Alarm Will Sound with Meet the Composer Splitting Adams (Cantaloupe) Sarah Cahill with Regina Myers and Samuel Adams Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley (Irritable Hedgehog) Ars Nova Copenhagen First Drop (Cantaloupe) Julius Eastman The Zürich Concert (New World) ÌFÉ IIII+IIII (Discos Ifá) Kelly Moran Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp) Sampha Process… Continue reading Best of 2017
Category: Electronic
1996+21: limina
limina, for two pianos and percussion (1996), was composed as an exploratory diversion between larger projects. The title, “thresholds,” is meant to suggest points of transition or spaces between categories. There are two sections; the longer and more eventful first is in duple metre and features a pop-like, four-chord progression in A major. The second… Continue reading 1996+21: limina
1997+20: WhISH
Below are excerpts from the thirty-minute score for WhISH, an interdisciplinary fairy tale performed by Liminal Gryphon Theatre (director Derek Mohamed, choreographer Tracy Renee Stafford). WhISH premiered in February 1997 as part of the Rhubarb! Festival at Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto. The score was also released on cassette. WhISH was an image and… Continue reading 1997+20: WhISH
Best of 2016
Childish Gambino “Awaken, My Love!” (Glassnote) Vicky Chow A O R T A (New Amsterdam) King We Are King (King Creative) Laura Mvula The Dreaming Room (Sony · RCA) Holly Roadfeldt The Preludes Project (Ravello) Solange A Seat at the Table (Saint · Columbia) Esperanza Spalding Emily’s D+Evolution (Concord) reissues · remasters · restorations · box sets… Continue reading Best of 2016
1996+20: Coupling
“Coupling” (1996) is a section from the score to Woo: Cases of Bloodletting and Natural Selection, a multimedia work by Liminal Zoo Theatre (Derek Mohamed and Tracy Renee Stafford, co-creators). It was heard as a live mix and provided the accompaniment to silent onstage action as well as prerecorded spoken word passages. It is a drone… Continue reading 1996+20: Coupling
Best of 2015
Some great new discoveries and otherwise the usual company in abundance. John Adams Absolute Jest · Grand Pianola Music San Francisco Symphony · Michael Tilson Thomas · John Adams (SFS Media) Bang on a Can All Stars Field Recordings (Cantaloupe) eighth blackbird Filament (Cedille) Mahan Esfahani Time Present and Time Past (Archiv) Morton Feldman ·… Continue reading Best of 2015
Boogie Dedication
The Salsoul Orchestra ft. Loleatta Holloway | Seconds Linda Williams | City Living Stephanie Mills | You Can’t Run from My Love Esther Williams | I’ll Be Your Pleasure Odyssey | Inside Out Pleasure | Nothin’ to It Unlimited Touch | I Hear Music in the Streets Kool & the Gang | Steppin’ Out Prince… Continue reading Boogie Dedication
An Evening with Barrière and Saariaho
My review for I Care If You Listen.
Best of 2014
John Adams, The Gospel According to the Other Mary – Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Master Chorale, Gustavo Dudamel John Luther Adams, Become Ocean – Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot D’Angelo and The Vanguard, Black Messiah Morton Feldman, String Quartet No. 1 – FLUX Quartet Flying Lotus, You’re Dead! Philip Glass, The Complete Piano Etudes – Maki… Continue reading Best of 2014
Like It’s 1994/95: Uhuru
A recurring introspective retrospective of my music as it sounded twenty years earlier. In early 1994, I took my first trip to Europe, spending a week in Lyon where my music was heard at a university dance festival as well as in the subway for a pop up freestyle contemporary dance event. I spent the… Continue reading Like It’s 1994/95: Uhuru
EL MAHBOOB 