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 or heavy paper, folded inside out and back...
Listen to unusual interviews and unusual sounds...
Martin Arnold on subtle arts
New radio show with ResonanceFM. First episode is a collage of previous exchanges with Martin Arnold on the Codex Chantilly, Sublime Frequencies, jaipongen, and more…
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...
Step into sound w/ Liu and Martin-Gray
These two tracks called Socks and Sandals are lovely buzzing and crackling things. A ticklish kind of sound in the ear that travels to the back of the head...
OneTwoThree’s strange bass songs
This trio of women from Zurich make an unusual chorus of bass guitars. Madlaina Peer, Sara Schär, Klaudia Schifferle on Kill Rock Stars. ONETWOTHREE by ONETWOTHREE
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 it is dedicated to the late Ron Gaskin....
Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson’s Searching for the Disappeared Hour
Halvorson on guitar and Courvoisier on piano work magic together. The timbre of the guitar, so similar at times to the piano, allows Halvorson to almost hide notes inside...
Chenaux’s Say Laura is tender confections
Pleased to see Eric Chenaux play in Glasgow recently at the Glad Café with Ailbhe nic Oireachtaigh. Chenaux’s new album Say Laura (on Constellation) with Ryan Driver is a...
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...
Tiger is Coming: complexity and dance
So complex and dripping with a precise energy of what it is. Four traditionally trained pansori singers, two bassists, a drummer, and a very sweet a disco spirit. Complexity,...
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 uncertainty; in the middle the double bass like...
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 Damage, Vol I is loud and distorted in...
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 original Carole Finer and a fundraiser for Resonance...
Bands of Rubber from Allison Cameron
Here’s a composed piece for the Rubber Band Quartet from Toronto improviser and composer Allison Cameron. It’s strange and particular music, radical but gentle, emerging from mundane materials, amplification,...
Poor Isa’s “let’s drink the sea and dance”
Poor Isa (Frederik Leroux and Ruben Machtelinckx), “let’s drink the sea and dance”: I sometimes return to a piece of music over and over without knowing why. A return...
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, as well as a compositional material or a...
Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl w/ Robert Wyatt
It’s nice to hear Robert Wyatt’s voice again, particularly with some heavy guitar licks. I missed this 2020 release when it came out. Halvorson here working also with Amirtha...
White People Killed Them
Violent, joyful, full of activity and energy. This is Raven Chacon, John Dieterich, and Marshall Trammell on Sige Records. White People Killed Them by WHITE PEOPLE KILLED THEM
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 the listener to places of memory—now Radiohead, now...