For the Record: October 30, 2020
Keeping tabs on new recordings of interest to the new-music community, on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, and digital-only formats—with an Album of the Week featuring indelible sounds from Ash Fure.
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.
Album of the Week
Ash Fure Photograph: Daniel Dorsa
Ash Fure
Something to Hunt
International Contemporary Ensemble, Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, Nate Wooley, Rebekah Heller, Brandon Lopez
(Sound American)
Under no circumstances should I be writing about this album, the first collection devoted to the extraordinary music of composer Ash Fure, for the simple reason that I provided one of the essays included in the rather sumptuous package assembled by Sound American, an organization better known for its vital journal.
But! I’ve admired Fure’s work since I first encountered it, in a concert I happened to attend some years ago at Harvard University. I recall even now having introduced myself to Fure afterward, somewhat breathlessly, elated and energized by what I’d heard. Since then, works like Therefore I Was (which I reviewed for The New York Times), The Force of Things, and Filament have left indelible impressions.
So, as much as I can’t bring myself to review this arresting album for ethical reasons, I also can’t fail to commend it on musical grounds.
That being the case, I’ll reroute you to a terrific profile written by my increasingly ubiquitous friend and colleague Vanessa Ague, making her Bandcamp Daily debut, and to a concise review by the estimable Peter Margasak, also published by Bandcamp. Further, the substantial review that Joshua Kosman wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle is a must.
You might recall that I interviewed Fure, fellow composer Suzanne Farrin, and International Contemporary Ensemble percussionist and co-artistic director Ross Karre for this newsletter back in May, in advance of an online concert that included new pieces by both composers. That interview is here, and you can view the concert on the ensemble’s DigitICE platform.
Then, well, go buy the album. Or, better still, put it on your Bandcamp wishlist, and then buy it next week on Bandcamp Friday.
New This Week
George Lewis Photograph courtesy London Sinfonietta
Bing & Ruth - Divergence: Species Remixes (4AD)
Luciane Cardassi - Going North - compositions by Terri Hron, Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann, Emilie LeBel, Alexandre Espinheira, Chantale Laplante, Darren Miller, Lia Sfoggia/Guilherme Bertissolo/Luciane Cardassi, and Fernando Mattos (Redshift Music)
Julia Den Boer - Lineage: contemporary piano music from Montreal - compositions by Chris Paul Harman, Brian Cherney, Matthew Ricketts, and Reiko Yamada (Redshift Music)
Bruno Duplant - (e)rase (Hasana Editions)
Peter Evans - Standards (More Is More)
Ash Fure - Something to Hunt - performances by International Contemporary Ensemble, Nate Wooley, Brandon Lopez, and Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra/Christopher Rountree (Sound American)
Paolo Guicheney/Luciane Cardassi - Mer (Redshift Music)
Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl with Robert Wyatt - Artlessly Falling (Firehouse 12)
Sarah Hennies with Andy Meyerson - Extra Time (Hasana Editions)
Junk Magic (Craig Taborn) - Compass Confusion (Pyroclastic)
Laraaji - Through Luminous Eyes (All Saints)
George Lewis - Rainbow Family - Derek Bailey, Douglas Ewart, Steve Lacy, Joëlle Léandre (Carrier)
Emi Makabe - Anniversary (Greenleaf Music)
Drew McDowall - Agalma (Dais)
Nublu Orchestra - Live in Rome (Nublu Records)
Andy Rantzen/Jochen Gutsch/Lawrence English - On the Completion of My Master Work (Hasana Editions)
Jeffrey Ryan - My Soul Upon My Lips: Music for Woodwinds - performances by Jason Hall, Corey Hamm, Mark Takeshi McGregor, Beth Orson, Sophie Dansereau, Julia Nolan, Cris Inguanti, and Tiresias Duo (Redshift Music)
Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling (Strut)
Akio Suzuki & Aki Onda - g in g a (Hasana Editions)
Rafael Toral - Aeriola Frequency (Black Truffle; first vinyl issue of 1998 recording)
Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFunk - We’ve Had Enough (ESP-Disk’)
Just Announced
Wang Lu Photograph: Matt Zugale
November 13
Steven Landis/David Menestres/Jonathan Wall - Polaristic Pictorials (self-released)
November 20
Wang Lu - An Atlas of Time - performances by Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose, Ryan Muncy, Dan Lippel, Momenta Quartet, and Miranda Cuckson (New Focus)
November 30
Tomás Cabado/Sergio Merce/Catriel Nievas - especies de basilea (Marginal Frequency)
HISS - END BEGINNING (Marginal Frequency)
December 1
Theodor Adorno - Piano Works - Cop Tears (Reading Group)
December 4
Beautifulish (Katherine Young & Samuel Robert Scranton) - Beautifulish (Shinkoyo)
Paola Prestini & Magos Herrera - Con Alma (National Sawdust Tracks)
December 11
The Crossing - Rising w/ The Crossing - compositions by David Lang, Joby Talbot, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Dieterich Buxtehude, Paul Fowler, Alex Berko, Ted Hearne, and Santa Ratniece (New Focus)
January 1
Blanche Blanche Blanche - Seashells (Reading Group)
January 15
Patricia Brennan - Maquishti (Valley of Search)
January 22
Ivo Perelman Trio - Garden of Jewels (Tao Forms)