Source: Zappa.com.

Scott Parker welcomes back Joe “Vaultmeister” Travers, and Zappacast producer Phil Surkis. Joe shares the real deal behind the recent Mothers 1970 box, and the imminent Halloween 1981 box. Deep cut: Joe shares about his ultimate FZ fanboy life as the drummer for The Zappa Band.

Source: Echoes.

In the Echoes Podcast, Michael Rother, a legend of progressive rock and electronic music, In the early 1970s he was in an early version of Kraftwerk, then co-founded the bands Neu and Harmonia and went on to developed a distinctive guitar sound and driving rhythmic approach on a string of solo albums. He hasn’t put out new music in 16 years, but now has a new box set of his music, Solo II, along with a brand new album, sort of, called Dreaming. You’ll hear what we mean when John Diliberto talks with Michael Rother about Kraftwerk, his new approach to guitar, and his turn toward dream pop.

Source: Aquarium Drunkard.

Wendy Eisenberg is an improvising guitar and banjo player with an extraordinary command of her instruments, flitting effortlessly from intricate, off-balance jazz riffs to oblique 20th century classical motifs to rock and folk and Latin sounds. Trained in classical music and jazz, the artist employs considerable skills in the service of what sound like enigmatic pop songs, which draw on soul-wrenching experiences in a very formal, well-regulated way. Their latest album, Auto, on the BaDaBing label, merges both these elements – the shit-hot guitar playing and the poised, oddly distanced self-revelation—in one of the year’s most intriguing releases. We talked as one of the weirdest summers on record drew to a close about Eisenberg’s technique, their fascinating with auto-fiction and the way that really demanding musical structures can provide a layer of protection when songs are very personal.

Source: Westword.

Using clarinets, a synthesizer and a few guitar effects pedals, Goldberg has recorded 150 songs over the past six months, dedicating some to musicians he’s worked with over the years, such as Joshua Redman, John Zorn and Myra Melford, as well as Nels Cline and Denver trumpeter Ron Miles, both of whom appear on Goldberg’s 2019 album Good Day for Cloud Fishing and 2015’s Orphic Machine.

Goldberg says that writing songs for Plague Diary has been the equivalent of noodling in a laboratory or drawing in a sketch pad: He’s able to break songwriting habits and try new approaches to the creative process.

Source: Tone Glow.

Catherine Christer Hennix is a Swedish composer, poet, philosopher, and mathematician who currently resides in Turkey. She primarily creates long-form drone music and has collaborated with artists such as Henry Flynt, La Monte Young, and Pandit Pran Nath. She has worked as a professor at both SUNY New Paltz and MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, led the just-intonation ensemble the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, and is the author of various papers and books, including last year’s Poësy Matters and Other Matters. Her newest album features a 1974 recording of the Karlheinz Stockhausen piece Unbegrenzt. Joshua Minsoo Kim talked with Hennix on the phone via WhatsApp on May 31st. The two discussed her music, the numerous artists she’s collaborated with, the drawbacks of music venues, and more.

Source: Twenty Questions.

If music is a delicious soup and you’re the chef, studying musical traditions deepens your flavor profile. Your soup will only be as rich and subtle as your understanding of each ingredient and its unique properties, and how different ingredients work together to create new flavors.

Understanding musical traditions allows us to intuit which ingredients to put in (and which to leave out), and how much of each is needed. How will the flavors of certain ingredients blend together? How will our own personal taste and memories of other soups we’ve eaten affect our process of creation? What new and exciting ingredients could we add from other parts of the world and other cooking traditions? What recipes have other musicians created to achieve their distinct flavor?

Source: burning ambulance.

Braufman is about to release his first album under his own name in 45 years. He made his debut in 1975 with Valley of Search, recorded at his loft at 501 Canal Street in New York and released on India Navigation. It was reissued in 2018 by his nephew, Abil Nyers, on the Control Group/Valley of Search label, and it sparked enough interest as a lost artifact of the loft jazz era (full disclosure: I reviewed it for The Wire) that he performed in NYC for the first time in decades, and wound up taking almost the same band used at those shows into the studio. Now he’s got The Fire Still Burns coming out, featuring James Brandon Lewis on tenor sax, Cooper-Moore on piano, Ken Filiano on bass and Andrew Drury on drums.