Sonosphere goes to Knoxville's Big Ears Fest. Today you'll hear our experience at one of the most anticipated cultural events in the world. We’ll hear from composers Anna Meredith, Colleen, Wu Fei, Frode Haltli, Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, and Andy Bliss & Kerry O’Brien of Neif Norf about their performance and experience at Big Ears.

Last year Sonosphere visited Marfa, Texas for the Marfa Myths music festival created by Mexican Summer and Ballroom Marfa. Now in its fourth year, Marfa Myths has grown to a three day fest with hundreds of individuals from around the country in attendance.

This year's festival is upon us, so let's travel back in time to Marfa Myths 2016 during a two-day wind storm, where I talk with sound artist Maria Chavez about her performance informed by the wind and chards of vinyl; where harpist Mary Lattimore shares insight into last year's album, At the Dam, informed by road trips out west.

Head over this year, March 9-12 to Marfa Myths 2017 and you won't regret it. Tickets at mexicansummer.com

On two consecutive nights in April 2016, the first mellotron duet concert took place in a packed Crosstown Arts in Memphis, TN. Robby Grant and Jonathan Kirkscey played Mellotrons provided by collector Winston Eggleston. After Winston finished building his own Mellotron, Robby was invited over to test it out and the idea for the World’s first duet for mellotron concert was born.

We interviewed Robby, Jonathan and Winston on the impetus for the concert, their fascination with the mellotron and other fun facts and personal experiences with this unique instrument.

The World's First Duet for Mellotron LP comes out January 13, 2017. Available at Crosstown Arts in Memphis.

Featured "Joan Folds Towels" track written and performed by Robby Grant and Jonathan Kirkscey.

Welcome to Sonosphere the podcast that explores the sounds all around us; in art and music movements through history.

This is part 5 of our Birth of Modern Music Series on European composers of the early 20th century from the atonal compositions of Austria’s Schoenberg to the realization of total serialism of Olivier Messiaen we continue our coverage with German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and the evolution of electronic music. This episode we’ll hear from Stockhausen scholar Joe Drew; thanks to Ben Siler as the voice of Stockhausen.

Stockhausen tracks in order:

Kontra-Punkte

Kreuzspiel

Klavierstuck

Gesang Der Junglinge

Gruppen

Kontakte

Stimmung

Momente

Aus Den Seiben

Fur Kommende

Gesang Der Junglinge

Welcome back to Sonosphere's Birth of Modern Music series featuring modern European, classical composers that inspired the experimental, avant garde art and music scenes of the 50s, 60s and resonate in music composition today. Today we will delve into the life and works of Olivier Messiaen.

Messiaen escaped the world of composition’s shift to serialism through religion, nature, and birdsong, but he had a profound influence on the evolution of electronic music composition through composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, and Xenakis.

Join us by subscribing on iTunes and following us on Soundcloud, Facebook, and Twitter.

Thanks for listening!

Songs in this month's episode:

Des Canyons Aux Etoiles I: Le Desert

Des Canyons Aux Etoiles II: Les Orioles

Preludes: La Colombe (The Dove)

Quartet for the End of Time

Turangalila - Symphonie

Mode de valeurs et d'intensites

Meditations sur le mystere de la Sainte Trinite

Welcome to Sonosphere! This month's episode features Zac Ives co-founder and co-owner of Goner Records, Natalie Hoffman of NOTS, Chris Shaw of Ex-cult and JB Horrell of Ex-Cult and Aquarian Blood to bring you a Goner Fest 2016 Special Edition.

Thanks to the Goner family and Memphis musicians for sharing their passion! Goner Fest 13 is this weekend starting tonight, Wednesday September 28, 2016 at Crosstown featuring flyers from the Memphis underground installation called Torn Down by Thursday. Bands are playing September 29th through Oct. 2nd. Come on out!

Today we will talk about French composer Edgard Varese,

often described as the “Father of Electronic Music.” Varese had a huge influence on John Cage and many other avant grade American artists in the 40s and 50s. Cage said of Varese, he “fathered forth noise,” which “makes him more relative to the present musical necessity than even the Viennese masters.”

Check out the playlist accompanying this episode featuring songs by Edgard Varese at Press Play on sonospherepodcast.com. Subscribe on itunes and check us out on Facebook and Twitter @sonospod

The ultimate "underground" modernist artist in Paris, Satie didn't get a lot of credit when he was alive for his work. He was largely forgotten until John Cage found his Vexations composition fifty years after his death.

His music "did not resolve as it should according to tonal laws" says our guest Dr. Caroline Potter. She talks with us about how Satie broke from Parisian tradition and led an avant-garde scene which influenced ambient and minimalist artists for years to come.

Join us as we traverse the eccentric life and work of Erik Satie.

Erik Satie Tracks:

Gnossiennes n.4

The Gothic Dances

Pieces in the Shape of a Pear

Gymnopedies

Let's Get on with it Chochoette

Medusa's Trap

Parade

Vexations

La Diva de l'empire

This episode is the first in a series of European composers who started a change in music - paving the way for avant-garde and disruptive sounds from the classical minimalist genre, to punk and rock and roll we hear today. We’ll start with Arnold Schoenberg, an Austrian composer who mapped out the coming modernist era.

Schoenberg created new methods of musical composition involving atonality, serialism, and the 12-tone row.

Don't forget to check out Press Play at sonospherepodcast.com for a playlist of Schoenberg compositions.

Featured Tracks by Schoenberg in this episode:

Gurrelieder

Transfigured Nights

String Quartet No. 2 Op. 10

Erwartung

Chamber Symphony No. 1

Piano Suite Op. 25

This episode is an introduction to our series on the Birth of Modern Music. It will highlight radical dissonance in Western classical compositions. We will individually describe the work and influence of Arnold Schoenberg, Erik Satie, Edgard Varese, Olivier Messiaen, Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage. They were powerhouses in the classical composition revolution at the turn of the 20th century and their influence permeated into mid-century beatnik, free improv and psychedelic culture.

Look for the first episode in this series next week. Until then, we have prepared for you a playlist highlighting the work of Arnold Schoenberg, the first modernist we’ll explore in our next episode. Check it out at sonospherepodcast.com and click on Press Play. Enjoy!

Featured track:

Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans Maitre VI Bourreaux de Solitude