In April 2019, bassist Trevor Dunn released the LP, Nocturnes, which included Six Nocturnes, which he described as "an early piece from 1989 for bass and string quartet, and a dynamic trio for piano, violin, and bass featuring the remarkable Carla Kihlstedt and Vicky Chow."
This month, John Zorn released his Nocturnes, eight compositions performed by Brian Marsella on piano, with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Chas Smith.
Two suites of piano nocturnes by two different but associated artists released on the same label.
Here's a randomly selected video of a performance by Tim Berne because why not? FYI, that's Gregg Belisle-Chi on guitar, Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Trevor Dunn on bass, and Tim Angulo on the drums.
And here, if you wanted it or not, is my list of notable new music released last Friday, October 17:
Anna von Hausswolff - Struggle with the Beast (single, with Stardust, Facing Atlas, and The Whole Woman)
John Zorn - Nocturnes (Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith)
Animal Collective - FEELSLive 04/05 and Feels (20th Anniversary)
Evan Ziporyn & ContaQt - Art Decade
sunn 0))) - Eternity's Pillars (single, with Raise the Chalice and Reverential)
bar italia - Some Like It Hot
Sam Wilkes - Public Records Performance
Clarice Jensen - In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness
Jakob Bro, Wadada Leo Smith & Marcus Gilmore - Murasaki
If you've not heard of all these artists, I encourage you to check them out - I'm sure you'll find something you'll dislike.
Saturday, September 27, 2025
It took three weeks but it finally happened - I had my first Big Ears "oh my god, this musician is fantastic - where have they been all my life?" discovery moment of 2025.
Lubomyr Melnyk is a Ukranian composer and pianist noted for his continuous-music piano technique featuring extremely rapid notes and complex note-series, usually with the sustain pedal held down to generate harmonic overtones and sympathetic resonances. "This is a completely different piano universe from everything that has existed before," according to Melnyk.
He will be appearing at Big Ears 2026 and it was so easy to overlook his name in the lineup announcements. But when I finally got around to listening to him, omg, it really was a completely different piano universe from everything that had existed before.
While he doesn't employ minimalism techniques in his compositions, his music will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and most especially Terry Riley. His presence at Big Ears 2026 will fit right in with fellow 2026 performers Charlemagne Palestine and Hania Rani.
I can't wait to see all of them at Big Ears next year.
I thought it was me and my oddball left-field tastes, but it seems like New Music Fridays have had pretty few offerings as of late. Maybe it's a seasonal thing - music companies don't want to release albums in late summer and were waiting for the back-to-school month of September to drop new music. Or maybe it's just that no one produces the kind of music I like anymore.
Well, here we are on the second Friday of September, and great googly moogly, just look at all these great new jazz, rock, ambient, and experimental releases:
Dave Douglas - Alloy
Rafiq Bhatia - Environments
Tomas Fujiwara - Dream Up
John Foxx - Wherever You Are
Fruit Bats - Baby Man
Guerilla Toss - You're Weird Now
Brad Mehldau - Ride Into the Sun
Jens Lekman - Songs for Other People's Weddings
Maruja - Pain to Power
Kara-Lis Coverdale - A Series of Actions in a Sphere of Forever
Oren Ambarchi & Fredrik Rasten -- Dragon's Return
Nurse with Wound - Healsgebedda Budgerigar
That's more today than in the last month combined!
Of course, yes, I've prepared a playlist of these new releases, as well as other new shit going back to last June for your review and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
As celebrated over on the main site, the Big Ears festival has released its 2026 lineup. Best Big Ears lineup ever? Best festival lineup ever, any genre, any century, ever in the history of music?
God, I love hyperbole.
I've already bought my big-bucks, VIP Sonic Explorer four-day, all-access pass, and already have my four-day downtown hotel reservation secured and paid for. Next March, all that I'll need to pay for is the gas to get up there and food during my stay, and of course, a beer or two at Clancy's.
Many people are understandably excited about David Byrne and others are pinching themselves over the possibility of seeing Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant. We're all excited about seeing John Zorn return. All are worthy additions to the lineup. but I encourage those of you who like diverse forms of music to not sleep on Brain Marsella's aptly named Imaginarium.
Their album, Medietas, was a major, three-CD odyssey through musical history, sounding at times like various forms of jazz, at times like blues and rock, at times like some forgotten movie soundtrack, and at times like some Frank Zappa fever dream. In ways, this one set could summarize all of the diverse musical programming at the Big Ears festival. I hope the festival allots him more than the standard 60 minutes to perform this three-hour long opus, although I'll gladly take whatever they can offer.
I made a Spotify playlist of the most recent or the most representative album by each and every Big Ears 2026 performer. The playlist is over 120 hours long and contains over 1,500 tracks. Yesterday, I took a ten-mile hike through the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area listening to the playlist on random shuffle through Bluetooth headphones. It was a blissful and at times transcendental experience and I look forward to taking that trip again. You doing anything tomorrow?
Hey! S'up? Do you like the 1965 Miles Davis Quintet album, E.S.P., especially the closing track, the Ron Carter composition, Mood? But did you ever wish you could hear Carter play it with Tony Williams and Herbie Hancock, but without Miles and Wayne Shorter? Did you further wish that the title of the track was spelled in reverse and that the performance be live in Japan?
Well, have I got good news for you. Here's Doom, performed at Denen Colosseum, Tokyo; on July 29, 1978, featuring Carter, Williams and Hancock.
What now? Now you want to hear a more recent version, with none of the other Quintet members but with an orchestra for some reason? And live in Europe, not Asia? Okay, then, that's getting a little specific and I won't question your motives, but here's Carter in 2022 playing Doom Mood with the WDR Big Band, the jazz band of German public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, Germany.
