Again, XEN RADIO opens and closes with the music of Veli Kujala and Ben Johnston. Their work is joined this week by Fretless Brothers, Jute Gyte, Löis Lancaster, Billy Stiltner, and Eliza Brown.
Xen Radio, Episode 12
Author: Jude Thomas
Xen Radio, Episode 11
The first episode of June featured mostly new music I learned of since I started producing XEN RADIO — Elk Minister, Veli Kujala, and Elaine Walker are recent additions to my own awareness of xenharmonic music. And they complemented the music I had known about for a while, such as Cage’s Solos for Voice and the King Gizzard tracks.
Xen Radio, Episode 10
Over the next several weeks (now until the June 25 episode) XEN RADIO will be featuring sections of two major microtonal works: Ben Johnston’s String Quartet No. 1, Nine Variations, and Veli Kujala’s Hyperchromatic Counterpoint. Kujala’s work will be opening each show, and Johnston’s will be closing each show; sometimes, you might hear one of those movements among the the middle of the show. This week was also the first track we’ve heard by Harry Partch — who we’ll be hearing more of in the weeks to come — and three tracks from Brendan Byrnes album Room Tapes.
Xen Radio, Episode 9
Episode 9 is juxtaposition of two works, Tombo por Lou, composed and recorded by John Schneider on his recent album, Just National Guitar, and Mileece’s electronic music album, Formations. The show goes back and forth between the Mileece’s tracks and the movements of Schneider’s work. There’s something strangely similar about these two works, despite there obvious differences.
Continue readingXen Radio, Episode 8
Occasionally, XEN RADIO will take the time to feature a longer work. Episode 8 was just such an episode, dedicated to Terry Riley’s 1975 work for electronic keyboard, Descending Moonshine Dervishes. To fill out the rest of the hour, we paid another visit to some of Easley Blackwood’s Microtonal Etudes.
Continue readingXen Radio, Special Edition: The Mercury Tree
For this special edition of XEN RADIO, I was joined in the KPISS RV by the mircotonal rock band, The Mercury Tree. They’re in the midst of a tour all over the country and I was luck enough for them to make the time to visit the studio and to curate a playlist of xenharmonic/microtonal tracks that they love.
Continue readingXen Radio, Episode 7
Xenharmonic and microtonal music is more than “classical” experimentations and deviations from 12-tone equal temperament (in fact, there’s really quite a bit to say about how loaded the term “microtonal music” truly is — but that’s a discussion for another day), so this episode is almost completely filled with tracks from the rock, jazz, and other streams of xenharmonic music.
Continue readingXen Radio, Episode 6
After a break of one week, XEN RADIO returned to the air with an eclectic mix of mostly “non-classical” tracks of microtonal music.
Continue readingXen Radio, Episode 5
The first five weeks of Xen Radio are done. This week’s episode featured larger works (20+ minutes) such as Georg Friedrich Haas’ Limited Approximations and Ben Johnston’s String Quartet No. 6, along with a couple short electronic pieces by Dan Stearns.
Continue readingXen Radio, Episode 4
This week’s Xen Radio program was dedicated to microtonal piano music. It featured a few generations of piano music, ranging from the early quarter tone music of Ives and Wyschnegradsky to Kyle Gann’s 2011 work, Echoes of Nothing.
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