Farrill - For These Streets (Out of Your Head)
Steve Reich - Collected Works (Nonesuch; 27CD box including first recordings of Jacob’s Ladder and Traveler’s Prayer)
March 21
more eaze & claire rousay - no floor (Other Minds)
March 28
Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio - Dream a Dream (Libra)
April 2025.
April 4
Jordan Glenn’s BEAK - The Party (Queen Bee)
Hemphill Stringtet (Curtis Stewart. Sam Bardfeld, Stephanie Griffin, Tomeka Reid) - The Hemphill Stringtet Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head)
Matthew Muñeses & Riza Printup - Pag-ibig Ko, Vol. 1 (Irrabagast)
April 11
Ingrid Laubrock - Purposing the Air (Pyroclastic)
Find many more upcoming releases in For the Record: The Master List, here.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.