The Seltzer Salon

I’ve often wondered, while listening to any number of Carlos Niño’s projects or records, what a typical day of his looks like. I used that as a jumping off point to talk to him about collaboration and working as a producer, particularly his involvement with Thandi Ntuli’s beautiful new record, Rainbow Revisited . He shared stories about what drew him to her sound, touring Europe with Laraaji, and...

Zekarias Musele Thompson made one of my favorite records of 2022, Goodnight Shiva (Atlantic Rhythms), but that only scratched the surface of the work they are doing in the worlds of art and sound. Through Working Name Studioes, Thompson fosters a community built around connecting with each other and ourselves through material and conceptual art practice. It’s important work that continues to grow...

Tristan Allen is a puppeteer, musician, and world builder. Their new album, Tin Iso & the Dawn , sets the stage for future narratives, sonic investigations, and a sense that something larger lurks out there for all of us. It’s one of the most engaging pieces of work I’ve heard all year, and add into it the puppetry and visuals Allen has created in conjunction with the music, it’s hard not to b...

When I first heard Green-House and read the description of Olive Ardizoni’s project back in early 2020 with Six Songs for Invisible Gardens , I felt an instant connection to the music and the ideas it conveyed. Since then, they have harvested growing sonic landscapes that, while adjacent to those early ideas, expand upon them to build a deeper conceptual framework. Green-House is now a duo with Ar...

After a week off (to put all the focus on Songs of Our Lives), The Seltzer Salon returns with a real heavy hitter. Vinny Golia is an all-time great. A composer, multi-instrumentalist, big thinker, teacher, and so much more, all of these facets show up in his project, Even to This Day . The second Movement, Syncretism: For The Draw , is out now and stretches across nearly 12 hours and 110 tracks. C...

When I heard Greta Ruth's The Fawn a couple years ago, I was initially taken by her voice and the way it hung like a ghost within the stark sonic field. It was so captivating. In the years since, her sound has developed and grown, but her voice continues to be the flame that holds it all together. Holy Omen , self-released earlier this month , pushes everything into a new realm. Her words are shar...

For the newest edition of The Seltzer Salon, I talked to trumpeter, composer, and so much more, Matthew Halsall, about his new album, An Ever Changing View. It's a stunning album. I've been an admirer of Halsall's work for a while, but this album really swept me up in this lively, vivid world he creates with it. His compositions and trumpet playing are, of course, top notch, but the percussive ele...

I interviewed Nick Millevoi just over a year ago, but when his new album, Digital Reaction, came out, a lot of new questions started popping into my head. Then, he shared the video for "Spins of the Axis" and mentioned it's inspiration from the movie RAD, a favorite of mine as a kid that I a) hadn't thought about it years (decades!?) and b) thought nobody else had seen (I had no idea it was re-rel...

It's no surprise that I am drawn to fellow lifers, and the great Bob Bellerue certainly fits that bill. This was the first time the two of us actually sat down and talked, but having occupied similar and adjacent worlds for the better part of two decades, it was a quick connection. In addition to continuing the great Ende Tymes festival, Bellerue's solo music practice has been expanding and evolvi...

On this episode of The Seltzer Salon I'm joined by Canadian composer, musician, and dramaturge, Christopher Willes. He recently spearheaded the Resonance Gathering project which has evolved over its lifespan, but began as a large-scale ensemble performance of Pauline Oliveros's To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation (1970). It grew to become more than that, culmi...

I've been pretty floored by a lot of the music coming out of Beirut over the last few years - and I realize I'm a bit late to the party here - but the city's scene has produced a handful of my absolute favorite albums in recent memory. One thing many of those records have in common is Fadi Tabbal and Tunefork Studios. I've been in touch with Tabbal for the last few years, and have written about a...

Lea Bertucci has been on an absolute roll the last few years between her solo work, and collaborative work, along with curating excellent compilations with companion sample libraries. Her newest work is a collaboration with the great Lawrence English and it doesn't disappoint. We chat about it, her recent trip to Australia and New Zealand, and her next solo record, which is going to be a doozy. Le...

Next up in The Seltzer Salon is the wonderful Eve Maret. Her new album, New Noise, is such a fantastic surprise (wrote a little more about it in last week's Capsule Garden). I love when an artist goes into a new(ish) direction, especially when they take elements of their work and reconfigure them into something different. This album definitely feels like she's taking a risk in doing something outs...

Straight up, I love Nina Dante and her project, The Snake Said to the River. It has brought me so much joy over the last year or so, and continues to just thrill and excite me. In it, Dante digs into music and writing from Medieval era, traditional folk music, plus her own original pieces. There’s also exploration of the natural world and the histories (and mysteries) of language. It's whimsical a...

Sometimes an interview or an artist doesn't really need an introduction. Zeena Parkins is one of those artists. For decades, she has been exploring new aural terrain and creating her own unique frameworks for composition and improvisation. The scope of her work is vast, and its impact deeply felt. Last month, Chaikin Records released a boxed set of her incredible LACE project. Using something so f...

M. Sage is one of the most generous and thoughtful artists. His new album, “Paradise Crick,” finds joy in sonic reverie, and getting lost in that world makes things feel a little brighter. This conversation about the album felt so good. After a rough morning, talking to Sage about whimsy, pleasure, and so much more, I felt so much better and refreshed. He and his work have that kind of effect on p...

I've been a great admirer of Ned Milligan's work both up close and from afar. His latest, Considerable, is the perfect opportunity to finally have a conversation about his approach to creating these inviting, organic sound worlds. His use of wind chimes, especially, always grabs me on such a core level. Considerable is an apt title for this latest album as Milligan's work is always considered and...

I don't have enough superlatives for Danny Paul Grody, but he is such a kind and generous person that even a short conversation with him will leave you feeling better about the world. His latest album, Arc of Day, captures that spirit. It plots a sonic pathway through darkness and isolation to the other side, where light still glows. Brad and Danny talk in-depth about the album and its origins, th...

As much as Ben Vida’s previous work has caught and held my attention, his new album with Nina Dante and Yarn/Wire, “The Beat My Head Hit,” has hit me like something else entirely. It’s a phenomenal expression of a musical space Vida has been exploring for the last few years that lands in multiple ways. There are visceral reactions that lead to emotional swings from joy to wistfulness with many sto...

I am thrilled to share the first episode of The Seltzer Salon, a new series under the Foxy Digitalis banner that focuses on small conversations with a range of musicians, artists, writers, and whoever about various projects and ideas. I have long enjoyed listening to interviews, but I do not have the time to sit uninterrupted for an hour or more and really dig into many of these types of episodes....