Flotation Device presents music of many places and sensibilities, led by Ukraine's leading contemporary composer, Valentin Silvestrov and his Violin Concerto, whose soloist is often dominated by uncontrollable forces. We contrast it with Nastasia Khrushcheva’s pre-war Russian Dead Ends, which seems prophetic in its own cynical way. Another theme is music for acoustic instruments and live electronics, spearheaded by the first recording of Saariaho’s Fall in its tumbling harpsichord version. Aquaserge, Crazy Doberman, Dan Weiss and Christopher Hoffman advance the praxis of improvised music, as does Tomas Fujiwara's new quartet which mixes Western and Asian percussion instruments. We celebrate the 55th birthday of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy with help from painter Bridget Riley, and we hear Tim Berne performed by his trio and by Gregg Belisle-Chi. Creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, originally broadcast August 17.
