Tired of the 4/4 beat and piano/bass/drum standard rhythm section? Have your pick of the four below for new adventures and lands.
Composer Ken Walicki creates “Electro-Acoustic” music on this 
album with a collection of guest artists. A 10+ minute “Light” has Tom Peters’ bass bowing, slapping, buzzing and hammering around various electronic musings, while a sonata like “Black Water” features Virginia Costa Figueriedo’s pretty clarinet and Fureya Unal’s creative piano. Long tones and mystical electronic sounds are produced with Rachel Mellis on flute during “Sabah” while plugged in musings and Satie-esque piano from Unal takes place on “Cyberistan.” The Eciplse Quartet goes from Bartok to magma as the depths are plunged on “nada Brahma” with a feel that makes you wonder when someone is going to start chanting “Number 9, Number 9.”
Stephen Ruppenthal plays C trumpet in a collection of “New Music for Trumpet, Flugelhorn & Interactive Electronics” with digital processing by Brian Belet/Bruno Liberda, interactive electroacoustics from Elaine Lillios and digital media provided by Allen Strange. The result is some staccato’d growling and splurting on “Velocity Studies V: Ngate,” blurps, noodles and experiments with the mouthpiece during “A Sphere of Air is Bound,” a trumpet the is both muted and plunges to meandering sonics on “November Twilight” and echoes from horn and machine on a space travelling “Misty Magic Land.” Brooding machines and computers take over the captains deck on the three part “System of Shadows.” A new soundtrack for Forbidden Planet with Leslie Nielsen?
From Kalamazoo, Michigan, composer and multimedia artist Christopher Biggs creates seven different moods and atmospheres in the form of suites and tunes, each one featuring a different instrument combination. The largest combo is the Wester Brass Quintet, chic forms long tones, spacious moods and misty textures on “Decade Zero.” Cellist Zachary Boyt takes a 3 movement “Externalities” and varies between a gorgeous “Movement II” with dashes of bows, chops, percussion and gurgling effects. The SPLICE Ensemble of Samuel Wells/tp, Adam Vidiksis/perc and Keith Kirchoff/p create a sonic foodfight class on “Letter To The Moon” while Samuel Wells’ trumpet does a mix of long tones and pops on a 3 movement “Dechoerence.” Clarinetist Mauricio Salguero wraps things up seven short tunes that mix Star Trek moods with eerie gurgles and sighs. Return of the Archons?
The team of David Haney/g, Jorge Hernaez/b and David Bajda/g team up for a 2017 concert in Portland Oregon. The six “Signals” include a series of dots and dashes with spaces for Priester’s wheezing horn on “Signal 1” to lurking and ominous picks and strums for a gasping “Signal 2.” Altissimo strings on bass, guitar and piano are strummed and attacked on “Signal 4” and a hesitant Monk is felt as Priester slides safely into home on ”Signal 3.” A mixing of mouthpiece effects teams with buzzing bees and squeaks that sound like either the piano seat or the screws for the strings need some oil. Is this what the instruments were designed for? Unknown planets, but with a Carbon base.