no particular order:

Sic Alps Napa Asylum
Anika Anika
Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo
Bhob Rainey / Bonnie Jones / Chris Cogburn Arena Ladridos
Beach Fossils Beach Fossils (ok 2010 but it didn’t reach me until this year)
Golden Retriever Emergent Layer and Light Cones (and in concert at Issue Project Room)
3/4 Had Been Eliminated Oblivion
Singer Mindreading
Tetuzi Akiyama & Takuji Kawai Transistion
The Drums Portamento
Gosia Winter & Barry Chabala Ananke
Kenneth Kirschner Twenty Ten
Steve Roden Proximities
Morton Feldman Orchestra
Eva Marie Houben von da nach da
Antoine Beuger (perf. Barry Chabala & Ben Owen) un lieu pour être deux

Special mention to three labels, two of which are repeat offenders on my lists:

SOFA (Norway) and affiliates. I was lucky to spend a chunk of my visit to Paris this spring w/ Kim Myhr and then later in NYC when Mural came by in August. Besides being a gang of gentlemen and great musicians, the label continued, by my ears, to issue essential recordings. In particular, Silencers Balances des Blancs and EMO ALBINO Lady Lord just make me happy, but that’s no slight to microtub (the tuba trio of Robin Hayward, Kristoffer Lo and Martin Taxt) or A Summer’s Night At The Crooked Forest by Sheriffs of Nothingness. Non-SOFA but related releases such as Mural’s Live At Rothko Chapel and Transition de Phase by the group of Jim Denley, Philippe Lauzier, Pierre-Yves Martel, Kim Myhr, and Eric Normand are also delightful. I was treated to concert performances by Streifenjunko, Vertex and Mural (two exceptional deliveries in NYC), as well as a handful of excellent meals in Paris and NYC.

Jon Abbey’s Erstwhile for yet another year brought serious authority to a heavy, ambitious release schedule and truly intense and memorable series of concerts in NYC. To single any particular recording or performance out would be to inevitably overlook another. I don’t even know where to begin. The bar is set very high. Φ, the 3CD master class by Keith Rowe and Radu Malfatti was coda’d by a lovely duo concert. Taku Unami and Takahiro Kawaguchi’s Teatro Assente continued pushing the envelope for recorded improvisation, and was also met by an intense series of highly inventive performances by Unami. These are just the obvious highlights for me, but Amplify:Stones was really just a three week summer camp of excellent and challenging concerts and fine company, followed up by just lovely albums by Greg Kelley/Olivia Block and Jérôme Noetinger/Will Guthrie, illustrating Jon’s impatience with whatever the perception of status quo is this year.

Students of Decay, besides releasing a cassette with my name on it, curated a truly exceptional run of vinyl by Danny Paul Grody, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Caboladies, Aquarelle and Bryter Layter.

Fellow musicians and artists who via their collaboration or presence made my year extra special: Charles Lindsay, Catherine Chalmers, Kim Myhr, Ingar Zach, Jim Denley, Petter Vågan, Tor Haugerud, Radu Malfatti, Takahiro Kawaguchi, David Rothenberg, Thenmorzhi Soundararajan, and Dan Snazelle.

Thanks to Ryan Potts, Alex Cobb, Brad Rose, Kate Carr, Travis Johnson and David Kirby for putting their commitment and resources behind my music this year.

Of course Richard Kamerman and of course of course as always Anne Guthrie.

Enjoy…it’s just the tip of the iceberg on a great album.

First Quarter 2011 Mix by Students of Decay

1. Bryter Layter (from the forthcoming TBA LP)
2. Chihei Hatakeyama (from the forthcoming “Dedication II” LP)
3. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (from the forthcoming “Shining Skull Breath” LP)
4. Pausal (from the forthcoming “Autumnal” cassette)
5. Billy Gomberg (from the forthcoming “Only the Sun for Our” cassette)
6. Caboladies (from the forthcoming “Renewable Destination” LP)
7. Aquarelle (from the forthcoming “Sung in Broken Symmetry” LP)

beach house teen dream
Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek bird, lake, objects
federico durand La Siesta Del Ciprés
Sebastien Roux & Sogar Rücksitz
annette krebs + taku unami motubachii
Pascal Battus & Christine Sehnaoi Abdelnour Ichnites
Kevin Drumm Necro Acoustic
Rhodri Davies + John Butcher Carliol
Kevin Parks + Joe Foster Acts Have Consequences
Zs New Slaves
michael pisaro & barry chabala black, white, red, green, blue (voyelles)
patrick farmer apis mellifera, moved to and fro
danny paul grody fountain
celer rags of contentment

SOFA records
A string of releases this year: Streifenjunko, Mural, Vertex, Koboku Senjû, Ingar Zach – all had my attention for various reasons. Way to push my buttons, Norway.

The Young Voyagers of Legend
Disappears Lux
En The Absent Coast
Deerhunter Halcyon Digest
Jason Lescalleet + Graham Lambkin Air Supply
Taku Sugimoto + Michael Pisaro 2 seconds / b minor / wave
RV Paintings Samoa Highway
John Davis Open Ground

some concerts:
Keith Rowe, Sean Meehan, Jason Lescalleet @ Diapason
Thee Oh Sees @ Santos
SEM Ensemble @ IPR
Dans Les Arbes @ IPR

and, personally, building my Shruti-1 and getting Anne back in Brooklyn just made for a nice, if quite hectic, 2010. reading Against The Day was pretty killer, too.

This mix traces a range of the contemporary forms of music which interest and inspire me. I am looking to weave between styles and genres (a gap that sometimes is awfully narrow), following a thread of acoustic sensibility that shifts from piece to piece, whether or not there is great difference or similarity from moment to moment depends on perspective. This is a collection of tactile music, rendered by hand, tape, machines real and virtual, forced into motion by these musicians.

The image is from mpld’s performance w/Bryan Eubanks, excepted on this mix.

Track List:

• “Remodelled LI” / Shinkei + Mise_En_Scene / Scytale (mAtter)
• “Square (excerpt)” / Keith Rowe + Sachiko M / Contact (Erstwhile)
• “Backseat Manager Part 1″ / Sebastien Roux + Sogar / Rücksitz (Tsuku Boshi)
• “Malmö (excerpt)” / Tetuzi Akiyama, Erik Carlsson, Toshimaru Nakamura & Henrik Olsson / In Search Of Wild Tulips (BombaxBombax)
• “Repetition is Continuous” / John Davis / There’s Always Tomorrow (Students of Decay)
• “Pianobguitar” / Mou, lips! / Untree (mOAR)
• “Cloud Spotting” / Offthesky / Creek Caught Fire (The Land Of)
• “Illusionen” / Burkhard Stangl + Kai Fagaschinski / Musik – Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht (Erstwhile)
• Track 3 / Robbie Lee / Three Constellations (No Cat Records)
• “Lucy Song” / Jason Lescalleet + Graham Lambkin / The Breadwinner (Erstwhile)
• “Sup Pralad” / Taiga Remains / Beneath The Weeping Beeches (Ekhein)
• “Part 2: Indentions on Summits of Hands (excerpt)” / Celer / Close Proximity and the Unhindered Care-All (Sentient Recognition Archive)
• Track 3 / Stephen Vitiello / Listening To Donald Judd (Sub Rosa)
• “June 10, 2008 (excerpt)” / Kenneth Kirschner / Filaments & Voids (12k)
• “Babys Breath (Original)” / Lovesliescrushing / Girl Echo Suns Veils (Projekt)
• “Vista (excerpt)” / Asher + Jason Kahn / Vista (and/OAR)
• “091114-ff4 (excerpt)” / Bryan Eubanks + MPLD / http://fotofono.net
• Live at Gallery Homeland, Portland OR (excerpt) / Anne Guthrie, Richard Kamerman + Kelvin Pittman / unreleased

Thanks to all the artists and labels for allowing me to use their work in this mix, and to Daniel for the invitation.

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2010/03/billy-gomberg-exclusive/