For the Record: January 3, 2025.
24 recordings that made 2024 a better place to be, plus noteworthy new arrivals and future releases.
24 for ’24.
This list doesn’t purport to be a “Best of 2024” tally, not least because no one can hear literally everything released in a given year. Instead, it’s a personal selection of 24 outstanding recordings that arrived in 2024 and stuck with me, helping to make a challenging year a better place to be.
Gelsey Bell - mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] (Gold Bolus)
Olivia Block - The Mountains Pass (Black Truffle)
Sarah Davachi - The Head As Form’d in the Crier’s Choir (Late Music)
Donnacha Dennehy - Land of Winter - Alarm Will Sound/Alan Pierson (Nonesuch)
Julius Eastman - Vol. 4: The Holy Presence - Wild Up (New Amsterdam)
Wendy Eisenberg - Viewfinder (American Dreams)
Fuubutsushi - Meridians (Cached Media)
Paolo Griffin - Supports & Surfaces - David Zucchi, Duo Holz, David Hackston (Sawyer Editions)
Alden Hellmuth - Good Intentions (Fresh Sound)
Sarah Hennies - Motor Tapes - performances by Ensemble 0, Talea Ensemble/James Baker, and Ensemble Dedalus (New World)
Travis Laplante - The Golden Lock (New Focus)
Soosan Lolavar - Girl - Faraz Eshghi Sahraei, Sarah Saviet, Roxanna Albayati, Ruthless Jabiru/Kelly Lovelady (Nonclassical)
Frank London - In the City of God (Borscht Beat)
Matt Mitchell - Illimitable (Obliquity)
more eaze - lacuna and parlor (Mondoj)
Kory Reeder - Everywhere the Truth Rushes In (Kuyin)
Matthew Shipp - New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz (ESP-Disk’)
Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers - Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (Red Hook)
Kate Soper - The Romance of the Rose - Ty Bouque, Phillip Bullock, Ariadne Greif, Anna Schubert, Devony Smith, Kate Soper, Lucas Steele, Wet Ink Ensemble/Eric Wubbels (New Focus)
Alex Sopp - The Hem & The Haw (New Amsterdam)
Tyshawn Sorey - The Susceptible Now (Pi Recordings)
Dalia Stasevska/BBC Symphony Orchestra - Dalia’s Mixtape - compositions by Anna Meredith, Andrea Tarrodi, Noriko Koide, Caroline Shaw, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Lauri Porra, Judith Weir, SØS Gunver, Julius Eastman, and Julia Wolfe (Platoon)
Adam Tendler - Inheritances - compositions by Laurie Anderson, Missy Mazzoli, John Glover, Pamela Z, Scott Wollschleger, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Timo Andres, inti figgis-vizueta, Nico Muhly, Marcos Balter, Mary Prescott, Ted Hearne, Angélica Negrón, Christopher Cerrone, Darian Donovan Thomas, and Devonté Hynes (New Amsterdam)
Zosha Warpeha - silver dawn (Relative Pitch)
Archival highlights of ’24.
Black Artists Group - For Peace and Liberty, In Paris dec 1972 (WeWantSounds)
Alice Coltrane - The Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!)
Gastr del Sol - We Have Dozens of Titles (Drag City)
Charles Gayle/Milford Graves/William Parker - WEBO (Black Editions)
Daniel Lentz - Lips (Unseen Worlds)
Cecil Taylor Unit - Live at Fat Tuesdays, February 9, 1980 First Visit (First Visit Archive)
Richard Teitelbaum - Asparagus (Black Truffle)
McCoy Tyner/Joe Henderson - Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’ (Blue Note)
New this week.
January 3
Rick Corrigan - Faustfilm: An Opera (Pentiments; soundtrack to 1987 Stan Brakhage film)
Dem - Absolutely (Carrier)
Avi C. Engel - Nocturne (Soundtrack for an Invisible Film) (Elephant Shrew Editions)
Philip Glass - Etude No. 6 - Halcyon String Quartet (Orange Mountain Music)
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra - Frozen Moments of Passion (A Tone Poem) (Adjacent)
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra - LOLO80 (Adjacent)
Jean-Luc Guionnet - Tournures Cessent/Tournures Cessent Orchestrales (Aposiopèse)
Upcoming releases.
January 10
Luciana Elizondo & Guy Vandromme - Feldman and Hume: Intermissions (Sawyer Editions)
Insub Meta Orchestra - Exhaustion/Proliferation (Sawyer Editions)
Ashlee Mack - Green - compositions by Jeff Herriott, Ian Mikyska, Eva-Maria Houben, and Marti Epstein (Sawyer Editions)
Ben Richter - Dissolution Seedlings - House on Fire (Sawyer Editions)
Kari Watson - enclosures (Sawyer Editions)
January 17
Konrad Sprenger - Set (Black Truffle)
Joseph White - (The Game is) Hypnosis (Gold Bolus)
January 24
New Thread Quartet - Saxifraga - compositions by Scott Wollschleger, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Victoria Cheah (New Focus)
January 31
The Ancients (Isaiah Collier, William Parker, William Hooker) - The Ancients (Eremite)
Edwin Alexander Buchholz - Cage. Pisaro. Frey. Beuger (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1996)
John Cage - branches - daswirdas (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1999)
Jürg Frey - Beuger. Cage (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1996)
Jürg Frey - Wolff. Lucier. Schlothauer. Frey (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1996)
Radu Malfatti - die temperatur der bedeutung - Radu Malfati; das profil des schweigens - Wandelweiser String Quartet (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1998)
Chico Mello & Silvia Ocougne - Musica Brasileira De(s)composta (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1996)
Clemens Merkel - Maderna. von Schweinitz. Beuger. Stiegler (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1996)
Herman van San - Sextet. Microstructure. Sectionen - Barbara Deleu, Dimitri Baetman, Peter Merckx, Dirk Noyen, Dries Geeraert, Koen Kessels, Götz Hartmann, Rosemarie Keller, Dirk Hegemann, Walter Keller, Wolfram Hertel, Wolfgang Düthorn (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1999)
Christian Wolff - Stones - Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1996)
Alfred Zimmerlin - Kammermusik - Marianne Aeschbacher, Marlyse Capt, Jean-Jacques Dünki, Jürg Frey, Susanna Hefti, Tobias Moster (Edition Wandelweiser; originally released 1996)
February 7
Onilu (Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, Chad Taylor) - Onilu (Eremite)
February 10
Ernesto Díaz-Infante - pocket strings (scatterArchive)
February 21
Maya Bennardo, Etienne Nillesen & Kristofer Svensson - For Violin, Snare & Kacapi (Kuyin)
February 28
Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner - The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings)
Find many more upcoming releases in For the Record: The Master List, here.
Erratum.
In Tuesday’s newsletter, I shared an incorrect date for Uncivilisation Festival II. The event is happening at Brooklyn Artery on Sunday, January 5, at 7pm; more details here. Sincere apologies for the error.
Photo credits for “24 for ’24” collage:
Frank London: Anna London; more eaze: courtesy of the artist; Tyshawn Sorey: John Rogers; Wendy Eisenberg: courtesy of the artist; Soosan Lolavar: credit unknown; Matthew Shipp: credit unknown; Alex Sopp: Shervin Lainez; Zosha Warpeha: Jonathan Kaiser; Dalia Stasevska: Veikko Kähkönen; Adam Tendler: courtesy Yamaha