Anna Webber joins host Michael Schell to chat about her new Idiom album, featuring her Simple Trio and Large Ensemble performing elaborate improvisational compositions based on a variety of extended woodwind techniques. Plus, we continue our survey of Anthony Braxton's two new box sets, one devoted to his newfangled ZIM compositions, the other to standards and pop tunes. Our "50 years ago in the avant-garde" feature chimes in with an astringent classic by Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali, while we honor Arne Nordheim on what would have been his 90th birthday by juxtaposing a major electroacoustic work of his with Sam Dunscombe’s new Nordheim-influenced fixed-media meditation on fractured memories of an abandoned Mojave Desert town. A peek at Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s newest album, plus a couple of new tracks by Broken Thoughts and the duo of Clara de Asís and Mara Winter round out the playlist. Creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world.
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Flotation Device 2021-06-20: annotated playlist by host Michael Schell
Intro and SET 1: New tracks [0:00]
1. [1:19] Anna Webber: Idiom III. From Idiom (Pi, 2021) with Anna Webber Simple Trio: Anna Webber (tenor saxophone, flute), Matt Mitchell (piano), John Hollenbeck (drums)
2. [11:17] Francisco Coll: Iberian Miniature No. 3. From Violin Concerto et al (Pentatone, 2021) with Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Gustavo Gimeno (conductor), Kees de Visser (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2014
3. [15:05] Clara de Asís, Mara Winter: Repetition of the Same Dream. From Repetition of the Same Dream (Another Timbre, 2020) with Clara de Asís (bowed objects, percussion, electronics), Mara Winter (medieval and Renaissance flutes)
4. [17:33] Broken Thoughts: vaguely remembered. From Anthology of Experimental Music from China (Unexplained Sounds, 2021) with Keju Luo 罗可居 AKA Broken Thoughts
5. [19:56] Anna Webber: Idiom VI - Movement I. From Idiom (as above) with Anna Webber Large Ensemble: Anna Webber (tenor saxophone, flute, bass flute), Nathaniel Morgan (alto saxophone), Yuma Uesaka (tenor saxophone, clarinet, contra-alto clarinet), Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), David Byrd-Marrow (horn), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Erica Dicker (violin), Joanna Mattrey (viola), Mariel Roberts (cello), Liz Kosack (synthesizer), Nick Dunston (bass), Satoshi Takeishi (drums), Eric Wubbels (conductor)⠀
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SET 2: Anna Webber interviewed [28:37]
1. [31:33] Anna Webber in conversation with Michael Schell
2. [42:23] Anna Webber: Idiom VI - Movement V (excerpts). From Idiom (as above) with Anna Webber Large Ensemble (as above)
3. [47:19] Anna Webber: Idiom VI - Interlude 4, Movement VI. From Idiom (as above) with Anna Webber Large Ensemble (as above)
4. [56:53] Outro with Anna Webber: Idiom VI - Interlude 1⠀
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SET 3: Braxton at 76 [59:37]
1. [1:00:20] Anthony Braxton Quartet: Alfie. From Quartet (Standards) 2020 (New Braxton House, 2021) with Anthony Braxton (saxophones), Alexander Hawkins (piano), Neil Charles (bass), Stephen Davis (drums), Jon Rosenberg (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed by Burt Bacharach. Recorded January 2020 in Europe. See Braxton's recent interview at https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/2021-anthony-braxton-interview-12-comp-zim-quartet-standards
2. [1:04:38] Alice Coltrane: Battle at Armageddon. From Universal Consciousness (Impulse!, 1971) with Alice Coltrane (organ), Rashied Ali (drums). NOTE: Recorded June 19, 1971, New York
3. [1:11:57] Anthony Braxton: Composition 408 (excerpts). From 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 (Firehouse 12, 2021) with Anthony Braxton (reeds), Taylor Ho Bynum (brass), Dan Peck (tuba), Jacqui Kerrod, Shelley Burgon (harps), Tomeka Reid (cello), Adam Matlock (accordion, aerophones), Nick Lloyd (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded April 29, 2017 at Firehouse 12, New Haven⠀
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SET 4: Modern myths [1:24:56]
1. [1:29:22] Arne Nordheim: Warszawa. From Electric (Norsk Komponistforening, 1974, reissued 1998 by Rune Grammofon). NOTE: Premiered May 28, 1968 at the Bergen International Festival
2. [1:40:55] Sam Dunscombe: Outside Ludlow. From Outside Ludlow/Desert Disco (Black Truffle, 2021)
Outro 2 with Arne Nordheim: Response [1:57:15]
Photo credits: Keju Luo/Broken Thoughts via the artist, Anna Webber by Evan Shay, Alice Coltrane via the artist, Anna Webber Simple Trio by Liz Kosack, Mara Winter and Clara de Asís via Another Timbre, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Francisco Coll by Lukas Fierz, Anthony Braxton by Edu Hawkins, Arne Nordheim by Eirik Sundvor.