#4940, Voice and Electronics
There’s music for the combination of voice and electronics from Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn’s fruitful, quiet, and colorful collaboration; work by Belgian violinist and violist Catherine Graindorge, and music from Brooklyn-based composer, singer, and saxophonist Charlotte Greve.
Photo of Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn, courtesy of the artists
New Orleans electro-revival producer and artist Dawn Richard has worked with Machinedrum, indie rockers Dirty Projectors, and was one fifth of Danity Kane. But in recent years she’s been claiming her artistic space with pronouncements like "I am the genre" and stepping up to be a role model: "You never see women appreciated as producers and artists alike—especially Black women in the electronic space. The time is now for us... I wanna be the reason why a young Black girl from the South can be whoever she wants to be musically, visually, and artistically”, (Merge Records bio). Lately, Dawn Richard has been exploring increasingly abstract, electronic music - ranging from the neoclassical to the industrial (while she's not ALSO working as an animator for Adult Swim, and running a vegan pop-up food truck.) Her collaborative records of the past few years are with multi-instrumentalist and producer Spencer Zahn, one with works named for colors, Pigments, and the most recent is a space for quiet reflection, called Quiet in a World Full of Noise. Listen to selections from both records.
Then, listen to 21st century chamber music by Belgian violinist, violist, composer and actress Catherine Graindorge who uses a classical-looking string ensemble with harmonium and electronic treatments on her record, Eldorado. Also, hear a playful improvisation-hatched song from the Norwegian collaboration of vocalist Mari Kvien Brunvoll, guitarist Stein Urheim, and the trio Moskus.
There’s also work by German-born, Brooklyn-based composer, singer, and saxophonist Charlotte Greve (Wood River, Asterids, The Choir Invisible.) The very genre-fluid work Sediments We Move, is a combination of choral music, rock, noise, free jazz, metal, ambient, and bombastic 80s-inspired pop, all melted together, featuring her band Wood River and the Berlin choir Cantus Domus.
Plus, listen to some of Sunrise, an electro-acoustic collaboration between composer Jacob Cooper (Philadelphia-based creator of electronic songs) and the vocalist Steven Bradshaw (founding member of both Variant Six, The Crossing). The work’s text is from a popular song composed around the end of the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic: “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise”, and feels like a meditation on the passing of time.
Program #4940, Voice and Electronics (First aired 10/24/2024)
ARTIST: Dawn Richard
WORK: Boomerang [:38]
RECORDING: Second Line
SOURCE: Merge Records
INFO: https://www.mergerecords.com/product/second_line
ARTIST: Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn
WORK: Sandstone [1:00]
RECORDING: Pigments
SOURCE: Merge Records
INFO: https://dawnrichard.bandcamp.com/album/pigments
ARTIST: Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn
WORK: Coral [3:10]
RECORDING: Pigments
SOURCE: Merge Records
INFO: https://dawnrichard.bandcamp.com/album/pigments
ARTIST: Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn
WORK: Sandstone [3:36]
RECORDING: Pigments
SOURCE: Merge Records
INFO: https://dawnrichard.bandcamp.com/album/pigments
ARTIST: Mari Kvien Brunvoll & Stein Urheim with Moskus
WORK: So Low [5:39]
RECORDING: Barefoot in Bryophyte
SOURCE: Hubro Music
INFO: https://moskus.bandcamp.com/album/barefoot-in-bryophyte
ARTIST: Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn
WORK: The Dancer [2:38]
RECORDING: Quiet in a World of Noise
SOURCE: Merge Records
INFO: https://www.mergerecords.com/product/quiet_in_a_world_full_of_noise
ARTIST: Catherine Graindorge
WORK: Ghost Train [5:14]
RECORDING: Eldorado
SOURCE: Glitterbeat tak:til
INFO: catherinegraindorge.bandcamp.com/album/eldorado
ARTIST: Wood River and Cantus Domus
WORK: Sediments We Move, Part I [8:19]
RECORDING: Charlotte Greve: Sediments We Move
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: woodrivermusic.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Wood River
WORK: Returners [7:26]
RECORDING: More Than I Can See
SOURCE: Yellowbird
INFO: woodrivermusic.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Jacob Cooper and Steven Bradshaw
WORK: Sunrise, excerpt [5:11]
RECORDING: Sunrise
SOURCE: Cold Blue Music
INFO: coldbluemusic.com
