If you perk up when you hear the phrase “Bandcamp Friday,” then you probably already know that its 25th iteration arrives November 4. For 24 hours, the digital retailer passes along its usual share of sales revenue to the independent artists and labels whose work has made the platform such a success. (Epic Games purchased […]
Tag: John McCowen
Posted inMusic
John McCowen brings the contrabass clarinet into extraordinary territories
John McCowen has made a career of transforming the contrabass clarinet into an instrument all his own. Born in Carbondale and now based in Reykjavik, Iceland, the composer got involved with music as a hardcore vocalist in the mid-2000s, then spent several years playing saxophone and flute with stoner outfit Tweak Bird before turning his […]
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The 2020 Frequency Festival announces a lineup of world-class experimental music
Highlights of the 2020 Frequency Festival include a fusion of Carnatic music and jazz, a solo vocal piece for Diamond Reynolds, and programs of work by Eliane Radigue and Annea Lockwood.
Posted inMusic
John McCowen shares his research on the contrabass clarinet with a riveting new solo album
Although clarinetist John McCowen is a founding member of the Chicago art-rock band Wei Zhongle, I only encountered his playing long after he moved to California for graduate studies at Mills College. Earlier this year his contributions to a tape by the Vibrating Skull Trio knocked me out; his overblown lines push things into the […]
Posted inMusic
Thanks to their refined interplay Vibrating Skull Trio are more than just another noise group
My faith in Chicago’s improvised and experimental music scene is regularly renewed by a number of factors, but the most important is its reliable infusion of new blood. Bassist Eli Namay and drummer Phillip Sudderberg have been playing out for a couple of years, but I’m only now beginning to catch up with them. This […]