Dutch composer and producer Stephen Emmer joins Lawrence Peryer for a fascinating conversation that moves through four decades of Emmer's career — from early work composing for Dutch broadcasters to his recent introspective trilogy of albums. The third and latest in that trilogy is 'Asymmetrical Dot', born out of a year of striking personal convergence: the death of his mother, the birth of his first grandson, a serious health scare, and the loss of a close musical friend. Emmer talks about how he found himself at the center of something he could only describe as the zenith of the human existential chain.

Emmer also speaks candidly about the hearing loss that followed a backstage encounter with Motörhead's sound system and how that limitation, over the course of twenty years, quietly opened a new compositional world of soft strings, woodwinds, felt piano, and muted brass.

This is a conversation about learning craft in order to set it aside, finding your own creative brief, and what it means to put something deeply personal into the unpredictable hands of listeners. Listen in: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/stephen-emmer-composing-at-the-edge-of-silence-assemytrical-dot/

#NewMusic #ExperimentalMusic #ChamberJazz #Podcast

Hizuru - Hizuru [Japanese Folk, Chamber Jazz] [2017]

https://piefed.social/c/obscuremusic/p/2041945/hizuru-hizuru-japanese-folk-chamber-jazz-2017

Comme à la radio is the fourth album by experimental French singer Brigitte Fontaine, recorded with Areski Belkacem (in their first collaboration) and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It was released in 1969 on the Saravah label after a series of concerts in 1969. It is Fontaine's most famous album, and is known outside of France on the 1990s alt-rock scene, thanks to laudatory comments from Beck and Sonic Youth

The album received the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros that same year. The single "Comme à la radio" has been covered by Japanese artist Jun Togawa in 2000 - Wikipedia

I picked this up in a bargain bin in the 80s, knowing the Art Ensemble but not Brigitte Fontaine. Taking a chance was rewarded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmpW0soAwok&list=RDFmpW0soAwok&start_radio=1

#BrigetteFontaine #ArtEnsembleofChcago #Areski #Jazz #VocalJazz #Music #FrenchMusic #Chanson #ChamberJazz

Shake Me - All the Sunsets [Ambient Pop, Chamber Jazz, Post-Minimalism] [2025]

https://piefed.social/c/obscuremusic/p/1621195/shake-me-all-the-sunsets-ambient-pop-chamber-jazz-post-minimalism-2025