Soundcheck

Vocalist and composer Meredith Monk is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose work involves music, dance, film, theatre, and now: biology meets anthropology. In her recent large-scale work, Cellular Songs, musical forms evoke biological processes as layering, replication, division, and mutation in a “deeply affecting meditation on the nature of the biological cell as a metaphor for human society” (Financial Times). Through this work, Monk takes the microscopic unit of the cell, then projects and expands it as a proposal for “an alternative possibility of human behavior, where the values are cooperation, interdependence and kindness,” (much like how a cell functions, minus the kindness part.) Using their voices-as-instruments, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble perform some of these Cellular Songs, along with violin, piano and keyboard, in-studio. [From the Archives, 2018.] -Caryn Havlik Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble perform "Indra's Net" at the Park Avenue Armory, Sept. 23-Oct. 6 Watch the session via YouTube:

The New York band Crumb creates playful and brooding swirls of sounds, somewhere at a crossroads of psychedelia, pop, jazz, and rock. Their latest album AMAMA (Grandmother) [self-released via their own label Crumb Records], experiments with textures and synthscapes: glitchy pitch-shifted vocals, cell phone recordings, nautical blips, sax mouthpiece solos, blasted drum samples, and piano strings dampened with Silly Putty. With lyrics whose meaning may emerge later, Crumb’s haunting music winds up being far from gentle or ‘chill’ and explores fraught encounters and transience, while striving to be carefree and searching for connection. Crumb plays a live set, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: 1. The Bug 2. Side by Side 3. Genie

American classical pianist and educator Christopher O’Riley has spent his career gleefully ignoring musical boundaries and playing whatever turned him on. In addition to playing Beethoven, Busoni, Ravel, Scriabin, and Liszt, he’s also arranged music by Nick Drake, Nirvana, Elliot Smith, and Radiohead; he leads masterclasses covering nearly every aspect of piano playing and repertoire from 1600 to 2020. Christopher O’Riley’s latest album is of J.S. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, done in a distinctly personal, even idiosyncratic style. He presents his years-long study of the Preludes & Fugues by Bach and a recent arrangement of a classic popular song, in-studio. Set list: 1. Bach: Prelude & Fugue #1 in C major, BWV 846 2. Bach: Prelude & Fugue #4 in C# minor, BWV 849 3."Over the Rainbow"

Mehrnam Rastegari is a New York-based master of the traditional Persian spike fiddle, the kamancheh.  She is also a composer, writing film scores and ensemble works that draw on both Eastern and Western musical traditions.  She moved here from Iran in 2022 and formed the Mehrnam Rastegari Traditional Persian Band, a group of New York locals which features traditional Iranian instruments kamancheh, qanoun, daf, and vocals.  Rastegari leads that band in music she’s written, along with traditional Persian, Arabic, and Kurdish music. The Mehrnam Rastegari Traditional Persian Band plays in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: 1. Velveleh 2. Khosha Howraman 3. Show charay

Guitarist, composer, and teacher Benjamin Verdery seems to know everybody who’s ever picked up the instrument. Ben is a classical guitarist himself, but his musical friends include Andy Summers of the Police, the fingerpicking virtuoso Leo Kottke, flamenco legend Paco Pena, guitarist Bryce Dessner of the indie rock band The National – the list goes on and on. Lots of contemporary composers have written works for him, and Ben himself has written a wide range of works. He’s filled a 40 year career with a wild assortment of collaborations and collaborators. Recently, Ben emailed to say he was retiring next year, so it seemed high time that we invite him back here before he jets off to Hawaii. Benjamin Verdery plays some of his own pieces from his collection called Some Towns and Cities, and yes, at least one of those towns is in Hawaii.  Set list: 1. Capitola, CA 2. Keanae, HI 3. Milwaukee, WI

Christopher Rountree is probably best known as the conductor of the LA-based new music ensemble known as Wild Up. Over the last 14 years he and that band have played with Bjork, done live film scores to movie screenings, and embarked on a multiyear recording project of the long forgotten and now rediscovered music of Julius Eastman. But Christopher Rountree is also a composer, and his latest work is called 3 BPM. It seems like it might be his reply to the rise of AI in music, because he describes the piece as “a musical framework for being together.” In an open score that could be part map, and part game, the ensemble performs the entirety of 3 BPM in-studio.  Watch "3BPM": The ensemble for this New York in-studio includes:  Christopher Rountree, voice / synthCatherine Brookman, voice / synth  Nadia Sirota, viola  Adam Tendler, pianoPhong Tran, electronicsTaylor Levine, electric guitarRachel Beetz, flute 3 BPM by Christopher Rountree with Wild Up | HOCKET | Nadia Sirota

Brooklyn native Bette Smith reconnects with her Memphis and Mississippi roots on her latest, "Goodthing", full of songs that show off her voice -rich and raspy- and her band’s vintage soul and blues-rock sound. But the album also speaks to Smith’s spiritual side, embracing the gospel music she heard in church and around the house every weekend – like Mahalia Jackson and Reverend James Cleveland. Bette Smith and her band play up that southern rock/soul sound, inspire determination, and offer a prayer, in-studio. Set list: 1. Whup 'Em Good 2. Darkest Hour 3. Eternal Blessings

The band called LA LOM is a trio of LA natives who play an instrumental blend of twangy guitar melodies over Latin rhythms like the cumbia and bolero, drawing on the sounds of their city. The band got their start as a hotel band playing soul covers, and morphed into warm, vibe-heavy rock that blends Mexican, Cuban, and Peruvian traditions alongside classic jazz, rockabilly, and soul. LA LOM – Los Angeles League of Musicians - who are Zac Sokolow (Guitar), Jake Faulkner (Bass), and Nicholas Baker (Drums/Percussion), play music that may touch on Cumbia, Chicha, and Americana, from their full-length self-titled album, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: 1. Danza de LA LOM 2. San Fernando Rose 3. Angels Point

Angélica Garcia has been on a journey – a musical journey – from “gothic storytelling, and swampy, blues-inflected rock” (Schaefer, 2016) to dance-floor Latin pop bangers with moody electronics, sung mostly in Spanish on her latest release, Gemelo. It’s a record that “untangles the Mexican and Salvadoran roots of the Californian-born artist, dismantles the cycles which help and harm, and calls upon the spirits of her ancestors for its power”, (Line of Best Fit). From throbbing, industrial rock that sounds like a sci-fi magic ritual to clublike textures couching empowerment anthems, Angélica Garcia performs her latest tunes, in-studio. Set list: 1. Juanita 2. Gemini 3. Paloma

Cinder Well is the musical project of singer and songwriter Amelia Baker, who is from California but who fell under the spell of Irish folk music and eventually moved to County Clare on Ireland’s west coast. Cinder Well’s music often has a haunted, nocturnal quality – her 2020 album No Summer was widely referred to as “doom folk” - where the drone, darkness, and space may overlap with that in the metal world. Her latest record, Cadence, is full of evocative, often elusive imagery and her quietly intense vocals.  Set list: 1. Two Heads, Grey Mare 2. Overgrown 3. From Behind the Curtain