This week's podcast bids farewell to Éliane Radigue with a survey of her slow, audacious, tantric-informed music with help from Quatuor Bozzini and Robert Ashley. Plus Taborn, Frith, Murail, Oswald, Cortiñas & Stockhausen
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @kbcs.bsky.social @quatuorbozzini.bsky.social
“I don’t know what to tell you.” Seriously? You could start by apologizing for doing everything in your power to make the left and by extension the Democratic Party so repellent to the broader US population that Donald fucking Trump looked normal to them by comparison.
Happy Podcast Monday! Emerald City Music premieres music by Vivian Fung, Joan Tower and Gabriella Smith. Conrad Tao plays Seattle, Third Angle plays Glass, Klangforum Wien plays Stańczyk and Robert Millis turns 60.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @philipglass.bsky.social @klangforumwien.bsky.social
Photo credits: Marcin Stańczyk by Paride Galeone, Sandbox Percussion (Jonny Allen, Terry Sweeney, Ian Rosenbaum, Victor Caccese) by Alex Lee, Robert Millis at Kyushu University, Lou Harrison via Cabrillo Festival, Gérard Grisey by Jackie Carson, Joan Tower by Bernard Mindich, Bernhard Lang by Harald Hoffmann, Vivian Fung by Geneviève Caron, Pierre Schaeffer via ISM, Philip Glass by Danny Clinch. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight on Flotation Device: Emerald City Music premieres Vivian Fung, Joan Tower & Gabriella Smith, Third Angle plays Philip Glass, Klangforum Wien plays Marcin Stańczyk and Robert Millis turns 60.
Sunday 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm @kbcs.bsky.social @philipglass.bsky.social @klangforumwien.bsky.social
Happy Podcast Monday and happy 100th birthday to György Kurtág. We celebrate his austere, epigrammatic but beautiful music, while wrapping up our 50th anniversary tribute to Anthony Braxton's Creative Orchestra Music 1976. Plus Xenakis, Layton and Brandon Seabrook.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev...
Photo credits: Steve Layton via the artist, György Kurtág via Müpa Budapest, Anthony Braxton and Brandon Seabrook via Brandon Seabrook, Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton, Kenny Wheeler rehearsing in Braxton’s Woodstock home by Bill Smith, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Ah Young Hong performing Kurtág by James Holt/Seattle Symphony, Iannis Xenakis via Les Amis de Xenakis, Kurtág: Kafka Fragments, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and György Kurtág by Balint Hrotko. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight Flotation Device celebrates György Kurtág's 100th birthday with a look at his gripping and austere music. We also wrap up our 50th anniversary salute to Anthony Braxton's Creative Orchestra Music 1976. Plus Seabrook, Layton and Xenakis.
Sunday 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm @kbcs.bsky.social
yMusic & Fellow Travelers come to the PNW. Cecil Taylor plays his last gig. Cerha, Hoiby & Turandot have centenaries. Braxton's Creative Orchestra has a semicentenary. And Wuorinen, Rzewski & Fagerlund have new albums
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @seattleopera.bsky.social @okkyunglee.bsky.social
Photo credits: Matthew Welch via the artist, Uwalmassa (Harsya Wahono, Pujangga Rahseta, Randy Pradipta) via the artists, Anthony Braxton rehearsing Creative Orchestra Music 1976 by Bill Smith, Sebastian Fagerlund by Sirpa Räihä, Cecil Taylor in Chrystel Egal and Alain Kirili: IFA, Charles Wuorinen By Javier Del Real, yMusic (Mark Dover, CJ Camerieri, Alex Sopp, Gabriel Cabezas, Nadia Sirota, Rob Moose) by Shervin Lainez, Friedrich Cerha and Wolfgang Kogert by Daniel Auer, Theresa Wong by Peter Gannushkin. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight we preview yMusic at Meany Center and Fellow Travelers at Seattle Opera. Plus Braxton's Creative Orchestra Music, Cerha & Hoiby at 100, Fagerlund, Rzewski, Wuorinen and Cecil Taylor's last gig.
Sunday 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm @kbcs.bsky.social @okkyunglee.bsky.social @seattleopera.bsky.social
This week's expanded podcast celebrates Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated! on its 50th birthday, previews Seattle Symphony's traversal of Qigang Chen's cross-cultural Iris Unveiled, and samples Old-meets-New themed works by Weeks, Seo & Martinaitytė.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev...
Photo credits: Meng Meng via Seattle Symphony, Frederic Rzewski by Michael Wilson, Qigang Chen and Olivier Messiaen via Qigang Chen, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė by Tomas Terekas, James Weeks via the artist, Juri Seo via the artist, Latitude 49 via New Amsterdam Records, score excerpt from The People United Will Never Be Defeated!. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight we celebrate The People United Will Never Be Defeated! at 50 w/six different pianists including composer Frederic Rzewski. Plus Iris Unveiled at Seattle Symphony, and Old Meets New w/@jamesweeks.bsky.social, Juri Seo and Žibuoklė Martinaitytė.
Sunday 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm @kbcs.bsky.social
Podcast Monday is back! This week we salute the Iranian avant-garde (as it shows us how free musical thought can persist in a hostile environment) and Anthony Braxton's freethinking album Creative Orchestra Music 1976 on its 50th birthday.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @kbcs.bsky.social
Photo credits: Alireza Amirhajebi by AmirAli Piroozbakhsh, Laibach (Janez Gabrič, Luka Jamnik, Milan Fras, Donna Marina Mårtensson, Jani Novak) via the artists, Alireza Mashayekhi via Toos Foundation, Kalevi Aho by Kuva Rajattu, Marc-André Hamelin by Benjamin Ealovega, Anthony Braxton via Mosaic Records, Creative Orchestra Music 1976 artwork by Frederick J. Brown, Anahita Abbasi by Michael Schell, Nasim Khorassani via the artist, Wet Ink Ensemble (Antonio, Lesser, Pluta, Mincek, Soper, Wubbels, Modney) via the artists, Ata Ebtekar AKA Sote via the artist, Iranian Female Composers Association by Deniz Khateri, Hiyoli Togawa by Anne Hornemann. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight Flotation Device begins its 50-year celebration to Anthony Braxton's Creative Orchestra Music 1976. Plus a salute to the Iranian avant-garde (w/Sote, IFCA & Laibach), and new albums by Kalevi Aho and Marc-André Hamelin.
Sun 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm
@kbcs.bsky.social @newfocuslabel.bsky.social
Now in podcast format (with HQ audio and a fast-forward button): Ralph Towner (1940–2026), Horse Lords, Xenakis, David Lang, Chaya Czernowin, the Rosa Ensemble, Novoa/Gress/Gray trio and more.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @kbcs.bsky.social @chaya-czernowin.bsky.social @devingraymusic.bsky.social
A vulgar appropriation of the memory of two dead people in service to an ideology that helped usher in the era of Trump.
I saw The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay at my local cineplex via The Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series, and wrote about why a movie theater is exactly the right place to see it. It streams again this week at selected cinemas.
www.sequenza21.com/2026/01/maso... @mason-bates.bsky.social
Photo credits: Nicolaus Richter de Vroe by Astrid Ackermann, Frederic Rzewski by Roberto Cifarelli, Ralph Towner in 1975, Eva Novoa via the artist, David Lang by Dacia Clay, Oregon in 2010 (Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless, Mark Walker, Glen Moore) by Efrem Lukatsky, Gavin Higgins via the artist, Chaya Czernowin by Ittai Bar-Joseph, Horse Lords+ (Owen Gardner, Arnold Dreyblatt, Andrea Belfi, Andrew Bernstein, Max Eilbacher) by Camille Blake, Iannis Xenakis in Xenakis Revolution, Farabi Toshiyuki Suzuki via the artist, Daniel Goode via the artist. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight we bid farewell to Ralph Towner with a look at his career as guitarist & bandleader. Plus Horse Lords, Novoa/Gress/Gray, Gavin Higgins, David Lang & Chaya Czernowin.
Sun 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm
@kbcs.bsky.social @chaya-czernowin.bsky.social @gavhiggins.bsky.social @devingraymusic.bsky.social
Another mid-week podcast brings both new voices and old friends. Mitchell/Gentile, Crispell, Łukowiec, Tabakova, Halvorson and Kris Davis play Zorn, BMOP plays Shuying Li and Bernstein plays Ives!
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @kbcs.bsky.social @maryhalvorson.bsky.social @shuyingli.bsky.social
Happy Podcast Monday! David Tudor at 100. Yarn/Wire in Seattle. Plus Cage, Reich, Tyondai Braxton, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Yikii, Charles Rumback, Stephan Crump and more.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @yarnwire.bsky.social @stevereich.bsky.social @nonesuch.com @ensembleinter.bsky.social
Photo credits: Yikii via the artist, Tyondai Braxton by Dustin Condren, Yarn/Wire (Julia Den Boer, Sae Hashimoto, Russell Greenberg, Laura Barger) via the artists, David Tudor and Rainforest at the Andy Warhol Museum in 1994, Enno Poppe via Ricordi, Otherlands Trio (Stephan Crump, Eric McPherson, Darius Jones) via the artists, David Tudor by Betsy Epstein Williams, Lingyuan Yang via the artist, Steve Reich by Jeff Herman, Morton Feldman and Karen Phillips by Steven Sloman, Bekah Simms by Riley Stewart, Lila Meretzky via the artist. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight on Flotation Device:
-David Tudor at 100
-Yarn/Wire comes to Seattle
-New things by Yikii, Otherlands Trio, Rosa Ensemble, For Living Lovers & Charles Rumback
Sun 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm
@kbcs.bsky.social @yarnwire.bsky.social @stevereich.bsky.social @nonesuch.com @tyondaibraxton.bsky.social
A rare Friday podcast features the rest of the best of 2025, w/Pärt, Silvestrov & Gubaidulina premieres, plus Zorn, Jarrett, Andres, Halvorson, Laubrock, Fujikura & more.
tinyurl.com/FD236 @nonesuch.com @kbcs.bsky.social @ingridlaubrock.bsky.social @maryhalvorson.bsky.social @daifujikura.bsky.social
Now in expanded podcast format: our 100th birthday tribute to Morton Feldman, with Cage, Zappa, Joan La Barbara, Michael Tilson Thomas, Tyshawn Sorey, Louis Andriessen and more.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @kbcs.bsky.social @philipthomas.bsky.social @alarmwillsound.bsky.social @nonesuch.com
Photo credits: Cergio Prudencio via Kairos Records, Morton Feldman by Philip Guston, Morton Feldman by Steven Slomana, Bryn Harrison via University of Huddersfield, Kris Davis by Peter Gannushkin, The King of Denmark by Morton Feldman, Morton Feldman and John Cage via Non Profit, Louis Andriessen by Francesca Patella, Mark Rothko by Denisova Olesya Alexandrovna, Joan La Barbara by Roberto Massoti, Tyshawn Sorey via the artist. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight we celebrates Morton Feldman at 100 with Joan La Barbara, John Cage, Michael Tilson Thomas, and composers like Sorey, Sciarrino and Andriessen that were influenced by Feldman.
Sunday 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm
@kbcs.bsky.social @philipthomas.bsky.social @alarmwillsound.bsky.social @nonesuch.com
Happy Podcast Monday. Today brings our Wozzeck at 100 celebration, with a look at history's most radical opera, a contemporary counterpart from Mary Kouyoumdjian (with FCC censorship), plus Jacob Garchik, Zorn, Monk & more.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @jacobgarchik.bsky.social @kbcs.bsky.social
Photo credits: Out Came the Sun by Tanner Porter (for Shuying Li), Mark Feldman by Michael Jackson, Dobrinka Tabakova by Benjamin Ealovega, John Zorn by David Garland, Denis Dufour via the artist, Steph Richards by Chris Weiss, Marilyn Crispell by Bobby Glazer, circuit by John Bischoff, Charles Ives via the Charles Ives Society, Les mercenaires de l'amour fou (Christian Bucher, Matthias Reinhard-DeRoo, Martin Medimorec) via the artists, Paweł Łukowiec by Joanna Klich, Matt Mitchell and Kate Gentile via the artists, Hannah Kendall by Emily Denny. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonite Flotation Device begins 2026 w/old friends and new voices. Halvorson, Marsella, Kris Davis & Medeski play Zorn. +Mitchell/Gentile, Crispell, BMOP, Kendall, Steph Richards and even Bernstein & Ives!
Sun 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm
@kbcs.bsky.social @maryhalvorson.bsky.social @shuyingli.bsky.social
Now at Sequenza21.com: my favorite new albums of 2025. Compelling, exploratory music that bucks the trends of destruction and vulgarity. Reich, Gubaidulina, Sun Ra, Monk, Zorn, Pärt, Hosokawa, Laibach, Fujikura and many others
www.sequenza21.com/2025/12/sche... @daifujikura.bsky.social @nonesuch.com
Cross-cultural music takes the spotlight in our latest podcast which celebrates Bright Sheng at 70 and David Shea at 60 with music for Chinese and Western instruments. Plus Meredith Monk, Jarrett, Amina Claudine Myers and more.
mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @orenambarchi.bsky.social @kbcs.bsky.social
Photo credits: Sofia Gubaidulina via Sikorski, Timo Andres by Jason Marck, Koan 3 by Ingrid Laubrock, John Zorn in MindFlux 2010, Keith Jarrett by Rose Anne Colavito, Beckmesser harp by Horngacher, Daphne Oram via Electronic Sound, Gabriel Prokofiev by Nathan Gallagher, Meredith Monk by Julieta Cervantes, Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson by Caroline Mardok, Ornette Coleman by Michael Hoefner, Cosa Brava (Zeena Parkins, Norman Teale, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Matthias Bossi) by Heike Liss, Eiffel Tower by Leslie Fehling, Cantica Profana (John Surman, Lucian Ban, Mat Maneri) by Mircea Albutiu. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight Flotation Device continues its review of the best new albums of 2025 with Pärt, Jarrett, Gubaidulina, Zorn, Laubrock, Halvorson, Monk, Andres and more
Sunday 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm
@kbcs.bsky.social @nonesuch.com @timoandres.bsky.social @ingridlaubrock.bsky.social @maryhalvorson.bsky.social
Podcast Monday brings an expedited expanded edition of last night's "best of 2025" program, with Reich, Berne, Paxton, Rzewski, Alberga, Ross and more. Plus Wayne Horvitz's Pigpen reunites at The Royal Room.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev... @stevereich.bsky.social @nonesuch.com @kbcs.bsky.social
Photo credits: Eleanor Alberga by Ben Ealovega, Tim Berne Trio (Gregg Belisle-Chi, Tom Rainey, Tim Berne) by Sarah Berne, Ig Henneman by Francesca Patella, Steve Reich by Jesse Yang, Peter Eötvös by Jean-Francois Leclercq, self portrait by Alex Paxton, Pigpen (Briggan Krauss, Fred Chalenor, Mike Stone, Wayne Horvitz) via Wayne Horvitz, Trio Mediæval (Linn Andrea Fuglseth, Anna Maria Friman, Jorunn Lovise Husan) by Åsa Maria Mikkelsen, Nastasia Khrushcheva via Melodiya, Sifters (Jeremy Viner, Marc Ducret, Kate Gentile) via the artists, Frederic Rzewski via Nonesuch Records, Stomu Takeishi by Daniel Sheehan, Putu Septa via Other Minds. Flotation Device features creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, Sunday nights 10pm–Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma. Visit us online at https://www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice
Tonight Flotation Device begins its annual review of the year's top new releases of exploratory music. Reich, Rzewski, Paxton, Mitchell, Serpa, Gentile, Alberga and Wayne Horvitz's Pigpen are among the headliners
Sunday 10pm PST 91.3fm kbcs.fm
@kbcs.bsky.social @stevereich.bsky.social @nonesuch.com
Happy Podcast Monday! Sample GF Haas' microtonal 2nd Violin Concerto in its premiere rec. Plus Younghi Pagh-Paan at 80, Zorn, Rzewski, Scelsi, Dave Lombardo, Raven Chacon, John Dieterich, Brandon Ross & more.
www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDev...
@urlicht.music @kbcs.bsky.social @davelombardo.bsky.social
