Category: ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

No living musician relates more to space than Rafael Toral. He’s employed recordings captured by NASA and played music that

Bright Spot could be labeled “bar-band music,” but while that tag is often used pejoratively, it’s the highest of praise

A voice whispers. Some sticks dance on the rim of a drum. A couple contrasting guitars weave around some Bo

The Exposure Series is an annual Chicago event (years with global pandemics excepted) that draws together improvising musicians from the

If you had to sum up the relationship between magicians and their audiences in one question, it would be, “Do

In disasters lurk opportunities. The Dead C, a trio that’s operated out of various towns on New Zealand’s South Island

Cristina Marx/Photomusix If you spot a photo of Julia Reidy hefting her acoustic 12-string guitar, you might think she’s a

Steve Gunn has spent quite a bit of the last decade establishing himself as a singer, songwriter and bandleader, and

If you’re a player, it’s handy to have a few high cards hidden up your sleeve. But you also need

The Clawed Stone is the second recording by English saxophonist John Butcher, German synthesizer player Thomas Lehn and American pianist

What could be more disappointing than secondhand smoke? You breath it in, it leaves its mark on you, and you

Thread introduces Sally Anne Morgan as a solo artist who understands the task of being a folk musician in the

Hala Strana’s Fielding represents the acme of multi-instrumentalist Steve R. Smith’s dialogue with the history, music and culture of Eastern

In the 21st century, the term "post-punk" has been widely applied to acts that have no punk in their blood

Sometimes you just have to narrow your options a bit to get things done. Cambridge, Mass., multi-instrumentalist Lloyd Thayer has

It’s tempting to say that any combo of musicians who first played together 40 years ago has been around for

If you want your art to change the world, you have to think big. Sun Ra proposed extra-terrestrial solutions to

No one planned for a year like this. Even the survivalists muffed it; they might've stocked up on guns and