Claire Rousay Uses Dusk as Disquieting Relief
In A Little Death, Claire Rousay demonstrates through a fog of enveloping drones how disquieting a relief the night can be.
Bruce Miller
Bruce earned an MFA in fiction from Goddard College. He teaches college-level composition and literature. He has traveled, documenting music from India, Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, Vietnam, and elsewhere. He's published in Magnet, Rootsworld, Signal to Noise, The Old Time Herald, and The Oxford American.
Yasmine Hamdan Uses Pop As a Counterbalance to Tragedies
Yasmine Hamdan’s blend of centuries-old Lebanese musical influences with synthpop trimmings feels as natural as a worn pair of boots.
Patrick Shiroishi Possesses a Gift for Improvisation
Patrick Shiroishi’s new LP showcases his talent for improvisation in diverse settings and the effective use of his instrument to make assertive, bold social statements.
El León Pardo Offers a Celestial Reimagining of the Known
El León Pardo carves out new corners while slipping in a few nods to pre-colonial indigenous musical ideas, soaking them in reverb and layering on slippery grooves.
OHYUNG Finds Pop’s Most Delirious Possibilities
With You Are Always on My Mind, OHYUNG has gathered shards of ambient murk, pop’s most delirious possibilities, and huge, 4/4 slabs of percussion
Loraine James Uses Subtle Rhythms and Drones As Pop Songs
Loraine James harnesses Korg sequencers, Ableton redux-enhanced field tapes, and granular synths for whispered, subtle rhythms and drones as pop songs.
Sun Ra’s Astonishing 1970s Gig Finds Him in Full Flight
The relentless determination in the face of indifference and poverty makes celebratory gigs like this one from Sun Ra hard-won and vital now.
Trees Speak Sculpt the Desert’s Endless Landscape Out of Sound
Trees Speak’s attention to brevity alone on Timefold signals slightly less-chartered territory for music whose spaciousness seems so familiar.
Tashi Dorji’s Guitar Eradicates Western Notions of Authenticity
Experimentalist Tashi Dorji sometimes sounds like a kid discovering their first couple of chords on a guitar and ultimately heading for the fire pit.
Myriam Gendron Hovers Between Balladry and Freer Spaces
Myriam Gendron effortlessly houses old musical DNA in new musical organisms, bridging the original with the traditional to guarantee her music’s timelessness.
Abigail Lapell’s ‘Anniversary’ Is Mournful and Celebratory
Abigail Lapell navigates space somewhere between folk, classic country, and lullabies for songs that harness a productive disquiet on Anniversary.
Jlin’s Sonic Palette Defies Gravity and Genre on ‘Akoma’
On Jlin’s Akoma, composers long recognized for their innovations, such as Philip Glass, the Kronos Quartet, and Björk, are pulled into her orbit.