Pushing The Envelope: Music Decidedly Left Center

Greetings!

Welcome to Pushing The Envelope's annual celebration of International Strange Music Day, the brainchild of New York City musician/composer Patrick Grant & creator of the public music ensemble, Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars. The purpose of International Strange Music Day is to expand people's musical horizons by introducing them to genres, artists, and sounds that they may not normally listen to.  I hope my selections for today's program serve that intent.

Enjoy!

Joel

e-mail: [email protected]

Twitter-like x-thing: https://twitter.com/envpusher1 

8-24-24 PTE Playlist: International Strange Music Day

• Floral Coral (Petal Plucker v2) - Orvang Halmer - World Carousel - Ingrown Records (2021)

• Imaginary Horror Film, Part 1: The Accident / Hospital / Nine Months Later / Daily Living (Gnoissienne No. 3.5) / Baiting The Trap / Going For A Drive - Patrick Grant - Fields Amaze and other sTRANGE music - Peppergreen Media (2003/2018)

• Seven Years At Sea - Patrick Grant - A Sequence of Waves (twelve stories and a dream) - Peppergreen Media (2017)

• John Cage - Christian Marclay - More Encores - ReR (1989)

• Vicario Brothers - tttc - Foretold - digital release (2024)

• Maria Callas - Christian Marclay - More Encores - ReR (1989)

• Spiderunes - The Paxton Group w/ Paula Claire - Cablegram​-​the Dundee Telegrams and Other Communications 1984​-​1986 - CD Tech (1989)

• Louder Warmer Denser - flute: Claire Chase / composer: Pamela Z - Density 2036: Part VI (2019) - New Focus Recordings (2023)

• Killer B - Skyjelly - Spirit Guide م​ر​ش​د ح​ق​ي​ق​ة - digital release (2023)

• Tommy The Cat - Primus feat. Tom Waits - Sailing The Seas of Cheese - Interscope (1991) Tommy The Cat - Primus feat. Tom Waits - Sailing The Seas of Cheese - Interscope (1991)

• Ursonate (Sonate In Urlauten) - Rondo Allegro - Voice: Christopher Butterfield / sound poetry: Kurt Schwitters - Music For Klein And Beuys / Ursonate / Pillar Of Snails - Artifact Music (1993) 

• Omaggio A Jerry Lee Lewis (for tape) - Richard Trythall - CMCD (Six Classic Concrete, Electroacoustic And Electronic Works: 1970-1990) - ReR (1991) 

• A suicide note on a sunny day - Xenia At - Ribbon Blue - Fruit Exports (2023)

• The Dance of Wendy - Dave Fuglewicz - Selected Works, 1990​-​1997 - No Part Of It (2023)

• Crackers Ottawa 5 - Christof Migone - Crackers - Squint Press (2001)

Greetings!

Many new items this week (both recent releases and items that are new to me) along with things I found rummaging through the ill-managed piles of CDs that surround me in my basement lair.

Listen & Enjoy!

Joel

e-mail: [email protected]

Twitter-like x-thing: https://twitter.com/envpusher1 

8-10-24 PTE Playlist

• Kotekan, from Glimpses - Who Cares? (Laura Reid: violin, voice / Jiajia Li: flute & dizi, keyboard, voice) / composer: Vivian Fung - Simple Lines of Enquiry - self-released EP (2024)

• Simple Lines of Enquiry - Who Cares? (Laura Reid: violin, voice / Jiajia Li: flute & dizi, keyboard, voice) / composer: Ann Southam - Simple Lines of Enquiry - self-released EP (2024)

• The Faerie Ribbon (I-IV) - Quatuor Bozzini  &  junctQín keyboard collective / composer: Rebecca Bruton - a root or mirror, blossom, madder, cracks; together - Collection QB (2024 pre-release)

• Message To Eagle - Bendu - Light Leak EP - self-release (2016)

• Ghost In Another Night - Jiang Yühui - China: The Sonic Avant-Garde - Post Concrete (2003) OOP

• Introduction - The Chord of the Abyss (Remaster 2024) - deepspace - Vertical Landscapes — Retrospective - Projekt Records (2024)

• (Un​)​_tit_​(​led) - Jaki Herzlich - Untitled - moon musiq (2024)

• Lo mismo en distinto (The same in different) - Nichunimu - Calados - 577 Records (September 2024 pre-release)

• Asphyxia (for soprano saxophone) - soprano sax: Ryan Muncy / composer: Aaron Cassidy - HOT - New Focus Recordings (2013)

• Axolotl - violin: Linda Bahn / composer: Morton Subotnick - Axolotl - Neuma Records (2024)

• Statistical Truth - K. Leimer - Statistical Truth - Palace of Lights (2004)

Greetings!

Happy Post-Birthday to Terry Riley! (June 24th)

Enjoy an early composition from 1965 followed by a new composition honoring Terry Riley's, "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band", the "B-side" of his classic release, "A Rainbow In Curved Air". "

Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band" is a saxophone-based drone piece featuring tape loops and edits, drawing on Riley's all-night improvisatory performances in the 1960s.

The balance of the program features the usual musical shenanigans you've come to know and love from Pushing The Envelope.

Have fun,

Joel

e-mail: [email protected] 

Twitter-like x-thing: https://twitter.com/envpusher1 

8-3-24 PTE Playlist

• Tread on the Trail - Delta Saxophone Quartet / composer: Terry Riley - Minimal Tendencies - Clarinet Classics (1998)

• Terry Riley: Poppy 88 -  ContaQt, Evan Ziporyn and Friends -  Terry Riley: Poppy 88 - People Places Records (2024)

• Algorhythmica - Devin Gray's Algorhythmica feat. Maria Grand - tenor saxophone / Carmen Rothwell - bass / Mara Rosenbloom - piano / Devin Gray - drums/composition - Algorhythmica - Rataplan Records (2024)

• Cat Food - King Crimson - In The Wake of Poseidon (2010 Mix) - Inner Knot (1970/2010)

• the Green box - Black Tape for a Blue Girl - As one aflame laid bare by desire (2024 remaster) - Projekt Records (1999/2024)

• Adhocism - Tijs Klaassen Quintet - Adhocism - Elastic Recordings (2024)

• Shing Kee (1986) - Carl Stone - Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties - Unseen Worlds (2016)

• Phasing Poppies - Eden Grey - Tactile Dimension - Triplicate Records (2024)

• Euroene - John Barnes - Euroene (EP) - Machine Records (2023)

• Paraselene - Edward Givens - Abstractions - digital release (2021)

• Late Shift - Fletina - Serrof - Unfathomless (2024)

Greetings!

This week's program offers up a veritable cornucopia of new music (2024), sort of new music (2023/2021) & older music (1971/1972). 

Enjoy!

Joel

e-mail: [email protected] 

7-20-24 PTE Playlist

• Intermountainous - Julian Bertino, 10-string guitar / Amy Brandon, composer - electronics - Lysis - New Focus Recordings (from her forthcoming release - 2024)

• Sonata, Op. 108, for solo double-bass (1971) - double bass: Edwin Barker / composer: Mieczysław Vainberg - Basso Profundo - Navona Records (2024)

• Incer - Alira Mun -  O Lume​-​n Paradis - digital release (2024)

• An Atrophied Preface - Pope Jean Paul Van Damme - Echoes Of An Abandoned Future - Machine Records (2024)

• The Basin - Parade - Lullabies After Storms and Floods - Elastic Recordings (2024)

• XDM - Toshiyuli Hiroka - Waterphone II - Edgetone Records (2021)

• Improvisations for Thai Guitar & Time Lag Accumulator - tarotplane - Improvisations for Echo Guitar - digital release (2023)

• Tempus Horribilus - Circuline - C.O.R.E. - self-release (2024)

• Brace For Impact - IZZ - Collapse The Wave - self-release (2024)

• Ack - Mike Keneally - The Thing That Knowledge Can't Eat - Exowax Recordings (2023)

• Eat That Question - Frank Zappa - The Grand Wazoo - Zappa Records (1972)

• The Black Page #2 (The Confetti Version) - Sheik Yerbouti - Confetti Music - Goodlife Records (2001)

• Organs form - Findings - Parallel mirrors - Eustress Tapes (2024)

Greetings!

This week's program features music from three very different artists, none of whom I would have ever run into were it not for the fine folks at the "Get Music" web-site (https://www.getmusic.fm/). "Get Music" is an artist promotion site that, from the music addict's point of view, facilitates discovery of primarily, though not exclusively, DIY artists in varied genres.  Included in this week's program are three releases that particularly caught my attention from We Are Echo People, tttc & Newforyu.  Check 'em out! For more info, check out the playlist.

Enjoy!

Joel

e-mail: [email protected]

Twitter-like x-thing: https://x.com/envpusher1 

7-13-24 PTE Playlist

• Zeitgebers - Field recording: Marc Namblard / ensemble 0: Stéphane & Julien Garin, percussion / composer: Sarah Hennies - Motor Tapes - New World Records (2024)

• mephisto - we are echo people - we are echo people - digital release (2024)

• Brilliant Trees - David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees / Words With The Shaman - Caroline (1985)

• Was I The Same When I Got Up This Morning - Percussia (Ingrid Gordon: Orff xylophone, small percussion/Susan Jolles: Celtic harp) / composer: Angelica Negrón  / Plucked & Struck - Neuma (2024)

• In The Beginning / Panicwaves - Susumu Yokota - The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection - Planet Earth Recordings (1994)

• Dream - Newforyu - EP - digital release (2024)

• R​ø​tK​ø​t - R​ö​tK​ö​t - Comp30 - Mr Bundle - Owlripper Records (2024)

• enormous wings - tttc - Foretold - digital release (2024)

• Heterodyne - Ayako Shinozaki - Music Now For Harp - Wewantsounds (1974/2023)

• WakeUp - Neil Rolnick / composers: Neil Rolnick and Felice & Boudleaux Bryant - Ex Machina - Innova (2015)

• Magnificent Sevens - Diga Rhythm Band - Diga - Rykodisc (1988)

Greetings!

New, New, New, New, Conlon Nancarrow (2008), Emily Hay (2005), New, New, New, New, New & New!!

Enjoy!

Joel

e-mail: [email protected] 

Twitter-like x-thing: https://x.com/envpusher1 

7-6-24 PTE Playlist

• Ode to Vahan - piano: Sahan Arzruni / composer: Alicia Terzian - BY WOMEN: Piano Works by Armenian Women Composers - AGBU/Positively Armenian

• Sonata No. 2m - i. On The Playground / ii. Backroom of the Firehouse / iii. Communion - piano: Kristín Jónína Taylor / composer: Mike McFerron - Midwest Piano Sonatas - Navona Records (2024)

• Light Still & Moving - Kevin Kastning: 36-string Double Contraguitar, 16-string Subcontraguitar, 24-string Double Subcontraguitar, 28-string Double Contraguitar / double bass: Bruno Råberg - Silent Dimensions - Greydisc Records (2024)

• where the zeitgeist converges with the metaphysical tapestry of existence - Von Helfenstein - Metaphysics Workouts volumes 1​​​-​​​3 - Burnt Seed Records (2024)

• Study No. 21 - Conlon Nancarrow - Studies for Player Piano - Other Minds Recordings (2008)

• Wha' 'Bout - Emily Hay: flute, alto flute, voice / Steuart Leibig: bass / Rich West: drums, background recordings - Like Minds - pfMENTUM (2005)

• The Bell Mimic - Max Kutner - Partial Custody - digital release (2024)

• Unbundle The Bundle - Devin Gray’s To The Point feat. Robin Verheyen - saxes (BE), Bram De Looze - piano (BE), Nicolas Thys - bass (BE) & Devin Gray - drums/composition - To The Point - Rataplan Records (2024)

• Dragonstar - Joëlle Léandre & Lauren Newton - Great Star Theater, San Francisco - Other Minds Records (2024)

• Hideko - Parade - Lullabies After Storms and Floods - Elastic Recordings (2024)

• Ascension - The Nausea - Requiem - co-released by Absurd Exposition and Buried In Slag And Debris (2024)

• Open Day - Conducive - Open Day - digital single (2024)

Greetings!

I definitely employed a very "stream of consciousness" vibe as I programmed this week's show, starting with a cello track I couldn't fit into my earlier cello-themed show, getting to a couple of Petridisch tracks, 80's vintage Robert Wyatt's take on a Chic tune, new music from my compadre Joe Benzola and a bunch of other new things. Whew!

Enjoy!

Joel

e-mail: [email protected] 

Twitter-like x-thing: https://x.com/envpusher1 

6-29-24 PTE Playlist

• Cello Chili - cello/voice: Bryan Hayslett / composer: Brent Michael Davids - Cello Unlocked - Neuma Records (2024)

• "Je suis venue te dire que je m'en vais" (I Came To Tell You I'm Going) - Petridisch with Leah Callahan / composer: Serge Gainsbourg - Fish Prints digital single (2024)

• At Last I Am Free - Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us (compilation) - Rough Trade (1982)

• In The Red - Petridisch - A Fixed Point - I Heart Noise (2017)

• The Basement Jam - Ayumi Ishito - Wondercult Club - 577 Records (July 2024 pre-release)

• Death of a Solipsist (The Way In) - Veins Full Of Static - A House Wrapped In Sleep - Machine Music (2024)

• carried by all the hands forgotten in the wind - Heavy Cloud - carried by all the hands forgotten in the wind / mirror sky - digital release (2024)

• Actant Theory - CZiGO - Actant Theory - Machine Records (2024)

• The White Thing - Tu-Ner - Tu-Ner For Lovers - 7d Media (2024)

• The Process - Gerald Cleaver - The Process - 577 Records/Positive Elevation (2024)

• Mysterium Meditation​-​St. Th​é​r​è​se of Lisieux - Joseph Benzola - Mysterium Meditation​-​St. Th​é​r​è​se of Lisieux - digital single (2024)

• VPF - Thomas Buckner (voice); Roscoe Mitchell (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, percussion, flute) - 8 O'Clock: Two Improvisations - Mutable Music (2004)

Greetings!

This week's program presents a potpourri of musical stylings ranging from William Bolcom's piano rags arranged for string quartet to the new release from New York prog rockers, Izz, to Iron Butterfly's "In A Gadda Da Vida".  Eclectic programming?   Sure.  What else is new?

Enjoy!

Joel

e-mail: [email protected]

Twitter-like x-thing: https://x.com/envpusher1 

6-22-24 PTE Playlist

• Three Rags: I. Poltergeist / II. Graceful Ghost / III. Incineratorag - Altius Quartet / composer: William Bolcom - Dress Code - Navona Records (2017)

• Rhythms for Computer and Percussion: Rhythms / Songs Without Words / Birdbath / Au Revoir - Joel Chabade - Emergence - Intelligent Arts (2024)

• Pulsations - Denman Maroney Quartet - The Air-Conditioned Nightmare - Neuma (2024)

• Cer și P​ă​m​â​nt - Somngreu - P​ă​m​â​nt - digital release (2021)

• cloud forty-nine - karen vogt - diary#5 - Sonic Dialogue (2024)

• Hypersleep - Postmodern Machine - Hypersleep - digital release (2021)

• Shinseki Soundboi - Cathode Ray Tube - Imperfect Vessel - Condition Human (2024)

• Afterlife Theme Park - Cymbalic Encounters - Eclipsis -  digital release (2024)

• Collapse The Wave - IZZ - Collapse The Wave - Izzmusic (2024)

• Improv 2/ Drum Solo/ In-A-Gadda-Davinci- Scott McGill: guitar / Michael Manring: bass / Vic Stevens: drums - What We Do Too - Free Electric Sound (2006)  

• In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Rhino (1968/1995)

Greetings!

By the time you hear this, I'll have already returned from my 2 week jaunt to the wilds of Alaska, but I couldn't resist the episode's title focused on compositions for cello and derived, NOT from the 2012 film I've never seen, OR Phil Collins' second solo album from 1982, BUT the 1930 classic Marx Brothers film, "Animal Crackers"!  

That being said, I digress.  Enjoy a panoply of cello stylings from the finest cellists and composers of our times.

Joel

e-mail: [email protected]

Twitter-like x-thing: https://x.com/envpusher1 

6-1-24 PTE Playlist: "Cello, I Must Be Going!"

• Orange and yellow II - cellos:  Dan Barrett / Stanislav Orlavsky / composer: Dominique Lemaître - De l’espace trouver la fin et le milieu (of space finding the end and the middle): Dan Barrett plays Dominique Lemaître - New Focus Recordings (2020)

• Cello and Orchestra - cello: Robert Cohen / New World Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas / composer: Morton Feldman - Coptic Light - Argo (1998)

• Miles Per Hour / Bones - Lung - Let It Be Gone - Romanus Records (2022)

• Nomos Alpha - cello: Pierre Strauch / composer: Iannis Xenakis - Various Works - Erato (1992)

• Night Music - cello: Eric Kutz / composer: Robert Gibson - Flux and Fire - Innova (2018)

• Descent Into Shame - Cellista - Élégie - Soundtrack to the Stage Poem (for static trapeze, silent film, and cello) - digital album (2024)

• Hellhound - cello: Maya Beiser / composer: David T. Little - tranceclassical - Innova (2016)

• Batzal - Erik Friedlander - Grains of Paradise - Tzadik (2001)

• BABEL(maya)—f(f(1)): I. PortRait_8,**NYC10 
  

• Not Alone - cello & electronics: Seth Parker Woods / composer: George Lewis - The Recombinant Trilogy - New Focus Recordings (2021)

Greetings!

New music, kid's stories and lot's of drums!!  That's only Phase One!!

Enjoy!

Joel

e-mail: [email protected]

Twitter-like x-thing: https://x.com/envpusher1 

5-25-24 PTE Playlist

• Dust and the Middle - Catharine Cary - AIR CAKE and other summery occupations - Orchard of Pomegranates (2024)   

• Moonlight - Kojiro Umezaki & Hub New Music / composer: SunYoung Park - a distance, intertwined - in a circle records (2024)

• Impulse Control Concerto for Drum Set & Wind Ensemble, Parts I & II / Lee Hinkle, drum set soloist; Penn State University Wind Ensemble | Tonya Mitchell-Spradlin, conductor / composer: Evan Ziporyn - MODERN AMERICAN PERCUSSION CONCERTI - Ravello Records (2024)

• 2077 / Crypto Punks - Devin Gray - Most Definitely - Rataplan Records (2024)

• Four Twenty Six - Dave Schoepke- Drums On Low - self-release (2019)

• Cloudcutter - Dave Schoepke - Sun Will Follow - djummi records (2024)

• Beelzebub - Bruford - Feels Good To Me - Polydor (1977)

• Simulacrum - Ken Wohlrob - Simulacrum (digital single) - Obsidian Sky Records  (2024)

• In Brightness - Thy Veils - Neoradiance - digital release (2019)

• It's You 2 - Edge of Decipher - Each Other's Breath - Machina ad Noctem (2024)

• Old Naval Base - Fletina - The Rendering - digital release (2024)

• Spacer w angielskim ogrodzie (a walk in an English garden) - woo: Christine Wodrascka: piano / Paulina Owczarek: alto saxophone / Peter Orins: drums - hoo-hah - Circum-Disc (2024)

• Toy Room - Q&A - Circle - Paris Concert - ECM (1971)