Radio Eclectus #101: Happy Birthday Ludwig! (Dec. 16, 2021)

Radio Eclectus celebrates Beethoven’s birthday with Ludwig-themed works by Gerald Resch, Mary Halvorson (with Sylvie Courvoisier) and Pierre Henry, all recorded for the first time in 2021. Our “50 years ago” feature adds a nod to a famous and sinister Beethoven-referencing film unveiled in December 1971. We likewise celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sun Ra’s first concert tour of Egypt, a propitious venue for music history’s most iconic and eccentric Egyptologist, armed with a new Mini-Moog.

Our last 1½ hours is devoted to four new and distinct examples of contemporary drone music, ranging from the dark ambient worlds of Chas Smith and The Bastard Kings of Samadhi, through the pipe organ introversions of Mark Andre to the crystalline 45-minute hyperfocus on C♮ and G♮ in Catherine Lamb’s Two Blooms, just recorded for the first time by the JACK Quartet on Lamb’s new portrait album from KAIROS. Radical new music from the Northwest and beyond with host Michael Schell.