KBCS

In this episode, Flotation Device takes its deepest dive yet into Kate Gentile’s massive Find Letter X album, positioning it in the Braxtonian lineage that combines the highly-structured compositional techniques of Carter, Nancarrow and the spectralists with the improvisational traditions of jazz and rock. Live electronic music is another recurring theme, with Sylvie Courvoisier’s new double-trumpet sextet merging Nate Wooley and Wadada Leo Smith with ambient layers supplied by Christian Fennesz. Roger Reynolds builds a hybrid sound world using a computer and Irvine Arditti’s violin, while Yikii mixes voice and junkyard sonorities into a crackling fixed-media specimen. Our 50 years ago in the avant-garde feature traces it all back to Stockhausen’s legendary live electronic ensemble, featured in its final recording which combines the sound world of analog-era electronics with traditional South Asian drumming. We also revisit Daníel Bjarnason’s spatially-extended orchestral piece From Space I Saw Earth in its first studio recording, while Xiaoyong Chen offers his personal brand of East meets West, and the bands Ni and Mendoza Hoff Revels deliver their particular styles of aggressive avant-fusion. A bit of John Cage by way of a new anthology of modern works for horn trio rounds out the playlist.