Madeleine Shapiro, one of the founding members of the New Music Consort, plays on two Mode discs with that ensemble in pieces by Anne LeBaron (“Rana, Ritual & Revelations” and The Musical Railism of Anne LeBaron). Except maybe for Lamentation/Invocation on the Rana, Ritual & Revelations disc, these CDs are not something to get to [...]

Francisco Meirino’s 2009 release is all about the sounds music machines make when they’re failing–minidisc players, P.A. systems, cassette recorders, and so forth. And very interesting and musical sounds they do make, to be sure. But it’s not just a lot of nice sounds that makes this album so rewarding to listen to. It’s the [...]

Erdem Helvacioǧlu’s most recent album, Wounded Breath, is quite different from his earlier Altered Realities, reviewed here. Wounded Breath is entirely electroacoustic, and quite strong, various, and enjoyable electroacoustic at that. The title piece is perhaps the most “traditional” one, though with Helvacioǧlu a genuinely inventive and quirky imagination always overrides any critical fluffery about [...]

The first minute and a half of Altered Realities seems to be a minimal and slightly quirky bit of electroacoustic music. Near the end of that first 90 seconds, however, one begins to suspect that one has been listening to a rather long “hook,” and sure enough, a guitar enters playing a simple little tune [...]