KBCS

Flotation Device celebrates John Cage’s 110th birthday with a retrospective look at this most radical and influential of all American mavericks. We touch on his role in the development of percussion, chance, noise and live electronic music, his invention of the prepared piano, and his innovations in graphic and indeterminate notation. We note his penchant for high-decibel musicmaking, while conceding the irony of his most famous composition being the “silent” one. Naturally we have a sentimental attachment to Cage’s years in the Northwest, which spawned four surviving compositions, each one a landmark of 20th century music. We'll hear all four, plus a representative sampling of his later work, including a newly-recorded choral piece dating from his final year. Performers include Carla Bley, Pacific Rims, dhrupad vocalist Amelia Cuni, a Balinese gamelan, a period instrument ensemble (of sorts), and Cage himself.

We’ll also pay our respects to the prematurely-departed Jaimie Branch. And our 50 years ago in the avant-garde feature examines three remarkable—and quite different—manifestations of Fall ‘72 experimentalism from Stockhausen, Penderecki and Miles Davis.