Deep in the pile of new sax/bass/drum improv-based recordings, a shake up occurs: sax, percussion, and….wait for it….guitars! Yay! Lingua Franca delivers the new sound palette the ears are thirsty for. It’s a little bit …

Who would have guessed that drum machines—those old clunky plastic boxes of preordained sound—would become fetishized a few decades down the line? It goes way beyond the likes of Ikue Mori and Micky T’s Drum …

Tasha Dzubay, clarinet
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirk Trevor

In his somewhat confessional notes for his 2004 clarinet concerto, American Midlife, Indiana School of Music-based composer David Dzubay says that he wrote this music “during …

A tribute album is a convention much more common in the pop world, but it is one warmly taken up here in gratitude to Andrew Imbrie on the occasion of his 80th birthday. The disc …

Cold shower? A cup of joe? Maybe a slap in the face? Nothing is more effective than the opening of Elliott Carter’s third string quartet—guaranteed to wake you up faster than smelling salts. The Arditti …

Though having forsaken the Boston jazz scene for Rome last year, Greg Burk teams up with the one-two punch of Steve Swallow (bass) and Bob Moses (drums) for his first release on Chicago-based indie label …

In the never ending avalanche of John Cage CDs on Mode comes the 6th volume of the composer’s piano works. The disc’s centerpiece, Music of Changes, is preceded by the economical Seven Haiku, which clocks-in …

Performed by Alarm Will Sound
It seems like a composition assignment from that really cool young prof. who’s intent on shaking up the department: Take an Aphex Twin track (which is to say one created by …

How much new music, or any music for that matter, can you think of that is scored for bass trombone and piano? Not even Hindemith wrote a sonata for the combo! But, now, thanks …

This haunting track by Chicago-based Joshua Abrams evokes a tactile dreamland where giant church steeple carillons melt into millions of discombobulated music boxes which continue to chime the passage of time. In this strange darkened …