Flotation Device salutes Alban Berg’s game-changing opera Wozzeck on its 100th anniversary, sampling it in English and German versions, and marveling at dramatically it expanded the harmonic and dramatic range of the artform. We hear its echoes in Mary Kouyoumdjian's operatic adaptation of Atom Egoyan's film Adoration, which like Wozzeck suggests that moral judgments are seldom as straightforward as we’d like them to be. We also sample Meredith Monk’s new (and largely un-texted) vocal album Cellular Songs, and Frederic Rzewski’s Nanosonatas for piano in their premiere recording. Jacob Garchik doubles down on the triple-guitar format, while Matt Choboter highlights microtonal prepared pianos. Cenk Ergün offers avant-EDM, Mako Sica combines East and West, and John Zorn presents his sax-less Chaos Magick quartet. John Luther Adams' choral reworking of his landmark piece Earth and the Great Weather rounds out the playlist. Creative and improvised music with host Michael Schell.
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Flotation Device 2025-12-14: Annotated playlist by host Michael Schell (PART ONE)
Intro and SET 1: New and notable [0:00]
1. [1:40] Jacob Garchik: Ye Olde vs Simulacrus. From Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time (Yesterserve, 2025) with Ye Olde: Jacob Garchik (trombone), Brandon Seabrook, Mary Halvorson, Jonathan Goldberger (guitars), Vinnie Sperrazza (drums), Simulacrus: Jacob Garchik (trombone), Ava Mendoza, Sean Moran, Miles Okazaki (guitars), Josh Dion (drums), Daniel James Goodwin (recording engineer, Bunker Studio)
2. [7:56] Matt Choboter: Ecstatic Trance. From Nagual (Kairos, 2025) with Juniper Fuse: Lotte Anker (soprano saxophone), Matt Choboter, Simon Toldam (prepared microtonal pianos), Peter Bruun, Matias Escudero Seibæk (percussion), Simon Mariegaard (recording engineer)
3. [16:04] Meredith Monk: Nyems. From Cellular Songs (ECM, 2025) with Meredith Monk, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Allison Sniffin, Joanna Lynn-Jacobs (voices), Kevin Killen, Eli Walker (recording engineers)
SET 2: Nanoopera [25:27]
1. [29:20] Frederic Rzewski: Nanosonata Nos. 1 and 17. From Nanosonatas (Passacaille, 2025) with Daan Vandewalle (piano), Yannick Willox (recording engineer, Acoustic Recording Service). NOTE: Composed 2006–10, premiere recording
2. [33:34] Mary Kouyoumdjian: Adoration (excerpts). From Adoration (Bright Shiny Things, 2025) with Sabine: Miriam Khalil, Simon: Omar Najmi, Tom: David Adam Moore, Rachel: Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Sami: Karim Sulayman, Morris: Marc Kudisch, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Silvana Quartet: Courtney Orlando, Nicole Sharlow (violins), Gillian Gallagher (viola), Maria Bella Jeffers (cello), Alan Pierson (music direction), Daniel Neumann (recording engineer)
3. [59:12] Outro with Adoration: Prologue
4. [1:02:25] Cenk Ergün: One Pair of Pants. From Patient's Belongings (Bandcamp, 2025) with Cenk Ergün (analog synths, FX pedals)
Flotation Device 2025-12-14: Annotated playlist by host Michael Schell (PART TWO)
SET 3: Music of the supernatural [1:06:54]
1. [1:08:00] Mako Sica, Hamid Drake: Ourania. From Ourania (Instant Classic, Feeding Tube, 2021) with Hamid Drake (drum set, percussion, frame drum, water phone), Tatsu Aoki (shamisen, upright bass), Thymme Jones (piano, trumpet, organ, balloon, voice, timpani), Mako Sica: Przemyslaw Krys Drazek (trumpet, mandolin, electric guitar), Brent Fuscaldo (vocals, electric bass, harmonica, thumb piano, gong, percussion), Taylor Hayes (recording engineer)
2. [1:18:09] John Zorn: Nine Secret Crossings to the Eternal Repetitions of Existence (excerpts). From Through The Looking Glass (Tzadik, 2025) with Chaos Magick: John Medeski (organ), Brian Marsella (electric piano), Matt Hollenberg (electric guitar), Kenny Grohowski (drums, percussion, congas), Duff Harris (recording engineer, Eastside Sound)
3. [1:22:04] John Luther Adams: Arctic Dreams - The Circle of Suns and Moons. From Arctic Dreams (Cold Blue, 2021) with Synergy Vocals, Robin Lorentz (violin), Ron Lawrence (viola), Michael Finckel (cello), Robert Black (double bass). NOTE: String parts originally from Earth and the Great Weather (1993)
SET 4: Wozzeck at 100 (with Wozzeck, Act III, Scene 3, Pierre Boulez) [1:29:52]
1. [1:35:03] Alban Berg: Wozzeck (excerpts). From Wozzeck, Opera in English (Chandos, 2003) with Wozzeck: Andrew Shore (baritone), Marie: Josephine Barstow (soprano), Captain: Stuart Kale (tenor), Margret: Jean Rigby (mezzo-soprano), Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Susan Singh Choristers, Philharmonia Orchestra, Paul Daniel (conductor), Ralph Couzens (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 1914–22, premiered December 14, 1925 at Berlin State Opera
2. [1:56:01] Outro with Alban Berg: Lulu (conclusion)
Photo credits: Frederic Rzewski by Lynn Garon, Ye Olde plus Simulacrus (Miles Okazaki, Josh Dion, Mary Halvorson, Ava Mendoza, Sean Moran, Jacob Garchik, Vinnie Sperrazza, Brandon Seabrook, Jonathan Goldberger) by Ernest Stuart, Elisabeth Steiner and Toni Blankenheim in Wozzeck (Staatsoper Hamburg 1970), Cenk Ergün via the artist, Adoration (Marc Kudisch, Naomi Louisa O'Connell, Omar Najmi) by Maria Baranova, Matt Choboter by Krestine Havemann, Chaos Magick (Brian Marsella, Matt Hollenberg, John Medeski, Kenny Grohowski) via Roulette Intermedium, Mako Sica (Przemyslaw Krzysztof Drazek, Hamid Drake, Tatsu Aoki, Brent Fuscaldo, Thymme Jones) by Taylor Hales, Meredith Monk by Julieta Cervantes.
Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice