Join us as we hear Ken Vandermark and Don Cherry injecting analog synthesizers into free jazz via two just-released live recordings (Cherry’s reclaimed after 45 years buried in a vault). Plus the 50th anniversary of Cherry’s Relativity Suite album (starring Carla Bley) and Pierre Henry’s brainwave-driven contributions to an odd spectacle featuring dance, electronic music and cybernetic sculptures.
We celebrate John Corigliano’s 85th birthday with a little-known work that places him squarely in the Ives lineage, while double bass evangelist Bert Turetzky gets some 90th birthday love through one of his signature solo pieces. And we check out the latest recorded works by Salvatore Sciarrino, Christopher Fox, Anthony Cheung and Osvaldo Golijov (the latter channeling Schubert), plus new improv from Timuçin Şahin’s Flow State and the Timothy Daisy/Erez Dessel duo, as well as new fixed-media works by Perila and Langham Research Centre. Creative and improvised music with host Michael Schell.
Global chart history
Top position held by this upload
Comments
Flotation Device 2023-02-12: Annotated playlist by host Michael Schell
Intro and SET 1: Cyberfunk for Bird [0:00]
1. [1:46] Timuçin Şahin: Bird Watchers. From Funk Poems for Bird (New Focus/Kalan Müzik, 2022) with Flow State: Timuçin Şahin (7 string fretless, 6-string fretted and baritone guitars), Cory Smythe (piano), Reggie Washington (bass), Sean Rickman (drums), Alp Turaç, Sinan Sakızlı (recording engineers). NOTE: Recorded January 2020 at Hayyam Studios, Istanbul
2. [7:51] Pierre Henry: Facettes. From Prismes (Philips, 1973, reissued 2011 by Creel Pone) with Pierre Henry (music), Roger Lafosse (Corticalart), Bernard Bonnier (musical collaboration). NOTE: Prismes is described as a "concert suite after KYLDEX I"
3. [9:04] Pierre Henry: Kyldex - 4. Crescendo. From Polyphonies (Decca, 2017). NOTE: KYLDEX I, a "dynamic and cybernetic space-light show by Nicolas Schöffer, Pierre Henry and Alwin Nikolais" was premiered February 9, 1973 at Hamburg Opera. NOTE: See video at https://vimeo.com/467484882
4. [12:20] Ken Vandermark et al: Aspect Ratio. From Soundbridges (jazzwerkstatt, 2022) with Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone), Matthias Muche (trombone), Thomas Lehn (analog synthesizer), Martin Blume (drums, percussion), Christian Heck (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded live September 24, 2021 at Ruhr Jazz Festival, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany
5. [20:16] Ken Vandermark et al: The Thirty-Nine Steps. From Soundbridges (credits as above)⠀
⠀
SET 2: Corigliano at 85, Turetzky at 90 [25:40]
1. [29:17] Tim Daisy, Erez Dessel: Boiled Down. From Open Spiral (Relay, 2023) with Erez Dessel (piano), Tim Daisy (drums), Ralph Loza (recording engineer)
2. [32:29] Anthony Cheung: A line can go anywhere - Woven Wire, Homage to Ruth Asawa. From Music For Film, Sculpture, and Captions (Kairos, 2022) with Ueli Wiget (piano), Ensemble Modern, Franck Ollu (conductor), Robin Bös (recording engineer)
3. [38:12] Christopher Fox: Song (24.iv.1916). From Trostlieder (Kairos, 2022) with Exaudi Vocal Ensemble, James Weeks (director), Dave Rowell (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2015
4. [43:18] John Corigliano: Chiaroscuro. From Multiplicities: '38 - Music By Composers Born In 1938 (Centaur, 2008) with Blair McMillen, Sachiko Kato (two pianos tuned ¼ tone apart), Joseph Patrych, Judith Sherman (recording engineers). NOTE: Composed 1997
5. [53:56] Outro with Charles Ives: Three Quarter-tone Pieces for two pianos
6. [58:29] Tom Johnson: Failing. From A Different View (Smithsonian Folkways, 1981) with Bertram Turetzky (double bass), Terry A. Setter (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 1975⠀
⠀
SET 3: Don Cherry back from oblivion [1:05:59]
1. [1:08:53] Don Cherry, Jean Schwarz: Whistles, Theme 1, Bando. From Roundtrip (Transversales Disques, 2023) with Don Cherry (pocket trumpet, vocals, doussn' gouni, whistles), Jean Schwarz (tape, synthesizers, treatments), Michel Portal (saxophone, bass clarinet, bandonéon), Jean-François Jenny-Clark (bass), Naná Vasconcelos (percussions). NOTE: Recorded live February 12, 1977 at G.R.M. Festival MIX "Musique, Image, eXpérience", Théâtre Récamier, Paris (curated by François Bayle)
2. [1:22:36] Don Cherry: Infinite Gentleness. From Relativity Suite (JCOA, 1973) with Don Cherry (conductor), Jazz Composer's Orchestra: Carla Bley (piano), Leroy Jenkins (violin), Joan Katisch, Nan Newton (violas), Pat Dixon, Jane Robertson (cellos), Charlie Haden (bass), Eddie Korvin (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded February 14, 1973, Blue Rock Studio, New York⠀
⠀
SET 4: Chill music for the open-eared [1:25:58]
1. [1:28:36] Langham Research Centre, John Butcher: Everything is Immanent. From Six Hands at an Open Door (Persistence of Sound, 2023) with John Butcher (soprano saxophone), Langham Research Center: Iain Chambers, Robert Worby (electronic sounds)
2. [1:30:50] Perila: Cradle. From How much time it is between you and me? (Smalltown Supersound, 2021) with Aleksandra Zakharenko AKA Perila
3. [1:35:36] Salvatore Sciarrino: Alba meònia. From Chamber Music (Brilliant Classics, 2023) with Ensemble Opificio Sonoro: Andrea Biagini (flute), Sara Mazzarotto (violin), Francesco Palmieri (guitar). NOTE: Composed 2020
4. [1:46:31] Osvaldo Golijov: Um Dia Bom - 3. Arum Dem Fayer, 4. Cavalgando Com a Morte. From The Wanderer (In a Circle, 2023) with Brooklyn Rider: Johnny Gandelsman, Colin Jacobsen (violins), Nicholas Cords (viola), Michael Nicolas (cello), Vilius Keras (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2021
5. [1:54:34] Outro with Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 (Death and the Maiden)
Photo credits: Aleksandra Zakharenko AKA Perila by Marissa Patrice Leitman, GRM Festival 1977 (Naná Vasconcelos, Don Cherry, Michel Portal) by Christian Rose, Flow State (Reggie Washington, Cory Smythe, Sean Rickman, Timuçin Şahin) by Turgay Yalçın, Christopher Fox via the artist, Osvaldo Golijov by Stephanie Berger, John Corigliano by J. Henry Fair, Carla Bley by Bill Roughan, Bertram Turetzky via UCSD School of Music, Salvatore Sciarrino via Kairos Records, Anthony Cheung by Ben Gebo, Ken Vandermark by Maarten Kerkhof, Pierre Henry and Nicolas Schöffer via Wilhelm G. Bohnes/Hamburgische Staatsoper, Langham Research Centre via the artists, Franz Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder.