Useless Sounds is a series I began in January 2019 to share unprocessed field-recordings. Stefan Christoff encouraged me to make my recordings public more often, rather than just accumulating in my archive or waiting for potential inclusion in a hypothetical future project. Recorded Security is the latest installment. Ever wondered what the inside the…
Leland Jackson has spent the last decade juggling two monikers, but there are many more than two sides to his music. Jackson grew up in Japan, where his father was stationed in the Air Force, before moving back to the States. He hooked up with the Chocolate Milk collective in Richmond, Virginia, later relocating to…
M. Sage ~ Data in the Details Regular readers of ACL might remember this excellent mix from last year, Half-Speed Flourish by Matthew Sage. He played back old orchestral LPs at 16rpm, recording the result and mixing them together, giving us a window into his creative process and a closer look at the kinds of raw material…
Sam Galloway and I co-wrote an article entitled “Queer Noise: Sounding the Body of Historical Trauma,” which was including in the collection Towards Gender Equality in the Music Industry: Education, Practice and Strategies for Change, edited by Sarah Raine and Catherine Strong. (Bloomsbury, 2019) “Sannicandro and Galloway uncover a fascinating aspect of the history of…
Originally published at SSG Music Marion Lefebvre/Courtesy of the artist While in Paris during the summer of 2011, I was lucky to receive a generous invitation from the InFiné label to attend a small showcase by Pedro Soler & Gaspar Claus. The label that specializes in “easy music for the hard to please” has…
This post collects two previews written for Cult MTL. In honor of their upcoming 20th anniversary, I’ll be publishing a long overdue encomium to Suoni and to the Montreal experiment music community more broadly. Suoni 2015 The word “radical” literally refers to a search for roots, and so it is fitting that Montreal’s self-proclaimed festival…
Originally published at The Silent Ballet Heima The music of Sigur Rós has a way of impressing melancholy and hopefulness at the same time. Their music is awfully powerful, and, though the live recordings are flawless and the performances stellar, there is no substitute for actually being-there. Unlike any other “concert,” a Sigur Rós performance…
Originally published at The Silent Ballet. In the years since his debut, Colin Stetson has gone on to critical acclaim that I would have found hard to anticipate for such a singular style of solo saxophone. He’s collaborated with Laurie Anderson and Bon Iver, with his wife Sarah Neufeld, and in recent years done an…
This is a compendium gathering posts originally published at A CLOSER LISTEN Old Bicycle Records ceased operations in 2016 (with the exception of a joint-released split digital release which was delayed until 2018). From 2011-2016, label boss Vasco Viviani released some truly excellent and eclectic music from Sparkle in Grey, Harshcore, Futeisha, Stefano de Ponti,…
Interview: Linear Obsessional’s Richard Sanderson on ‘For Syria’ Since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, the Middle East seems to have been unable to regain any sense of stability. Internal conflicts, imposed borders, powerful oligarchs and outside interventions have resulted in a complex web of human suffering with no end…
Stefan Christoff and I released Temps de Travail, Syncopé, our second tape together, around this time last year. The.release show was held at the Moon Villain loft in Boston, on 7 December 2018. I had been in Napoli for the prior few months. and came up to Boston from NY, before heading to Montreal for…