#5010, Motorik Electronic Music
There’s music with echoes of the motorik style of 1970’s electronic music from West Germany, but from artists more closely associated with far-out jazz, cosmic country, and ambient electronics. Hear work by American saxophone master Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra), harpist Mary Lattimore and guitarist William Tyler, and Canadian composer Kara-Lis Coverdale, all with a propulsive sequenced electronic sound in common.
Saxophonist, EVI master, composer, and bandleader Marshall Allen is best known for his nearly lifelong association with the Sun Ra Arkestra, which he joined in 1957 and has led for the last thirty years. Now in his second century of life, the fruitful musical collaborations continue with Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons, a new ensemble with an ever-changing lineup, teaming Allen and longtime Arkestra guitarist DMHotep with Immanuel Wilkins, James Brandon Lewis of the Messthetics, Eric Revis, Chad Taylor, Luke Stewart, Wolf Eyes, members of Irreversible Entanglements, and others. Listen to a propulsive piece featuring Marshall Allen on alto saxophone, Casio VL-Tone, and EVI; DMHOTEP, bassist James McNew of Yo La Tengo; and drummer Charlie Hall of The War on Drugs. It’s from the record, Live in Philadelphia, which is due out in time for Allen’s 101st birthday.
Then, from the New Sounds Live series, there’s an original score for the contemporary silent film, Electric Appalachia by harpist Mary Lattimore and guitarist William Tyler, recorded live at Brookfield Place in Jan. 2023. Hear a portion of the score whose sound is slightly different from their expansive atmospheric style, where Mary Lattimore plays synthesizer with a driving, motoric pattern in tandem with Tyler’s rhythmic electric guitar riffs. Listen also to music by the American quartet LNZNDRF that might evoke New Order’s non-dance floor hits with Krautrock undertones.
Also, there's music from the UK duo Immersion (Colin Newman & Malka Spigel) in collaboration with New York-based ambient country band SUSS, as they blend rhythm, synths, and atmospherics for motoric soundscapes. Plus, new music by Canadian composer Kara-Lis Coverdale, who mixes software and modular synthesis with traditional instruments, and features sound artist and cellist Anne Bourne and trombone prodigy Kalia Vandever. That, and more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #5010, Motorik Electronic Music
ARTIST: Manuel Gottsching
WORK: E2 E4, excerpt, part 1 [1:01]
RECORDING: E2 E4
SOURCE: Racket Records IC-715037
INFO: Out of print, but listen at soundcloud.com
ARTIST: Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons
WORK: Square the Circle [8:45]
RECORDING: Live in Philadelphia
SOURCE: Otherly Love Records/Ars Nova Workshop
INFO: https://arsnovaworkshop.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-philadelphia
ARTIST: Mary Lattimore, William Tyler
WORK: Electric Appalachia, excerpt [4:22]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live at Brookfield Place, Jan. 25, 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com | williamtyler.net
ARTIST: LNZNDRF
WORK: The Xeric Steppe [7:48]
RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, 2021
SOURCE: newsounds.org/story/lnzndrf
INFO: lnzndrf.com
ARTIST: ROOM8
WORK: New Gold Dream [7:38]
RECORDING: Western Front
SOURCE: Nightcruise Music
INFO: https://www.prostudiomasters.com/album/page/354098
ARTIST: Immersion | SUSS
WORK: State Of Motion [4:53]
RECORDING: Nanocluster Vol.3
SOURCE: Swim
INFO: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-us/product/immersion-suss/nanocluster-vol-3
ARTIST: Kara-Lis Coverdale
WORK: Freedom [6:27]
RECORDING: From Where You Came
SOURCE: Smalltown Supersound
INFO: https://kara-liscoverdale.bandcamp.com/album/from-where-you-came-2
ARTIST: Qasim Naqvi
WORK: Beautification Technologies [4:54]
RECORDING: Endling
SOURCE: Erased Tapes
INFO: https://qasimnaqvi.bandcamp.com/album/endling
