Guayaveras in the winter
This episode we take a break from chat. Instead we listen to almost an hour of quiet music. It’s Ryan Driver...
improvised music
Interview w/ viola player Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh
Ailbhe joins me to listen to the viola, the violin, some guitars, a horse-hair harp, some outside jazz and a sewing...
Brodie West Quintet’s Fortress
The interplay here, particularly between West’s saxophone and Tania Gill’s piano, has me seeing a malleable object, a bright children’s toy...
Loving strange tones from Karen Ng and Scott Thomson
These sounds are so themselves and so otherworldy. Idiomatic and yet surprising at the same time. Lovely. And lovely in that...
The wild viola of Ailbhe nic Oireachtaigh
Very happy to be listening to Dublin composer and improviser Ailbhe nic Oireachtaigh, now based in Glasgow. This gorgeous track purposelessness...
Rat-drifting launches 3 new titles
One of our favourite record labels, Rat-drifting (based in Toronto and France), recently re-launched on BandCamp after a few years of...
Alister Spence/Joe Williamson/Christopher Cantillo – “Opening”
Bells and bell-like sounds and cymbals, and other metal sounds, a searching piano and everything slowed down to a pace of...
Ecstatic noise w/ Marshall Trammell and Tashi Dorji
Joy with ferocity. Rattling drums and dirty electric guitar feels like punk opera unwound and bent. Recorded live in Portland, Duo...
Banjo Music for Carole Finer
Allison Cameron brought this release by Stephen Chase’s mon se taire truc editions to our attention. A tribute to Scratch Orchestra...
Dictaphone delights w/ Joe Posset
Joe Posset of Newcastle does wonderful things with a mini-casette recorder. He’s turned it into a musical instrument to improvise with,...
Susana Santos Silva Impermanence’s “The Ocean Inside a Stone”
A five-member ensemble, led by trumpet player/composer Susana Santos Silva. Unexpected fusions, often signalled by Hugo Raro’s synthesizer work, take to...
“Crushingly horrible, hilarious, and stupid” w/ Raven Chacon and John Dieterich (Endlings)
A special session with Endlings (Ravon Chacon + John Dieterich [of Deerhoof]). Endlings have performed a work specially for Unusual Music...
Uchihashi Kazuhisa and Ryoko Ono: “001”
Ryoko Ono on saxophone, and Uchihashi Kazuhisa on daxophone, an instrument developed in the 1980s. On this track, wildly assertive playing,...
Guayaveras are sweet…and Rat-drifting relaunches on Bandcamp!
Serious as philosophy, loose as sleep, sweet as raspberries blown in a bubble bath. It’s Eric Chenaux on guitalele and toe-synth...
Karen Ng’s “Day 3 i”
It’s difficult to know what analogy works to describe Karen Ng’s stunning solo saxophone recordings: a thought process, a dialogue with...
Punk Kong’s “Pull Ninja”
Unusual soundscapish jazz takes noisy turns, distorted climbs, and opens to beautiful spaces. Pull Ninja by Punk Kong
Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi, “Staying Human”
Long tones, voluminous room sound (parking garage!), spare and grand, maybe scary, maybe consoling. Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi by Luke...
Kim Myhr’s “You|Me”
Ambient becomes prominent, background to the fore, patterns and unexpected disruptions, in Kim Myhr’s You | Me. You | me by Kim...
Alcorn, Bordreuil, and Laubrock: “Indigo Blue (Wayfarin Stranger)”
Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, and Ingrid Laubrock – pedal steel, cello, and saxophone – create an otherworldly sense of summer. Bird Meets...
Scott Clark’s “Quiet Friend”
From a solo album by percussionist/composer Scott Clark: “Quiet Friend” begins and continues with long, warm waves of harmonica. Companion drums...