Flotation Device 2024-05-19 - Braxton & Shostakovich: then & now

Shostakovich, Braxton, and their progeny are in the spotlight. We honor the 50th birthday of Shostakovich's final string quartet, and consider how its gloomy sound world helped set the stage for contemporary string-centric works by Jürg Frey, Kevin Puts and Gabriel Prokofiev. A Braxton quartet gig recorded on the same night as the Shostakovich premiere helped established Braxton as a unifier of the postwar avant-garde and the Chicago school of free jazz. And we'll hear that influence in new albums by Josh Modney and Philip Zoubek. A pair of Xenakis and Bernstein premieres from that same May 1974 week get their due as well. And Wayne Horvitz and Bill Frisell offer their own kind of nostalgia in a just-released duet album that documents their pre-Northwest years. Some avant-electronica from the Belgian band Les Antonymes rounds out the proceedings. Creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, originally aired May 19, 2024.