Sometime after the release of Buke and Gass's Riposte in 2010--a striking first impression of a record--the industrious DIY duo did something confusing: they changed their name..slightly...to Buke and Gase. On General Dome, the second full-length album released on January 29 via Brassland, what seems like a simple cosmetic change...

In the living room of Macaulay Culkin's New York City apartment, canvases occupy the space like so many peculiar yet irresistibly magnetic house guests. The room -- converted into an art studio -- is congested with the vestiges of creativity at work: bottles of paint huddle together in bunches, and...

What does it mean to be a multimedia artist today? For 28 year-old American composer/percussionist Eli Keszler (www.elikeszler.com), the answer might not be what you would expect.

Keszler--whose new art installation L-Carrier recently opened on June 7 at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center in New York City...

There is a damaging myth about art I fear I unwittingly spread every time I view a painting or photograph hung on the wall. I imagine the Lone Creator of this image -- what great insight regarding humanity had he meant to impart from the solitary confinement of his genius?...

When Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat takes the stage each night in support of the headlining folk rock band Bowerbirds, she does so without a setlist. This seems rather akin to a trapeze artist performing without the aid of a net. It also reveals an unselfish attitude toward the songs themselves,...

On May 5, the Edelman Arts gallery on Manhattan's Upper East Side opened its sixth exhibition of works by the English-born, Berlin-based artist Christopher Winter. Comprised predominantly of acrylic-on-canvas works from 2012, the show, as its title "Unnatural History" suggests, does much to distort -- both subtly and explicitly --...

As I left the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Festival on its closing night, Saturday, May 5, I couldn't escape the feeling that I had wasted so much time -- not at the festival itself, but long before.

I had grown up listening to music oblivious to the domineering constructs of ubiquitous...

It seems to me that one's relationship to the monolithic Opera -- with a capital "O" -- is rarely love at first sight. It's often much more akin to a slow courtship. Such was certainly the case for the three composers that comprise the core of the Experiments in Opera...

On April 3, New York City-based musician Natalie LeBrecht -- under the auspices of her solo project Greenpot Bluepot -- released the album Ascend at the Dead End, a concise yet sprawling 32 minutes of kaleidoscopic sounds and complex textures. Co-mixed by Avey Tare of Animal Collective and Matt Marinelli...

For young musicians who are called on to perform the works of contemporary composers, utilizing "extended techniques" that one might readily encounter in 20th century compositions is not unusual. Being asked to interpret music inspired by an early 19th-century American style of shape note singing called Sacred Harp is decidedly...

Composer and pianist Timothy Andres's take on the subject of demigods in art is far removed from conventional Romanticism: "We like to imagine that our artists have this kind of divine inspiration. I think if they say they do, they're probably having you on," says Andres. This steely realism seems...

As a reader of music criticism, I usually distrust blatant comparisons in record reviews, which often seem only to obscure any accurate description of the music itself. As a writer of music criticism, I try to avoid loaded juxtapositions at all costs. In the case of Seattle indie band The...

On Saturday, November 5 at 8 pm at Roulette in Brooklyn, singer-songwriter Gelsey Bell presents the premiere of her song cycle Scaling at this year's Vital Vox Festival, a two-day series dedicated to expectation-defying vocalists as composer-performers. In an attempt to defy our own expectations for our interview, Bell and...

"[Music is] one of those beautiful forms of human expression that actually brings people together. I think if we all adopt music as our religion, we'll be in a really great place." --Maya Beiser

It is no secret that the new music community has found a vital home in New York City in recent years. The creative minds behind what is known as "contemporary classical music" are innumerable, and gaining prespective can be an overwhelming task for audiences.

Beginning on October 14, however,...

It is no secret that the new music community has found a vital home in New York City in recent years. The creative minds behind what is known as "contemporary classical music" are innumerable, and gaining prespective can be an overwhelming task for audiences.

It is no secret that the new music community has found a vital home in New York City in recent years. The creative minds behind what is known as "contemporary classical music" are innumerable, and gaining prespective can be an overwhelming task for audiences.

Beginning on October 14, however,...

It is no secret that the new music community has found a vital home in New York City in recent years. The creative minds behind what is known as "contemporary classical music" are innumerable, and gaining perspective can be an overwhelming task for audiences.

Chamber music ensembles tend to form because of a palpable chemistry felt between the individual players. But yMusic isn't quite like many of its contemporaries. The New York-based sextet -- clarinetist Hideaki Aomori , trumpeter/French horn player CJ Camerieri, cellist Clarice Jensen, violinist/guitarist Rob Moose, violist Nadia Sirota, and flutist...

On September 13, the composer/singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane unleashes what is typically considered one of the trickiest of musical creatures -- the sophomore album. Conventional thought might dictate that an artist has two options: one, continue with the proven dynamic of the first album, but with added compositional devices or embellishments...