With 'Off the Record', McCraven transforms fully improvised concerts from underground Chicago venues and New York jazz clubs into a four-EP meditation on what it means to share space, take risks, and participate in the unrepeatable.
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After two decades together, Miguel Zenón's quartet documents their chemistry on 'Vanguardia Subterránea,' a live recording from the Village Vanguard that brings together family tributes, geographical coordinates, and the deep musical connection between New York and Puerto Rico.
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From the Fairlight CMI to the 1940s Ondioline, Erika Dohi built her sophomore album using rare instruments with distinct personalities, astrology as a compositional framework, and meditation practices that confronted loneliness.
Byrne's Seattle show pairs Talking Heads paranoia with newer material about love as punk resistance. In Lawrence Peryer's review of the performance, he recognizes the destination without possessing the map to get there.
Robert Callender's debut 'Rainbow' merged jazz, poetry, and Indian classical music in 1968, then largely disappeared. Archivist Chaim O'Brien-Blumenthal explains how a 2023 concert recording became the start of the artist's rediscovery.
Brendan Wright reflects on learning to share creative control, the liberating chaos of DIY touring, and how 'Troubadour' bottles up a moment when relationships shifted and the world felt like it was falling apart.
As New England Conservatory celebrates what would have been Gunther Schuller's 100th birthday, three musicians who knew him discuss the work ethic, institutional courage, and polyglot vision that made teaching ragtime next to European harmony seem natural rather than radical.
Examining Tim Harrison's 'A Strange Loop' alongside William Basinski's 'The Disintegration Loops,' George Grella finds complementary visions of how loop music engages the universe's inexorable movement from order to chaos.
The bassist discusses her album 'Strange Heavens,' a chordless trio recording with Ambrose Akinmusire and Tyshawn Sorey that explores anxiety, release, and the human tendency to choose familiar comfort over unknown possibility.
The Dublin-based songwriter reflects on her debut 'Window in the Woods,' a record that moves between lament and possibility through piano, layered strings, and seascapes recorded off Ireland's west coast.
The Fayetteville singer-songwriter discusses his solo album 'Refugia Blues,' his path from punk rock to the music his grandparents sang, and the resistance embedded in Southern Gospel and string band music.
Music writer Bill Kopp's new book 'What's the Big Idea' examines 30 concept albums across six decades, from Frank Zappa to Apples In Stereo, William Shatner to Ghostface Killah, arguing that the format remains vital in an era of streaming and shortened attention spans.
The Antibalas and Here Lies Man drummer spent decades avoiding his father Herbie Mann's music, but a 50th anniversary and a new arrangement of 'Memphis Underground' gave him an unexpected way to reconnect with a relationship that ended 22 years ago.
The experimental cellist discusses her ambient album 'Just Like Any Other Day (어느날): Background Music For Your Mundane Activities', a four-year project born from isolation that turned memories of Korean cinema and cheap-sounding synthesizers into companionship for daily living.
Anthony David Vernon argues that vinyl, cassettes, and MP3 players offer more than nostalgia—they present a temporary masculinity alien to traditional gender binaries, one where tactile engagement with sound refuses to belong to any single expression.
The legendary On-U Sound producer discusses 'The Collapse of Everything,' his first solo album in thirteen years, and why treating the mixing desk as a live instrument remains his most radical act.
Five years and 21 songs into 'Highwalllow & Supermoon Songs,' Zac Little unveils an album that mirrors the cycle of a planetary system, its melodies pulled into orbit around a central landscape.
In response to society's struggles in an era of manipulated information, Bertucci's 'The Oracle' uses vocal processing and mythological references to examine how clarity has become a luxury in contemporary communication.
In his 1959 comedy 'Good Morning,' Ozu captures the precise moment when Japanese families confronted their first screens, revealing how the promises of connection through technology often deliver isolation instead.
The Australian trumpeter discusses 'Ŋurru Wäŋa', the concept of raki that underpins his quintet's practice, and what he learned from his musical relationship with Wágilak song keepers Daniel and David Wilfred.
The Oregon-based emcee's latest album, 'Shadows 2: The End We Cannot Unknow,' marks a departure from occult histories and ancient grimoires, turning instead toward depression, grief, and the intergenerational pain of being a Black man in America.
The British-American songwriter discusses her debut record 'Future Perfect', how years of bedroom recording became a lifeline during a draining day job, and why she measures music by emotional resonance rather than technical perfection.
Composer Ted Hearne and the choral group The Crossing turn colonial documents and corporate tweets into techno-pop oratorio, drawing a line from William Penn's land grabs to Jeff Bezos's gig economy.
David Grubbs, Wendy Eisenberg, and Kramer's 'Skantagio' captures three acclaimed musos improvising with electric guitars in real time. The trio discusses friendship within the creative process, the value of getting lost, and the art of protesting quietly.
The founding member of Kronos Quartet discusses the origins of "Hard Rain," a reimagining of Dylan's nuclear anthem that unites nearly fifty artists across generations and continents, and reflects on five decades of using the string quartet to address the crises that define our moment.
The visual designer and composer behind 'Monologue' explains why they're moving toward greater compositional control, how cassette decks remind them that sound is physical, and what's missing in ambient music right now.
Dylan Henner's 'Star Dream FM' invents a radio station broadcasting adolescent memories, tracing a line between Palestrina and tape decks, field recordings and false nostalgia, and landing somewhere he describes as "shimmery."
The Canadian composers discuss 'Dreaming In Gamelan,' an album twenty-five years in the making that honors West Javanese traditions while exploring ambient textures, electronic processing, and the emotional ambiguity of hand-forged bronze instruments.
Chris Hemer and Sam Mishos discuss their latest release, 'Mountains Turned to Dust,' how revisionist westerns and Willie Dunn's counter-narratives inform their music, and why they remain committed to the album as an organizing principle.
Ten years after 'The New Breed' merged his love of J Dilla with his background in jazz composition, the Tortoise guitarist discusses mentorship, the practical realities of a music career, and why he makes the records he wants to hear.
The banjoist discusses his three-year recording process, the Pacific Northwest landscapes that still inform his writing, and why assembling players like Sam Bush, Darol Anger, and Bryan Sutton meant working with musicians who make him play his best.
Flaming Lips members Tommy McKenzie and Matt Kirksey spent fifteen years building the trust required to make '39 Lightyears from Heaven,' a trip-hop-influenced debut that refuses to let ego dictate the creative process.
The Toronto saxophonist spent five years unlearning his technique, studying contemporary dance, and writing music for Valley Voice that balances chamber precision with jazz's requirement for breathing room—all of which led to 'Stars, Engines', his debut album as band leader.
The legendary guitarist explores Shakti's unique synthesis of Western harmony and Indian improvisation, from their groundbreaking early albums to their poignant final statement honoring Zakir Hussain's musical genius.
The Paris-based organist's album 'Brace for Impact' pairs the seventy-eight-stop pipe organ at St. Antonius Church with Stephen O'Malley's metal riffs, Xenakis-inspired glissandos, and iPad-based composition software.
The Portland-based musician discusses his debut 'Beneath the Sand', recorded at a solar-powered Mojave studio where years of grief found release through bilingual songs written during motorcycle trips across Mexico and Central America.
The Norwegian sibling duo behind 'Dreams and Conjurations' discusses their Sámi roots, their growing collection of foreign instruments, and what it's like to conduct a two-hundred-dog choir in Greenland.