Music is Music

Ben Lukas Boysen and Sebastian Plano--the composers who wrote the music for the videogame, Everything--join host Ria Misra for a conversation about games, music, and how to build a musical world for a videogame where you can, literally, play the universe.

At times, listening to Manu Delago play music, you might think you hear him play a steel drum, a harp, or a tabla--and yet all of those sounds are actually coming from one instrument: the hang drum. Delago brings his hang into our New York studio for a chat with host, Ria Misra.

Music is Music host Ria Misra visits composer and pianist Vijay Iyer at his home in Harlem to talk about the secret lives of instruments, the everyday art of improvisation, and also just to hear some really beautiful music.

International Space Orchestra founder Nelly Ben Hayoun and NASA Ames Flight Director (and saxophonist) Rusty Hunt are here for part 2 of our music in space series. Join us as we meet a band where you can find astronauts, NASA flight directors, and all kinds of space scientists all clustered around the same piece of music.

Composer Arthur Jeffes joins us to tell us about working with space scientists to transform black holes and exoplanets into music.

Christopher Tignor is a composer, violinist, and software engineer. His emotionally charged scores and unique focus on live, performance-based electro-acoustic practice has won acclaim within both the classical and experimental communities.

From a young age, Sam Shepherd has rejected the idea of neat, tidy musical categories. He studied classical piano growing up, but felt confined by what he calls the "dots on a page." It wasn't until he heard a performer really making a classical piece his own, breaking out of strictly classical feel, that he was hooked. Now, Shepherd writes music under the alias "Floating Points." Influences of classical, jazz, electronica, pop, and world music all blend to create a sound that doesn't fit squarely into any one style. This episode features a piece titled "Peroration Six," which Shepherd describes as careening towards and then falling into a black hole. To find out more about the music of "Floating Points," check out the website floatingpoints.co.uk. Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Melody Parker loves to dance. When she wrote the music for her album "Archipelago," she didn't start with a catchy tune, or harmonies, or rhythm. She started with movement. On this episode of Music is Music, Melody Parker tells us all about her love of dance and movement. And we'll hear about the acoustic worlds she creates, both in her music and elsewhere. Have a listen, and hear the music that Parker describes as "chamber pop," chamber music with a catchy, pop feel. To find out more about Melody Parker, head over to her website, http://www.soundsmelodious.com/. Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The path to becoming a Washington D.C. advisor on climate science and global warming is easy. First study piano and double bass. Then, get a degree in composition. Next thing you know, you're a climate scientist. At least, this is how it happened for Taylor Jordan. Jordan records under the name The Greatest Hoax, a name he borrowed from Senator James Inhofe's (R-OK) 2012 book. The book is a shot across the bow of mainstream science and claims of global warming. So it's fair to say Jordan, a climate scientist who advises members of Congress on climate science, has a bit of a cheeky streak. The name of his 2015 album, "Enso," has ties to Jordan's day job too. It's the acronym for El Nino Southern Oscillation, commonly shortened to El Nino. Now that you've learned something, why not have a listen? Check out The Greatest Hoax on this episode of Music is Music. To find out more about what Taylor Jordan is up to, head over to his Bandcamp page. https://vimeo.com/163992792 Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Composer Keith Kenniff has a knack for writing music that inspires. Keith Kenniff has many aliases. There's his electronic project, Helios. Mint Juliep is the band he and his wife formed -- that's a more drums with distorted guitars affair. Then there's Goldmund, where he plays delicate, sparse piano and adds subtle sound flourishes. None of these bands or monikers, however, hold a candle to the audiences Kenniff reaches in his other bands... or I should say brands. Facebook, Apple, Google, Starbucks, Coke, HBO, NBC, ABC, CBS. The list is MUCH longer. You've probably heard a piece that Kenniff has written on one of your various screens. If you've ever been sucked into a commercial with heart-warming visuals and a compelling story of someone beating the odds or baring their soul, there's a good chance that Keith Kenniff wrote the music. He seems to be the go-to guy for inspirational music. The 2015 Goldmund album Sometimes is full of subdued meditations. It has the calm sense of someone looking inward and, not necessarily being sad, but being okay with sadness. A great example is on the track "Getting Lighter." Kenniff recalls writing it on a whim, after working on another "rush job" piece of music for an advertisement. He had a little time to kill and, being a composer, decided to improvise on the piano. To hear (and see) more of Keith Kenniff's work, including that time Barack Obama used some of his music in the introduction video to his 2016 DNC speech, check out Keith's website: Unseen-Music.com.

Cellist Shannon Hayden installed the solar panels that power the recording studio that's housed in the farm that she built with her bare hands (with the help of her dad). Oh, and she also imitates the guitar sounds of noise-punk band Melt Banana with her cello... aaaaand she was once set on fire for being a better cellist than a boy. Yup. On her latest album, You See the World, Shannon channels her love of noise, traditional classical and textured drones into songs full of tension and release. Listen for yourself on the track "Accelerator." This episode of Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Drivers in Los Angeles begin to feel their jaws tighten at the mere mention of traffic. One lifelong resident, however, used that hum of urban din to make music. Taking a cue from John Cage, composer and self-taught saxophonist Brian Allen Simon heard melody in everyday noise. He records under the name Anenon. His latest release is Petrol, which is where you'll find the song: Machines. From car horns to the underground parking garage at Walt Disney Concert Hall, this album takes you places (without ever having to step foot in a car). Your questions and comments are always welcome: @marcjsanchez

Most of us don't go around trying to imagine what sci-fi painter Moebius (aka Jean Giraud), a nudibranch (aka sea slug), and the film: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (aka the beginning of Hayao Miyazaki's feature animation dominance) might sound like as music. It's a good thing Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith isn't most of us. She decoded those visual references and uses them as the foundation for her newest album, EARS. The whole record lives in a bubble, dripping with enough dense greenery to make a vegetarian swoon. Each song is a tentacle, surviving both in the bubble and on its own. And on a throne at the center of the album, sits a Buchla synthesizer. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith had a chance encounter with the modular synth (pronounced BOO-kla) a few years ago that changed the way she thinks about and creates music. For her, the Buchla helped fill the void of a composer without musicians to play her music. The synthesizer is her orchestra. On this episode of Music is Music, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith talks about how she found the Buchla and how the ideas for EARS grew out of a fantastical world of color. Then, we'll get a glimpse into the bubble with the song, Rare Things Grow. Questions / comments / suggestions: @marcjsanchez

American composer Gabriel Kahane originally wrote The Fiction Issue for a 2012 Carnegie Hall commission. He reached out to his pals in the string quartet, Brooklyn Rider, and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden to collaborate. All parties got back together to record The Fiction Issue in 2015, and it's the title track on the Kahane/Brooklyn Rider co-release. Worden and Kahane trade off singing duties on the six-parts that make up The Fiction Issue. What we know for sure is that coffee and donuts play a big role. The rest of the plot is a little ambiguous, but Kahane likes it that way. On this episode of Music is Music: find out why we should try rating music on the Goose Bump Scale. Oh, and you can also listen to the first two parts of The Fiction Issue.

To those who knew him, especially his piano students, Emilio del Rosario will always be Mr. D. He had a knack for helping budding, young pianists grow into confident, concert pianist. Case in point: 21-year-old Conrad Tao. Tao was introduced to Mr. D at age five and only studied with him until he was nine. But if you think about those specific years in a young person's life, that's when you learn your habits. That's where your convictions take root. That's when the encouragement of teachers can bring exponential confidence. And as Tao puts it, even though four years isn't that long, "when you're nine, that's basically half your life." In 2010, Tao was on a trajectory to becoming the world-renown composer and concert pianist he is today. That's also the year that Mr. D passed away. On this episode of Music is Music, Conrad Tao talks about his composition "A Walk (for Emilio)," a piece that imagines what it would be like to have a conversation with Mr. D if he were alive today.

Nate Kinsella records under the name Birthmark. On this installment of Music is Music, he takes us down the circuitous route that led him to his latest record, How You Look When You're Falling Down. Fun fact: all songs on this record were built around spur-of-the-moment drum beats (whoo-hoo!). This is his most upbeat batch of songs to date... and that's on purpose. Find out how moving to New York and dancing with abandon contributed to the sound and feel of the record. Then listen to "Sounds Can Be So Alarming" in all of it's, nearly, nine-minute glory.

Ozere is a group of musicians that Canadian violinist Jessica Deutsch put together back in 2012. It's also the culmination of Deutsch's world travels. And if you're wondering, the band's name (pronounced: oh-ZER-uh) is Yiddish for "lake," but that's a whole other story. Deutsch grew up playing classical violin. But even before her instrument ever came into the picture, she was blessed with perfect pitch -- her mother tells the story of toddler Jessica climbing up the family piano to always land on middle C. Deutsch began violin lessons at age 4 and continued until she was 17, when she went off to college in Vancouver. At that point, she decided that she needed a break. No more violin. No more music... until one evening. A local pub was hosting an ad-hoc group of musicians playing Celtic music. Deutsch stopped in and was immediately smitten with the freedom and joy she witnessed in the group's improvisational renditions of folk tunes. She wound up joining in a few nights later and many more followed. The violin was back in her life; although, it had turned into a fiddle. It was through these jam sessions that she learned about improvisation. And, as it turns out, having perfect pitch really helps when you want to jump in on a tune you've never heard before. From there, Deutsch set off to discover and devour new music from all over the world. She went straight to the source and traveled to countries where the music intrigued her. And it was easy to meet people as long as she had her violin in tow. When Deutsch landed back in Canada, that improvisational spirit and breadth of music from all over the world were key elements for the band she wanted to put together. Mandolin (Adrian Gross), upright bass (Bret Higgins) and cello (Lydia Munchinsky) all accompany Deutsch's violin in Ozere. Another key element, and one she hadn't planned on when looking for musicians, is voice. Turns out an old classmate of Deutsch (Emily Rockarts) was a perfect pairing. Being open to...

Take a close listen to Masayoshi Fujita's latest record, Apologues, and you might hear the rattle of plastic-beaded necklaces or the muted tones of a vibraphone smothered under a tea towel. Fujita has been toying with the prepared vibraphone since he moved to Berlin nearly a decade ago, and he has a good handle on how to bring out new and nuanced sounds. Although he's had a steady stream of collaborations with electronic improvisers like Jan Jelinek and a couple vibes-through-processor discs by "el fog," this is only the second release under Fujita's given name. In 2013, he gave us Stories, a mostly solo vibraphone effort with a couple tracks bulked up with cello and violin. On Apologues, cello and violin are back and joined by a bigger cast of characters. Accordion, flute, snare drums, horns, and clarinet all accompany the vibes. Calling these instruments "characters" isn't a stretch, when you find out that each song on this record comes with its own story. The instruments sometimes even served as inspiration for a scene. Case in point: "Swallow Flies High in the May Sky." Until recently Fujita had never heard the clarinet played in-person, and after an evening of clarinet-filled chamber music, he was so taken with the instrument that this piece emerged. Listen for yourself, and see what you think.

You may have heard of the band Wilco. Maybe fewer of you have heard of the band's drummer, Glenn Kotche. And probably fewer still, know that Kotche is a classically trained percussionist and composer. In this installment of Music is Music, we're taking a trip into Kotche's world through a piece called Wild Sound. The members in Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion approached Kotche back in 2008 to see if he'd be interested in collaboration. The vibe was there from the beginning, but concert performances and world tours with a rock band kind of got in the way. Cut to 2014, when Third Coast Percussion landed an ensemble-in-residence honor at the University Notre Dame. Stars aligned and the scheduling gods carved out time for Kotche and Co. to collaborate, dream up and refine the pieces of Wild Sound. Kotche had the idea to use some of the found sounds he's gathered through years of touring and taking walks in cities all over the world. The skeletal structure of the piece takes us on a journey from nature to city streets. Third Coast Percussion and Kotche also collaborated on the instrumentation used. Much of the sounds coming from the stage are from instruments that are built and evolve in real time while the music is performed. The ensemble assembled their tools and delighted patrons as part of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Festival. From a bicycle wheel and ball bearings to sci-fi plexiglass sheets that were wired for sound, the stage was covered with their inspiration, melody and creativity. In less-capable hands, these makeshift instruments could have been a shamble, but Third Coast Percussion were up to the task, and Kotche's composition was transcendent. Check out an interview with the artists and the entire performance of Wild Sound.

Roberto Lange grew up in South Florida, or as he calls it, "the capital of Latin America." It's a landing place for so many Spanish-speaking cultures -- think Columbia, Trinidad, Ecuador, and of course Cuba. Lange ingested the flavors of these cultures, then mixed them with the inescapable sounds of Miami bass music. The result is a project he calls Helado Negro. Until recently concocting Helado Negro songs was largely the job of Lange programing beats, playing keyboards and crooning (in English and Spanish). Occasionally he'd have a friend or two help out and give input and add an instrument or two, but it was mostly a solo affair. He recently decided to pull out all the stops and orchestrate a one-night-only Helado Negro performance as part of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music series. 17 musicians gathered on stage to reinterpret Lange's compositions. Guest singers and acoustic instruments brought out new textures, some of which were remixed and reprocessed live, onstage. Lange called the event his "Island Universe Story (Cuentos del Universo Solitario). In this installment of Music is Music, Roberto Lange talks about the background and collaborations that went into making this special event. Check out the entire concert and an interview with Lange.

Alex Temple's new composition Behind the Wallpaper was specifically written with singer/songwriter Julia Holter and the Spektral Quartet. The piece combines Spektral Quartet's brand of accessibility and playfulness with the neo-renaissance vocal stylings Holter likes to hint at in her own work. Spektral Quartet is one of the gems of the Chicago music scene. The group is just as comfortable performing in a concert hall as it is at a bar. Case in point: this installment of Music is Music, where the artists converge on Chicago's Lake View neighborhood for a show at Constellation. Familiar tropes shake hands with found sounds and new tones in this performance of Alex Temple's Behind the Wallpaper.

Nils Frahm's hands began gracing a keyboard at an early age. He learned the classics as a kid. Everything changed when he discovered Keith Jarrett. It took a while, but Frahm realized he couldn't get through life being a Jarrett clone, so he eventually moved on... and out. Electronic music and Berlin's club scene floated into the picture before Frahm turned back to his roots and the piano. By this time, however, Frahm was busy blending a stew all his own. A blend of piano, electric keyboards and effects processors give Nils Frahm the palette on which he draws from. He's continually trying to explore and create new sounds in a way that is uniquely his own. On this installment of music is music, we're going to hear a version of a piece called, "Hammers." It's a piano-only piece that flies out of his fingers and usually leaves him exhausted by the time it's over. This version is from his 2013 release, Spaces.