When you’re a young composer, perhaps your most formidable problem is not just learning your craft but getting your music played. To solve that problem two Bard College undergrads — Dylan Mattingly and David Blum — put together a band of fellow Bard musicians. Sixteen years later that band still thrives, performing the works of many contemporary composers. And Mattingly’s own music has since been commissioned and presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Ojai Music Festival. Now he makes his debut on Nonesuch Records with the release of ‘The Wild Heart.’
‘The Wild Heart’
Early Reviews Are In
Book Launch in Brooklyn: ‘The Midnight Special’
UPDATED:
The New York Times says Colin Asher is “a calm and sophisticated storyteller who picks you up and sets you back down in places you didn’t anticipate.” Its book critic Dwight Garner calls “The Midnight Special” “a fog-piercing down-bound train of a book” that “underlines sheer human resiliency.” The Observer says Asher’s new book will “transform” the way you see art. Booklist calls it “mesmerizing.” Publisher’s Weekly likes it; Alex Gershman dives deep into the book on his YouTube Channel; Maurice Chammah drills down on Ike White, one of the book’s featured musicians, in a discussion with Asher at The Marshall Project. There is also my own early notice.
Petit Cabinet #7: ‘Just Two More Times to Sleep’
A simple poem becomes an otherworldly love song with the collaboration of a singer and composer.
THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is coming soon . . .
It Probes the Secret Prison History of American Music
Colin Asher, author of the critically acclaimed biography of Nelson Algren “Never a Lovely So Real,” now focuses on five emblematic figures — Huddle Ledbetter, Elmo Hope, Johnny Cash, Ike White, and Tupac Shakur — as he explores the influence of incarceration on blues artists, jazz musicians, country singers, rock’n’rollers, and hip-hop creators.
Swiss Composer-Musician-Videographer Takes a Bow
They’re celebrating Steff Signer’s 75th birthday at the Palace tonight in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
‘Don’t Forget My Old Soul’
When I saw this eye-popping video for the first time, it bowled me over. I’ve rewatched it several times and am still marveling at it. But is this work a piece of AI-slop? Is it “kind of meaningless in [its] calculated reality,” as Doug McLennan has written of the genre? Or is it more than that?
Don’t Know What I Did to Deserve It
Steff Signer / Cabinet Music XII — Twelve More Bars to Go
Steff Signer: Cabinet Music XI
Concept & Music: Steff Signer * Photography: Mario Baronchelli *
Acrostic Poetry: Florian Vetsch * Cornet Introduction: Markus Breuss *
Poetry Recitation: Jaswant Hanspal
‘Talk Dirty to Me’
Postmodern Jukebox is a helluva pick-me-up for any day of the week.
This Was My Song — It Is Ours Now More Than Ever
Long, long ago — in 1970 to be precise — the Berkeley radio station KPFA borrowed a collage of mine for the cover of its guide. I had titled it “This Is My Song,” thinking of it as an obituary for the 1960s.
Awards Mean Little Beyond Publicity
Are awards the staff of life? Of course not. But they certainly seem like food for the hungry.
My Books
Several books of poems are published by Moloko Print and Stadtlichter Presse in bilingual (American-German) editions, and by Cold Turkey Press in handmade chapbooks. “The Z Collection” appeared in three editions, by AC Books, Blue Wind Press, and Moloko Print.”
Steff Signer / Cabinet Music — Frozen Duck Tears
Concept & Music Vocals & Moniphonium Inventions:
Steff Signer, Switzerland
Photography: Mario Baronchelli, Switzerland
«Mother of Transgression» Poetry: Florian Vetsch
Brass Instruments & Tibetan: «singi»
Cymbals: Markus Breuss, Spain
Electric Guitar Explosion: Chanan Hanspal, England
Viola: David Schnee
Recitation Text: Liz Foulis, Scotland
Recitation Poetry: Jaswant Hanspal
The Late Brion Gysin (1916-1986) Is Having a Moment
Over the years he had many, in fact, although few of them lived up to his expectations. But never mind. An updated model of his and Ian Sommerville’s Dreamachine was recently featured in a symposium on art, AI, and the humanities here in New York; and another will be installed in London at the Tate Modern, in the exhibition “Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet,”which will run from the end of this month (Nov. 28) to June 1, 2025. Meanwhile, Roger Knoebber has brought Gysin back to life in a shaggy, unconventional book-length profile, “Hysteresis.”
New York City Opera
Outdoor Puccini Celebration in the Heart of Manhattan
Huge crowds turned out for two boffo evenings of concert excerpts from Puccini’s operas. It was part of Bryant Park’s free, summer Picnic Performances. Music was provided by New York City Opera, “famously dubbed ‘The People’s Opera’ by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia at its founding in 1943.'” I attended on a beautiful, balmy Saturday evening.
Here to Entertain You
My staff of thousands is curious to know whether the music is actually being played or dubbed.
Make of It What You Will
Other Minds Always Offers a Musical Change of Pace
Thirty-one years after its founding, Other Minds, the brainchild of Charles Amirkhanian and Jim Newman, is still going strong as a presenter of experimental contemporary music with an emphasis on “the most original, eccentric, and underrepresented creative voices.” Here’s a presentation of Linda Bouchard and the Ensemble TriOcular+.