sound expanse

I found a good reason to postpone the resource guide I was working on yesterday when I was about 90% finished with it, which didn’t leave me much time to put together a new one. Meanwhile, something happened to draw my attention to a neglected section of my links page, and I thought an update in the main flow of the blog might bring more feedback or interest than a silent page update.

On Sunday, a new online journal called surround was launched. It is run by Mark Flaum and Jon Abbey. It is beautifully executed, and issue 1 has a wealth of carefully researched and conceived material about Graham Lambkin, members of the wandelweiser collective, the new ErstAEU label, Vanessa Rossetto, Ralf Wehowsky, Kevin Drumm, and more generally about writing, listening, and performative experiences. The about page is the most inviting and poetic thing of it’s kind that I’ve ever seen. Here’s a compelling excerpt from the opening editorial:

Maybe nothing is more natural than trying to capture those things which entrance us while lingering just out of reach, but that isn’t what we are after here. We are entranced, it’s true, but we are also overcome by the certainty that this magic can be shared, transferred, communicated. That is what surround is about, this effort to contain just enough of that magic in words so that a reader can start to understand why this music is so essential.

So surround is now on my list of new music periodicals. (You can follow them on facebook too.) In the next resource guide, I’ll list the new music periodicals I’m aware of that are at least occasionally (and usually more than occasionally) inclusive of experimental music. I am sure that I’ve missed some, and I’d appreciate knowing about them so I can add them to the list, as well as updating the link section with them.

Meanwhile, up now on NewMusicBox is a stunningly good article by Tim Rutherford-Johnson called The Influence Engine: Steve Reich and Pop Music. It’s a fascinating read, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.