CocoRosie -the band founded by the sisters Sierra and Bianca Casady – blends elements of pop, freak folk and electronic music into a distinctly personal, idiosyncratic sound. The sisters use their voices, electronics, and found sounds – usually the sounds of toys – to make songs that can be whimsical, provocative, haunted, beautiful - sometimes all at once. CocoRosie plays new songs from their latest album, Little Death Wishes, in-studio. Set list: 1. Wait for Me 2. Cut Stitch Scar 3. Paper Boat 4. Give It to the Wind Little Death Wishes by CocoRosie ..read more

In 2010, we first fell under the spell of an extraordinary duo: Ballaké Sissoko, master of the West African harp or kora, and Vincent Segal, the French cellist. After a couple of albums together they added another duo, accordion virtuoso Vincent Peirani and sax player Emile Parisien, and that quartet has released an album called Les Egarés – those who stray – an apt name for a band that refuses to color within the lines. There is a unity and fluidity in the way the players listen without competing, return musical answers to questioning phrases, and maintain fluidity and a sense of play. The ..read more

Harpist, soloist, collaborator (Harlem Chamber Players), educator, and arranger Ashley Jackson’s brand new album is called Take Me To The Water.  In the American spiritual tradition, water is a powerful metaphor for freedom and for moving from this life to the next. Jackson’s record takes listeners on a watery journey through works by Debussy, the jazz harpist Alice Coltrane, blues, and some classic spirituals. As Jackson declares in a statement about the record, ”Water is something that we all need. It sustains us, it gives us life. Take Me to the Water reminds us we have a choice: we ca ..read more

New York composer and guitarist Rafiq Bhatia is part of the art rock band Son Lux, the experimental trio best-known for scoring the film Everything Everywhere All At Once. His new EP – his first new solo project in 5 years - features pianist and improviser Chris Pattishall and is called Each Dream, A Melting Door. In their electro-acoustic songs, Rafiq alters the audio output from his guitar in real time with effects software, while Chris responds at the keyboard - although sometimes Chris will lead the exploration. ("It’s basically a set of works for a piano that sounds like a piano ..read more

Jan Blomqvist is part of the legendary electronic music scene in Berlin – but he’s also a singer and producer, so his take on techno and house music is more song-oriented than many of his fellow DJs. One thing that sets Blomqvist apart is that he makes music in the studio with an eye towards live performance, earning him a description of “concert techno”. His latest album, MUTE, is about a generation that has grown up with apparently unlimited connectivity but still feels disconnected (which is also the name of his record label.) Sometimes the songs grow from and explore silence, (no ..read more

German producer & multi-instrumentalist Aukai, aka Markus Sieber, grew up in the former East Germany, but his travels have taken him through Latin America, and he is now based in Colorado. "Aukai" is a Hawaiian term for a seafaring traveler, and on 2018 record, Branches of Sun, he has captured a certain nomadic wanderlust which might connect a listener to a certain peace of being in nature, high in the mountains. With an ensemble that centers on the South American ronroco, a kind of mandolin-like lute, (“the bigger brother of the charango”), harp, violin, percussion and electroni ..read more

With her clever guitar playing and powerful stories, Oklahoma-based Cherokee singer and songwriter Ken Pomeroy draws on brutal honesty and the songwriting skills she has honed since she was 11 years old. She’s already found herself on the big screen and small when her song “Wall of Death” made its way onto the Twisters soundtrack, while Hulu’s Reservation Dogs featured her soul-mining gem, “Cicadas.” Pomeroy touches on her Native American heritage (mentioning coyotes – a troubling omen) and somewhat painful, personal past, as she plays songs from her album Cruel Joke (due in May 2025), in ..read more

Syrian clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh has been based here in New York for many years. His music is an organic mix of East and West, of classical composition, jazzy improvisation, and Near Eastern music traditions. He’s played with the Silk Road Ensemble and lots of other groups large and small, but the one we see him with most often is his Arab-Jazz Quartet known as CityBand – all one word. It’s a band where Azmeh’s stirring and expressive clarinet meets Kyle Sanna’s rustic guitar, soaring at times over the dynamic and volatile backdrop of John Hadfield’s percussion and Josh Myers’ bass ..read more

The War And Treaty is built around the husband and wife team of Michael and Tanya Trotter, who’ve spent the past decade honing their own, often jubilant blend of country and soul. Their new album is called Plus One, and features touches of jazz, bluegrass, blues, even a nod or two to hip hop. There are some songs involving whiskey, a few nods to Ray Charles, and a powerful Muscle Shoals sound. The War And Treaty play some of their new music, in-studio. Set list: 1. Carried Away 2. Mr. Fun 3. Leads Me Home ..read more

Third Coast Percussion is a Grammy-winning classical quartet based in Chicago. They’re all composers themselves, but they’ve also worked with a wide variety of other composers, including Philip Glass and the late great tabla player Zakir Hussain. Their new EP, Murmurs In Time, features Zakir’s work of that name, and he was supposed to join Third Coast Percussion here today, but as you may know, he passed away in December. This Soundcheck studio premiere of the work features a disciple of Hussain’s, Salar Nader. We’ll also hear an excerpt from another work written for Third Coast Percussion, by ..read more