Doug Tielli on mushing and meandering
Doug Tielli is a multi-instrumentalist improviser, songwriter, and composer. We discuss what improvisation is, some varieties of improvisational experience, what giving more time and space to making things is...
instrumental
Marcus Boon on time, the universe, Hennix, Nath, and DJ Screw
Writer Marcus Boon thinks unusual thoughts about music and time. We discuss his book, The Politics of Vibration: Music as a Cosmopolitical Practice. Our focus hovers around how long-form...
Chiyoko Szlavnics is all ears
Berlin-based composer Chiyoko Szlavnics and host Josh Thorpe discuss phenomenology, psychoacoustics, making music from pictures, and the wonderful experience of listening to, and playing, Indian dhrupad music. We listen...
Maria Chavez is a module
Maria Chavez, turntablist and sound artist, discusses her life as a DJ, getting kicked out of boys clubs, Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, not listening, sound art, the moon, mentorship,...
KMRU writes music on trains
Composer KMRU (aka Joseph Kamaru) joins host Josh Thorpe to discuss field recording, synthesis, and writing music on trains. We talk about process, listening, collaboration, fan reactions, and several...
Allison Cameron has charme
Composer and improviser Allison Cameron on indeterminacy, charme, wonder, cadences, fragmented melodies, treating the ensemble as a single instrument, codas, the ineffable, prepared vibraphone, small noise improvisation, and much...
Just music
This month it’s mostly listening. We listen to Allison Cameron, Powerdove, Semay Wu, Jon Hassell, Ailbhe nic Oireachtaigh, Eric Chenaux, and Raven Chacon and Marc Sabat…not necessarily in that...
Stephen Chase follows his nose
A listening session and interview with composer / improviser Stephen Chase. Stephen and Josh met at Glasgow’s Tectonics Festival to chat about various works. Listen to Stephen’s works for...
Fun House Mirrors: Interview with composer Charles Uzor
This interview with composer Charles Uzor discusses melody, timbre, texture, mimicry, guitars, accordions, Ligeti, and more. We listen to a work for guitar and accordion, a guitar quartet, a...
Psychedelic organs and chickens: the music of Natalia Beylis
The music of Natalia Beylis is deceptively simple and very unusual. The Ukranian-American-Irish composer, speaks with host Josh Thorpe about her work with field recordings, found objects, tape collage,...
One-man orchestra Nick Storring
Host Josh Thorpe and composer Nick Storring listen to and discuss Storring’s music and others. ‘What a Made-up Mind Can Do’ begins with what one might call noise, improvisation,...
More disoriented states with Linda C. Smith
In this interview and listening session with Linda Catlin Smith we listen to and discuss unusual music. We hear Smith’s strange piece Drifter for piano and guitar performed by...
Hard to pin down with Ailie Ormston
Glasgow composer and performer Aillie Ormston makes music that’s beautiful and strange. The music is very detailed and specific, yet feels effortless. We listen to and discuss two works...
Horse harps, games, and Rhodri Davies
Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies speaks with host Josh Thorpe about the telyn rawn, a horse-hair harp Davies made and performs with. We listen to a short work on this...
A Great Mess with Linda Catlin Smith
Josh Thorpe and composer Linda Catlin Smith listen to and discuss unusual music. We hear two of Smith’s recent works for piano quintet (piano and string quartet) as well...
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 and Eric Chenaux and their sweet and gentle...
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 machine. Ailbhe’s great to speak with and her...
Martin Arnold: Stain Ballads
Strange meandering lines that I wish would go forever. They kinda do. Arnold says: “I’ve always maintained that all the music I make is in some sense dance music...
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 calls to mind Norwegian hardanger songs, bent by...
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 rest. The other day three new records came...