Joseph Sannicandro
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OLD & NEW DREAMS
This episode of Sound Propositions features scholars Kerry O’Brien and Will Robin, editors of the recent anthology On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement. Described as a historical source reader, the book compiles over 100 primary sources retelling the story of minimalist music from the 1950s to the present. Sources include liner notes, interviews, journalism, manifestos, and other material organized chronologically…
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Peepers
Polar Bear is a London-based quintet led by the Scottish percussionist and composer Sebastian Rochford. Many of the best composers are often percussionists, and Rochford is in good company in joining many of my favorite bandleaders and composers: Steve Reich, Sasu Ripatti, Art Blakey. Something about filling the role of the drummer gives one a…
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INDISCREET MUSIC
Patrick Nickleson is the author of The Names of Minimalism: Authorship, Art, Music, and Historiography in Dispute, an academic study that radically reconsiders the origins and boundaries of musical minimalism. Uninterested in searching for the earliest work of musical minimalism, or even in doing the admittedly necessary work of expanding the canon to include lesser known but equally…
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FREE TIME
Andrea Belfi discusses his latest album, Eternally Frozen, a canon-based composition for percussion, electronics, and brass ensemble. Inspired by a visit to LA’s Museum of Jurassic Technology, Belfi draws upon the story of Deprong Mori, a mythological bat that could use its powers of echolocation to phase through solid matter, before being captured by an American researcher,…
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Transmissions From The Radio Midnight
Aki Onda ~ Transmissions From The Radio Midnight After acquiring a portable tape recorder with a built-in radio in 2006, Aki Onda’s cassette memory archive gained a new category. Thereafter he made a ritual of listening to the radio late at night whenever he was traveling, capturing interesting moments on tape, especially those where he was…
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We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
On the last verse of “As the Crow Flies,” the final track on billy woods and Kenny Segal’s Maps, released earlier in 2023, woods rhymes: I’m in the park with the baby on the swings When it hits me crazy, anything at all could happen to him It isn’t long until those thoughts about his child turn back towards himself,…
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Demain, dès l’aube
From Overseas & zakè ~ Demain, dès l’aube On the final day of my first trip abroad, I hiked to the top of the hill above the small Italian village I’d been staying in for the previous month in order to watch the sunrise. I had promised myself I would do this before returning home, so…
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A Sorrow Unrequited
Frizzell & Duque ~ A Sorrow Unrequited A Sorrow Unrequited is a short but gorgeous collaboration between Frizzell & Duque, comprised of five minimalist explorations of high-fidelity sound. Each piece begins with the statement of a simple melody, which repeats throughout as additional layers accumulate, slowly teasing out new melodies. Rather than linger in the imperfections of…
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Soft Octaves
James Bernard & anthéne ~ Soft Octaves In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent Van Gogh writes of “colors, which are heightened by being juxtaposed,” yet “will destroy one another by being mixed.” When mixed, such colors produce a sad gray, but in the right proportions can produce what he calls a broken tone. And…
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eve
zakè & Benoît Pioulard ~ eve While I’m not exactly what you’d call a “believer,” let alone a practicing anything, I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, and like many Americans I have many positive associations with Christmastime. I’ve always especially loved Christmas Eve: The Feast of the Seven Fishes, Midnight Mass, and the general…
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Vodacom Superstars – Akon goes to the Congo
Given that Congo is back in the news, I’m reposting this piece I wrote for SSG Music in 2011, which I noticed is no longer available online. In my contemporaneous post on this blog “Congo, Coltan, and Colonialism,” I provide some more historical and political context that didn’t fit into this piece. Congo has been…
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COMPILATION ALBUMS
My ten contributions to ACL’s 40 Best Compilation Albums (part one, part two) Angola Soundtrack – The Unique Sound Of Luanda 1968-1976 (Analog Africa, 2010) A friend passed me the three-volume Buda Musique compilations a few years before this came out, igniting a deep love for Angolan music. While I had some grounding in Brazilian music…
Sound Propositions 