Tag Archives: modernism

Natural Information Society’s Since Time Is Gravity

Posted on 11th April 2023 by Gary Whitehouse

I hadn’t experienced Natural Information Society before this release, but Since Time Is Gravity is something like the seventh release by this ensemble that has been the project of composer and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams for 15 years. It shares some … Continue reading →

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Morgonrode’s Du milde verden

Posted on 12th April 2020 by Gary Whitehouse

The Norwegian alt-trad band Morgonrode has released its second album Du milde verden as a follow-up to their critically acclaimed self titled debut album from 2019. I haven’t heard that first one yet, but it received a nomination for best … Continue reading →

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Machtelinckx/Badenhorst/Cools/Gouband’s Porous Structures

Posted on 21st January 2020 by Gary Whitehouse

Porous structures was the third part of a 2019 triptych for Belgian multi-instrumentalist and avant garde composer Ruben Machtelinckx. First came the debut album of Poor Isa, his duo with his countryman Frederik Leroux, who also plays guitar, banjo and … Continue reading →

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Nous’s Nous II

Posted on 15th December 2019 by Gary Whitehouse

What first attracted me to this recording was the presence of Shahzad Ismaily, the New York-based multi-instrumentalist whose playing, composing and arranging skills have made him a valued contributer to projects by so many musicians it’s impossible to list them … Continue reading →

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Olivier Greif’s Sonate de Requiem, Trio avec piano

Posted on 7th July 2018 by Robert

Olivier Greif was one of those musicians: he entered the Paris Conservatory at age ten, and in 1967, at the age of seventeen, won the first prize for composition. The bulk of his output is chamber music, largely sonatas for … Continue reading →

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Nona Hendryx and Gary Lucas’s The World of Captain Beefheart

Posted on 19th January 2018 by Gary Whitehouse

It’s pretty audacious to record an album of Captain Beefheart’s music, but apparently guitarist Gary Lucas is that kind of guy. He comes by it honestly, though. He played in a late incarnation of Beefheart’s Magic Band in the 1980s, … Continue reading →

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Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116; Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz. 110; Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz. 74

Posted on 12th August 2017 by Robert

If you’ve been following our explorations of twentieth-century Western music, you already know a bit about Béla Bartók, one of the century’s most singular and prodigious talents. “Prodigious” because his career spanned the first half of the century, from the … Continue reading →

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Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Op. 47, Chamber Symphony for String Orchestra, Op. 110a

Posted on 4th August 2017 by Robert

When I was first making my acquaintance with the range of the twentieth-century “classical” canon, the Shostakovich Fifth was the penultimate achievement of Soviet music. Shostakovich, although a loyal Soviet citizen, was also an artist, which is a breed not … Continue reading →

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Leon Fleisher’s American Album: Aaron Copland, Piano Sonata; Roger Sessions, From My Diary; Leon Kirchner, Piano Sonata; Ned Rorem, Three Barcarolles

Posted on 4th August 2017 by Robert

American music of the twentieth century, at least that variety that styles itself “serious” music, is inhabited by a range of highly independent composers. One of its most notable aspects, in fact, is its resistance to “schools” outside of the … Continue reading →

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Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote, Sonata for Cello and Piano; Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 18; George Enescu’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 25

Posted on 3rd August 2017 by Robert

Richard Strauss, to me, is one of those protean composers who developed in the artistic ferment of Europe that stretched from the 1890s to the years encompassing World War I. He was, at least as much as any of his … Continue reading →

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