HAPPY NEW EARS!

To all of you, dear readers and music fanatics, we wish you a wonderful 2014, full of new sounds, new listening experiences, and art as art was meant to be, to offer new perspectives, to replace the current modes of sensing, to move, to disturb, to change, to impact, to express, to share, to destroy, to create.

Your vote was cast for the most innovative listening experience of 2013, and the winner is Barry Guy's Mad Dogs.

HAPPY NEW EARS AWARD 2013

Congratulations to Barry Guy and his small formations, consisting of Agustí Fernández, Mats Gustafsson, Johannes Bauer, Per-Åke Holmlander, Hans Koch, Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, Trevor Watts, Raymond Strid, Maya Homburger and Herb Robertson.

1. Barry Guy - Mad Dogs 20% 
2. Fire Orchestra - Exit! 17% 
3. Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile 11% 
4. Mikołaj Trzaska - Gra Różę 10% 
5. Keefe Jackson's Likely So - A Round Goal 8% 
6. Mary Halvorson Septet - Illusionary Sea 8% 
7. Black Host - Life in the Sugar Candle Mines 5% 
8. Ellery Eskelin/Susan Alcorn/Michael Formanek - Mirage 3% 
9. John Butcher, Thomas Lehn & John Tilbury - Exta 3% 
10. SPUNK - Das Wohltemperierte SPUNK 2% 
11. Okkyung Lee - Ghil 2% 
12. Tomas Challenger & Kit Downes - Wedding Music 2%
13. Axel Dörner & Mark Sanders - Stonecipher 1% 
14. John Edwards & Okkyung Lee - White Cable, Black Wires 1% 
15. Looper - Matter 1% 

So congratulations again to all the bands and musicians who innovated our hearing this year, who created new listening experiences.

Happy new year to all of you!

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Happy New Ears: The Vote is On!

What a fantastic response from you, our readers -- indeed it has been a good year for new music!

It wasn't easy to take all of the thoughtful suggestions and boil them down to a select 15, but we did it. To the right, the recordings are listed and ready for your consideration.

You can vote between now and December 31, 2013 at midnight, when the winner will be declared and a new year of new music begins.

So, cast your votes, mobilize your fans, persuade the cynics, convince the indifferent, wake up the musical sleepers .... and have fun!

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Happy New Ears 2013

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 from our reviewers:

• Anthony Braxton Sax Quintet 
• Andrew Cyrille - Duology  
• Fire Orchestra - Exit! 
• Keefe Jackson's Likely So - A Round Goal 
• John Tchicai - Tribal Ghost  
• Merzbow / Gustafsson / Pandy - Cuts 
• Mostly Other People do the Killing - Red Hot 
• Black Host - Life in the Sugar Candle Mines 
• Gaspar Claus - Jo Ha Kyū 
• Axel Dörner & Mark Sanders - Stonecipher  
• John Edwards & Okkyung Lee - White Cable, Black Wires  
• Kristoff K. Roll & Daunik Lazro - Chants du Milieu  
• Parque - The Earworm Versions  
• SPUNK - Das Wohltemperierte SPUNK  
• Mikołaj Trzaska - Gra Różę  
• Okkyung Lee - Ghil   
• Looper - Matter  
• Mohammad - Som Sakrifis
• Nate Wooley - (9) Syllables  
• Streifenjunko - Sval Torv (released dec. 2012)
• Joe McPhee/Thurston Moore/Bill Nace - Last Notes 
• Various Artists: Long Story Short  (Martin)
• Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile  
• Anthony Braxton: Echo Echo Mirror House 
• Yves Reichmuth Quartet - Fingertongue 
• Elliot Sharp Aggregat - Quintet  (to be reviewed)  
• Frank Gratkowski, Philip Greenlief, Jon Raskin: All At Once 
• Common Objects - Live In Morden Tower (to be reviewed) 
• Objets Trouvés - Fresh Juice (to be reviewed) 
• Postmarks - National Parks (to be reviewed)  

12/9 Update: a couple of late additions to the list from our reviewers (an oversight):

• Alexander Hawkins: Song Singular
• Dunmall, Hanslip, Gibbs & Richard: Weeping Souls
• Tomas Challenger & Kit Downs: Wedding Music 

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.

- Free Jazz Blog

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