Soundcheck

Violinist and Music Director of Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Joshua Bell, has worked with such a wide variety of musicians from singer/songwriter Regina Spektor to the late Ravi Shankar; from young American composer Jay Greenburg to the Cuban music group Tiempo Libre. He visits our studio close on the heels of a tour & collaborative record with world-renowned cellist Steven Isserlis, and their all-Brahms program, which included the Double Concerto, thought to be one of Johannes Brahms’ greatest late works. Joshua Bell also recounts the seance story behind Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto, as well as the torrid history behind Brahms' entanglement with Clara Schumann. 

Hailing from New Zealand’s Southern port town of Lyttelton, Aldous Harding digs deep into classic folk music with her acoustic-based brooding songs. Her music is utterly captivating, yet melancholy and bleak; the arrangements are delicate, simple, and elegant - with subtle harmonies, perhaps a touch of fiddle or keyboard, supporting acoustic guitar and Harding’s haunting voice.  Hear the New Zealand singer-songwriter perform fragile & intense songs in the studio. 

"Stop your Tears"
'What If Birds Aren’t Singing, They’re Screaming"
"Horizon"

South African guitar virtuoso Derek Gripper plays music originally meant for the 21 stringed lute-harp, the kora, on his 6-string Segovia-styled guitar in the studio. Listen to unbelievable arrangements of Malian kora greats, as well as original compositions in the flowing, cascading style of kora music, all translated for 6-string guitar.  

Gripper's latest record, "Libraries on Fire," is titled after this quote: "In Africa, when an old man dies, it's a library burning," attributed to Amadou Hampate Ba. On this record, he continues to make the impossible happen, taking melodies from the Manding Music, even duets for kora (a total of 44 strings!) and arranging them for the six guitar strings. 

See Derek Gripper with Trio Da Kali at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, on Saturday, Nov. 12.

SETLIST
1. Tita
2. Tutu Jara
3. Copenhagen

Here's but a sample of guitarist Derek Gripper, performing as part of a New Sounds Live/New York Guitar Festival event from last spring in the Greene Space. 

The Oscar-nominated Berlin-based Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson visits the studio with the new music group ACME. Jóhannsson has just released his first solo record in more 6 years (not a film score of some kind), which is called Orphée, and explores the nature of that ancient Greek myth. Orphée is "A story about death and rebirth, the elusive nature of creation and art and the ephemeral nature of memory. It's an album about change, love and art – a reflection of our relationships."

The music ranges from chamber experimental to the elegiac and dreamy to choral music on the “Orphic Hymn,” by Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices. Jóhannsson just finished a string of North American tour dates with ACME, and heads to Europe in December.  

"Song for Europa / A Deal with Chaos suite

“A Sparrow Alighted Upon our Shoulder / Flight From the City"

George Watsky first gained prominence via Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam, where he demonstrated his ability to combine thoughtful ideas at a wickedly fast clip. From there, it was on to a recording career that has seen both of his previous albums, 2013's Cardboard Castles and 2014's All You Can Do, reach stratospheric chart highs. He recently released a New York Times best-seller, an essay collection called How To Ruin Everything, and his newest record xInfinity dropped in August. A busy man, George Watsky somehow makes time to visit the Soundcheck studio and demonstrate his many wares.  

Hear the British trio Band of Skulls' massive riffs stripped to their...skeletal form, from an in-studio performance. 

Steve Aoki has followed an unusual career path on his way to becoming one of the most successful dance music producers on the planet.  Beginning in the hardcore music scene, starting a record label (Dim Mak Records), and then moving on to DJing, Aoki has been a one-man perpetual motion machine. He has collaborated with everyone from Lil Jon to Linkin Park, plus will.i.am, LMFAO, Iggy Azalea, and Diplo, and been a voice on Robot Chicken.

He is also the subject of the new documentary film called I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, which charts the course of Steve Aoki's life and career, and introduces his late father, Rocky Aoki, the Benihana founder and wrestler.

As recording and performing technology has gotten cheaper, there's been a wholesale revisiting of the synthy sounds of the mid-80s. At its worst, this excavation has yielded plenty of soulless, robotic machine music—not too dissimilar from the first go-round. But couple a deep love of dub and club sounds, and keen songwriting chops, and you get an artist like Marius Lauber. The musician and DJ known as Roosevelt from Cologne, Germany, has found novel ways of merging dance-heavy rhythms with rock solid song structures, and his understated delivery gives the tunes a kind of wistful, nostalgic quality. Roosevelt's self-titled debut arrived in August as a last blast of summer sunshine, and his band just started a Stateside tour that brings them to the Soundcheck studio. 

“The Middle,” was a massive hit for Arizona power-pop band Jimmy Eat World in 2001. Usually a song like that is one-and-done, but earlier this year the tech giant Apple released a commercial in which the everything-else giant Taylor Swift was lip-synching along to the song. You can imagine how that went for Jimmy Eat World. A nice re-introduction for the now rock elder statesmen. And what do you know; there’s a new record to dig into:

The forthcoming Jimmy Eat World record, “Integrity Blues,” is due out on October 21, and is setting the band off on a major tour. But you can catch Jimmy Eat World in a live set from the Soundcheck studio today by clicking play. 

Songwriter Regina Spektor was born in the then-Soviet Union and moved to the States on the cusp of her teenage years. Her beautiful if oblique and surprising songs very often portray an outsider trying to make sense of things. A perfect fit, then, when the Netflix show Orange is the New Black – which is populated with tough-as-nails outsiders and eccentrics - was looking for someone to write a theme song. But it’s been four years since we’ve had a proper new album from Spektor. Her latest is called Remember Us to Life, and displays an idiosyncratic artist at the top of her game. It's political, it's funny, and it's filled with jarring chord changes and evocative melodic runs that simply won't let your attention wander. Spektor doesn't play local gigs until October 17th (at Town Hall) and 18th (at Rough Trade), but you can catch her in our studio first.