Misc. Music Writing
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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…
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BOOKS ON MUSIC
My ten contributions to ACL’s 40 Best Books on Music (part one, part two) Derek Bailey ~ Improvisation: Its Nature And Practice In Music (Da Capo, 1980/1993) English guitarist Derek Bailey endures as a central figure in improvised music nearly two decades after his death, and likewise his short book on the subject remains essential reading.…
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ACL 2022: Sound Propositions
Every time I’ve tried to sit down and write my end of year column I’ve found myself trying to write a full review for each record on my list. And that’s basically what the following lists are; records I would have written about if I had the time (or if someone were paying me). But…
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From the Cistern
Reverb. Love it or hate it, its use has become ubiquitous since at least the advent of the bedroom studio. Digital modeling more often than not replaces natural reverb these days, and even spring reverbs and make-shift creative solutions of the past (eg. Butch Vig’s drum-tunnel as heard on Nirvana’s Nevermind) have become either fetishized or,…
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BOB OSTERTAG ~ MOTORMOUTH
Originally posted on SSGmusic, September 22, 2011 Bob Ostertag has self-released Motormouth, an album made entirely with a Buchla 200e synthesizer. You can download it for free at his site, along with much of his 30+ years of back catalog. Ostertag, a sound artist, composer, journalist, and professor currently based in San Francisco, dropped out…
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Americans in Rome
AMERICANS IN ROME Musica Elettronica Viva’s Trastevere Commune by Valerio Mattioli from Superonda: Storia Segrete della Musica Italiana (2016), pp 182-202 Translated by Joseph Sannicandro Trastevere, as the name suggests, is the Roman neighborhood that is “on the other side of the [river] Tevere”, that is, on the opposite bank from the heart of the…
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Dropping Out Into Music: The Audience as Orchestra
Dropping Out Into Music: The Audience as Orchestra Edith Schloss The Village Voice (August 7, 1969), Pg. 27. Rome – On the left it said “messieurs” and on the right it said “dames.” It was in the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in May. The tall tiled room next to the toilets reverberated to…
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Black Swan ~ Repetition Hymns
Past Inside The Present is pleased to announce Repetition Hymns, a double album from the enigmatic Black Swan. Comprised of 19 vignettes, the relatively short tracks impart a strong forward momentum despite the 80-minute runtime. Repetition Hymns is thus particularly well-suited to the temporal distortion of quarantine, in which each day feels like an endless…
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108 Capsules
108 capsule reviews written between 2012 and 2020 Matteo Uggeri | Luca Mauri | Francesco Giannico ~ Pagetos (Boring Machines) The long-awaited final chapter in the Between the Elements quadrilogy didn’t disappoint. Together the four releases cover a wide spectrum of experimentation and aesthetic forms. The first three installments – the sparse desert drone of Erimos, the slowly unfolding melodies of Nefoldhis, and the electroacoustic…
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Jon Hassell ~ Seeing Through Sound
You don’t hear too many octogenarian trumpet players. The horn is a cruel instrument, in that embouchure collapse cuts many brass players’ careers short. (A good friend of mine was disappointed many a time by Freddie Hubbard cancelling a gig at the last minute.) So as the years passed following the release of Jon Hassell‘s…
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M. Sage ~ Data in the Details / Half-Speed Flourish
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…
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Queer Noise
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…
Sound Propositions 