Notable Albums of 2025

Relevant Tones returns after our hiatus to bring you some of our favorite albums (and concerts) of the year. It was a great year for music! Hosted by Seth Boustead, Matthew Dosland, Stephen Anthony Rawson and Austin Williams.MUSICFor Adrienne I by Martin GendelmanWhat Stories We Tell by George HurdStudy No. 1 by Jessie MontgomeryYanga by Gabriela OrtizAt Which Point No. 1: Prologue by Wang LuGroung (Crane) by Mary KouyoumdijianMore Mania by the Dirty ProjectorsThoka by AniimaMoraine Lake by Frank Horvat

At the World’s Edge is a chamber music festival inspired by its roots in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and forging ties to Chicago and beyond. Host Seth Boustead talks with violinist and founding Artistic Director Benjamin Baker about his vision for the festival and features music the festival has commissioned. MUSICYabo by Salina FisherString Trio No. 2 by Huw Watkins (excerpt)Mata Au by Salina FisherFour Postcards by Gareth Farr

Host Austin Williams and composer guest Neil Quigley chat about Neil’s music and its relationship to speculative history.Neil explains how his relationship to the Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory is largely based in that practice. Among many other projects Neil created this love letter to his hometown and lans to wrap up the anthology in the coming year or so. Check more of Neil’s work at his band camp:Set List1. Helga Hölzel ( Neil Quigley ) - Early Impulse Study 1 - St. Mary's Cathedral (1968)2. Kenny Phelan  ( Neil Quigley ) - A Psychogeographic sonification of Fairy Forts located near the banks of the Three Sisters  I, II, III3. Tony Quinn ( Neil Quigley ) - Footing4. Physique -   French Lick, Indiana5. Physique -  Desperate Housewives S04E056. Physique - Wunder-Baum

Join host Austin Williams as he speaks to members of the Coalescent Saxophone Quartet. The quartet consists of members Nathan Bogert, Michael Shults, Nick Zoulek, and Drew Whiting; each of which are incredibly accomplished musicians in their own right. The quartet has recently released a new album (The Wall Between Us) of works for sax quartet. Austin asks the ensemble questions about codifying the saxophone quartet in the new classical music chamber zeitgeist and what that means. There is also lovely conversation about the instrument itself and the role it plays in the new classical music world. Please check out the new album and each individual artist, you will not be disappointed!Zack Browning - Unrelenting UniverseChen Yi -  Distance Can't Keep Us Two ApartEmma O’Halloran: Night MusicEvan Williams - Quartet for SaxophonesMartin Bresnick: Mending Time 

Join host Austin Williams and new music ensemble Hot Second ( Rebecca McDaniel Percussion and Dylan Feldpausch Violin/Viola) as we discuss their unique ensemble and its take on new music in Chicago.The conversation consists of thoughtful insights on how an ensemble can think outside of the traditional cannon and use influences from pop and other styles to help shape the sound they work with. A unique aspect of the ensemble is the incredibly vibrant collaboration that occurs between Rebecca and Dylan, to the point where they are writing and improvising their own music in real time.MUSICGabriela Ortiz: "Atlas-Pumas”José Martínez: Instructions for Playing, III, VDylan Feldpausch: “Quartz"Esperanza Spalding, arr. Hot Second: "Formwela 4"

2023 and the first anthology has just been published by New Music Shelf. This extraordinary album features world-premiere recordings of art songs commissioned by Strickling who says: "These twenty songs, from composers and poets of diverse backgrounds, are exceptional in their beauty, depth, quality, and range of emotional expression."Host Seth Boustead talks with Strickling and features several songs from the album.MUSICEmail to Odessa by Dennis TobenskiPeony by Ed WindelsThanks a Latte by Lori LaitmanThis Ode is Mine by Bess McCraryNot Quite Stars by Juhi BansalLas Palmeras by Reinaldo MoyaSong of Solitude by H. Leslie AdamsWind Carry Me by James Primosch

Cohosts Austin Williams and Stephen Rawson share what they have been listening to recently. Austin shares about an anthology of Irish Electroacoustic music that he became privy to recently and Stephen has a wide variety of vocal and chamber music that comes up. Stephen and Austin also reminisce about their time they shared as music students in undergrad along with their hometown pride of some of the fantastic music that comes from the Twin Cities area. If you like what you hear drop a line, we love to hear from our listeners!Music: Physique - Wunder-BaumNeil Quigley -  sketches in reaction to an exhibition, Hesitation and BreathDu Yun - Angel's Bone, Scene I: A Prism, A Video, A FlurryCassandra Miller - Warblework: Swainson’s ThrushHappy Apple - Vanity PlateGabriella Smith - Lost Coast II

Chiayu Hsu is an active composer of contemporary concert music and associate professor of composition at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Born in Banciao, Taiwan, Chiayu frequently explores ideas of cultural fusion. She derives inspiration from places, poems, myths, and images. Particularly, the combination of Chinese elements and western techniques is a hallmark of her music.Chiayu’s works have been performed by numerous orchestras and chamber groups worldwide. Last year, her solo clarinet piece was featured on Eric Schultz’s album POLYGLOT.Host Stephen Anthony Rawson talks with Chiayu about several works from her catalogue, her musical language, traveling, and more!

Host Austin Williams curates a listening experience with themes of feedback. Feedback is often associated with harsh sounds that are created when a microphone is placed too close to the speaker that it is amplified through.While this is a way feedback can be aurally achieved there are many ways composers implement feedback and other broad strokes of recursion into their works! We cut back to an interview that Austin had with Paula Mathusen this past summer and listen to how she implements these ideas into her works.We also look at feedback systems that composers create be-it through specific mic and speaker arrangements or internal feedback systems with no-input mixing. 

Access Contemporary Music's popular Sound of Silent Film Festival celebrates twenty years of presenting modern silent films with newly commissioned scores performed live. Host Seth Boustead features a few of his favorite scores from the last twenty years.