New Sounds from WNYC

Written by: WNYC Studios
  • Summary

  • New Sounds is unlike any radio show you've ever heard: a whirlwind tour of new and unusual music from all corners of the globe. New Sounds combs recent recordings for one of the most informative and compelling hours on radio, and aims to make the world smaller. For over 25 years, host John Schaefer has been finding the melody in the rainforest and the rhythm in an orchestra of tin cans. Defying rigid categorization and genre pigeonholing, New Sounds offers new ways to hear the ancient language of song. With guest musicians from David Byrne to Meredith Monk to Ravi Shankar to Philip Glass to Christopher O'Riley to Bang On A Can, Schaefer presents performances (both in-studio and from the New Sounds Live concert series) and premieres new works from the classic and operatic to folk and jazz, and anything else in between. Each show has a theme, ranging from post-rock to klezmer to African blues to minimalism. The variety of cultures and styles explored is boundless. Music you may not have known existed and now can't live without.
    © WNYC
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Episodes
  • We've Got Rhythms (Special Podcast of show #3960)
    Oct 19 2017

    Listen to rhythmic music, whether for percussion, string quartet or vocal duet for this New Sounds. Hear works from percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum, Kelly Moran, and the Jasper String Quartet, and a vocal duet from Meredith Monk and Robert Een. From the recent record, Unbound, by the Jasper String Quartet, hear a non-stop motoring work by Judd Greenstein, “Four on the Floor.” Usually the term applies to thumping dance-club bangers, but in this work, pairs of instruments work “with and against each other, until they settle their differences and combine into a shared groove,” according to the composer.

    Hear music with rhythmic intensity, for prepared piano, with and without electronics from Kelly Moran, and her record, Bloodroot, which is where minimalism and black metal collide. Then, listen to music from Hauschka, who layers player piano with prepared piano. Also, listen to Inuit-style breathing games from Meredith Monk and cellist/vocalist Robert Een, from her long-form work, "Facing North," inspired by the Canadian wilderness.

    Then, listen to increasingly tricky and complex rhythms in a work by David Crowell for percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum. Plus, hear a work –"Redwood"- involving saxophone and interlocking guitar parts from Empyrean Atlas, the band of composer/multi-instrumentalist David Crowell. And more.

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    1 hr
  • August & September 2017 New Releases (Special Podcast)
    Oct 4 2017

    Hear prog-marching band music from Chicago's Mucca Pazza, ambient-gothic Norwegian-Icelandic music from the duo Jo Berger Myhre & Ólafur Björn Ólafsson, jazz-tronic ambient minimalism from London's Portico Quartet, and new work from Danish experimental supergroup Girls in Airports.

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    56 mins
  • Classical Instruments, Contemporary Sounds (Special Podcast)
    Apr 3 2017

    Hear music that begins with classical instruments, like the string quartet, piano, or an orchestra, but which is then augmented, enhanced by electronics, percussion, or preparation. Listen to works by English violinist, pianist, and composer Poppy Ackroyd, Netherlands-based composer Peter Adriaansz, and cinematic music from the augmented string quartet amiina.

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    56 mins

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