On the Record rounds up details about new and pending recordings of interest to the new-music community: contemporary classical music and jazz, electronic and electroacoustic music, and idioms for which no clever genre name has been coined, on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, digital-only formats… you name it.

This list of upcoming release dates is culled from press releases, Amazon and other online record stores, social-media posts, and similar resources. Dates cited correspond to U.S. release of physical recordings where applicable, and are subject to change. These listings are not comprehensive—nor could they be! To submit a forthcoming recording for consideration, email information to steve@nationalsawdust.org.

L-R: JP Schlegelmilch, Jonathan Goldberger, Jim Black
Photographs: Reuben Radding/Peter Gannushkin/Emiliano Neri

Bandcamp urges music lovers to rock the vote

The online music-sales web platform Bandcamp is no stranger to activism. Back in February 2017, the company responded to the Trump administration’s “immigrant ban” by pledging all of its profits (roughly 12 percent of each sale) to the ACLU. The response was overwhelming, with record-breaking sales and countless artists and labels donating their own profits, as well. Then in August 2017, Bandcamp repeated the gesture, this time responding to the Trump administration’s tweeted declaration of discrimination against transgender troops serving in the military by directing its profits to the Transgender Law Center, which according to its mission statement “changes law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression.” Again, the gesture sparked an overwhelming response.

Today, as we watch yet another ongoing drama with the potential for altering history unfold in Washington, D.C., Bandcamp once again is taking action. This time company’s objective is spur voter registration by providing an easy link to a voter registration form on its own site, and also by donating its profits for 24 hours (which started at midnight Pacific Time this morning) to the Voting Rights Project. A complete explanation is posted on the Bandcamp Daily blog, but here are the salient passages:

[W]e want to help protect the right to vote itself, which is increasingly under attack by elected officials who seek to stay in power by undemocratically and illegally disenfranchising minorities, young people, and the poor. According to a recent study, 20 states have passed new, restrictive voting laws since 2010, which include arbitrary cutoff dates for early voters, unnecessary burdens on the voter registration process, and a tightening of voter ID requirements. Now more than ever, we need to make sure that every person who wants to exercise their right to vote can do so easily, without hassle, anxiety, or obstruction.

And so today (from midnight to midnight Pacific Time), for any purchase you make on Bandcamp, we will donate 100% of our share of the proceeds towards the Voting Rights Project, a program led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to advance and protect the right to vote and ensure that right is afforded equally to all.

Kudos to Bandcamp for taking action so consistently, even in the face of users who complain that the company should “stay neutral” and “just sell music.” Responding in August 2017 to precisely those demands, Bandcamp offered this response:

To those people we say this: an attack against any marginalized community is an attack against all of us. We believe we have a moral obligation to oppose such attacks, and we will always happily embrace the amazing opportunity we have to rally others to do the same.

Full disclosure: National Sawdust Tracks is among the many, many, many labels and artists who sell music on Bandcamp. But that wasn’t the case when National Sawdust Log helped to promote the August 2017 call to action, and had no bearing at all on the decision to cover this one. Hey, just go buy some music from someone today. and you’ll be doing your part to shape the nation’s future. Have a look at the list of new releases lower down this page for some ideas of where you might start.

Laraaji (center) with (clockwise from left) Arji OceAnanda, Linda Beecroft, Michael Gerner, and Christian Havins
Photograph courtesy Flying Moonlight

Laraaji’s Excellent Acid Adventure

One new item you might consider during your Bandcamp trawl is a new release from Laraaji, newly announced and due Oct. 12 on the Flying Moonlight label. Arrive Without Leaving features the legendary Harlem-based meditative musician and laughter-therapy advocate performing with regular collaborator Arji OceAnanda and the Austin, TX-based synth trio Dallas Acid—musicians Linda Beecroft, Michael Gerner, and Christian Havins.

The recording, made the day after the artists shared an Ad Hoc bill at National Sawdust in February, was culled from six hours of exploration at Vibromonk Studio in Williamsburg, and beautifully weds Laraaji’s trademark autoharp and vocals and Arji’s rustic percussion with Dallas Acid’s synthesizer-and-Mellotron matrix. The album will be available on vinyl and in various digital file formats, and will also be available on streaming services; CDs will be sold exclusively at live shows.

Pre-order Arrive Without Leaving in digital formats on Bandcamp.

Aizuri Quartet
Photograph courtesy New Amsterdam

New This Week

Aizuri Quartet – Blueprinting – music by Gabriella Smith, Caroline Shaw, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Lembit Beecher, and Paul Wiancko (New Amsterdam)
Ben Bennett and Michael Foster – Lives (Anticausal Sounds)
Andrew Bernstein – An Exploded View of Time (Hausu Mountain)
Daniel Corral – Polytope (Orenda)
Du Yun – Dinosaur Scars – International Contemporary Ensemble (New Focus)
Jlin – Autobiography (Planet Mu)
Lorelei Ensemble – Impermanence – music from the Codex Calixtinus and Turin Manuscript, and by Guillaume de Fay, Toru Takemitsu, and Peter Gilbert (Sono Luminus)
Shai Maestro – The Dream Thief (ECM)
Brian Marsella Trio – Outspoken–The Music of the Legendary Hassan (Tzadik)
Lansing McLoskey – Zealot Canticles – The Crossing/Donald Nally (Innova)
Cory Smythe – Circulate Susanna (Pyroclastic)
Christopher Trapani – Water Lines – performances by Talea Ensemble, Longleash Trio, Marilyn Nonken, and JACK Quartet (New Focus)
Tashi Wada with Yoshi Wada and Friends – FRKWYS Vol. 14 – Nue (RVNG Intl.)

Coming Soon

(☆ – new addition this week)

October 5

Jakob Bro – Bay of Rainbows (ECM)
Rimarimba – Below the Horizon (Freedom to Spend)
Stefano Scodanibbio – Alisei – Daniele Roccato, Ludus Gravis Ensemble/Tonino Battista (ECM)
Sam Slater – Wrong Airport Ghost (Bedroom Community)
Massimo Toniutti – El Museo Selvatico (Black Truffle)
Jörg Widmann – Arche – Marlis Petersen, Thomas E. Bauer, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg/Kent Nagano (ECM)

October 10

Clara de Asís – Without – performed by Erik Carlson and Greg Stuart (elsewhere; related Log article here.)
Jürg Frey – 120 Pieces of Sound (elsewhere; related Log article here.)
Stefan Thut – about – performed by Ryoko Akama, Stephen Chase, Eleanor Cully, Patrick Farmer, Stefan Thut, and lo wie (elsewhere; related Log article here.)

October 12

Philip Corner – EXTREEMIZMS early & late – performances by Silvia Tarozzi, Deborah Walker, Rhodri Davies, and Philip Corner (Unseen Worlds)
Wayne Horvitz – Those Who Remain (National Sawdust Tracks)
☆ Laraaji/Arji OceAnanda/Dallas Acid – Arrive Without Leaving (Flying Moonlight)
☆ Tyshawn Sorey – Pillars (Firehouse 12)

October 19

Eli Keszler– Stadium (Shelter Press)
Aaron Parks Little Big – Aaron Parks Little Big (Ropeadope)

October 21

Paula Matthusen and Olivia Valentine – between systems and grounds (Carrier)

October 26

Peter Gordon – Eighteen (Foom)

November 2

Ian William Craig – Thresholder (130701)

November 9

☆ David Dominique – Mask (Orenda)
☆ Forever House – Eaves (Infrequent Seams)
Michele Mercure – Beside Herself (Freedom to Spend)
Irmin Schmidt – 5 Klavierstücke (Mute)
☆ Jeff Snyder – Concerning the Nature of Things – performances by Caroline Shaw, Susan Alcorn, Gabriel Crouch, Mivos Quartet, Sideband, and members of Wet Ink Ensemble and So Percussion (Carrier)
Jeffrey Zeigler – The Sound of Science – compositions by Graham Reynolds, Foday Musa Suso, Yuka C. Honda, Paola Prestini, Sarah Lipstate, Felipe Pérez Santiago, and Maja S.K. Ratkje (National Sawdust Tracks)

November 30

☆ Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves – The Best of Your Lies (Carrier)