On the Record ordinarily rounds up details about new and pending recordings of interest to the new-music community: contemporary classical music and jazz, electronic and electroacoustic music, and idioms for which no clever genre name has been coined, on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, digital-only formats… you name it.

Today, though, the column is devoted to something different.

The online music retail platform Bandcamp has stepped up, as it has on multiple occasions in the past, to help artists and independent labels struck hard by the overwhelming tide of canceled tours and lost opportunities caused by the present COVID-19 pandemic. Bandcamp has waived its fees for one day only – today, March 20, 2020, from 3am to 3am PST – to deliver more funds to those in need.

Honestly, servers have been hard-pressed to keep up with demand. But if you care about the welfare of art and artists at a perilous moment – and if you could use some solace, reassurance, and beauty in your life right about now – be patient, and keep trying.

What follows today is a handful of strong recommendations for recent recordings available on Bandcamp, followed by a list of forthcoming releases due in the weeks and months to come—just this once, strictly limited to titles that can be pre-ordered via Bandcamp.

Lea Bertucci
Photograph courtesy of the artist

Ten recently issued albums to buy today on Bandcamp

Ruth Anderson – Here (Arc Light Editions)

The first-ever full-length album devoted to music by a pioneering electronic composer, who passed away in December.

Lea Bertucci – Reaches (self-released)

Saxophonist/composer Bertucci, who released two of 2019’s best albums and has a new one on the way, is stuck in Europe and needs your support now; here’s a Bandcamp exclusive issued today. (Updated March 25: The Bandcamp exclusive was available only on March 20, so we’ll recommend ordering Bertucci’s next LP, Acoustic Shadows, due in April.)

Dante Boon – One Night in Forest Hills – compositions by Christian Wolff, Assaf Gidron, and John Carlos Callahan (Bánh Mì Verlag)

Even on Fender Rhodes, Dutch composer-pianist Dante Boon plies a beautifully pearly tone in a program of recent pieces.

J.P.A. Falzone & Morgan Evans-Weiler – Chordioid (Another Timbre)

A new program shared by two longtime collaborators: part soothing, part disquieting, all beautiful.

Morton Feldman – For John Cage – Darragh Morgan, John Tilbury (Diatribe)

A gorgeous new recording of one of Feldman’s most elusive scores, with one of the composer’s greatest interpreters at the piano and an ideally poised violinist partner.

Anastassis Phillipakopoulos – piano works – Melaine Dalibert (Elsewhere)

Tranquil, fragile, succinct pieces, perfect in poise and balance, played by an ideally sensitive pianist and magnificently recorded.

Christian Wallumrød Ensemble – Many (Hubro)

An adventuresome composer and ensemble dances masterfully across arbitrary boundaries—and their fun in doing so is infectious.

Yarn/Wire – Yarn/Wire/Currents Vol. 6 – compositions by Olivia Block and Sarah Hennies (self-released)

The newest volume in a long-running series from this intrepid quartet of pianists and percussionists is balanced between evocative and obsessive.

Luiz Henrique Yudo – Chamber Works – Apartment House (Another Timbre)

The expert players of British ensemble Apartment House once again shed light on a little-known composer who warrants full attention.

Various artists – Songs to Wash Your Hands To (self-released)

This 44-track (and counting) compilation, curated by composer-performer Isaac Schankler, provides quirky, inventive songs and instrumentals exactly long enough to wash up safely. (Updated March 25: the final tally is 55 songs!)

Ian William Craig
Photograph courtesy FatCat

New This Week

Ian William Craig – Red Sun Through Smoke (FatCat)

Fean – II (laaps)

Beatriz Ferreyra – Echos + (Room40)

Michael Gordon – Anonymous Man – The Crossing/Donald Nally (Cantaloupe Music)

Irreversible Entanglements – Who Sent You? (International Anthem)

Lyra Pramuk – Fountain (Bedroom Community)

Curt Sydnor – Deep End Shallow (Out of Your Head)

Richard Valitutto – nocturnes & lullabies – compositions by Nicholas Deyoe, Rebecca Saunders, Philip Cashian, Marc Sabat, Maura Capuzzo, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, and Linda Catlin Smith (New Focus)

Sophia Subbayya Vastek – Lili – compositions by Lili Boulanger (self-released)

Coming Soon

All links lead to Bandcamp pages this week.

(☆ – newly listed this week)

March 27

☆ David Behrman, Paul DeMarinis, Fern Friedman, Terri Hanlon, and Anne Klingensmith – She’s More Wild… (Black Truffle)
Brooklyn Rider – Healing Modes – compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Du Yun, Reena Esmail, Gabriela Lena Frank, Matana Roberts, and Caroline Shaw (In a Circle)
Gerald Cleaver – Signs (577 Records)
Chicago Underground Quartet – Good Days (Astral Spirits)
Liberty Ellman – Last Desert (Pi Recordings)
Hasco Duo (Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and Jesse Langen) – The Same Old Wonder – compositions by Hasco Duo, Ravi Kittappa, Morgan Krauss, Luis Fernando Amaya, and Jonathan Sokol (New Focus)
Jacaszek – Music for Film (Ghostly International)
☆ A.F. Jones – A Jurist for Nothing (Gertrude Tapes)
The Necks – Three (Northern Spy)
Nick Storring – My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell (Orange Milk; see related Log article here)

April 3

☆ Ted Hearne/Saul Williams – Place (New Amsterdam)
Clarice Jensen – The experience of repetition as death (130701)
Bernard Parmegiani – Violostries (Recollection GRM)
☆ Ali Can Puskulcu – Gibberish Shreds (New Focus)
Webber/Morris Big Band – Both Are True (Greenleaf Music)

April 10

Kaffe Matthews – Foreigner (Objects Ltd.)
Scott L. Miller – Ghost Layers – TAK Ensemble (New Focus)
Charles Rumback – June Holiday (Astral Spirits)

April 17

Matt Evans – New Topographics (Whatever’s Clever)
Mako Sica with Hamid Drake – Balancing Tear (Astral Spirits)

April 24

Ian Chang – 属 Belonging (City Slang)
☆ GRID – Decomposing Force (NNA Tapes)
Ben Holmes – Naked Lore (Chant)
David Lang – love fail – Quince Ensemble (Innova)
Bec Plexus – STICKLIP (New Amsterdam)

May 1

Matthew Shipp – The Piano Equation (Tao Forms)
Sunwatchers – Brave Rats (Amish)
☆ Wet Ink Ensemble – Glossolalia/Lines on Black – compositions by Alex Mincek and Sam Pluta (Carrier)

May 15

☆ Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Mosaic of Transformation (Ghostly International)

May 22

Whit Dickey Trio – Expanding Light (Tao Forms)

June 5

☆ scapegoat – Threshing/Plastic – compositions by Mauricio Pauly and Santiago Díez-Fischer (New Focus)