#4320: Electroacoustic Music

Listen to music that exists in the spaces between electronic and acoustic, featuring work by Montreal-based cellist Rebecca Foon, Vernon Reid and Laraaji, and saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson.

Hear a preview of the latest work from cellist Rebecca Foon, who often records as Saltland, and is a part of Pathway to Paris, an organization concerned with raising consciousness surrounding the urgency of climate action and offering solutions to turn the Paris Agreement into action. Her record, Waxing Moon, due in February, will be released under her own name, and includes singing, along with her cello and electronics.

From the New Sounds Live concert series, hear guitarist/composer Vernon Reid and multi-instrumentalist Laraaji in live improvisations, recorded in 2016. Their processed guitar, zither, and wordless vocals all come together within an immersive 18-channel surround installation of recordings of nature – specifically the dawn chorus from Cornwall, west London and Suffolk - by Pete M. Wyer mounted in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place.

There’s music by London-based duo Tomaga, (percussionist Valentina Magaletti and bass player/electronicist Tom Relleen) who exploit their multi-instrumentalist talents into music that moves by turns through jazz, psychedelia, krautrock, exotica, and minimalism, on its way to a party where there’s probably a costumed murder mystery in progress.

Listen to processed, chopped, and arranged Indonesian gamelan music– that of the chiming metallic percussion orchestra of the courts of Java - in a work by Madison,WI-based composer and author Gregory Taylor from his 2019 double album, Retinue. Then, organic meets synthetic in music for sax and electronics by Brooklyn-based baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson. Listen to layers of sound-designed samples of his own saxophone on his latest work, Imagine Giving Up, and more. 

Program #4320: Electroacoustic Music  (First aired 1/22/2020)

ARTIST: Vernon Reid & Laraaji
WORK: Improvisation 3 [1:00]
RECORDING: Live at Brookfield Place, 10/14/16
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: Vernon Reid | Laraaji

ARTIST: Rebecca Foon
WORK: Another Realm [3:25]
RECORDING: Waxing Moon
SOURCE: Constellation Records CST 149| Due out Feb. 21, 2020
INFO: cstrecords.com

ARTIST: Vernon Reid & Laraaji
WORK: Improvisation 3 [7:59]
RECORDING: Live at Brookfield Place, 10/14/16
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: Vernon Reid | Laraaji

ARTIST: Tomaga
WORK: Rabbits of the Void
RECORDING: Extended Play 1
SOURCE/INFO: tomaga.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Gregory Taylor
WORK: Historian (Sejarawan) [12:58]
RECORDING: Retinue
SOURCE: Palace of Lights
INFO: palaceoflights.com

ARTIST: Leandro Fresco and Rafael Anton Irisarri
WORK: Elevado Como Barrilete [5:28]
RECORDING: Una Presencia En La Brisa' (A Presence In The Breeze)
SOURCE: A Strangely Isolated Place
INFO: astrangelyisolatedplace.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Jonah Parzen-Johnson
WORK: Up [7:49]
RECORDING: Imagine Giving Up
SOURCE: We Jazz Records
INFO: wejazzrecords.bandcamp.com