Aaron Novik

Feb 22 2020

Best of 2019 #02: Aaron Novik – “The Fallow Curves of the Planospheres”

 

This is less an album and more a sonic event.  Aaron Novik brought together five different ensembles and countless inspirations to capture the essence of his travels in France, Italy, Rotterdam, Berlin, and New York City.  The sounds range from sparse and introspective to joyful and bountiful to dissonant and transitory, and they are embodied in the five recordings The Hotel of 13 Losses, Rotterdamn, Berlin, O+O+, and No Signal.  The Fallow Curves of the Planospheres is a compilation of those recordings.  Selected music from the five recordings snaps right into place with one another, and Novik has curated the pieces as one might choose just ten photos from hundreds taken while on an extended journey… just enough to represent the spirit and experience of it all.  As a stand-alone recording, The Fallow Curves of the Planospheres is a magnificent work of music.  In that way a work of art can be representative of something much larger, of experiences and concepts far grander, it represents one of the very best projects of 2019.

There will be much more discussion about this project soon, during the So… About 2019 wrap-up column series.

This Self-Produced recording was released on Avant LaGuardia.

Music from France, Italy, Rotterdam, Berlin, New York City, and San Francisco.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

By • Recap: Best of 2019 • 8 • Tags: , , ,

Dec 31 2019

Now up: Best Jazz on Bandcamp in 2019

 

And here we go.

It was pretty much an impossible task to cobble together a Best of 2019 list for Bandcamp, limited, as I was, to just 15 slots.  Too many great recordings in 2019, too few opportunities to train a spotlight on them.  Rather than do a typical ranking, I went with the approach of presenting a cohesive picture of the modern jazz landscape, a snapshot of its diversity and how that leads to new and exciting forms of expression… including many that leave the 1950’s bop sound far behind.

Some of these albums will be familiar to you from the monthly recommendations columns to already hit The Bandcamp Daily, but there are also a few that will be new to this column.  2019 was the best year ever, and this list is just a fraction of the evidence supporting that claim.

And on that note, let’s begin.

Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.

Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.

Have fun going through the list!

Cheers.

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Dec 23 2019

Now up: August’s Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations

 

And here we go. Gonna do some catch-up on notifications about my latest Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations posting on The Bandcamp Daily.  This monthly installment covers albums for August 2019.  There’s ten primary recommendations in total, plus some bonus recommendations, to boot.  There’s been no let-up on the deluge of new music in 2019, so if you were thinking about maybe settling into a prior month’s purchases, forget about it… you’ve got more excellent new music to discover.  I have been saying this same thing nearly every month, and every month it is true.  On that note, let’s begin.

Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.

Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.

Have fun going through the list!

Cheers.

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