Radio Eclectus #63: Irish beats & Persian waves (Sep. 24, 2020)

Radical new music from around the world, with an emphasis on Irish & Iranian perspectives. Gerald Barry’s new Viola Concerto channels memories of musicians doing daily practice while Donnacha Dennehy delivers an op art-inspired update to Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint. Anahita Abbasi stretches Ligeti to the breaking point on Mahan Esfahani’s new harpsichord CD, while Alireza Amirhajebi & Ali Ostovar offer their vision of radical Persian music. Sarah Davachi offers piquant drones from her latest album, while Zeynep Gedizlioğlu & Norbert Möslang advance the cause of Turkish and Swiss avant-gardism. Other new tracks feature compositions by Roger Reynolds, Nicola LeFanu & James Dillon.

We also honor Ingrid Laubrock as she turns 50, and survey new improv & fixed-media tracks from Sylvie Courvoisier, Black Spirituals, Steve Layton, Crazy Doberman & the duo of Benjamín Vergara & Ben Bennett, with a timeout to tease the new single-track Catherine Lamb/Giacamo Fiore epic from Populist Records.