Flotation Device celebrates the great Hungarian composer György Kurtág for his 100th birthday with a retrospective of his sparse, gripping and epigrammatic chamber and vocal pieces, plus a sampling of his later, larger and longer orchestral works. We also celebrate the 70th birthday of Steve Layton, the Northwest’s leading exponent of electroacoustic music. And we wrap up our 50th anniversary tribute to Anthony Braxton’s Creative Orchestra Music 1976 with help from George Lewis, Muhal Richard Abrams, Marilyn Crispell, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum and Wet Ink Ensemble—all the while contemplating whether this landmark album portends the final chapter of jazz history. Xenakis’s twisting multi-cello composition Retours-Windungen gets its own 50th anniversary nod. And our first listen to Brandon Seabrook’s new Hellbent Daydream quartet in its debut recording rounds out the playlist. Creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell.
