Category Archives: Music

Monthly Recommendations: February 2019

by Dæv Tremblay

Anna Webber – Clockwise (Pi Recordings)

Anna Webber is a New York-based woodwind player and composer. Clockwise is her latest effort, offering us an interesting, thought-provoking séance. With many rhythmic changes, contrapuntal interchanges, and a modern sense of harmony and melody, Anna Webber has crafted here a fantastic album—her sixth one—performed by a proficient septet in which she also takes part. The album is really brilliant, a must!

João MacDowell – The Seventh Seal (IBOC)

The Seventh Seal is a modern opera by Brazilian composer João MacDowell. Adapted from the Swedish movie by Ingmar Bergman Det sjunde inseglet, it is

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February in 154 Albums

by Dæv Tremblay

Friday, 1 February

Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom – Glitter Wolf (jazz fusion)

New York, New York
On Royal Potato Family

Read our review.

Astronoid – Astronoid (progressive metal)

Boston, Massachusetts
On Blood Music

Le Butcherettes – Bi Mental (garage rock)

Mexico
On Rise Records

Dopelord, Weedpecker, Major Kong, and Spaceslug [Split] (stoner metal)

Warsaw, Poland

The Emerald Dawn – Nocturne (progressive rock)

St. Ives, UK
On World’s End Records

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Miho Hazama, Fahmi Mursyid & Yuko Araki, Alexander Hawkins, Arcadia Trio, RSLG Quartet, and Anna Webber

by Dæv Tremblay

Miho Hazama – Dancer in Nowhere (Sunnyside Records)

Japanese composer Miho Hazama offers us a delightful collection of pieces on her latest album, Dancer in Nowhere. Played by the versatile and labile M Unit collective, here seventeen strong, the big band feeling is unmistakable. Miho’s compositions are modern and fresh, offering many a pleasant surprise, some of which can be heard in the preview track, “Today, Not Today”. In short, if you like what you hear, there is much, much more lying beyond the preview.

Fahmi Mursyid & Yoku Araki – Akur (Insitu Recordings)

Akur is the latest release … Read more

Marathon Devlog 1: Presets

by Dæv Tremblay

[Github Link]

I never thought I’d write a devlog someday. I feel like dishonouring the “developer” title, but for lack of a better word, I’ll use it. I’ve already announced you I began working on a Python program that could give you a MIDI that includes microrhythms. For the uninitiated, think of microrhythms, or xenorhythms, as “beats between the beats” that are practically unwritable in Western music’s notation system. However, these rhythms are quite prevalent in many different musical cultures, such as Gnawa and Brazilian Samba, and even within the fortress of Western music thanks to the Viennese Waltz.

When … Read more

Elder Ones, Tumi Árnason & Magnús Trygvason Eliassen, Aidan Baker, Faith Coloccia & Jon Mueller, Swim Team, Jitters, and Hippie Diktat

by Dæv Tremblay

Elder Ones – From Untruth (Northern Spy)

Amirth Kidambi’s avant-garde jazz ensemble Elder Ones prepared a strong sophomore to their 2016 Holy Science. From Untruth departs from the universalist theology of its predecessor and strikes in the heart of today’s issues: political division, class war, colonialism, and disinformation, while still maintaining its core musical aspects: improvisation, experimentation, and the fusion of musical traditions into a new, different entity, with the use of contemporary classical music, free jazz, and classical Indian music, for example. The album is meditative, at times shocking, and quite transcendental throughout. It comes out in late … Read more