Hear spectral music from Amsterdam-based musician Asa Horvitz and company; multi-instrumentalist Eiko Ishibashi, and from the song cycle, The Blue Hour. Plus, a piece by Laurie Anderson.
GHOST, from the Amsterdam-based musician and composer Asa Horvitz, is a musical project about grief, memory and loss, but it’s also a multidisciplinary work that was built around a website. On that website, an AI program generates texts about loss and grief, and the resulting lyrics are elliptical, sometimes repetitive, and strangely poetic. They’re also the basis for the music that Asa Horvitz sings, with his voice sometimes processed to sound other-than-human. The group also includes his uncle, the renowned pianist Wayne Horvitz, as well as Ariadne Randall and Carmen Quill. Hear several pieces from the GHOST project.
Then, listen to music about memory from a five-pointed collaborative song cycle between composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider. The work is called The Blue Hour, and sets text from the epic poem, On Earth by Carolyn Forché, where a woman traveling the space between life and death lays out a flood of memories.
There’s music from multi-instrumentalist and drummer Eiko Ishibashi, who imagines a past she never knew about her father in The Dream My Bones Dream. Also, listen to some of Laurie Anderson’s meditation on life, death, love, surveillance, and storytelling, Heart of a Dog. Plus, hear music by Polish guitarist Martyna Basta, who plays zither and keyboards, along with half-heard conversations. That, and more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4974, Ghosts, of a Sort (First aired 2/4/2025)
ARTIST: Laurie Anderson
WORK: Three Ghosts [1:03]
RECORDING: Heart of a Dog
SOURCE: Nonesuch 552027
INFO: nonesuch.com
ARTIST: Asa Horvitz, Carmen Quill, Ariadne Randall, Wayne Horvitz
WORK: Sun Lord [2:01]
RECORDING: GHOST
SOURCE: Celestial Excursions
INFO: https://celestialexcursionsghost.bandcamp.com/album/ghost
ARTIST: Asa Horvitz, Carmen Quill, Ariadne Randall, Wayne Horvitz
WORK: Hail Necessity [6:40]
RECORDING: GHOST
SOURCE: Celestial Excursions
INFO: https://celestialexcursionsghost.bandcamp.com/album/ghost
ARTIST: Laurie Anderson
WORK: Three Ghosts [1:03]
RECORDING: Heart of a Dog
SOURCE: Nonesuch 552027
INFO: nonesuch.com
ARTIST: Hanna Benn
WORK: Unfasten [5:51]
RECORDING: Divide
SOURCE/INFO: hannabenn.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, A Far Cry
WORK: Ghost Swift [1:30]
RECORDING: The Blue Hour
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: newamsterdamrecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, A Far Cry
WORK: You Are the Ghost [2:52]
RECORDING: The Blue Hour
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: newamsterdamrecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Eric Chasalow, with Lydian String Quartet
WORK: Eric Chasalow: Ghosts of our Former Selves [5:19]
RECORDING: Ghosts of our Former Selves
SOURCE: Suspicious Motives Records
INFO: ericchasalow.com | Available at AppleMusic, Spotify, Soundcloud, Amazon.com
ARTIST: Eiko Ishibashi
WORK: A Ghost In a Train, Thinking [5:54]
RECORDING: The Dream My Bones Dream
SOURCE: Drag City
INFO: https://eikoishibashi.bandcamp.com/album/the-dream-my-bones-dream
ARTIST: Martyna Basta
WORK: Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering [2:48]
RECORDING: Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering
SOURCE: Warm Winters Ltd.
INFO: https://martynabasta.bandcamp.com/album/slowly-forgetting-barely-remembering
ARTIST: Asa Horvitz, Carmen Quill, Ariadne Randall, Wayne Horvitz
WORK: The Sun Has Never Seen The Sun (Part 3) [2:11]
RECORDING: GHOST
SOURCE: Celestial Excursions
INFO: https://celestialexcursionsghost.bandcamp.com/album/ghost
ARTIST: Asa Horvitz, Carmen Quill, Ariadne Randall, Wayne Horvitz
WORK: Drown in Matter [4:46]
RECORDING: GHOST
SOURCE: Celestial Excursions
INFO: https://celestialexcursionsghost.bandcamp.com/album/ghost