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New Sounds from WNYC — Arts
New Sounds from WNYC

New Sounds is unlike any radio show you’ve ever heard: a whirlwind tour of new and unusual music from all corners of the globe. New Sounds combs recent recordings for one of the most informative and compelling hours on radio, and aims to make the world smaller. For over 25 years, host John Schaefer has been finding the melody in the rainforest and the rhythm in an orchestra of tin cans. Defying rigid categorization and genre pigeonholing, New Sounds offers new ways to hear the ancient language of song. With guest musicians from David Byrne to Meredith Monk to Ravi Shankar to Philip Glass to Christopher O’Riley to Bang On A Can, Schaefer presents performances (both in-studio and from the New Sounds Live concert series) and premieres new works from the classic and operatic to folk and jazz, and anything else in between. Each show has a theme, ranging from post-rock to klezmer to African blues to minimalism. The variety of cultures and styles explored is boundless. Music you may not have known existed and now can’t live without.

Copyright: © WNYC

Latest Episodes:

We've Got Rhythms (Special Podcast of show #3960) Oct 19, 2017

Show notes

Listen to rhythmic music, whether for percussion, string quartet or vocal duet for this New Sounds. Hear works from percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum, Kelly Moran, and the Jasper String Quartet, and a vocal duet from Meredith Monk and Robert Een. From the recent record, Unbound, by the Jasper String Quartet, hear a non-stop motoring work by Judd Greenstein, “Four on the Floor.” Usually the term applies to thumping dance-club bangers, but in this work, pairs of instruments work “with and against each other, until they settle their differences and combine into a shared groove,” according to the composer.

Hear music with rhythmic intensity, for prepared piano, with and without electronics from Kelly Moran, and her record, Bloodroot, which is where minimalism and black metal collide. Then, listen to music from Hauschka, who layers player piano with prepared piano. Also, listen to Inuit-style breathing games from Meredith Monk and cellist/vocalist Robert Een, from her long-form work, "Facing North," inspired by the Canadian wilderness.

Then, listen to increasingly tricky and complex rhythms in a work by David Crowell for percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum. Plus, hear a work –"Redwood"- involving saxophone and interlocking guitar parts from Empyrean Atlas, the band of composer/multi-instrumentalist David Crowell. And more.

August & September 2017 New Releases (Special Podcast) Oct 04, 2017

Show notes

Hear prog-marching band music from Chicago's Mucca Pazza, ambient-gothic Norwegian-Icelandic music from the duo Jo Berger Myhre & Ólafur Björn Ólafsson, jazz-tronic ambient minimalism from London's Portico Quartet, and new work from Danish experimental supergroup Girls in Airports.

Classical Instruments, Contemporary Sounds (Special Podcast) Apr 03, 2017

Show notes

Hear music that begins with classical instruments, like the string quartet, piano, or an orchestra, but which is then augmented, enhanced by electronics, percussion, or preparation. Listen to works by English violinist, pianist, and composer Poppy Ackroyd, Netherlands-based composer Peter Adriaansz, and cinematic music from the augmented string quartet amiina.

#3928: With Guitarist Shane Parish (Special Podcast) Jan 11, 2017

Show notes

Guitarist Shane Parish, of the instrumental prog-punk band Ahleuchatistas, plays music from his solo record of “weird old Americana” live in the studio on acoustic & prepared guitar.

#3912: With Zakir Hussain & Niladri Kumar (Special Podcast) Nov 01, 2016

Show notes

“Indian music does not stop and start with Ravi Shankar.” So says tabla master Zakir Hussain, who, along with young sitar virtuoso, Niladri Kumar, joins John in the studio for a live performance. Niladri Kumar and Zakir Hussain perform a radio-friendly (short) Raga Charukeshi, for Rupak Tal (a seven beat rhythmic cycle) and Raga Bhairavi in Teental (16 beats.)

#3893: With Guitarist Guy Buttery (Special Podcast) Sep 15, 2016

Show notes

South African guitarist Guy Buttery visits the studio to perform virtuosic feats of bending, tapping, picking, harmonics, and other techniques and textures yet to be named for guitar. Hear music from his latest record, his sixth, a self-titled wonder of collaborative tunes. Plus, music from the late Malian guitarist and griot Tiécoro Sissoko.

New Music from Ireland Part 3 (Special Podcast) Jun 23, 2015

Show notes

This episode continues the series exploring the new music of Ireland. John Schaefer sits down with Jonathan Nangle at the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin. Nangle tells how Donnacha Dennehy influenced him to explore more experimental music, and then shares how electronics and silence factor into his compositions. Listen to how Nangle uses electronics to subtly augment conventional instrumentation on "Where distant city lights flicker on half-frozen ponds". Hear Nangle explain how his piece "Then Falls by Shadow" takes the inspiration of Irish weather to combine shuffle mode with a choral performance. Later in the hour, John Schaefer talks to David Bremner about his own compositions and playing the pipe organ at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. Hear Bremner's piercing organ compositions "Variations upon 'the usual reason'" and "Amhrán na Leabhar."

PROGRAM #3715 New Music from Ireland: Part 3 (First aired on 4/17/2015)

ARTIST(S)

RECORDING

CUT(S)

SOURCE

Kate Ellis

Jump

Donnacha Dennehy: Aisling Gheal [2:09]

Diatribe Records

Jonathan Nangle

Self-released

DIY Aeolian Harp [:39]

Jonathan Nangle

new music::new Ireland 2

Where distant city lights flicker on half-frozen ponds [excerpt 1] [2:14]

Jonathan Nangle

new music::new Ireland 2

Where distant city lights flicker on half-frozen ponds [excerpt 2] [4:47]

See Above

Ergodos Musicians

I Call To You

Jonathan Nangle: Ich ruf' zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ [2:22]

Ergodos Records

Jonathan Nangle

Commissioned for Dublin SoundLab

untitled (after Dan Flavin) [1:42]

Jonathan Nangle

Commisioned by David Bremner and Elizabeth Hilliard

Then Falls thy Shadow [:51]

Jonathan Nangle

Contermporaty Music from Ireland, Volume Nine

Our headlights blew softly into the black illuminating very little [5:21]

CMC Ireland – CMC CD09

Contemporary Music Centre

Jonathan Nangle & David Bremner

Ergodos 2009 'Off-Grid' Festival

Untitled improvisation [1:25]

David Bremner

Contemporary Music from Ireland, Volume 2

Variations upon ‘the usual reason’ [4:40]

David Bremner

L’Air Du Temps

Amhrán na Leabhar [2:49]

Various Electroacoustic Music (Special Podcast) May 26, 2015

Show notes

Hear electroacoustic music by Dublin-based Seán Mac Erlaine and Australian-born, London-based Leah Kardos. Plus, music from NY-based GABI, cellist Julia Kent, and Bing & Ruth.

With Missy Mazzoli (Special Podcast) May 12, 2015

Show notes

Composer, keyboardist and bandleader, Missy Mazzoli, joins John Schaefer to introduce selections from her new recording, “Vespers for a New Dark Age.” The work, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the 2014 Ecstatic Music Festival, is a 30-minute suite for singers, chamber ensemble and electronics, and is built around text, both spiritual and worldly, by contemporary poet Matthew Zapruder. Mazzoli wrote for the very specific voices of sopranos Martha Cluver, Melissa Hughes and alto Virginia Warnken Kelsey, who all have a lot of experience with contemporary music but also early and Baroque music. Her ensemble Victoire provides dramatic settings while drummer Glenn Kotche (perhaps best known for his work in Wilco) propels the work percussively. Plus, hear selections from Phil Kline’s millennial mass “John the Revelator,” written for the early/new music vocal group Lionheart and the quartet ETHEL.

Gamelan Plus (Special Podcast) Apr 28, 2015

Show notes

Listen to works that include gamelan, but take a more western approach for this New Sounds - like combining Celtic traditional music and Indonesian gamelan in music from Gamelan Son of Lion and composer/sax player and bagpiper Matthew Welch. In the music of Barbara Benary, the co-founder and guiding spirit of Gamelan Son of Lion, there is a juxtaposition of Cape Breton Celtic singing, gamelan and Benary herself on violin. Also, hear the Celtic-Balinese tapestry of Matthew Welch’s chamber rock hybrid Blarvuster with its Scottish bagpipes, Balinese gamelan, and Welch’s vocalizing in Indonesian. Plus, Lou Harrison’s "Threnody for Carlos Chavez," written for viola and gamelan ensemble, and music from NYC-based Patrick Grant, who serves his post-minimalism with a twist of Rock and Balinese gamelan. That, and more.

PROGRAM #3691 Gamelan Plus (First aired on 2/3/2015)

ARTIST(S)

RECORDING

CUT(S)

SOURCE

Gamelan Son of Lion

Sonogram

John Morton: She (really) Had To Go [9:23]

Innova 718 innova.mu

Patrick Grant

Patrick Grant

Fields Amaze [8:35]

Available at cdbaby.com

Gamelan Son of Lion

Sonogram

Barbara Benary: Jigalullaby [8:23]

Innova 718 innova.mu

Matthew Welch & Blarvuster

Blarvuster

Canntaireachd Masolah I [6:23]

Tzadik 8077 tzadik.com

Lou Harrison

Drums Along The Pacific

Threnody for Carlos Chavez [8:00]

New Albion #122 Out of print, but available as a download via Amazon

Bill Alves (performed by Susan Jensen, violin; The HMC American Gamelan)

Mystic Canyon

Mystic Canyon for Violin and Gamelan [5:20]

MicroFest Records Amazon

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