Soundcheck

The New Pornographers reliably bring the power pop; one can always count on big hooks, anthemic choruses, and impeccably arranged orchestrations. Then there are the sweet vocal harmonies, a few additional beats to make things far from simple, and unexpected lyrical twists like a plan for “a long fade out,” "we burst through the Overton window”, and "You made this hell yourself?/Well, it's real nice". Songwriter & vocalist Carl Newman has never settled for a simple narrative or a beautiful landscape in song lyrics that seem halfway in the real world, but not quite right; or sometimes in images that are non-representational, maybe like modern art.

From glittering arpeggiators to a well-placed sampled yelp, along with saxophones and meaty synths, the songs seem to be born of a playful approach – “trying out ideas as if no one is listening”, describes Newman, and perhaps hinting that he also uses another delicate method in his songcraft of ‘mess around and find out’. Some of the members of The New Pornographers play stripped-down arrangements of songs from their latest, Continue as a Guest, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: “Really Really Light”, “Angelcover”, “Firework in the Falling Snow”

Watch "Really Really Light":

Watch "Angelcover":

Watch "Firework in the Falling Snow":

Mary Halvorson has established herself as one of the finest guitarists of her generation; Robbie Lee has established himself as a versatile flutist, sax player, and keyboardist. Their 2018 album together sports such oddities as a 19th-century harp guitar with 18 strings, the world’s smallest saxophone, and a Renaissance reed instrument called the chalumeau. The music of edited improvisations covers a lot of sonic ground, floating between folk and jazz and world music. Robbie Lee and Mary Halvorson are in the studio for an improvised set of "mutant chamber jazz" (via @robbielee.) [From the Archives, 2018.]

Pianist, collaborator, and mentor Eunbi Kim presents sonic memoirs and meditations on life experiences through her latest batch of collaborative commissioned works. The dreamy soundworld features new pieces by living composers, plus electronics, strings, taped voices and found sounds. Eunbi Kim plays works by Pauchi Sasaki, Angélica Negrón, and Sophia Jani, in-studio.

Set list: "Mother's Hand, Healing Hand (엄마손은 약손)" by Pauchi Sasaki (2021), "Saturn Years" by Sophia Jani (2021), "Disco giratorio de palabras" (Rotating Record of Words) by Angélica Negrón (2020)

Kim holds a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she also held a fellowship in the institution’s Center for Music Entrepreneurship. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for New York Foundation for the Arts and is co-founder of bespoken, a mentorship program for women in music.

Watch "Mother's Hand, Healing Hand (엄마손은 약손)" by Pauchi Sasaki:

Watch "Saturn Years" by Sophia Jani:

Watch "Disco giratorio de palabras" by Angélica Negrón:

Composer and sound artist Nyokabi Kariuki makes music that somehow draws on experimental electronics, contemporary classical music, pop, and sound art without settling into any one of them. She divides her time between New York, Maryland and Nairobi, Kenya and works with piano, voice, electronics, and several instruments from the African continent, including the kalimba and djembe, and sometimes arranges her work for strings, and/or percussion. Her new LP is called Feeling Body, and it sort of tells the story of Kariuki’s experience living with long COVID, although not in a conventional narrative way. Nyokabi Kariũki performs music from both her EP peace places: kenyan memories and the LP, Feeling Body, in-studio.

Set list: “Folds”, “Galu”, “Nazama”

Watch "Folds":

Watch "Galu":

Watch "Nazama":

New York-based composer, pianist, and coder Dan Tepfer, who has previously improvised a companion to the J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, has returned to using the animating idea in music by Bach as a starting point for his riffing, on his latest album, called Inventions/Reinventions. On this record, Tepfer takes Bach's 15 Two-Part Inventions as written (which he describes as “something deep happening under this simple surface”), and taps into what J.S. Bach was most famous for – his improvising genius, but in music that sounds like Dan Tepfer, in the remaining 9 keys of the complete cycle.

Tepfer feels that the idea of joy is omnipresent in Bach’s music, and in his own play as he riffs on Bach, he finds a visceral joy in creation. In doing so, Tepfer tells his own story - his love of Bach from childhood, his appreciation of Brazilian music, his admiration of Lee Konitz, - and not only improvises within a framework, but also creates an entirely new structure for the frame. He also sings what he plays to make sure that he means it, which brings to mind another improviser, American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. Dan Tepfer performs both J.S. Bach’s Two-Part Inventions, and his own unique reinventions, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: “J.S. Bach: Invention in C major / Tepfer: Improvisation in Db major”, “J.S. Bach: Invention in Eb major / Tepfer: Improvisation in Eb minor”, “J.S. Bach: Invention in A minor / Tepfer: Improvisation in Bb minor”

Watch “J.S. Bach: Invention in A minor / Tepfer: Improvisation in Bb minor”:

Taking as a starting point Renaissance and Medieval music, Lisel (aka Eliza Bagg – a member of vocal group Roomful of Teeth), creates hybrid music that blends her classical vocal training with electronic production techniques found in hyperpop (like the ‘bass drop’ and frequent use of Auto-Tune.) Lisel has absorbed the capabilities of technology into her own music through experiments with Ableton, adding ambient electric sounds and aesthetics, and goes for maximalist sound on Patterns for Auto-Tuned Voices and Delay. Running Ableton, and a Novation Launch Pad for the processing effects, Eliza Bagg, as Lisel, performs some of these studio creations, live on New Sounds. - Caryn Havlik

Hear new music for silent film by composer David Cieri with his music for Carl Th. Dreyer’s 1928 silent film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc. Joan of Arc is said to have heard voices – strange, unearthly voices. So Cieri’s score, by turns visceral and transcendent, includes Sardinian vocal quartet Tenores de Aterúe in the ensemble of musicians. Best known for his music for various Ken Burns films, among his many film scores, Cieri recently completed a major new work for carillon bells. The podcast was recorded remotely at Brookfield Place in early 2023.

The singer, guitarist, and songwriter Ruthie Foster recently released her ninth studio album, called Healing Time, and it is a rich musical stew with flavors from gospel, soul, folk, and of course, the blues. Growing up in Texas, Foster was surrounded by southern blues and gospel, and she also grooves toward  Motown-influenced soul and R&B, as she continues to avoid categorization, despite having earned multiple Blues Awards. “You can’t put me in a box, and I think that says a lot about not just who I am, but who we all are,” as she was quoted on Bluegrass Situation. She's also been an enthusiastic collaborator with the Allman Brothers, the Blind Boys of Alabama, pedal steel master Robert Randolph, and others. Ruthie Foster and her longtime bandmates play some of their feel-good and hopeful blues in-studio.  

Set list: "Healing Time", "Feels Like Freedom", "Phenomenal Woman"

Watch "Healing Time":

Watch "Feels Like Freedom":

Watch "Phenomenal Woman":

English singer and songwriter Charlie Cunningham makes music that references earlier English singers like Nick Drake, as well as classic jazz, and even flamenco, which he studied in Spain. He has written a body of intimate, largely acoustic songs, quiet and melodic, which carve out space in time. Add in his intricate finger-picked guitar, and the results are arresting. Cunningham plays in-studio.

Set list: “Downpour”, “Bird’s Eye View”, “Don’t Go Far”

Watch “Downpour”:

Watch “Bird’s Eye View”:

Watch “Don’t Go Far”:

When Yasmin Williams plays guitar, it looks like she’s trying to play something else. With the instrument laying on her lap, she attacks it from above with both hands, producing a kaleidoscopic array of sounds. Williams is also a fan of Earth Wind & Fire, and inspired by them she’s added the kalimba, or thumb piano, to her music. By taping the kalimba to the body of her guitar, she’s able to play both instruments at once; her distinct style also leaves her tap shoe-wearing feet available for her to make beats. Yasmin Williams performs her new soundtrack to Charlie Chaplin’s silent film The Kid remotely, for the Soundcheck Podcast, from Brookfield Place.