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3 weeks ago | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews
Summer is just about here, dear reader, and that means it’s music festival time. Starting this month we have the usual big ones: Chamber Music Northwest in Portland; Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene; and Britt Music & Arts Festival in Jacksonville. We also have two of the smaller ones: the one-day contemporary music festival Makrokosmos Project, now in its eleventh season, and In A Landscape, which is not so much a festival as it is a summer-long roving musical adventure.
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3 weeks ago | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews
If you’ve been in Portland long enough, you’ve probably heard of Turkish Rambo. It’s weird enough that there is such a thing as “Turkish Rambo,” aka Korkusuz, which is exactly what you think it is (a 1986 Turkish remake of Rambo: First Blood Part II). What elevates the matter to Portland levels of Weird is that a decade or so back, a gonzo little DIY group called Filmusik, headed by Galen Huckins, organized a live version and asked local composer Justin Ralls to score it.
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3 weeks ago | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews
Caveat lector: We join our story already in progress. You can read more about the history of this project, from its inception through its 2022 premiere with Portland Chamber Orchestra, with Brett Campbell’s detailed preview and Angela Allen’s enthusiastic review. You can also read Friderike Heuer’s report on the art exhibition at The Reser–that instutition’s inaugural gallery show–right here.
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1 month ago | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews
Well, my friends, the time has come at last: Fear No Music’s season of all Oregon composers is finally drawing to a close.
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1 month ago | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews
Speaking on the ever-important subject of collaboration, Lou Harrison–one of several contenders for the “Greatest American Composer of All Time” title–once said, with characteristic cheek, “Cooperative composition is fun, if the rules are set up and nobody cheats.” He was speaking specifically about his 1972 collaboration with violinist and longtime friend Richard Dee, a companion piece to Lou’s larger La Koro Sutro (“The Heart Sutra,” in Esperanto).
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1 month ago | 
orartswatch.org | Oregon ArtsWatch |Matthew Neil Andrews
Today is the First of May, so we’re going to talk about Mayday–the holiday as well as the distress call. Don’t worry–we’ll get to the music. Distress call first. Sources indicate that the expression comes from French: “m’aider,” meaning “help me” (proper French would be “aidez moi s’il vous plaît” but you don’t exactly have time for that when your plane is going down).
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2 months ago | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews |Oregon ArtsWatch
Every year on the First of April we’re tempted to write a MusicWatch Monthly that is nothing but Fake News, a music journalism April Fool’s Joke, Onion-style stuff like this: Oregon Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Nancy Ives quits symphony to join Portland “black magick metal” band Bewitcher Portland Youth Philharmonic welcomes 70-year-old high school student William Madison as new concertmaster Third Angle New Music announces collaboration with AI-generated hologram of John Cage Pink...
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Mar 6, 2025 | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews |Oregon ArtsWatch
So the big news in Oregon Music right now is that one-man-black-metal-band Mizmor–aka the mysterious A.L.N.–has his own Newks hot sauce. “Very excited to announce the very first Mizmor hot sauce! I’ve been a fan of Portland’s own Newks Hot Sauce for years now, so it’s an honor to finally collaborate with Jake on something. “Unleash the intensity with this limited edition collaboration between Newk’s and Mizmor.
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Feb 6, 2025 | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews |Oregon ArtsWatch
Every February for the last few decades, the present author has spent most of the month, aka Black History Month, focusing on music made by Black musicians. Sometimes that’s exploratory — extended visits with record store clerks or music bloggers, which is how I first heard Fela Kuti and Fishbone. Sometimes it’s a deep dive into the catalog of artists I already enjoy.
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Jan 1, 2025 | 
orartswatch.org | Matthew Neil Andrews
Happy New Year!Do you have a favorite New Year tradition? A favorite image of the passing from one year to the next? One theme that always haunts our mind’s eye this time of year is Baby New Year, generally paired with Father Time (as in the above image). There might be a stork or something, but generally the idea is “Out with the Old, In with the New.” You can find pre-echoes of this in the myth of , Cronos, and establishing the Olympian Age.
