Articles by Electronica

Radio & Podcasts

Mark Isham: Analog Machines And A Jazzman's Breath

by Lawrence Peryer
October 3, 2026

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on trumpeter, composer, and synthesist Mark Isham. He's out now with At The Carousel Club, his first solo album in fifteen years, built around vintage analog synthesizers and a band that includes Nels Cline, Vinnie Colaiuta, and a string quartet. We talk about where the album's title comes from, his history with David Sylvian, and what it was like hearing the finished record on vinyl after sixteen hours of ...

Radio & Podcasts

Alexander Flood, Caixa Cabo, Butcher Brown, Emma-Jean Thackray, And More

by Tony Poole
November 22, 2024

Tony Poole plays a selection from the Jazz First Chart. The music is generally an indicator to what British jazz DJs typically play at their club nights and on their radio shows. It incorporates several sub-genres of up-tempo jazz and world music including Afro-Cuban jazz, Brazilian jazz, hard bop, nu-jazz, jazz house, broken beat, funk fusion, etc. The Jazz First Team regularly compile a weekly chart from the latest new releases and Bandcamp sales. Colin Curtis, the top and most ...

Radio & Podcasts

Michal Urbaniek, Jan Hammer, Lee Ritenour, Eddie Henderson and Adam holzman

by Len Davis
September 15, 2024

From the '70s Michal Urbaniak, Jan Hammer, Lee Ritenour, Eddie Henderson and The Tony Williams Lifetime. Trumpeter Mark Isham, Adam Holzman, drummer Rene Engel and Scott Henderson. Playlist Michal Urbaniak “Kuyaviak Goes Funky" from Fusion 3 (Columbia) 00:00 Jan Hammer “Bambu Forest" from Oh Yeah/em> (Nemperor) 08:26 Mark Isham “Right Off" from Miles Remembered: The Silent Way Sessions (Record Label) 16:52 Lee Ritenour “Captain Fingers" from Captain Fingers (Epic) 25:18 Eddie Henderson “Sunburst" from Sunburst (Blue Note) 33:44 ...

Radio & Podcasts

Hainbach: Crafting Soundscapes from Forgotten Relics

by Lawrence Peryer
April 27, 2024

Today, the Spotlight shines On Berlin-based electronic music composer and performer Hainbach.I have come to view Hainbach as much an archeologist or audio specimen collector as he is a musician. While he makes beautiful music and soundscapes, they are often showcase pieces for the devices he works on, which include not only vintage and rare modular synthesizers but also tape machines, test equipment, and other industrial machinery. A particular highlight of his work is his YouTube channel, where ...

Radio & Podcasts

Sui Zhen: Sleepless at SXSW

by Lawrence Peryer
March 23, 2024

Today, the Spotlight shines On Chinese-Malaysian Australian artist, musician and creative producer, Sui Zhen.This is the first of two episodes recorded on-site at the SXSW Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas.This year's edition of South By Southwest has been the subject of controversy related to event's work with the US Army and several weapons manufacturers as sponsors for various programming segments throughout, and the reactions--including withdrawals from and boycotts of the event--by artists.Sui Zhen ...

Multiple Reviews

Bass Extraordinaire: John von Seggern / Bruno Raberg / Christopher Hale

by Doug Collette
October 23, 2023

In both its acoustic and electric form, the bass is too often overlooked in the context of musical performances both live and in studio. Yet it is this instrument that arguably confronts the greatest challenge of all in navigating arrangements and musicianship: specifically, to establish and maintain a middle ground of melody and rhythm that simultaneously serves the song, the chart and the players. Apart from a precious few high profile proponents of the instrument--Charles Mingus and Jaco Pastorius come ...

Multiple Reviews

3x3: Piano Trios: April 2022

by Geno Thackara
May 3, 2022

Okay, we're technically cheating here since this first one is a duo, but there's a full enough sound that you probably wouldn't know it. As is so often the case with piano groups, there's no end to the variety. Glass Museum Reflet Self produced 2022 Glass Museum isn't nearly as fragile as that name sounds. True, they have something airy about them--there's a resonant crystalline tone to the piano and their pieces ...

Live Review

Light Sound Action a Bologna

by Libero Farnè
October 13, 2021

Light Sound Action Bologna Cinema Lumière 5.10.2021 Una serata decisamente anomala ed estremamente stimolante, il cui titolo Light Sound Action ne riassume la tematica, è stata presentata da Bologna Festival all'interno della sezione “Il nuovo l'antico." Si è trattato di due performance audio-visive di autori diversi, che attraverso l'uso di materiali e mezzi specifici, elettronici per lo più ma non solo, hanno perseguito un'inscindibile relazione fra i percorsi tracciati dalla componente sonora e da quella ...

Radio & Podcasts

Imogen Heap: Here come the Heapsters

by Leo Sidran
May 3, 2021

Imogen Heap has to put her daughter to bed, then she can talk about what she's been working on. She can tell you about her latest single, “Last Night Of An Empire" which she released on December 9th. Coincidentally, that's also the day she launched The Creative Passport, a verified digital ID for Music Makers. In fact, December 9 has always been an auspicious day for her; it's her birthday and “everything is just a little more special on that ...

Interview

Nicola Conte: Good Juju From Italy’s Spiritual Jazz Shaman

by Chris May
January 27, 2021

Ever since his debut album, the acid-jazz masterpiece Jet Sounds (Schema), in 2000, the producer, composer, DJ and guitarist Nicola Conte has kept the jazz world guessing by constantly moving the goal posts. The trumpeter Miles Davis famously said, “I always gotta change. It's like a curse." But with Conte, it feels more like a blessing, an incremental process executed without angst or fanfare. Through all the shape-shifting, continuity is provided by Conte's deep roots in African American spiritual jazz. ...