Last Christmas, our new Syrian friends were telling us about dabke, the Syrian line dance. “Dabke,” I said. “That’s what Omar Souleyman plays!” They laughed out loud and said, “We’d never heard of him in Syria, but now that we’re here, he’s all anybody talks about. His music is so silly!” Omar Souleyman is aContinue reading “Punk Ethnography: Artists & Scholars Listen to Sublime Frequencies”
Genre Archives
Sixth Dither Extravaganza.
Despite its name, the guitar quartet Dither means business. The New York-based group made waves with the 2015 Tzadik release John Zorn’s Olympiad Vol 1: Dither Plays Zorn, with the foursome playing some of Zorn’s less-heard game pieces. But even before that, they were hosting an annual, daylong festival of spirited and eclectic music. TheContinue reading “Sixth Dither Extravaganza.”
Between Folklore and the Future: The Music of Heidi Chan
Heidi Chan began combining her passions for arranging, technology, and traditional instruments when her father gave her a demo version of the music software program Cakewalk. “Because it was a demo version, I couldn’t save anything,” she recalls. “So I had to leave the computer on for, like, months and months to keep working onContinue reading “Between Folklore and the Future: The Music of Heidi Chan”
Sound Symposium XVIII.
Audiences at Sound Symposium XVIII in St. John’s, Newfoundland were treated to a full spectrum of improvisation, including free improvisation, graphic scores, and directed improvisation. We heard a vast range of music for electroacoustic soundscapes, Javanese gamelan, contemporary art music, Balkan folk music, and even music made by 3-D printers amplified by CCRMA’s GRAIL (StanfordContinue reading “Sound Symposium XVIII.”
The Shapeshifting Sounds of Gabriel Dharmoo
After experiencing Anthropologies Imaginaires, it’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago Gabriel Dharmoo, its creator and performer, was reluctant to use his spectacularly flexible voice to anything like its full extent. In fact, he initially rebelled against seizing the singer’s usual place, smack in the middle of the spotlight. “I felt likeContinue reading “The Shapeshifting Sounds of Gabriel Dharmoo”
Hanoi New Music Festival Ensemble 2013. Being Together.
Although Hanoi is more closely associated in North American minds with 1960s Vietnam War designators like the Ho Chi Minh trail and the Hanoi Hilton, the city now has an improvised music scene, and this disc celebrates Hanoi’s first-ever New Music Festival. Being Together, a three-part piece based on a graphic score by Danish saxophonistContinue reading “Hanoi New Music Festival Ensemble 2013. Being Together.”
Jerusalem In My Heart. If He Dies, If If If If If If.
Jerusalem In My Heart’s second album bristles with all the forward momentum that was lurking just below the surface of its debut release. Noted producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh is in charge of the sonic aspect of the Montreal-based audiovisual duo, and his work digests a number of startlingly heterogenous elements. As If He Dies . . .Continue reading “Jerusalem In My Heart. If He Dies, If If If If If If.”
Tony Wilson. A Day’s Life; A Bowl of Sixty Taxidermists.
Tony Wilson is both a versatile and distinctive guitarist. While he’s played across a spectrum of idioms—from jazz-rock fusion to folk and free improvisation—he’s maintained his own voice, a forceful, lyrical style filled with subtle nuances. As a composer, he’s crafted a similarly distinctive style rooted in strong linear focus and textural mutation, developing piecesContinue reading “Tony Wilson. A Day’s Life; A Bowl of Sixty Taxidermists.”
FAT and the Masters of Haha.
Formed in 1982 in Montreal, FAT features Eric Rosenzveig on guitar, Jeff Noble on bass guitar, and Phil Giborski on drums and samples. The trio was influenced by the era’s DIY-punk aesthetic, as well as the musics of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, but remained distant from both those scenes, freely improvising textural noise ratherContinue reading “FAT and the Masters of Haha.”
Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society
THERE’S AN ENGAGING CATCH-AS-CATCH-CAN LOOK to Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society, something that immediately conveys a certain spontaneity, yet disguises—slightly—the complexity of the music. During the band’s North American tour in May 2015, which included performances at Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville and Toronto’s Array Space, an unusual combination of instruments was putContinue reading “Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society”