A source for news on music that is challenging, interesting, different, progressive, introspective, or just plain weird
Here is where I post, at a frequency of about once a week, a list of the new music that has caught my attention that week. All of the releases listed below I’ve heard for the first time this week and come recommended.
The Necks – Unfold (2017)
John Butcher / Damon Smith / Weasel Walter – The Catastrophe of Minimalism (2017)
Vmthanaachth – Inferotemporal (2017)
Sam Newsome / Jean-Michel Pilc – Magic Circle (2017)
Gerschlauer / Fiuczynski / DeJohnette / Garrison / Mikadze – Mikrojazz (2017)
This unpronounceable ensemble offers its second album, a dark slab of instrumental chamber-noise walls. Consisting of six performers, instrumentation includes dual guitars with generous overdubbing, non-drum-kit percussion, bass guitar, sax, cello, piano, vibes, and violin. Electronics appear to be present as well, though it can be hard to tell the difference between natural and synthetic contributions. Notably, all of these components combine into a monolithic assault.
Heavily-distorted guitar lines, focusing on thick chords and atmospheric speed-picking, form the base of Inferotemporal. Bass and sax freely improvise over the top of the six-stringed attack. The other instruments make periodic appearances and accentuations. Softly-growled death-metal vocals rear their ugly head from time to time. There is a near-complete lack of melody in the usual sense, which results in an ever-shifting landscape and never a dull moment. Perhaps the only exception to the general rule of the album is the fourth track, Music for the Move Nine, which is a chamber music drone.
Vmthanaachth has achieved a high-water mark in unclassifiable music – a harsh offering that combines influences from across the musical spectrum – metal, jazz, classical, ambient, noise – and results in an oddly listenable amalgam of brooding sound structures and landscapes.
This is a weekly overview live avant performances in the Chicago area. Contact us if you’d like your shows listed.
Saturday, August 19th 2017
3:00PM in Hadiya Pendleton Park, 4345 S Calumet Ave, 312.747.6728 (Free)
David Boykin and The Sebau, with Rollo Radford, Justin Boyd, Cher Jey, Manu Wisdom, Aliyyah Heatherington, Brenda Gilbert, Abstract Black8:30PM at Constellation, 3111 N Western ($10)
Tephra Sound : Nikki Glaspie, Jessica Lurie, Brian Haas, Helen GilletSunday, August 20th 2017
9:00PM at the Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont ($10 suggested donation) (wheelchair-accessible)
Daniel Levin, Tim DaisyMonday, August 21st 2017
7:00PM at Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N Ravenswood, 773.769.1069
Matt Piet Solo
Matt Piet, Bill Harris9:00PM at Beat Kitchen, 2100 W Belmont, 773.281.4444 (wheelchair-accessible)
Extraordinary Popular Delusions : Jim Baker, Edward Wilkerson Jr, Brian Sandstrom, Charles RumbackWednesday, August 23rd 2017
8:30PM at Beat Kitchen, 2100 W Belmont, 773.281.4444 (wheelchair-accessible)
Splice Series
Jason Stein, Paul Giallorenzo, Aaron Zarzutzki, Peter Maunu9:00PM at the Hideout, 1354 W Wabansia, 773.227.4433 ($10)
Moor Mother
ONO featuring Mykele DevilleThursday, August 24th 2017
9:00PM at Elastic, 3429 W Diversey, #208, 773.772.3616 ($10)
Fred Lonberg-Holm, Avreeayl Ra
Lara Tochsvard Trio with Zeppe Jeeberg, Mole NojfellFriday, August 25th 2017
8:30PM at Constellation, 3111 N Western ($15-$10)
Joel Futterman, Ike LevinSaturday, August 26th 2017
2:00PM at The Jefferson Park Library, 5363 W Lawrence, 312.744.1998
Christopher Riggs
Renée Baker — film screening8:30PM at Constellation, 3111 N Western ($10)
Joshua Abrams, Josh Berman,
Sun Speak : Matt Gold, Nate Friedman
Jeremy Cunningham, Dustin Laurenzi
For more information, such as directions, as well as upcoming performances, see:
http://now-is.org/, http://www.ratchetmusic.com, http://www.mcachicago.org, http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_culturalcenterschedule.html, http://www.skylarkchicago.com, http://www.hideoutchicago.com, http://www.elasticrevolution.com, http://www.myopicbookstore.com/music.html, http://www.lampo.org, http://dalniente.com, http://iceorg.org/events/category/chicago, http://www.emptybottle.com/
Source: Jazzword.
Sean Ali
My Tongue Crumbles AfterKyle Motl
TransmogrificationJames Ilgenfritz
Origami CosmosPhilippe Lauzier
A Pond in my Living RoomBull/Heward/Linson
Bull/Heward/LinsonHarris Eisenstadt
Recent DevelopmentsHarris Eisenstadt Canada Day
On Parade in ParedeLiudas Mockūnas/Arnas Mikalkėnas/Håkon Berre
PlungedMockūnas/Mazur/Strid
Live at Divadlo 29Bart Maris & Peter Vandenberghe
Getting Lost in Tiny Spaces
Source: Downtown Music Gallery.
Emanem: Steve Lacy Rarity with: Kent Carter / Enrico Rava / Steve Potts / Irene Aebi / Aldo Romano / Paul Motian! Paul Rutherford Solos, Duo & Trio: Paul Rogers / Veryan Weston / Marcio Mattos! Chris Speed Trio! Omri Ziegele Where’s Africa Trio! Jason Kao Hwang: Steve Swell / Chris Forbes / Ken Filiano / Andrew Drury! Two More from Cuneiform!
Motorpsycho 4 CD Set! Raymond Scott! Two More from Leap of Faith! Vinyl from Evan Parker / John Edwards / John Russell! Serge Gainsbourg! George Russell Sextet! John Sinclair! Bernard Herrmann! Plus a Dozen Restocks from the Emanem and PSI Labels!
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THE DMG 26TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES OF SONIC CELEBRATIONS Continue with:
Sunday, August 20th:
6pm: ZODIAC SAX QUARTET: CHARLES WATERS / RAS MOSHE BURNETT / CLAIRE DALY / LEE ODOM
7pm: REDS & WHITES: JOHN WELSH / AUSTIN WHITE / ANDERS ZELINSKISunday, August 27th:
6pm: GUILLERMO GREGORIO / MAT MANERI / NICHOLAS JOZWIAK – New Clarinet, Viola, Cello Trio!Rare Tuesday, August 29 Set:
6pm: RAYMOND MacDONALD & GEORGE BURT – Sax & Guitar from Glasgow!Sunday, September 3rd: Two Debut CD Release Sets in One Night
6pm: KENNY WARREN / ADAM HOPKINS / FLIN VAN HEMMEN – Trumpet / Bass / Drums
7pm: LEONOR FALCON Quartet: JUANMA TRUJILLO / CHRISTOPH KNOCHE / JUAN PABLO CARLETTI – Violin / Guitar / Bass Clarinet / DrumsSunday, September 10th:
6pm: THOMAS HELTON & MICHAEL BISIO – ContraBass Duo!
7pm: DOU B 2: LISA MEZZACAPPA / JOSH SINTON / AARON NOVIK / JASON LEVIS –
Two Bass Clarinets / Acoustic Bass / Drums!DMG is located at 13 Monroe St. (between Catherine & Market Sts) in a basement below a small gallery. Take the F train to East Broadway or the 6 train to Canal or the B or D to Grand, or the M-15 bus to Madison & Catherine. Come on Down, the Sunday Music Series is Always Free & the Vibes are Always Cosy
Source: Village Voice, coverage of the first CD release of Coleman’s Crisis Music.
In a scene from Ornette: Made in America, Shirley Clarke’s unconventional — and unforgettable — documentary portrait of Ornette Coleman, the musician and composer is on a New York City sidewalk in 1968. Deadly earnest, he asks his drummer the following: “What is it that you do that’s different from other drummers?…It’s obvious you don’t have anything to go by, yet you’re playing as if you did, and that is a very modern way of playing. I’m trying to find out what method you use to be correct, to be right. You’re more right than wrong.” The drummer, smacking away at chewing gum, responds, “Aw, I dunno. I don’t have any particular method or anything.”
Source: The New York Times.
Many of the musical and philosophical characteristics that defined Lou Harrison, who would have turned 100 this year, as a quintessential American maverick composer come through in “La Koro Sutro” (“The Heart Sutra”).
“La Koro Sutro” is ambitious and large-scale, lasting nearly 30 minutes, yet somehow personal and modest, too, with a kind of innately American directness. The musical language is steeped in Asian elements, ancient modes, pentatonic scales, chantlike choral writing and systems of “just” (what Harrison considered the more natural) tuning, rather than the tempered intonation common to Western music for centuries.
