What I'm listening to: Spring/Summmer 2024 edition
My students often ask me what I’m listening to and, unsurprisingly, I listen to a lot of music – where do I even begin?
So, dear pianist, I leave that responsibility to you…
The list below is a collection of some of my favourite releases of the year, recent discoveries, and perennial favourites that have seen a lot of rotation recently.
I’ve broadly grouped my suggestions according to ‘sort of’ genres, as, you know, most of you will probably want to skip some of the punk and hardcore records.
Hopefully, I’ll post these maybe 2-3 times a year, at the end of every term.
Happy mooching!
Jazz, Improvisation, Chanson
Tomeka Reid Quartet
New York-based jazz powerhouse, led by cellist and composer Tomeka Reid. Her new album is about to drop, so in the meantime I’m revisiting this belter.
Cecie McLorin Salvant – Melusine
Jazz, vaudeville, blues, chanson and folk all crushed together in a concept album telling the story of Mélusine, a folkloric heroine who turns into a half-snake every Saturday.
Invincible Syncopations: The New Ragtime Music of Vincent Matthew Johnson
Beautiful contemporary ragtime compositions. Feels both in keeping with the tradition and yet also completely fresh.
Vijay Iyer – Compassion
The latest album from probably my favourite jazz pianist in the world right now. One of his best sets.
Espen Erikson Trio – Never Ending January
Very stripped back, melody-forward Nordic jazz. The album title seems fitting for this year.
Shinya Fukumori Trio – For 2 Akis
Sumptuously sparse drummer-led jazz trio.
SOL SOL – Almost All Things Considered
This hits all my sweet spots – free jazz, distorted guitar, gravelly baritone sax. Yes please.
Ralph Towner – Solstice
A classic. A beautiful, blissed out Sunday morning kind of record.
Folk, World, Songwriter
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
Acoustic solo album from Portishead frontwoman. If you love Portishead, this does not disappoint.
Arthur Russell – Iowa Dream
I’m not much of a Russell devotee, but I really clicked with this collection of posthumously released demos from the electronic pioneer.
Jake Xexes Fussell – Good and Green Again
This has been rotation while I wait for Jake’s new album. Wonderful reinventions of mostly traditional American folk songs.
Kaia Kater – Strange Medicine
Phenomenal, endlessly inventive album of electic banjo-led psych-soul from the Canadian-Grenadian singer-songwriter.
Ballake Sissoko & Derek Gripper
This has heavy Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure vibes, which I am completely here for.
Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau
There’s an old-school straightforwardness to this record that I really admire. Get two world-class musicians – bluegrass mandolin virtuoso and vocalist Chris Thile, and jazz piano star Brad Mehldau – and just get them in a room to hang out and play some songs together. No frills needed.
Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans
A new reissue of one of my favourite records.
Lankum – Live in Dublin
Hypnotically dark and dirgey Irish folk quartet release their first live album.
Landless – Luireach
Traditional (mostly Irish) songs in wonderful four-part harmony.
Classical, Neoclassical, Minimalism
Christina Puhar – Wonder Woman
Stonking set of works by Renaissance and Baroque women composers, focusing on female perspectives.
Nduduzo Maakhathini – umGungundlovu
Awful unclassifiable album art, wonderful unclassifiable album.
Chopin’s Etudes, performed by Yunchan Lim
These days, it’s hard to hear anyone doing anything with Chopin’s Etudes that already hasn’t been done, but this record knocks it out of the park. It might be a genuinely perfect interpretation.
Joep Beving – Solipsism
This is a student recommendation that I unfairly described as ‘Chopin cosplay’ when I first heard it. Smouldering, sophisticated neoclassical piano with a very Romantic heart. A grower.
Kronos Quartet Performs Phillip Glass
Again, prompted by another student, I’ve been riding the Phillip Glass train a lot recently, and it’s led me to explore some of his lesser known work.
Sibelius Symphionies 1-7, recorded by the Berlin Philharmonic
The more I think about it, I think Sibelius is one of the best composers of symphonies period.
Illumine – Dear, Piano
I love blend of very straightforward piano harmonies here with some clever, atmospheric electronics.
John Luther Adams – Lines Made By Walking
A work for string quartet written with expansive harmonic fields made up of tempo canons with five, six, and seven independent layers. Time-bending transcendence.
YMUSIC – YMUSIC
Eclectic contemporary chamber ensemble. The players sound like they’re having so much fun. Definite early Penguin Cafe Orchestra feels.
Byrd: The Complete Keyboard Music
Elizabethan harpsichord reminds me so much of the Africa kora. Pretty much the techno music of its day (no, I will no expand further, just trust me on this).
Mompou – Musica callada
Mompou called this collection of exquisite piano miniatures, “Silent Music”. This won’t be to everyone’s taste, but these pieces are a revelation to me. I can’t wait to start playing them.
Lubomyr Melnyk – Corollaries
A legendary figure and the force of nature behind ‘continuous music’. Probably my favourite album of his.
Goldmund – The Malady of Elegance
This is about as quiet as music gets.
Stephen Scott – Vikings of the Sunrise: Fantasy on the Polynesian Star Navigators
A great example of Scott’s ‘bowed piano ensemble’ and its ethereal, layered sound.
Rock, Punk, Metal, Indie
75 Dollar Bill – Power Failures
Trance-inducing, microtonal desert rock duo. Their best effort isn’t on Spotify so this will have to do.
The Divine Comedy – Liberation
I have a lot of nostalgia for the very early Britpop era, and I keep thinking back to this record. What a strange, lovely thing it is.
Zu – Carboniferous
Avant-garde jazz metal rock thing. I’m quite partial to a bit of horror, and the rhythms here are just so heavy and brutal.
Big Thief – U.F.O.F.
It’s taken a while for Big Thief to grow on me, I’ve found some of their stuff a bit underwrought, but the openness and intelligence of their approach has won me over. These are songs that are totally comfortable in themselves. A good example on how most of the time, nothing extra is needed.
The Mountain Goats – Get Lonely
I don’t know why but I always associate this album with summer, even though it’s explicitly about the pain of loneliness. There’s something about the mid-tempo, languid feel about the songs and production.
Pissed Jeans – Half Divorced
I did warn you.
Metz – Up On Gravity Hill
Tense, repetitive industrial rock. Good album to hit the treadmill to.
Protomartyr – Formal Growth In The Desert
Another beautifully mixed suite of post-punk goth-Americana from one of my favourite rock bands. Also – check out the video for Elimination Dances.
The Chisel – What A Fucking Nightmare
Straight up, pure punk.
Experimental, Ambient, Electronic
Max De Wardener – Music for Detuned Pianos
As covered in The Sunday Listen.
Forest Swords – Bolted
Bleak, haunting electronica that was presumably recorded in a haunted steel fabrication plant, at least that’s what it feels like...
Patha Du Prince – Black Noise
Great, catchy compositions, mostly in house style. The subtle rhythm and quirky percussion work is a highlight.
Rival Consoles – Now Is
Lots and lots of warped, woozy, densely layered synthisisers. Surprisingly warm, emotional and euphoric.
Marashiro Takahasi – Humid Sun
This at times feels like hold music for a game console’s menu screen, but I am strangely compelled.
Harold Budd – The Pavilion of Dreams
This classic 1976 recording is still strangely beautiful and unlike other ambient music recorded since.