We could all use one after this week. Check out ep. 401 of The Moderns to hear what my voice sounds like after a weapons-grade flu flattened me last Sunday.
The show opens with a vinyl reissue of Peter Rehberg’s magnificent Get Out recording. More on that below. It also features a rarities cut by desert sand feels warm at night — Voices from Above (from Between Two Worlds). Over the holidays, William Hallworth-Cook released a collection of his cutting-room-floor tracks entitled Deżert, and then promptly removed them. (Intentionally — don’t want to give the impression that was a mistake.)
Also, warm congratulations to Emanuel Brie, Cordell Collett, Graeme Dyck, Gabriel Geneau, Antonin Gougeon-Moisan, Vivian Li, James Player, Michele Selvaggi and Justin Tatone. The electroacoustic artists are winners in this year’s Jeu de temps/Times Play program, coordinated by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community.
Pita — Get Out (2025 Edition)
Full marks to Editions Mego for the lovely job the label is doing to continue honouring the late Peter Rehberg. The latest is today’s double-vinyl reissue of his ear-splitting game-changer Get Out.
All 12 pieces from the label’s original 2008 CD pressing are here, along with a Jim O’Rourke remastering of a rare live recording captured at Detroit’s Contemporary Gallery on July 20, 2000. It builds on the album’s core themes beautifully. We also get new liner notes by O’Rourke and laptop pioneer Chris Clepper.
Great works of audio art like Get Out are inspirational in two ways.
First, they ask us to listen to music differently, and to go out and make more music in a similar vein. Rehberg’s combination of white noise and deeply emotional electronic tones was properly influential.
Second, recordings like this remind us that we live in a world in which pure art has a place. And an audience. We’re fortunate to be a part of it all.
Also new this week
The year’s first masterpiece. Leo Genovese is on fire here.
More rootsy dreaminess from Chicago’s Pullman, featuring members of Tortoise, Directions in Music, Rex, Come and Eleventh Dream Day. We could do with a good deal more acoustic post-rock.
This second volume in Post-Orientalism’s Opus Five series features works by Dave Seidel, Ehsan Saboohi, Itaru Ouwan, Mohammad Ali Salahi and RDKPL. It’s focused on a pair of key five-movement works from the early 20th century: Arnold Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 and Anton Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10. Ali Salahi’s contribution is a gorgeous solo piano work. Saboohi’s features oud and BCI synthesizer. Another wonderful collection.
Kevin Press
The Moderns 
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