by Michael Schell In the fledgling years of electronic music—the 1950s and 60s—European composers benefitted from the massive support offered by government-owned broadcast studios. Varèse, Stockhausen and Berio created their midcentury masterworks at radio stations equipped with multiple tape recorders … Continue reading
by Michael Schell Back in 1996 Seattle composer/percussionist Stuart McLeod initiated a project called Tetraktys, pronounced “teh-TRAK-tis” and named after a Pythagorean shape with ten points arranged in a pyramid. Considered by some to hold mystic significance, this shape is … Continue reading
Cheers to another year of new and experimental music on Second Inversion! Our hosts celebrate with a list of our Top 10 Favorite Albums of the Year. From a quiet ocean of percussion to the shimmering orchestras of Iceland and … Continue reading
by Michael Schell Today marks Elliott Carter’s 110th birthday, an anniversary that he came remarkably close to celebrating in person. The most long-lived of any major composer, Carter was also the one American most consistently deemed to exemplify the “monumental” aspirations … Continue reading
by Michael Schell Aim the searchlight of American Maverickism at the regions where prog rock, synthesizer music and multimedia intersect, and you’ll soon discover The Residents, the quirky San Francisco band known for eyeball masks, offbeat albums like Eskimo and The … Continue reading