Foxy Digitalis
“Nature abhors a vacuum.” We hear that all the time. It’s ingrained in us. 9T Antiope, the Iranian duo (based in Paris) of Sara Bigdeli Shamloo and Nima Aghiani, dissects this idea through sonic world-building and inquisition on Horror Vacui. The music is textural and expansive, unearthing living moments in the smallest details. It’s an album […]
Tony Rolando’s music has always taken me on trips. His use of synthesis combined with complex and surprising narratives creates unexpected worlds. Emotive spells offer intrigue, pulling us further into the spaces his music creates, sending thoughts racing into accidental corridors. Nothing in these tonal patterns is random, though. Rolando pulls the strings to hold […]
One thing I keep returning to as I’ve listened to Osnat Netzer’s new album, Dot : Line : Sigh, is how the whimsical nature and physicality of this music combine in a way that leaves me feeling off-kilter. I like it when music confuses me because it keeps me returning, seeking some sort of understanding. But […]
Early on Ian Wellman’s latest album, The Night The Stars Fell, a foreboding sense of despair takes root in the melancholic chord progressions and stark field recordings. This hopelessness shifts, though, somehow becomes comforting in the way it connects us to things we already know, but don’t want to admit. Narratives emerge from the wind-blown whispers […]
Carlos Ferreira makes music for everyone. The Brazilian composer uses an array of sound sources but always has an ear toward soundworlds that invites listeners in. While I’ve admired Ferreira’s work from a distance for a while, a lot of what he communicates in this conversation resonates deeply with me. His approach to bringing others […]
Well, we made it. Sort of. I mean, it’s not like this arbitrary changing of the year is going to change, well, anything, but it still feels like we’ve crawled over some kind of finish line. As I say just about every year, what an incredible year of music. This list will be incomplete every […]
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 […]