HAPPY NEW EARS!

This must have been the most boring competition for the HAPPY NEW EARS AWARD we've ever had, with the winner in the lead from the first hour to the last, and capturing almost one third of all votes. Eve Risser, Benjamin Duboc and Edward Perraud are the deserved winners with "En Corps", which already featured on many top-10 of the year lists too. They have indeed given us some novel listening experience. Congratulations to the winners, and to all other contenders for the great music and ear-opening - and mind-opening - musical ideas. Thanks to all voters for their contribution.

1. Eve Risser - En Corps (27%)
2. RED Trio + Nate Wooley - Stem (15%)
3. Eivind Opsvik - Overseas IV (8%)
4. Stian Westerhus - The Matriarch (8%)
5. Tim Berne - Snake Oil (7%)
6. Thomas Heberer's Clarino - Cookbook (6%)
7. Angharad Davies, Tisha Mukarji, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga – Outwash (5%)
8. Mikolaj Trzaska's Ircha - Zikaron Lefanaj (5%)
9. Evan Parker, Okkyung Lee, Peter Evans – The Bleeding Edge (3%)
10. Pão - Pão (3%)
11. Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: Hasselt (3%)
12. Levity - Afternoon Delights (2%)
13. Katherine Young's Pretty Monsters (1%)
14. MMM Quartet - Live at the Metz’ Arsenal (0%)
15. Bobun - Suite Pour Machines À Mèche (0%)

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HAPPY NEW EARS AWARD - THE VOTE IS ON!

The final list : a balancing act between various subgenres and innovative ways to take music and listening a step further, by coincidence - or not? - also offers a great spectrum of nationalities and instruments, genders and ages. This is of course a selection, and by definition an arbitrary one, based on inputs from specialists who only listened to a tiny fraction of what is available. That being said, there is at least some consensus that these are all albums worth listening to. The vote is on!

1. RED Trio + Nate Wooley - Stem 
2. Eivind Opsvik - Overseas IV
3. Tim Berne - Snake Oil 
4. Levity - Afternoon Delights  
5. Katherine Young's Pretty Monsters
6. Mikolaj Trzaska's Ircha - Zikaron Lefanaj 
7. Thomas Heberer's Clarino - Cookbook 
8. Eve Risser - En Corps 
9. Pão - Pão 
10. MMM Quartet - Live at the Metz’ Arsenal  
11. Stian Westerhus - The Matriarch And The Wrong Kind Of Flowers 
12. Evan Parker, Okkyung Lee, Peter Evans – The Bleeding Edge
13. Bobun - Suite Pour Machines À Mèche
14. Angharad Davies, Tisha Mukarji, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga – Outwash 
15. Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: Hasselt

You can vote between now and December 31, 2012 at midnight, when the winner will be known. Cast your votes, mobilise your fans, persuade the cynics, convince the indifferent, wake up the musical sleepers .... and have fun!

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HAPPY NEW EARS AWARD 2012

Hi everyone!

Here we are again with our highly contested yet equally enjoyable HAPPY NEW EARS AWARD for the most innovative listening experience of the year. This is how it works. We present you below a longlist of albums that meet the criteria of having offered a new, novel, creative, innovative approach and perspective to music. This is not necessarily the best album of the year, but it should create a feeling with the listener of hearing something surprising, never heard before, discomforting or comforting in a different way, yet with an attractiveness and fascination that makes you want to hear it again and again.

Here is the currently proposed list.

1. Katherine Young's Pretty Monsters (still to be reviewed)
2. Mikolaj Trzaska's Ircha - Zikaron Lefanaj (still to be reviewed)
3. Thomas Heberer's Clarino - Cookbook
4. Eve Risser - En Corps
5. Pão 
6. Foxes Fox - Live At The Vortex
7. Joe Morris - Graffiti in Two Parts (still to be reviewed)
8. MMM Quartet (Léandre, Curran, Frith, Leimgruber), Live at the Metz’ Arsenal 
9. Veryan Weston, Ingrid Laubrock, Hannah Marshall - Haste
10. RED Trio + Nate Wooley
11. Muringa - The Unknown Knowns 
12. Eivind Opsvik - Overseas IV
13. Skogen - Ist Gefallen In Den Schnee
14. John Butcher and Toshimaru Nakamura - Dusted Machinery 
15. Tim Berne - Snake Oil
16. Levity - Afternoon Delights 
17. Stian Westerhus - The Matriarch And The Wrong Kind Of Flowers
18. Evan Parker, Okkyung Lee, Peter Evans – The Bleeding Edge
19. Nicole Mitchell - Arc of O
20. Steve Lehman Trio - Dialect Fluorescent
21. Daniel Erdmann - How to Catch a Cloud
22. Emile Parisien - Chien Guepe
23. Aram Shelton Quartet - Everything for Somebody
24. Matthew Shipp Trio - Elastic Aspects
25. Max Johnson Quartet
26. Nate Wooley - The Almond
27. Joe McPhee/Eli Keszler - Ithaca
28. Stephen O'Malley & Steve Noble - St. Francis Duo
29. Fire! feat. Oren Ambarchi - In the Mouth a Hand
30. Jon Irabagon - I Don't Hear Nothing But The Blues, Volume 2: Appalachian Haze

You can add albums for the longlist between now and the end of the week. We - the review team - will then reduce this list to a manageable shorter list. On this list the votes can be cast and we will have the winner by year-end.

Many thanks in advance for the suggestions.

Joe, Paul, Stef

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