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The Orchestrion Project
by Pat Metheny
 ABOUT ORCHESTRION
This project represents a conceptual direction that merges an idea from the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the technologies of today to create a new, open-ended platform for musical composition, improvisation and performance.
"Orchestrionics" is the term that I am using to describe a method of developing ensemble-oriented music using acoustic and acoustoelectric musical instruments that are mechanically controlled in a variety of ways, using solenoids and pneumatics. With a guitar, pen or keyboard I am able to create a detailed compositional environment or a spontaneously developed improvisation, with the pieces on this particular recording leaning toward the compositional side of the spectrum. On top of these layers of acoustic sound, I add my conventional electric guitar playing as an improvised component. At least for me, this takes the term "solo record" into some new and interesting areas, somewhat recontextualizing the idea of what constitutes a solo performance by a single musician. This project is the result of a lifelong dream in this area that dates back to my early youth. Read the entire article here.
An Interview with Moira Smiley
by Mairéid Sullivan
 Background
Moira Smiley, singer-composer, leads the ensemble, moira smiley & VOCO, travels the world as a soloist and creates new work for dance, theatre and film.
Her voice can be heard on a wide variety of media, including feature films, television (BBC, PBS), NPR, and on over 40 recordings. Her recent albums “blink,” “rua” and "circle, square, diamond & flag" feature spare, vocally driven collections of warped traditionals and new song. She has sung with leading ensembles and artists around the world, including Paul Hillier’s Theater of Voices, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, KITKA Vocal Ensemble and New World Symphony. Featured at Lincoln Center, UCLALive, Royal Festival Hall, and music festivals across the U.S. and Canada, Moira has received praise from Billboard to Gramophone.
While studying piano performance and Early Music at Indiana University, Moira was represented by IMGArtists Agency and toured extensively with her vocal group, VIDA. Praised for her musical depth and noted as a musical "shape-shifter," Moira premieres new art song, opera, and physical theater. She also explores the depths of early American, Irish and Balkan traditional song. Moira is in high demand as a music director and vocal coach—giving master classes in vocal technique, traditional styles, physicality and improvisation. She composes for vocal ensembles around the world—her song “Stand in that River” is performed by thousands of choral ensembles and singers of all stripes. Interview here.
 Malcolm Dalglish and The Ooolites
by Ben Kettlewell
Malcolm Dalglish and The Ooolites have taken folk music into a new realm with
their album Pleasure, which features Dalglish's original compositions,
his inventive hammer dulcimer playing, and the unique vocal acrobatics of his
youthful "folk choir." There is a hearty authenticity in the way these powerful
young voices weave sounds from cultures around the world into a distinctly American
musical fabric. Dalglish refers to his songs as "playgrounds" for singers. Many
songs on the album launch the singers into a freestyle
Celtic-sounding mouth music as in the title cut "Pleasure," the
French Canadian "Reel a Bouche," or "Swifts" (a song about these
acrobatic birds that sweep the summer skies above our towns). Flight
enters the realm of dreams in "Pegasus" as the dark and modal melody
of a Fourteenth Century Italian Laude takes off into an ethereal
flying vocal carousel. Lullabies like the Northumbrian "Sheep in the
Meadow" and old "critter songs" like "Bushy Tale" or "Woody knows
Nothin" are like an old classic picture book. Dalglish draws on
legends from his own people in his retelling of a Scottish Selchie
story in which a seal assumes the form of a wild and beautiful woman,
marries and eventually rescues her lover before returning to the sea. Full feature here.
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