Flotation Device 2025-12-14 - Wozzeck and its progeny

Flotation Device salutes Alban Berg’s game-changing opera Wozzeck on its 100th anniversary, sampling it in English and German versions, and marveling at dramatically it expanded the harmonic and dramatic range of the artform. We hear its echoes in Mary Kouyoumdjian's operatic adaptation of Atom Egoyan's film Adoration, which like Wozzeck suggests that moral judgments are seldom as straightforward as we’d like them to be. We also sample Meredith Monk’s new (and largely un-texted) vocal album Cellular Songs, and Frederic Rzewski’s Nanosonatas for piano in their premiere recording. Jacob Garchik doubles down on the triple-guitar format, while Matt Choboter highlights microtonal prepared pianos. Cenk Ergün offers avant-EDM, Mako Sica combines East and West, and John Zorn presents his sax-less Chaos Magick quartet. John Luther Adams' choral reworking of his landmark piece Earth and the Great Weather rounds out the playlist. Creative and improvised music with host Michael Schell.