Back in October I went to see Object Collection‘s revised staged adaptation of Robert Ashley’s Automatic Writing at The Brick Theater in Williamsburg. Here is my review for the DEC 22-JAN 23 issue of The Brooklyn Rail: brooklynrail.org/2023/12/music/Channeling-Robert-Ashley…
Bush Tetras at Elsewhere
Remembering Suzanne Fiol
October 5th, 2020In anticipation of a performance with the Dan Joseph Ensemble at the new Issue Project Room in September 2013 as part of the organization’s tenth anniversary festival “Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain,” I wrote this piece
My Former Life as a Musical Ecologist
I can still remember what life was like before, but just barely. February was one of the most active musical months in recent memory for me, a fully embodied realization of all that I have aspired to, and what I
Jen Kutler
My article about multidisciplinary artist and performer Jen Kutler appears in the Spring 2020 issue (#136) of Musicworks Magazine…
Joshua Abrams & NIS
I reviewed Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society at Union Pool last month for the Brooklyn Rail I reviewed Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society at @UnionPool last month for the @TheBrooklynRail – https://t.co/97FmzMDsWq — Dan Joseph (@dcomposer) November 21,
Black Midi
I was lucky to catch Black Midi Monday night at Warsaw (“where pierogis meet punk”). A London-based quartet made up of 19 and 20-year olds, Black Midi has been around for all of two years. Last June they released their
Jan Jelinek
Last night I had the unexpected luck of hearing the German electronic musician Jan Jelinek perform at the new Brooklyn venue Public Records. It was lucky because I only learned of the show, which later sold out, by stopping by
Joy Division
My review of the new oral history of Joy Division in the May issue of The Brooklyn Rail: I reviewed the new oral history of #postpunk legends @joydivision for @TheBrooklynRail #factoryrecords #manchester https://t.co/4VtU2ZYGcu — Dan Joseph (@dcomposer) May 14, 2019
Exploded View
My review of the international post-post-punk band Exploded View has been published in the Brooklyn Rail: Back in November I caught @ExplodedViewBnd at @RoughTradeNYC. Here is my review in @TheBrooklynRail – https://t.co/LqMbdznvXj — Dan Joseph (@dcomposer) January 4, 2019
Swans
I reviewed a new oral history of Swans for The Brooklyn Rail, check it out here! Check out my review of the new #Swans book by Nick Soulsby @NirvanaLegacy in the Sept. issue of @TheBrooklynRail https://t.co/Iqj0PLSVj3 — Dan Joseph (@dcomposer)
IDLES
Earlier this spring I checked out @idlesband live @RoughTradeNYC Read my account in the June issue of @TheBrooklynRail https://t.co/DCEuivI8xo — Dan Joseph (@dcomposer) June 7, 2018
Protomartyr
My conversation with Protomartyr’s Joe Casey is included in this month’s issue of The Brooklyn Rail: All In Until it Stops: JOE CASEY #protomartyr in conversation with Dan Joseph @TheBrooklynRail: https://t.co/pARsEDjS28 — Dan Joseph (@dcomposer) February 8, 2018
November Essays
My final essay in a four-part series published by the essential NewMusicBox web magazine. You can find all four pieces here: nmbx.newmusicusa.org/author/danjoseph For the final installment on his series about what to do as a mid-career composer, @dcomposer asserts that,
Trumpet Clouds
A beautiful performance of Craig Shepard‘s Trumpet Clouds for 14 trumpets last Thursday in Madison Square Park, presented at the opening of Erwin Redl’s light sculpture “WhiteOut.” The performance unfolded over the course of an hour, as the performers moved
Bottoms Up
I probably shouldn’t be doing this, but I just have to share this audio clip from Iggy Pop‘s BBC6 radio show last Friday. For the last few weeks he has been playing short excerpts from Pauline Oliveros‘ electronic composition “Bottoms
Pauline
Remembering Pauline Oliveros Although it has been nearly a year since Pauline Oliveros unexpectedly passed away, I am still at a loss to comprehend the world without her in it. Of all the teachers, role models, colleagues and collaborators I
Mid-Career
The first in a four-part series of essays I am writing throughout the month of November for NewMusicBox concerns what it means to be a mid-career composer: @dcomposer attempts to unravel what it means to be a #midcareer composer https://t.co/cLXtnmlS6y
Sleaford Mods
My review of Sleaford Mods recent NYC appearance in the Brooklyn Rail: My review of @sleafordmods recent NYC appearance in @TheBrooklynRail 😜👽💣 https://t.co/dYSEZOY2mY — Dan Joseph (@dcomposer) May 4, 2017
Reading List
Some recent reading on music: Retromania, by Simon Reynolds (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011) An excellent, well researched exploration of the so-called “retroscape,” our current era in popular music where everything is foremost a reference to the past. In it
Austra
My review of Austra’s late January appearance at Warsaw in Greenpoint, Brooklyn: https://t.co/z7gelZzfjm Dan Joseph dances to the Synth Pop Politics of Austra in @TheBrooklynRail https://t.co/z7gelZzfjm — George Grella (@gtra1n) March 4, 2017
Pink Dots
My review of The Legendary Pink Dots at Knitting Factory Brooklyn 9/30/16: Dan Joseph was there for The Return of the Legendary Pink Dots, in @TheBrooklynRail https://t.co/76KHVetb0I — George Grella (@gtra1n) December 7, 2016
Roarke Menzies
I wrote a piece about sound artist Roarke Menzies for the Fall 2016 issue of Musicworks Magazine. Read it in the print edition or online here: musicworks.ca/featured-article/material-soundscapes-roarke-menzies
Alvin Curran
“…and that’s where I went, almost as if it was a form of musical amnesia, where you not only allow yourself to get lost, but enjoy being lost.” My conversation with Alvin Curran in The Brooklyn Rail… Dan Joseph interviews
The Ex
My review of The Ex at WFMU's Monty Hall, in the Dec./Jan. issue of The Brooklyn Rail There's no band quite like The Ex, at Monty Hall, by Dan Joseph @TheBrooklynRail https://t.co/90UXe5PH8t — George Grella (@gtra1n) December 10, 2015
Low
My review of Low live at Music Hall of Williamsburg: http://brooklynrail.org/t/11212 Dan Joseph on The Hypnotic Harmonies of Low https://t.co/Vr4bEgtLDQ — George Grella (@gtra1n) November 6, 2015
Wire Nears 40
My review of WIRE's performance this past June at Music Hall of Williamsburg appears in the July/August issue of the Brooklyn Rail: Dan Joseph listens as Wire Nears Forty @TheBrooklynRail http://t.co/XZqQnZYibf — George Grella (@gtra1n) July 17, 2015
sfSound
The web link to the article has been updated
Morpheus 2015
Today I received a box of newly printed copies of my 1987 tape music collection Morpheus that has been handsomely re-issued on CD for the first time in a re-mastered and hand-numbered edition of 200 by the Belgian label Forced
Underground-Suite
This Thursday's Musical Ecologies concert by Chris Mannigan and Danny Tunick includes the premiere of my new piece Underground Suite. It was commissioned by this saxophone and percussion duo in 2013 and is part of a larger commissioning project they've
His Name Is Alive
My life as a music person is punctuated by periodic grand epiphanies (grand on a personal level that is), where seemingly out of nowhere a set of connections are suddenly made that bring into focus a particular artist or musical
Etiquette
My piece on professional courtesy published on NewMusicBox.org: Thank You For Your Reply by @dcomposer | @NewMusicBox https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/thank-you-for-your-reply/ — New Music USA (@NewMusicUSA) December 11, 2014
Satellite Canons
Satellite Canons for brass sextet, 2014 Written specifically for this Music for Contemplation concert (11/1/14) featuring Affinity Brass, Satellite Canons is a six-part un-coordinated, un-conducted canon. Each part is played independently of one another, with each player using a silent metronome
80s DC
WMUC DC Set 1986 by Danjoseph on Mixcloud During the summer of 1986 I hosted a weekly radio show on WMUC, the radio station of the University of Maryland, College Park. I wasn't a student there, but my friend
Silent Music
While collecting some writing samples for a proposal for a new article, I happened on this piece I wrote nearly two years ago that remains unpublished. I had nearly forgotten about it, but it contains some lingering questions that come
Ten Years Alive
On Ten Years Alive and The Afterlife… There is nowhere in New York City that I feel more at home as an artist than Issue Project Room, and it's great pleasure that I bring my ensemble to the new Issue
Borah Bergman
Last week I attended a belated memorial service for the late Borah Bergman who died last October at the age of 85. Led by violinist Jason Kao Hwang who organized the event, many friends, colleagues and family members gathered at
Cage/Asia
My response to Daniel Asia’s mean-spirited Huffington Post commentary on John Cage published in NewMusicBox.org: Dan Joseph reflects on Daniel Asia’s @HuffingtonPost reaction to Cage https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/are-you-putting-me-on/ — NewMusicBox (@newmusicbox) January 10, 2013
Gen X
My piece on Generation X composers and their relative absence published by NewMusicBox.org: Dan Joseph is talkin’ ’bout his generation – https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/my-generation/ — NewMusicBox (@newmusicbox) December 5, 2012
Musical Ecologies
[This post was written in advance of a one-off concert at the Old Stone House March 10, 2012 and is the first time I contemplated the idea of Musical Ecologies which would later become the name of a monthly series
Tom Johnson
Tom Johnson was happy to be in New York last night. The occasion was his first performance at Experimental Intermedia since just before he left New York, in 1983, for Paris where he has lived ever since. His happiness was
Object Collection
Last night I attended a concert of new works by Travis Just performed by his ensemble, Object Collection at the Issue Project Room. Based in Brooklyn, Just is an experimental composer in the Cageian tradition known for mixed media music-theater
Plastic Ono Band
Recently I have been obsessed with Yoko Ono and her Plastic Ono Band. I was of course already aware of Ono and the Plastic Ono Band project for years and even own one of the early albums. But I never