Playlist Week of 2016-07-09

* Vivaldi: Cello Sonatas (ter Linden/Mortensen) (Brilliant Classics 2CD)

* Andrew Hill: Grass Roots (Blue Note CD)

* Anthony Braxton Quartet: [Quartet (Sao Paulo) 2014] (SESC 2CD)

* Evan Parker & Matthew Wright: Trance Map (Psi CD)

* Eberhard Weber: The Colours of Chloe (ECM LP)

* Mark Isham: Vapor Drawings (Windham Hill LP)

* Jeff Parker: The New Breed (International Anthem LP)

* Rodger Coleman: Real Gone (NuVoid Jazz/BandCamp WAV)

* Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Heeltop Home Studio, December 2015 (selections) (WAV)

* Frank Zappa: Lumpy Gravy (Verve LP)

* John Renbourn: The Nine Maidens (Transatlantic LP)

* Amazing Blondel: Fantasia Lindum (Island LP)

* Jade Warrior: Kites (Island LP)
* This Heat: This Heat (Rough Trade/Modern Classics LP)

* This Heat: Deceit (Rough Trade/Modern Classics LP)

* Opeth: Deliverance (Music For Nations/KOCH 2LP)

* Boris: Pink (Deluxe Edition) (Sargent House 3LP)

* Boris: Attention Please (Sargent House LP)

* The Sword: High Country (Razor & Tie 2LP)

* Windhand: Grief’s Infernal Flower (Relapse 2LP)

* Inter Arma: The Cavern (Relapse LP)

* Inter Arma: Paradise Gallows (Relapse 2LP)

* Usnea: Random Cosmic Violence (Relapse 2-45RPM LP)

* Myrkur: M (Relapse LP)

* Charles Rumback & Ryley Walker: Cannots (Dead Oceans LP)

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Commentary:

Ever since I got the Moog Sub 37 (and assembled the Moogerfoogers to build a semi-modular "Moogertron"), I have been recording a ton of music in my home studio. It is in the nature of analog synthesizers that patches are ephemeral and almost impossible to re-create after the fact, so I've pretty much been recording everything.

I've gathered some of this music into my first solo album, Real Gone, now available digitally at BandCamp. These are all live, electronic improvisations incorporating the Moog along with guitar, piano and MIDI synthesizers in various combinations and sequenced as a three-sided LP. I hope you enjoy the journey!

                                                     

Playlist Week of 2016-04-09

* Eddie Henderson: Realization/Inside Out (Capricorn/Soul Brother CD)

* Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith: A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke (ECM CD)

* Vijay Iyer Trio: Break Stuff (ECM CD)

* The Out Louds (T.Fujiwara/B.Goldberg/M.Halvorson): The Out Louds (Relative Pitch CD)

* Ingrid Laubrock & Tom Rainey: Buoyancy (Relative Pitch CD)

* Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol.8: Tell Tale Signs 1989-2006 (Columbia 2CD)

* Van Morrison: Wavelength (Polydor CD)

* John Martyn: Solid Air (Island LP)

* Tim Buckley: Dream Letter: Live In London 1968 (Enigma Retro 2CD)

* Silver Apples: Silver Apples (Kapp LP)

* Tangerine Dream: Phaedra (Virgin LP)

* Tangerine Dream: Sorcerer OST (MCA LP)

* Tangerine Dream: Exit (Elektra LP)

* Pierre Moerlen’s Gong: Downwind (Arista LP)

* Pete Namlook: Air I & II (FAX 2CD)

* OM: Live (Outer Battery LP)

* Kylesa: Exhausting Fire (Season of Mist LP)

* The Sword: High Country (Razor & Tie 2LP) †/‡

* Syd Arthur: On an On (Harvest LP) †/‡

* Syd Arthur: Sound Mirror (Harvest LP) †/‡

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Commentary:

The Moogertron 3700 is complete (for now). Can't wait to really dive in deep! Here's a taste:

Playlist Week of 2016-03-26

* Jerusalem: City of the Two Peaces (Hesperion XXI, et al./Savall) (Alia Vox 2SACD)

* McCoy Tyner: Nights of Ballads & Blues (Impulse! CD)

* McCoy Tyner: Inception (Impulse! CD)

* Gateway: Homecoming (ECM CD)

* Marc Johnson: The Sound of Summer Running (Verve CD)

* David Torn: Cloud About Mercury (ECM CD)

* Steven Halpern: Gifts of the Angels (Open Channel CD)

* V/A: The Perfumed Garden: 82 Rare Flowerings…1965-1973 (d.1) (Past Present 5CD)

* Hawkwind: Hall of the Mountain Grill (United Artists LP)

* Jane: Jane III (Brain LP)

* Marcos Valle: Vento Sul (Odeon/Light In The Attic LP)

* This Mortal Coil: It’ll End In Tears (4AD HDCD)

* This Mortal Coil: Filigree & Shadow (4AD HDCD)

* This Mortal Coil: Blood (4AD HDCD)

* Boris with Michio Kurihara: Rainbow (Drag City CD)

* Boris: Heavy Rocks 2 (Southern Lord 2LP)

* Boris: New Album (Sargent House CD)

* Locrian: Infinite Dissolution (Relapse LP)

* Matthew Bourne: Moogmemory (Leaf LP/CD)

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Commentary:

I was honored to participate in another Indeterminacies event at Zeitgeist Gallery this week, moderating the discussion between the audience and four student composers from the Blair School of Music, each of whom wrote music in response to the artwork of gallery artists, Paul Collins and Ward Schumacher.

All of these young composers presented unique and invigoratingly thoughtful analogs to the paintings on display. Jasper Brey's "Century" for flute, horn, double-bass and percussion, developed an accomplished set of variations based, in part, on recurring colors and motifs in Schumacher's series. "Natural Development" by George Miller took a different approach, with computer music and dance creating an immersive visual and audial space evoking the anthropomorphic trees depicted in Paul Collins's brightly colored yet oddly unsettling pictures. Amy Victoria Thompson's "Concert Pie" was a tour de force musical response to a punning, text-based painting by Schumacher. A seamlessly unfolding catalog of cadences -- from gothic to modern -- represented the text (which reads: "The End is All Importan" -- get it?) while an astonishingly thoroughgoing development of a handful of melodic and rhythmic ideas gave the piece a cohesiveness and emotional heft that reflected the seriousness beneath the artist's joking surface. Finally, Andrew Clark's "Soft Bark" harnessed the inherent narrative qualities of a string quartet to describe the various characters lurking within Collins's deceptively sunny, sylvan scenes. To learn that Mr. Clark is but a freshman was something of a shock!

The handling of musical materials across a variety of approaches and instrumentation was truly impressive -- but their sensitive and committed engagement with the art really blew me away. I tried to get people talking about what was going on -- and each composer was fascinatingly articulate about what they were up to -- but getting the audience involved was hard. Even so, it was clear to me that the capacity crowd was a moved as I was by the music. And perhaps it got them thinking -- if not talking. Regardless, it was a great evening. Young people like this give me hope for the future.

+++

Meanwhile, here at Heeltop Home Studio, the Moogertron 3700 is coming along. I picked up a couple more Moogerfoogers on Craigslist for a great price (and another one came in the mail). It's insane, I know -- but I love it. Soon it will be complete (ha!). Anyway, here's a taste of what I've been up to:

Playlist Week of 2016-03-19

* Biber: The Rosary Sonatas (Manze/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)

* Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd: Jazz Samba (Verve LP)

* Abdullah Ibrahim: Ekaya (Home) (EKAPA/Blackhawk LP)

* Henry Threadgill: The Complete Nous & Columbia Recordings (d.7-8) (Mosaic 8 CD)

* Stefano Torossi: Feelings (Carosello/Golden Pavilion LP)

* Stephan Micus: The Music of Stones (ECM CD)

* Stephan Micus: Darkness And Light (ECM CD)

* Steven Halpern: Chakra Suite (Open Channel CD)

* Bola Sete: Jungle Suite (Dancing Cat LP)

* D’Angelo: Brown Sugar (Virgin/Universal 2LP)

* Marcos Valle: Garra (Odeon/Light In The Attic LP)

* Grateful Dead: Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 1981-05-15 (selections) (SBD 3CDR)

* Santana: Caravanserai (Columbia/Mobile Fidelity SACD)

* Van Morrison: Wavelength (Warner Bros. LP)

* The Incredible String Band: Earthspan (Reprise LP)

* Gram Parsons: GP (Warner Bros./Mobile Fidelity SACD)

* Deep Purple: Stormbringer (Warner Bros. LP)

* Daevid Allen: Good Morning! (Virgin LP)

* Triumvirat: Spartacus (Capitol LP)

* Tom Waits: Bad As Me (Anti- LP)

* Japan: Gentlemen Take Polaroids (Virgin LP)

* Boris: Amplifier Worship (Southern Lord CD)

* Boris & Merzbow: Gensho (Relapse 4LP)

* Yob: Clearing The Path To Ascend (Relapse 2LP)

* White Hills: No Game To Play (300mics LP)

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Commentary:

I'm loving the Moog -- but still so much to learn!