For the Record: October 18, 2024.
Happy birthday (some more) to Tim Berne, plus copious new arrivals 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, Â 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.
Topspin.
Feels like the time is still right to celebrate saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and serial label impresario Tim Berne, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Wednesday. If you haven’t read the outstanding New York Times profile by Hank Shteamer posted on Tuesday, no time like now to catch it. Here’s a gift link.
There’s a new Berne album out today, an archival find featuring his partnership with one of his most enduring and compatible colleagues, bassist Michael Formanek. The rough-but-right sound of Parlour Games replicates the edgy energy the duo always brought to bear, alone and as one-half to three-fifths of Bloodcount. Another vintage duet recently issued by Berne himself, Live in Someplace Nice, documents another powerful pairing, with guitarist Bill Frisell.
As I’ve mentioned numerous times in the past, I’m not entirely objective. Back in 1997 I tracked down Berne and convinced him, in an intense first meeting at Walker’s in Tribeca, to let me sign on as a… consultant? Assistant?
Whatever you call it, I had the privilege of participating in the birth of Berne’s Screwgun label, which amounted to securing a label barcode, writing press releases, handling media mailings and requests, and writing the first primitive label website in HTML, deploying sketchy low-res scans of eye-popping images by Steve Byram and hiding recipes provided by Berne’s bandmates like Easter eggs. (Tim insisted on paying me for it all, which prompts this disclaimer.)
Heady days. I’ll never forget the camaraderie and trust I felt, and the fun I had, working so closely with one of my favorite composer-performers. I saw Berne play as often as possible back then; it never got old, and I never got enough.
Today’s not a Bandcamp Friday, but it’s still a great day to plumb the riches of Berne’s Bandcamp page, which includes recordings from throughout his career: both commercial releases and digital exclusives. Until tomorrow, you can save money using the discount code 70. And if you can make it to Brooklyn next Tuesday, Oct. 22, you can wish Berne happy belated in person at Lowlands Bar, where he’ll be playing with a quintet of close friends; details here.
Many happy returns, old friend. Here’s wishing you many more.
New this week.
October 18
John Luther Adams - An Atlas of Deep Time - South Dakota Symphony Orchestra/Delta David Gier (Cantaloupe Music)
Michaël Attias - Quartet Music Vol. II: Kardamon Fall (Out of Your Head)
Babe, Terror - Pescadou Gualapagouse (Longform Editions)
Tim Berne & Michael Formanek - Parlour Games (Relative Pitch; recorded 1991)
Jihye Chang - Boston Etudes - compositions by Dan VanHassel, Eun Young Lee, Yu-Hui Chang, Ketty Nez, Marti Epstein, John McDonald, William David Cooper, and Stratis Minakakis (New Focus)
Majel Connery - The Rivers Are Our Brothers - Chanticleer (Chanticleer Music)
Sylvie Courvoisier - To Be Other-Wise (Intakt)
Robert Curgenven - AGENESIS (Cloudchamber Recordings)
Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band - Live at the Texas Theatre (Astral Spirits)
Randy Ingram - Aries Dance (Sounderscore)
Isabelle Lewis (Valgeir Sigurðsson, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, Elisabeth Klinck) - Greetings (Bedroom Community)
Ryan Keberle & Catharsis - Music Is Connection (Alternate Side)
Lisel - The Vanishing Point (Ba Da Bing)
Frank London - In the City of God (Borscht Beat)
Nour Mobarak - Dafne Phono (Recital)
Wolfgang Muthspiel - Etudes/Quietudes (Clap Your Hands)
Camila Nebbia/Angelica Sanchez - in another land, another dream (Relative Pitch)
The Necks - Bleed (Northern Spy)
NIKARA presents Black Wall Street - The Queen of Kings County (Switch Hit)
Zachary Paul - Calendar (Recital)
Post Moves - Love’s Temporary Occurrence (Longform Editions)
Jon Rose/Mark Dresser - Band Width (Relative Pitch)
Samuel Reinhard - Movement (Hallow Ground)
Sébastien Roux - 50 frequency and amplitude modulated sine waves describing a landscape (Portraits GRM)
Rubbish Music (Kate Carr and Iain Chambers) - Fatbergs (Persistence of Sound)
Günter Schlienz - Software (Muzan Editions)
Brandon Seabrook - Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic)
Thollem - Infinite-Sum Game (ESP-Disk’)
Vittoria Totale - Solo Voce (Recital)
Water Damage - Reel LE (Longform Editions)
Anna Webber - simpletrio2000 (Intakt)
Eli Winter - Ghost Notes (Longform Editions)
Flora Yin Wong - Trigram for Earth (Portraits GRM)
Upcoming releases.
October 25
Alma Laprida - Pitch Dark and Trembling (Outside Time)
more eaze & kaho matsui - computer and recording works for girls (Full Spectrum)
November 1
Roberta Michel - Hush - compositions by Jane Rigler, Victoria Cheah, Jen Baker, Mert Mert Morali, and Angélica Negrón (New Focus)
November 15
Kyle Brenn - the shape of a child (Cantaloupe Music)
Peggy Lee & Cole Schmidt - Forever Stories Of: Moving Parties (Earshift Music)
November 22
Denman Maroney - Nits Musica (Cuneiform)
Find many more upcoming releases in For the Record: The Master List, here.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.
Right on! And happy B-Day to my old Nottingham compatriot!