Journal
- Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Composer Donnacha Dennehy, whose piece Land of Winter, performed by Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson, was released earlier this month on Nonesuch, shares some insight on the work, which explores the subtleties of Ireland’s seasons via twelve connected sections representing the months of the year, in a new essay. "It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons," he says, "from the shorter days of grey or piercing light in the winter to the warmer but mercurial light of summer days that at solstice stretch almost to midnight. I like this play between light and time, and it is the major inspiration behind the piece."
Journal Topics: Artist Essays, Artist News
- Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Emmylou Harris's new album, Hard Bargain, is out now. She performs at Bowery Ballroom tonight and on the Late Show with David Letterman tomorrow. The Washington Post says Hard Bargain is "lovely and understated and will only further Harris’s reputation as a paragon of gentle dignity and forbearance." USA Today gives it four stars and calls it "exquisite." Paste says Harris continues to create "some of the best country-influenced music being recorded today." Country Standard Time says the album "marks another triumphant recording in a career filled with memorable work." In a new video, Harris talks about her songwriting and recording the new album; watch it here.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, Reviews, VideoTuesday, April 26, 2011James Farm, the self-titled debut album from the collaborative band featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland, is out now. The album uses traditional acoustic jazz quartet instrumentation for its song-based approach to jazz and incorporates the members’ myriad influences: rock, soul, folk, classical, electronica. The New York Times calls it "a model of dazzling proficiency." The Times of London and the Financial Times give the album four stars.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, ReviewsTuesday, April 26, 2011Nonesuch releases 2x5 Remixed, a new, three-track digital EP, available at iTunes, featuring the winning entries in the 2010 contest to remix the third movement from Steve Reich's 2x5, as chosen by the composer. As Reich told the BBC World Service, there is a rich history of artists reinterpreting others' work, explaining: “Remixing is a modern take on variations." Bang on a Can performs 2x5 in an all-Reich concert at Carnegie Hall this Saturday.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsMonday, April 25, 2011Emmylou Harris, whose album Hard Bargain is due out tomorrow, is the subject of a feature profile in the New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure section, which says the new album "is suffused with kindly intimacy, acknowledging sorrows and reaching past them." The AP says her new songs are "up to her high standards." Harris also spoke with The Canadian Press and with the Los Angeles Times, which cites "her unwavering compassion throughout her career for the underdog, oppressed, the voiceless." The video for the song "Six White Cadillacs" has premiered on Garden & Gun, which says the album "packs a powerful, bluesy punch"; watch the video here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, VideoMonday, April 25, 2011With a week to go before the May 3 release of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás, you can now listen to the album in its entirety till release day on npr.org as an NPR First Listen. The title piece "is full of sounds and textures that are at once haunting and exhilarating," says NPR, with a performance by Irish singer Iarla O’Lionáird that creates "one of the best and most satisfying listening experiences of the year so far." Dawn Upshaw's performance of Dennehy's "ravishing song cycle" That the Night Come "shows off her tremendous range."
Journal Topics: Artist News, Web, RadioMonday, April 25, 2011Peter Lieberson, the composer of the highly acclaimed Neruda Songs, has died, following complications from lymphoma, at the age of 64. Lieberson wrote Neruda Songs, his setting of Pablo Neruda's sonnets, for his late wife, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, before her untimely passing in 2006. "I am so grateful for Neruda’s beautiful poetry," the composer said, "for although these poems were written to another, when I set them I was speaking directly to my own beloved, Lorraine.”
Journal Topics: Artist NewsFriday, April 22, 2011Joshua Redman joins The Bad Plus in residence at the Blue Note ... Sérgio and Odair Assad join Garrison Keillor for A Praire Home Companion live from NYC's Town Hall ... Alarm Will Sound performs 1969 in Denver ... Tony Allen concludes his North American tour in Minneapolis ... The Low Anthem has sold-out shows with Iron and Wine in DC and Georgia ... Jessica Lea Mayfield is in Texas ... Randy Newman plays SFJAZZ ... Fernando Otero tours Israel with vocalist/composer Sabrina Lastman ... Sara Watkins is in Michigan with the Decemberists ... and more ...
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend EventsFriday, April 22, 2011Emmylou Harris performed songs from her forthcoming album, Hard Bargain, at LA's El Rey Theatre last night, with Ryan Adams offering a surprise guest opening set. She performs at New York's Bowery Ballroom with another surprise special guest opener on Tuesday. Harris appeared on PBS's Tavis Smiley show earlier this week. "Harris is admired as much for her straightforward songwriting as for her expressive singing," says the show. "Forty years into her career, she's still doing both with ... Hard Bargain." Watch the show here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Video, TelevisionFriday, April 22, 2011k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang bring to a close their weeklong celebration of the UK release of their new album, Sing it Loud, with an appearance from lang on The Graham Norton Show tonight on BBC One and an encore presentation of their performance on Later ... With Jools Holland tonight on BBC Two. Last night, BBC Radio 2 In Concert aired a full concert from lang and the band; watch "I Confess" from the show here and see a whole gallery of photos from the event at nonesuch.com/media.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Video, TelevisionFriday, April 22, 2011As noted earlier this week in the Nonesuch Journal, Chris Thile and Michael Daves, whose debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, is due out May 10, have launched a new web site about the project. The site launched with two videos, including the first in a series of performance videos captured live at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City. Now comes the release of the latest video in the series: Thile and Daves performing Lester Flatt's "My Little Girl in Tennesse." Watch it here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Video, WebThursday, April 21, 2011Emmylou Harris brings the music of her forthcoming album, Hard Bargain, to LA's El Rey Theatre tonight. The Los Angeles Times says Harris, on the new album, "very firmly takes center stage with wistful, heartrending tunes." The Wall Street Journal, previewing her album release day show in NYC, says: "Her voice remains an open channel for otherworldly beauty, earthy and ethereal in equal measure, and her style retains a rootsy grounding even when she strays from the confines of country." Harris spoke with ESPN about her music and one of her other passions, baseball.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist NewsThursday, April 21, 2011Wanda Jackson hits the road for her second nationwide tour in support of her latest album, The Party Ain’t Over, which was produced by her friend Jack White. Jackson opens for the young British singer/songwriter Adele for nine sold-out performances in May and June. She says of these shows, “I was thrilled to learn that my music has been an influence on such a talent as Adele. I am looking forward to the concert tour with her. We’re gonna have a party!”
Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News