Radio Eclectus #74: Haroun & the Sea of Grunge (Dec. 10, 2020)

Join us as we clear out some Seattle avant-grunge, with buzzing new tracks by several Northwest musicians. We also bid farewell to Noah Creshevsky and Harold Budd, and honor the late Charles Wuorinen with highlights from a recording of his opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a surprisingly jocular setting of Salman Rushdie’s novel by this notoriously serious-minded composer.

There’s more: the debut recording of Body Meπa (a new power quartet featuring Melvin Gibbs), the latest albums from British live-electronic band Langham Research Centre and “lowercase music” inventor Steve Roden, a new project from Marina Rosenfeld that’s a hybrid of composed music and sound installation, Wergo’s new CD dedicated to Younghi Pagh-Paan’s cross-cultural music on her 75th birthday, and a remarkable and prophetic early example of English minimalism that’s just been rescued from 47 years of oblivion. Radical new music from the Northwest and beyond, guaranteed carol-free for the Holidays!