Foxy Digitalis
New York-based, Taiwanese composer and vibraphonist Yuhan Su has been on a winding, circuitous journey. From early, classical studies in Taiwan to diving headfirst into the New York jazz scene, and more recently a six-month residency in Paris, all of these paths have led to her latest album, Liberated Gesture. It’s a record that caught me […]
One of 2023’s most interesting projects, and one that I have returned to regularly, is Sonic Mud’s Above Ground. The ensemble features ceramic instruments made by Julia Elsas, a multi-media artist and educator in New York, and an ensemble featuring Elsas, Kirk Knuffke, Kenny Wollesen, Mike Irwin, Madeleine Ventrice, and Doug Weiselman. Together, the sextet creates rich, earthy soundscapes […]
Mexico City’s Pidgins explores percussive landscapes. The duo of Milo Tamez and Aaron With fuses layered rhythms with a host of engaging sound worlds from voice and other instruments, creating a puzzle-like environment to dig into modern, often banal, trance-like states. Refrains of the Day, Volume 1 is enigmatic and beguiling. Tamez weaves a polyrhythmic fabric across […]
From the earliest moments of Shuta Husanuma’s Unpeople, his first new album in seven years, we’re drawn into this intricately fractured sonic landscape. It’s overwhelming and beautiful and otherworldly all the same time as the Tokyo-based artist deconstructs various tonal elements before putting everything back together. He works with a host of collaborators from Keiji Haino, […]
When I wrote about Gina Izzo’s spellbinding ladyybirdd project recently, I described it as the Wild West of solo flute music. The deeper I dig into her new album, Tomorrow’s Yesterday, the truer that axiom becomes. Izzo bends flute passages into dazzling, expansive sound worlds buoyed by dancing rhythms and gilded electronics. Adding to the mesmerizing […]
Marguerite de Roche’s Sous ma peau, un volcan has been on regular rotation since I came across it a few months ago. There’s something so inviting about the Ethiopian artist’s music that I lose myself to swirling thoughts of self, past lives, and distant futures. Besides music, de Roche is a poet, and Sous ma peau, un volcan isn’t […]
Orquesta del Tiempo Perdido has become a mainstay in my headphones over the last year, and with two new albums in the space of a few months – Sepk and Rimpianti – there’s no sign of that letting up. Jeroen Kimman pulls countless threads through a whirling musical wormhole, putting together sonic and rhythmic combinations that are endlessly engaging. […]
Sarah Morrison’s forthcoming album, Attachment Figure, is a connecting point for so many diverging pathways that it almost feels impossible. Gentle sonic landscapes are a rolling, ephemeral playground for Morrison’s lyrics, which cut straight to bone. Each moment is beautifully crafted and left in the sun until ready, until imbued with just the right glow. Morrison […]
From the first moment I heard Cassie Wieland’s incredible remix of Adrianne Munden-Dixon’s “Lung,” I wanted to hear more and know more. A few months later, her debut, Birthday Party, is out, and it’s a release that leaves a mark. I talked about this more in-depth on this edition of Foxy Digitalis Daily, but I still wanted to […]