About a year ago, a few weeks before the Knoxville Stomp festival, I wrote about Newman Wise, a local fiddler who recorded two 78 rpm sides with the Wise String …
Big Ears Day Three Recap, Part One: Xylouris White, Horse Lords, Musica Elettronica Viva, Supersilent
It’s often mentioned how you can’t see everything at a musical festival, especially one as sprawling as Big Ears, so you just make your choices, hope you like what you …
Big Ears Day Two Recap, Part One: Matmos and Frederic Rzewski
Matmos’ interpretation of three parts of Robert Ashley’s Private Lives lived up to high expectations. Ashley’s opera is such a bizarre, singular work, any attempt to perform it has to …
Big Ears Day One Recap, Part Two: ‘Swimming to Cambodia,’ Carla Bley and KJO, Matana Roberts, Shipp and Kapp, DakhaBrakha
Never imagined a Big Ears would kick off with a 35mm screening of Jonathan Demme/Spalding Gray’s Swimming to Cambodia, but there we were in the Tennessee Theatre at 2 p.m., …
BIG EARS 2017: Matmos
The music on Matmos’ latest album, Ultimate Care II, is made up entirely of sounds from a washing machine. The duo of Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt have also constructed …