How do you record music that can't be played on conventional instruments? For 'Loop 7,' Golub and Greyfade's Joseph Branciforte devised an ingenious solution involving a digital player piano and meticulous retuning to create the impossible.
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With a highly personal exploration of themes culminating in the album 'Starlight,' Julius Smack's multimedia approach reveals everyday technology as mundane yet otherworldly, mirroring our complex relationship with digital existence.
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Mike Baggetta's power trio mssv has perfected a unique creative process, road-testing new material across dozens of consecutive shows before capturing it on their latest album, 'On and On.' The result is a musical trip that thrives on combustion, energy, and pressure.
'The Visitation Plays' captivates with its sublime combination of meticulous programming and organic flow. Thompson discusses how everyday moments influence an electronic mixture that both welcomes and disrupts expectations.
South Korean drummer Sun-Mi Hong moved from her homeland to Amsterdam in search of artistic freedom. She found not just a vibrant jazz scene but a new identity as a performer and composer.
The acclaimed violinist and composer returns to California's Lost Coast, crafting a sprawling double album that celebrates biodiversity with help from an all-star ensemble including Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, and Nels Cline.
No algorithms, just The Tonearm's guide to six essential new releases. The Cohen family's intuitive interplay, Believers' rhythmic precision, and Quatuor Bozzini's mesmerizing interpretations demonstrate how genre constraints continue dissolving in contemporary music.
The seasoned techno producer and DJ known for electrifying international dance floors now creates burlesque circus spectacles, his innovative fusion of tubas and 808s rattling the walls of one of Seattle's most beloved theatrical institutions.
Ten conversations that transcend mere promotion to explore how creative work emerges from historical, technological, spiritual, and social contexts while building meaningful connections.
In 'Down on the Corner,' the veteran music publicist chronicles his four-decade journey from Maxwell Street to global sidewalks, revealing how spontaneous street performances shaped both his life and music history.
Colombian ten-piece La BOA used recordings from 2011 to create an innovative posthumous collaboration with Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen. Producer Daniel Michel discusses how they transformed drum tracks into a transcontinental musical conversation.
When The Undertones sang "Teenage Kicks" amid Derry's barricades, they weren't avoiding reality—they were demanding one worth living in. How the everyday yearnings of Northern Irish youth became a revolutionary statement in a world that expected them to choose sides or die trying.
Shobhakar's musical awakening began in the most unlikely circumstances — a metal kid in a Slayer t-shirt seated among India's musical elite. Now the Mumbai musician's double-neck guitar carries him from headbanging teen to microtonal master on his new album 'Liquid Reality.'
Veteran Portland musician James Cook transforms camping trips into heartfelt songs on his album 'Waiting For The Moon' and embarks on a musical quest through the wilderness with his National Tenor Resonator guitar.
That scrappy Knitting Factory on Houston Street planted seeds for two decades of tribute concerts that have raised millions for music education. Dorf's persistent courtship of Smith finally bears fruit as an inspiring lineup of performers gathers on March 26 to reinterpret her revolutionary catalog.
In advance of our live discussion and Q&A with authors Howie Singer and Bill Rosenblatt, we bring you this preview from their chapter on the vinyl revolution and how the transition from 78s to vinyl LPs dramatically changed the consumer music experience.
This week's essential listening includes a military drummer's debut, a memory-seeking Scot, an Australian trumpeter's electronic-classical fusion, and a Belgian's Vietnamese audio travelogue. Each creates its own climate regardless of the calendar.
As Sherwood returns to Dub Syndicate's multitrack tapes a decade after Scott's tragic passing, he uncovers new artifacts within familiar terrain—the resurrected albums documenting how the partnership of two sonic architects continues to cut through space and time.
On the fifth anniversary of Spotlight On, we look back at year three's most popular episodes, featuring jam band guitarist Steve Kimock, Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), jazz greats The Headhunters, and other art and culture innovators.
After decades as guitarist with Camper Van Beethoven and Monks of Doom, Lisher embraced "the beginner's mind" through piano lessons and software manuals. His latest album 'Underwater Detection Method' documents this creative rebirth.
From AI-inspired large ensembles to midnight Tokyo sessions, this week's electronic explorations chart new territories in sound, featuring fresh works by Jon Irabagon, Tim Hecker, Oksana Linde, and Benjamin Fulwood.
Operating in self-imposed exile, Colin Self turned night into studio and meditation into medium, emerging with 'r∞L4nGc'—an album that speaks in secret tongues to commune with departed souls.
The Neapolitan bassist and composer discusses how volcanic landscapes, artistic heritage, and the conscious abandonment of structure shaped his daring latest album.
The Grammy-nominated composer and New England Conservatory faculty member unites Turkish mehter bands with American jazz, revealing centuries-old connections between two musical traditions. Soon, he will present these connections on stage at Boston's Jordan Hall.
The co-founder of string quartet ETHEL discusses Carnegie Hall, Ron Carter, and why classical music needs to shed its sacred robes and return to its role as cultural glue. Her journey through New York City's musical landscape mirrors the evolution of contemporary classical music itself.
As Spotlight On marks its fifth year, we revisit 2021's remarkable guests, including James Felice (Felice Brothers), Jack Casady (Hot Tuna), and Gerald Casale (DEVO), whose stories of resilience and reinvention defined a transformative year.
On his sophomore album 'Silêncio,' the São Paulo producer decodes nature's symphonies through vintage gear and collaborates with Brazilian legend Arthur Verocai, creating a psychedelic meditation on what happens when we finally stop to listen.
The Australian guitarist and Polish percussionist reveal how their shared obsession with minimal sources and maximum sound led to 'Dog's Light,' an unorthodox album that erases the lines between composition and improvisation.
A conversation with the renowned flutist about her latest album, 'What Times Are These,' and the creative process of reimagining verses from Adrienne Rich, Tracy K. Smith, and others through contemporary jazz.
A cosmic journey through the latest, most compelling underground releases reveals unexpected collaborations and sonic discoveries, including Wolf Eyes meeting Anthony Braxton and Animal Collective's Geologist transforming Instagram clips into experimental gold.
At the five-year mark, we revisit our most-listened-to episodes from 2020, featuring Joe Satriani speaking candidly from his home studio, Jorma and Vanessa Kaukonen re-imagining music community, and eight other stories that set the blueprint for the hundreds that followed.
From her roots in country music to her embrace of avant-garde experimentation, Susan Alcorn transformed the pedal steel guitar into a voice of revolution and possibility. Her passing leaves behind a legacy that changed how we think about the instrument's role in modern music.
Most musicians choose between art and commerce, but this Swiss trumpeter refused. For six decades, Franco Ambrosetti ran a manufacturing empire while performing alongside jazz legends from Dexter Gordon to Geri Allen.
Born in Tel Aviv and shaped by Brazilian choro, Anat Cohen has turned the clarinet into an instrument of possibility. Whether leading her acclaimed Tentet or exploring intimate spaces with Quartetinho, she creates music where different cultures dance together in perfect time.