Composer and electric guitar virtuoso Steven Mackey is known for his innovative combinations of timbres, instruments, genres and forms from both Western classical and rock/pop traditions. In this episode, Liquid Music Playlist’s host Steve Seel asks Mackey about his latest work, Orpheus Unsung, a wordless opera for electric guitar and percussion which premiered in Minneapolis this summer. Mackey also brings in the music of the prolific Renaissance composer, William Byrd, praising Byrd’s serene vocal mass Agnus Dei as foresight in harmony and counterpoint.

PLAYLIST

1. Mackey: "Fusion Tune" from Banana Dump Truck — Mackey, guitar; Fred Sherry, cello

2. Mackey: "Physical Property" from String Theory — Mackey, guitar; Brentano String Quartet

3. Mackey: "My Ship" from Big Farm — Big Farm (Steven Mackey, Rinde Eckart, Mark Haanstra, Jason Treuting)

4. William Byrd: "Agnus Dei" from Mass for Four Voices — Tallis Scholars

Last spring, Roberto Lange of Helado Negro took a break from working on Private Energy, out now on Asthmatic Kitty Records, to sit down with Liquid Music Playlist’s host, Steve Seel. In this episode, Roberto explains the difficulties of describing his own music which synthesizes a wide range of genres, cultures, languages and influences. Roberto also shares his fascination with the equally perplexing music of 1960’s balladier turned-avant pop experimenter, Scott Walker.

Turntablist, performer, composer and self-proclaimed “purveyor of silliness” Kid Koala is known for legendary innovations in scratch turntable playing and his broad range of multimedia works including graphic novels, puppet shows, vaudeville acts and much more. In this episode of Liquid Music Playlist, Kid Koala discusses his fascination with the music of Emil Wells, a similarly diverse vocalist, instrumentalist, and producer based in New York.

PLAYLIST

1. Kid Koala: "Drunk Trumpet" from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

2. Kid Koala: "Overture" from Nufonia Must Fall; Cecilia String Quartet

3. Emily Wells: "Los Angeles" from Promise

4. Emily Wells: "Passenger" from Mama

5. Emily Wells: Passanger" (Kid Koala remix)

Episode 8 of Liquid Music's Playlist podcast features composer and electronic musician Daniel Wohl. Daniel cites some of the sonic inspirations for his latest album Holographic (a Liquid Music commission) and reveals some of the technical processes involved with creating his electro-acoustic sound world. Daniel also brings in one of his favorite uses of electronics with orchestral instruments - Heiner Goebbels' Suite for Sampler and Orchestra from Surrogate Cities.

1. Wohl: "Holographic" from Holographic — Daniel Wohl

2. Wohl: "Replicate, Part 1" from Holographic

3. Wohl: "Shapes" from Holographic

4. Heiner Goebbels: "Sampler Suite for Orchestra: Allemand les Ruines" from Surrogate Cities — Young German Philharmonic/Peter Rundel

5. Heiner Goebbels: "Sampler Suite for Orchestra: Gavotte N-Touch Remix" from Surrogate Cities

6. Heiner Goebbels: "Sampler Suite for Orchestra: Menuett I'ingenieur" from Surrogate Cities

A fierce advocate of new music and particularly minimalism, pianist Vicky Chow has been described as “brilliant” (New York Times) and “a monster pianist” (Time Out New York). In Episode 7 of Liquid Music's Playlist podcast, Chow describes the emotional and physical experience of performing minimalist music — from Steve Reich’s Piano Counterpoint to Tristan Perich’s Surface Image, a recently commissioned work that was co-presented by Liquid Music with the Walker Art Center last March. Chow also recommends to us the music of Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch, whose extended techniques and ritualistic, pattern-heavy structures push our conception of the piano's possibilities and show us minimalism’s groove.

Conductor of the Berlin-based chamber ensemble s t a r g a z e, Andre de Ridder, discusses the upcoming collaboration with Twin Cities synthpop band Poliça, and finding inspiration in Dinosaur Jr. - drawing connections to lo-fi, drone, and Schubert song cycles.

Check out the world premiere of the s t a r g a z e and Poliça collaboration, "Music for the Long Emergency", at the SPCO's Liquid Music Series- Friday, Nov. 18, 2016 - co-presented with The Current. Find tickets at liquidmusicseries.org

Playlist:

1. Max Richter: Movements 1-3 of Spring from The Four Seasons Recomposed—Berlin Konzerthaus Chamber Orchestra/de Ridder

2. Greg Saunier: O’Malley, Former Underdog from Deerhoof Chamber Variations (EP)--Stargaze

3. Greg Saunier: Data from Deerhoof Chamber Variations

4. Lou Barlow: Lose from You’re Living All Over Me—Dinosaur Jr.

5. Lou Barlow: Poledo from You’re Living All Over Me—Dinosaur Jr.

6. Lou Barlow: Moving from Brace the Wave—Lou Barlow

Recorded in the midst of the worldwide shock and mourning, this episode departs just a bit from the approach we’ve taken so far in Liquid Music Playlist. In the second part of the conversation, “hip hop’s poet laureate” (CNN), Saul Williams, talks extensively about his intimate experiences with the “divine communicator” Prince Rogers Nelson and the enormous impact Prince had on musicians, artists, and listeners alike. Williams begins the interview with insights into his multimedia work MartyrLoserKing, hacking as performance art, and “music as the weapon of the future” (Fela Kuti) as well as his Liquid Music Series performance with the Mivos Quartet, which included the premieres of two brand-new commissions by Jace Clayton and Ted Hearne (co-commissioned with the Givens Foundation for African American Literature).

“There are so many people growing up now with manufactured sound – with manufactured artists – with manufactured careers – manufactured ideas wrapped in plastic and sold to you. Prince never allowed that to touch the essence of what he created. Because he understood creation and he understood the potentiality and the power of music and of art itself. And so, if there is any lesson that we can learn from Prince, it’s to continue to let our middle fingers go up to the industry, to the manufacturing of ideas and realize that that divine independence that connects us as human beings – to life, to this planet, to the whole, to the spirit, to love – that we have to continue to investigate that though sound, through voice, through heart, through rhythm, through guitar, through all this stuff, and we cannot let whoever these moguls are get in the way of musical freedom.” – Saul Williams

PLAYLIST:

1. Saul Williams: Groundwork from MartyrLoserKing

2. Williams: Horn of the Clock-Bike from MartyrLoserKing

3. Thomas Kessler: Said the Shotgun to the Head – Saul Williams, WDR Symphony Orchestra/Jonathan Stockhammer

4. Kessler: NGH WHT – Saul Williams, Mivos Quartet (unreleased)

5. Prince: God from The Hits/The B-Sides

6. Prince & the Revolution: Sometimes it Snows in April from Parade (Music from Under the Cherry Moon)

Special thanks to McNally Smith College of Music for their support.

Spektral Quartet’s Doyle Armbrust talks about propelling the string quartet into new realms–from your mobile phone’s ringtone to the concert hall–before introducing the kinetic and engrossing Arcadiana for string quartet by on of Britain's most celebrated composers Thomas Adès.

Violinist/violist Miranda Cuckson describes her path to experimentation through the music of Bach, Xenakis, Elliott Carter, and Dai Fujikura and the visceral sounds of microtonality before exploring the intricate and driving music of jazz pianist Vijay Iyer.

Episode 2: Channy Leaneagh describes Poliça’s sonic evolution before delving into the angular analog sound of Hamburg based DJ/producer Helena Hauff.

PLAYLIST:

Amongster—Polica (Give You the Ghost)

Trippin’—Polica (Shulamith)

Silver Sand—Helena Hauff (Discreet Desires)

Break Force—Helena Hauff (Actio Reactio)

Rupture—Helena Hauff (Helena Hauff Meets Andreas Gehm)

So Leave—Polica (Shulamith)