For the Record: November 6, 2020
Keeping tabs on new recordings of interest to the new-music community, on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, and digital-only formats—including picks for the newest arrival of Bandcamp Friday.
For the Record is a weekly round-up of 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.)
After publication, new listings are incorporated into On the Record: The Master List, a continuously compiled and updated resource exclusively accessible to paying Night After Night subscribers, found here.
These listings are not comprehensive—nor could they be! To submit a forthcoming recording for consideration, email information to nightafternight@icloud.com.
Bandcamp Friday Is Here, Again
At a time when the state of the nation, the future of democracy, the status of public health, and so many other things feel precarious, it’s good to know that Bandcamp Friday endures. Despite hints of burnout cropping up here and there – and more substantial complaints, as well – this altruistic gesture continues to put more money directly into the pockets of the artists and small labels who need it most. Here are a few strong options among the flood of new recordings available today.
Jessica Ackerley/Patrick Shiroishi
Extremities
(Notice Recordings)
Ackerley is a versatile Canadian guitarist based in New York City; Shiroishi is a mercurial Los Angeles saxophonist with a string of killer recent releases to his credit. Extremities documents their first-ever encounter, and lives up to its name: polite inquisitiveness leads to abrasive frenzy leads to hushed mystery, and so on. Notice Recordings – which also has new releases from Jacob Wick & claire rousay, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Steve Baczkowski & Bill Nace – lets you stream four tracks, and will sell you cassettes if you like. Or, listen to the entire session, and buy your download directly from Ackerley—the choice is yours.
counter)induction
Against Method
Compositions by Douglas Boyce, Kyle Bartlett, Alvin Singleton, Jessica Meyer, Ryan Streber, and Diego Tedesco
(New Focus)
Born in a confluence of University of Pennsylvania composers and Juilliard School performers – and endowed with a name that strikes fear into the hearts of copy editors everywhere – counter)induction celebrates its 20th anniversary with a collection that shows the its creative potency and range. Four composer members offer a range of sharply contrasted yet complementary pieces, the program is rounded out with pieces well worth hearing by Alvin Singleton and Diego Tedesco, and everything is played with expertise and charisma.
Sarah Hennies
Live Fleas, April 19, 2019
(Fire Over Heaven)
Pandemic put an abrupt stop to Fire Over Heaven, a concert series curated by Che Chen at Outpost Artist Resources in Ridgewood, NY. So instead, Chen is uploading recordings of past shows to Bandcamp at a healthy clip, raising funds to expand the archives and commission new recordings. The pick of today’s batch is a 2019 recording of Fleas, a shimmering composition by Sarah Hennies; But you can’t go wrong with newly posted sets by David Grubbs, Dada Tapan Kanti Baidya, and Roe Enney—or you could opt to purchase all 14 releases to date for a meager $33.60.
Roland Kayn
November Music
(Reiger-records-reeks)
If it’s Bandcamp Friday, that means there’s something new to be heard from the deep vaults of the late Roland Kayn, an electronic-music innovator whose renown has grown since the Helsinki-based label Frozen Reeds issued the milestone box set A Little Electronic Milky Way of Sound in 2017. That’s not on Bandcamp yet – dare to dream! – but there’s plenty worth hearing on Kayn’s own label, now run by the composer’s daughter, Ilse Kayn, with assistance from Frozen Reeds. If you’ve bought everything so far, you’ll need no persuasion, but if you’ve yet to start exploring, this concise, colorful piece from 2003 is a brilliant place to start.
Colin Marston
Symphony
(self-released)
A symphony from the mad scientist of extreme metal? Sure, why not? Colin Marston is best known as a multi-instrumentalist member of some of the headbanging crowd’s most avant-garde acts, including Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Behold… The Arctopus, and the reunited Gorguts. He’s also in high demand as a recording engineer, with credits extending well beyond any strain of metal—he mastered pianist-composer Kelly Moran’s gorgeous bloodroot, to name just one example. Symphony is an extreme show of Marston’s skill: he’s credited with “strings, percussion, harpsichords, tubas, horns, bassoons, flutes, choir, mellotrons, noise electronics.” The music is redolent of Ligeti, Penderecki, Morricone, gamelan, and soundtracks for horror movies and video games—which is to say it’s vigorous, varied, and highly effective. Someday, someone’s going to transcribe it for an actual orchestra and rock a concert platform. Also available from Marston today: Computer Music 2003-2004, a succinct EP that delivers what it promises, and Solo Instruments, which includes two rollicking player-piano pieces and a roiling guitar-feedback étude.
New This Week
Susan Alcorn - Pedernal (Relative Pitch)
Antti Auvinen - Junker Twist; Himmel Punk; Turbo Aria - Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hannu Lintu (Ondine)
Dada Tapan Kanti Baidya with Leyna Marika Papach - May 17, 2018 (Fire Over Heaven)
Tim Berne/Matt Mitchell - Spiders (Out of Your Head)
Candlesnuffer - Eggs from a Varnished Chest (Room40)
Mike Cooper - Playing with Water (Room40)
Nicholas Cords - Touch Harmonious - compositions by Anna Clyne, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, Dana Lyn, and others (In a Circle)
counter)induction - Against Method - compositions by Douglas Boyce, Kyle Bartlett, Alvin Singleton, Jessica Meyer, Ryan Streber, and Diego Tedesco (New Focus)
Sarah Davachi - Figures in Open Air (Late Music)
Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brotherhood - Live (International Anthem; released Oct. 31)
Roe Enney - November 16, 2017 (Fire Over Heaven)
Miguel Frasconi - Out of Running + Longing (1983) (self-released)
David Grubbs - October 19, 2017 (Fire Over Heaven)
Jaap Nico Hamburger - Chamber Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 - performances by Ensemble Caprice/Matthias Maute and l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal/Vincent de Kort (Leaf Music)
Sarah Hennies - Live Fleas, April 19, 2019 (Fire Over Heaven)
David Hertzberg - The Rose Elf - Samantha Hankey, Sydney Mancasola, Kirk Dougherty, Andrew Bogard, ensemble/Robert Kahn (Meyer Media; released Oct. 31)
The JCA Orchestra - Live at the BPC - compositions by David Harris, Darrell Katz, Bob Pilkington and Mimi Rabson (JCA Records)
Louis Karchin - Five Compositions (2009-2019) - performances by the Washington Square Ensemble, Margaret Kampmeier, Sam Jones & Han Chen, Alice Teyssier & Ashley Jackson, and Renée Jolles & Susan Jolles (Bridge)
Roland Kayn - November Music (Reiger-records-reeks)
Colin Marston - Computer Music 2003-2004 (self-released)
Colin Marston - Solo Instruments (self-released)
Colin Marston - Symphony (self-released)
Middle Blue - Weird Funk in Small Bars (Ropeadope)
Andrew Oda - SOTTO (Mappa)
Weston Olencki - untitled displacement [SOLO WORKS V2] (self-released)
Pole - Fading (Mute)
Arthur Russell - Sketches for World of Echo: June 25 1984 Live At Ei (Audika)
Elliott Sharp - Foliage - performances by Dario Calderone, Gareth Davis, Pepe Garcia, and Koen Kaptijn (Moving Furniture)
Speaker Music - a bitter but beautiful struggle (PTP)
Strings & Timpani - Voice & Strings & Timpani (Hubro)
Various artists - Anthology of Experimental Music from Mexico (Unexplained Sounds)
Ian Wilson - Wild Is the Wind - performances by Adrian Hart, Ian Wilson/Lazar Arsović, Daniel Bannon, Josh Mahood, Arjan van Asselt, and Antti Uusimaki/Philip Bagenal (Diatribe)
Just Announced
November 10
Xavier Beteta - Lasting Shadows - performances by Sam Dunscombe, Todd Moellenberg, Ensemble Palimpsest, and performers from University of California San Diego (Sideband)
November 13
Anne LeBaron - Unearthly Delights (Innova)
Giacinto Scelsi - Suites Nos. 8 (“Bot-ba”) and 11 - Sabine Liebner (Wergo)
D.J. Sparr - Hard Metal Cantüs - performances by the Lee Trio, Third Coast Percussion, Del Sol String Quartet, Lubbock Chamber Orchestra, and others (Innova)
November 15
Magnus Granberg - Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth (Meenna)
November 20
Dave Gisler Trio with Jaimie Branch - Zurich Concert (Intakt)
Toàn - Volta No Vento (Iikki)
The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound - Soundpath - composition by Muhal Richard Abrams (Clean Feed)
November 25
Ashley Paul - Ray (Slip)
November 27
Allen Ravenstine - Electron Music (Waveshaper Media)
Allen Ravenstine - Shore Leave (Waveshaper Media)
December 4
Björk with the Hamrahlíð Choir - Come and Be Joyful (One Little Independent)
December 11
Linda Catlin Smith - Meadow - Mia Cooper, Joachim Roewer, William Butt (Louth Contemporary Music Society)
January 29, 2021
Ethan Iverson with Umbria Jazz Orchestra - Bud Powell in the 21st Century (Sunnyside)
The Underflow (Mats Gustafsson, David Grubbs, and Rob Mazurek) - Instant Opaque Evening (Blue Chopsticks)
February 3, 2021
Benjamin Louis Brody/Ian Chang - Floating Into Infinity (New Amsterdam)
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