For the Record: March 15, 2024.
Ruthless Jabiru musters fever-pitch intensity in works by Soosan Lolavar, plus dozens of listings for new and upcoming releases.
For the Record 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! To submit a forthcoming recording for consideration, email information to nightafternight@icloud.com.
All opinions expressed herein are solely my own, and do not express the views of any employer.
The lead-in.
Sometimes it’s practically impossible to decide what to highlight in a week as thick with strong, distinctive new releases as this one.
How do you choose between a daring solo oboe record from Kyle Bruckmann and the latest fiery chronicle from Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones? How do you fully process excellent things that popped up literally just today, like the beautifully understated Giuseppe Ielasi project or the absorbing drone of Wind Tide?
What about the promising titles you couldn’t begin to do full justice—say, new albums from Matthew Shlomowitz and Wolfgang von Schweinitz that sound like entryways into wild new worlds it’ll take some time to explore properly? And I look forward to spending some real quality time with the provocative, fascinating new recital album pianist Simone Keller released today on Intakt.
I presume it’s clear that if I list something here, it’s meant as encouragement to investigate, and that’s certainly true of the specific titles I just mentioned. That said, special notice this week goes to Girl, the new collection of fascinating, beautifully wrought pieces by British-Iranian composer Soosan Lolavar out today on the English label Nonclassical.
If the name seems familiar, quite possibly you’re remembering the newsletter from two weeks ago today, in which I wrote about Sarah Saviet, the sensational violinist featured on the brooding, bristling piece Undone. She’s accompanied with muscular elegance by the brilliantly named London-based Austalasian activist chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru and conductor Kelly Lovelady, who sustain a fever-pitch intensity throughout this gripping debut album.
There’s no question that Saviet opened the door to my discovering Lolavar’s music. She must also be heard on Every Strand of Thread and Rope, the composer’s extraordinary 26-minute piece for unaccompanied de-tuned violin, available in arresting binaural sound on All That Dust.
But there’s even more to savor on Girl, including Faraz Eshghi Sahraei’s tangy santoor on the hushed I am the Spring, You are the Earth, Roxanna Albayati’s robust cello in Tradition – Hybrid – Survival, and the grave, sonorous clangor of piano and percussion on the kaleidoscopic work that shares its name with the album. It’s a knockdown debut, one I’m dipping into regularly even as I already want more.
For more about Lolavar and Girl, read Vanessa Ague in The Quietus. And for more on Ruthless Jabiru, read Florence Anna Maunders on Planet Hugill.
New this week.
Adnata Ensemble - Oku (Fallen Moon Recordings)
Kyle Bruckmann - of rivers - compositions by Kyle Bruckmann, Jessie Cox, Hannah A. Barnes, Helen Grime, Linda Bouchard, and Christopher Burns (New Focus)
Viv Corringham - Soundwalkscapes (Flaming Pines)
Ensemble 5 - The Human Factor (Ezz-Thetics)
Bryan Eubanks - Series (E/A) (Sacred Realism)
RL Huber - Memories of Falling (self-released)
Giuseppe Ielasi - unfamiliar music vol.1 (guitar duets) (Senufo Editions)
Tom Jackson/T.J. Borden - Parr’s Ditch (Confront)
Simone Keller - Hidden Heartache (Intakt)
Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones - New Monuments (We Jazz)
Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows - Heartland Radio (SoundSpore)
Andrew Lisle/Dirk Serries - Vectorial Spaces (Confront)
Soosan Lolavar - Girl - Faraz Eshghi Sahraei, Sarah Saviet, Roxanna Albayati, Ruthless Jabiru/Kelly Lovelady (Nonclassical)
John Lurie - Painting with John (Strange & Beautiful)
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (Impulse!)
~Nois Saxophone Quartet - Kinds of ~Nois - compositions by Shelley Washington, Gemma Peacocke, and Maria Kaoutzani (Bright Shiny Things)
Bernard Parmegiani - Complete Works 02 (Maison ONA)
PNY Quintet (Steve Swell, Rob Brown, Michel Edelin, Peter Giron, John Betsch) - Over the Wall (RogueArt)
Angelica Sanchez/Chad Taylor - A Monster Is Just an Animal You Haven’t Met Yet (Intakt)
Dave Sewelson/Ava Mendoza - Of It But Not Is It (Mahakala Music)
Elliott Sharp - Hyphae (Zoar)
Matthew Shlomowitz - Explorations in Polytonality and Other Musical Wonders, Volumes 2 and 4 - Apsara, Quartet Laboratoire (Carrier)
Wolfgang von Schweinitz - Helmholtz-Funk - Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Jack Dettling, Vicki Ray (Populist)
Space (Lisa Ullén, Elsa Bergman, Anna Lund) - Embrace the Space (Relative Pitch)
Michael Vincent Waller - Moments Remixes (play loud! productions)
Wind Tide (Gretchen Korsmo, Andrew Weathers & friends) - Plays CAMP (Full Spectrum)
Upcoming releases.
April 5
Kate Soper - The Hunt - Hirona Amamiya, Christiana Cole, Brett Umlauf, Mila Henry (New Focus)
April 12
Paolo Marchettini - Ebony Chants (New Focus)
April 19
Manja Ristić - Ma (Line)
Brandon Ross Phantom Station - Off the End (Sunnyside)
April 26
Akropolis Reed Quintet, Pascal Le Boeuf, Christian Euman - Are We Dreaming the Same Dream? (Bright Shiny Things)
May 1
Samuel Reinhard - For Piano and Shō - Haruna Higashida, Paul Jacob Fossum (elsewhere)
May 3
Modney - Ascending Primes - performances by Anna Webber, Nate Wooley, Ben LaMar Gay, Cory Smythe, Charmaine Lee, Sam Pluta, David Byrd-Marrow, Dan Peck, Kate Gentile, Gabriela Díaz, Erica Dicker, Eddy Kwon, Kyle Armbrust, Joanna Mattrey, Mariel Roberts, and Lester St. Louis (Pyroclastic)
May 10
Alvaro Daguer, Pablo Picco, Tomás Salvatierra & Mark Harwood - En el jardín de las Matemáticas (In the Garden of Mathematics) (Penultimate Press)
Brad Mehldau - After Bach II (Nonesuch)
Brad Mehldau - Après Fauré (Nonesuch)
Wadada Leo Smith/Amina Claudine Myers - Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (Red Hook)
RLW - C.D. (Penultimate Press)
May 24
Richard Chartier - On Leaving (Touch)
Find many more upcoming releases in For the Record: The Master List.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.