For the Record: Sept. 1, 2023.
It's Bandcamp Friday again!! And here to get you started are a fistful of recommendations, along with 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.
It’s Bandcamp Friday again.
You almost certainly don’t need me to remind you that it’s Bandcamp Friday once more: that special day of the month when the popular music e-tail and community networking platform Bandcamp waives its cut of all sales, delivering more profits directly to the artists and independent labels who need it most. You’ve probably seen dozens, even hundreds of reminders in your email inbox today.
I’d hoped to write something substantial about at least a few new arrivals this week, until reality got in the way. Here, though, is a handful of recordings I urge sonic explorers to investigate without haste…
BlankFor.ms - Jason Moran - Marcus Gilmore - Refract (Red Hook)
Moran and Gilmore play with their customary skill and sensitivity, abetted by subtle electronics and captured in gorgeously atmospheric sound.
Léo Dupleix - Construire sur les ruines d’un passé encore fumant - Les Certitudes (Discreet Editions)
A trio on clarinet, cello, and harpsichord offer tangy just intonation and hypnotic rhythms, from a tiny boutique label that has yet to miss the mark.
Mark Reboul/Roberta Piket/Billy Mintz - Seven pieces / about an hour / saxophone, piano, drums (ESP-Disk’)
Airy, sensitive free improvisation from a saxophonist cherished by true cognoscenti, accompanied by a nimble, empathic duo on piano and drums.
Andrew Weathers - A Cardinal with a Sign of Blood (Full Spectrum)
From an artist whose name on any album denotes sonic splendor comes a unique, deeply personal collage of found sounds transfigured into benediction.
Wayne Horvitz - Live Forever, Vol. 2: Horvitz, Morris, Previte Trio: NYC, Leverkusen 1988-1989 (self-released)
A historical gem from one of the finest working bands of the late ’80s NYC downtown-music scene: rigorous, gentle, and emotive all at once.
Here’s one more issued a few weeks ago that I only just learned about…
Baikida E.J. Carroll - Orange Fish Tears (Souffle Continu)
This brilliant trumpeter is represented far too little on record, which makes a new reissue of a dizzyingly inventive 1974 Parisian session with Oliver Lake, Manuel Villaroel, and Naná Vasconcelos especially welcome.
Need even more shopping options? Have a look at the master release list… as I type this, you’ve still got seven hours remaining to shop like you mean it.
New This Week
Will Bernard & Beth Custer - Sky (A Train Entertainment)
BlankFor.ms - Jason Moran - Marcus Gilmore - Refract (Red Hook)
John Blum - Nine Rivers (ESP-Disk’)
Hélène Breschand/Floy Krouchi/Zafer Tawil/Elliott Sharp - disPOSSESSION (Zoar)
Charlatan (Brad E. Rose) - Memory Archive (The Jewel Garden)
Tim Clément/Lance Austin Olsen/Ben Watson - bleak house (Infrequency Arts)
Alan Courtis & David Grubbs - Braintrust of Fiends and Werewolves (Husky Pants)
Kris Davis - Diatom Ribbons Live at the Village Vanguard (Pyroclastic)
Christian Dillingham - Cascades (Greenleaf Music)
Léo Dupleix - Construire sur les ruines d’un passé encore fumant - Les Certitudes (Discreet Editions)
Wayne Horvitz - In Absentia (self-released)
Wayne Horvitz - Live Forever, Vol. 2: Horvitz, Morris, Previte Trio: NYC, Leverkusen 1988-1989 (self-released)
Christopher Kunz & Florian Fischer - Die Unwucht (Ezz-Thetics)
MIZI - Watch Paint Dry (Abstand)
Mark Reboul/Roberta Piket/Billy Mintz - Seven pieces / about an hour / saxophone, piano, drums (ESP-Disk’)
Saxophilia - Metamorphosis - compositions by Fred Stride, Violet Archer, Beatrice Ferreira, Rodney Sharman, and David Branter (Redshift)
Abigail Toll - Matrices of Vision (Shelter Press)
Joan Tower - Piano Concerto – Homage to Beethoven - performances by Marc-André Hamelin, Adrian Morejon, Carol Wincenc, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose (BMOPsound)
Andrew Weathers - A Cardinal with a Sign of Blood (Full Spectrum)
Otto Willberg - The Leisure Principle (Black Truffle)
John Zorn - Full Fathom Five (Tzadik)
Upcoming Releases
September 7
Christoph Schiller & Carlo Costa - Spinet and Drums (Neither/Nor)
September 8
Paramorph Collective - All we're made of is borrowed - compositions by Rodney Sharman, Margot George, Linda Catlin Smith, and Paramorph Collective (Redshift)
September 15
Ingrid Laubrock with Jon Irabagon, Zeena Parkins and Tom Rainey - Monochromes (Intakt)
Angelika Niescier - Tomeka Reid - Savannah Harris - Beyond Dragons (Intakt)
Pathos Trio - Polarity - compositions by Ian Chang, Phong Tran, Andrew M. Rodriguez, Vicente Hansen Atria, Paul Mortilla, and Clara Warnaar (Imaginary Animals)
September 22
Yotam Haber - Bloodsnow - performances by Taylor Ward, Don-Paul Kahl, Talea Ensemble, and American Wild Ensemble (Sideband)
Bruce Levingston - Without Words - compositions by Felix Mendelssohn and Price Walden (Sono Luminus)
September 29
Vilhelm Bromander - In this forever unfolding moment (Thanatosis)
Daniel Fishkin - Dark Listening - performances by Daniel Fishkin, the Daxophone Consort, Science Ficta Viola da Gamba Consort, and ensemble mise-en (Tripticks Tapes)
Hollow Deck (Mia Friedman and Andy Allen) - Over East (Triptick Tapes)
October 6
Nathan Davis - Neutral Buoyant (Infrequent Seams)
Ethan Philion - Gnosis (Sunnyside)
Brad E. Rose - I’m Scared of Dying (Room40)
October 13
Ellen Arkbro - Sounds While Waiting (Superior Viaduct; vinyl pressing, previously available digital-only)
YuEun Kim, Mina Gajić, Coleman Itzkoff - Sonic Alchemy - compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Arvo Pärt, and Pēteris Vasks (Sono Luminus)
Ivo Perelman/Nate Wooley - Polarity 2 (Burning Ambulance)
October 20
Aruán Ortiz - Pastor’s Paradox (Clean Feed)
October 21
Taku Unami - bot box boxes (Erstwhile)
October 27
Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang - Azure (Ideologic Organ)
Tiger Village (Tim Thornton) - The Celebration (Hausu Mountain)
November 10
Miguel Zenón/Dan Tepfer - Internal Melodies (Main Door Music)
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.
That Pathos Trio album is a wild ride!