Life and Death in Jon Hassell’s Fourth World
A longtime devotee goes back through more than four decades of Hassell’s music and talks with co-producer Jeff Rona about the ‘City’ sessions, the self-sampling, and the posthumous ‘Music Is Invisible.’
Jazz + Electronics
Mark Isham’s Harnessed Noise
On ‘At the Carousel Club,’ Mark Isham turns a wall of vintage synthesizers, Nels Cline, and a string quartet loose, all while keeping the editor in his head at bay.
The Warm, Cosmic Company of megiapa
On megiapa’s ‘Intentions,’ voice notes from her grandmother, her mother, and her closest friends drift through the synth haze, a family album cut to beats.
Peter Gall's Long Way Around the Drum Kit
The German drummer, a member of Web Web and Subtone, discusses 'Drum Seeds,' an album of drums, vintage synthesizers, and spring reverb made alone after his label asked him for drums and nothing else.
Starting at Square Twenty-Seven — Nick Fraser's 'Areas'
On 'Areas,' his trio's third album, Nick Fraser brings Messiaen-inflected harmony, electroacoustic interludes shaped by John Kameel Farah, and a compositional vocabulary deepened by eleven years of playing with saxophonist Tony Malaby and pianist Kris Davis.
Ghost Notes from Wyoming — Caroline Davis's 'Fallows'
In conversation about 'Fallows,' an album made alone in a Wyoming cabin, Caroline Davis reflects on the ancestral figures who accompanied her during the residency, the saxophone techniques she invented in solitude, and an advocacy practice devoted to carceral justice and gender equity in jazz.
Whose Sound Is Whose? The Collective Method of SML
The LA quintet's second album, 'How You Been', unfolds through the distillation of live improvisations into moments where individual voices dissolve into collective sound.
Jeremy Rose and the Open Sound of Australian Improvisation
The Sydney saxophonist's album 'Infinity II' emerges from fully improvised sessions with no charts, no discussion, and no overdubs—what Rose describes as humanist minimalism, where four musicians function like a living system.
Jordan McLean's JMMR Turns Intentional Chaos into Avant-Rave
The Antibalas trumpeter discusses how he built the album 'Resistance is Fertile' from beatbox demos, synchronized click tracks, and improvised layers, resulting in sounds that sit somewhere between Ornette Coleman and Death Grips.
Stephan Thelen Warms Up to Musical Mathematics
On the album Worlds in Collision, the mathematician-turned-musician fragments voices and field recordings according to the same geometric principles that govern his guitar compositions.
Web Web's Blueprint for Spontaneous Kosmische Jazz
Roberto Di Gioia of the German jazz collective Web Web explains his philosophy of treating music "like a newborn baby," and why, when recording their sixth album, 'Plexus Plexus,' less preparation led to deeper focus.
Imagination is the Instrument — A Conversation with Josh Johnson
The acclaimed saxophonist discusses genre fluidity, Wayne Shorter's wisdom, and why limitations can unlock creativity on his adventurous new album 'Unusual Object.'