Digcast

Digcast IX with Colin Sorgi of the Sonar New Music Ensemble

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Over the weekend I sat down with Colin Sorgi, a  superb violinist and artistic director of the Sonar New Ensemble. Sonar is Baltimore based new music ensemble that was founded in 2007 to promote modern chamber music of note that is otherwise lacking a consistent advocate in the concert hall. Our conversation centered around Sonar's upcoming concert entitled Darkness at the Baltimore Theatre Project this coming Friday, January 18th at 8:00 pm. The featured repertoire will be George Crumb's Black Angels as well as In Iij Noct. by George Friedrich Haas.

In the interview you will also hear how Sonar is expanding the normative concert program in order to showcase Baltimore's theatre talent, the work of local artist and MICA professor Trudi Ludwig-Johnson, as well as spatial disorientation of the quartet to amplify the emotional experience of the concert. Tickets are available in advance here or at the door for ten dollars. You can also find Sonar via Facebook and Twitter.

Digcast Episode IX: Sonar New Music Ensemble – Colin Sorgi Interview

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Videos

Sigur R

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Sigur Rós has consistently been one of the most outside of the box bands of their generation. I was first introduced to the band via their 2002 album ambiguously titled ( ). The title is a place holder because the idea behind this project was that the band wanted only to suggest musical ideas to the listener and let that person project in their own ideas of title or content. This concept of open to interpretation seemed so appealing to me at the time and I embraced it whole heartedly. In 2012 Sigur Rós furhtered this trend with an unprecedented project the called The Valtari Mystery Film Experiment. 

Their explanation of the project is as follows:

sigur rós have given a dozen film makers the same modest budget and asked them to create whatever comes into their head when they listen to songs from the band's new album valtari. the idea is to bypass the usual artistic approval process and allow people utmost creative freedom. among the filmmakers are ramin bahrani, alma har'el and john cameron mitchell.

"we never meant our music to come with a pre-programmed emotional response. we don’t want to tell anyone how to feel and what to take from it. with the films, we have literally no idea what the directors are going to come back with. none of them know what the others are doing, so hopefully it will be interesting." – sigur rós, may 2012

Read on for information regarding the projects release, as well as credits for the contributing film makers whose wonderful work is posted below.

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Best of 2012

The Year in Dig – 2012

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Most people do their year-end recaps in December. That might have been nice for us at Those Who Dig, but we just didn't get there. On the plus side, we can recap the full twelve months now. Today we have a look at some of the highlights of our blog during 2012.

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Videos

VHSession #1 Andrew Combs: Part Time Lovers (Full Time Fools)

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It looks as though friend of the Dig Jonny Fritz has decided to dig up some of archived VHS performance footage of his Nashville cohorts and publish it on a YouTube video blog he is calling VHSessions. This decidedly lo-fi venture comes with a heavy does of sentimentality and candor, but does not lack in musical quality. To my eye, this footage looks less like a marketing strategy and more like a time capsule which has recently been opened only to discover that there was and is worth still on that tape. 

The first installment of the series features Andrew Combs in a recording of Part Time Lovers (Full Time Fools). It was recorded by Jonny Fritz in 1989 in Nashville, TN and the song was written by Andrew Combs with Jabe Beyer. I love the easy country phrasing Combs shapes his melodies with and his lyrical ability to deal in platitudes without loosing a feeling of first hand experience or authenticity. This is a beautiful song beautifully performed, and I have to laugh when I imagine Jonny perched on the other side of the presumably massive camera.

Give it a listen and then hop on over to the VHSessions channel for more. Weird Thought Thinker from Joshua Hedley is a wonderful follow up and is not to be missed. You dig?

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Interviews

An Afternoon with Matthew Meyer

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Almost a year ago, I spent a good chunk of a day with Greenpoint musician Matthew Meyer. For a variety of reasons, it unfortunately kept slipping by me when it came to transcribing it and sharing. With profuse apologies to Matthew, it is finally here. Please check out this great, insightful conversation with an incredibly talented and creative individual who is active in the neighborhood I call home.

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Unearthed Music

PremRock: Mark's Wild Years

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Released in November of 2012, NYC based hip hop artist PremRock's latest release, Mark's Wild Years, uses Tom Waits as the singular source for sample material on his 13 track confessional of an album. Given Tom Waits' pension for dramatic imagery and inventive instrumental grooves, it is amazing that it took this long for someone in the hip hop world to find their own voice alongside Waits. Check out PremRock's use of Dirt In The Ground below and then read on for the both my full thoughts. You dig?

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