Month: July 2025

July 14, 2025 – Bang on a Can

This week’s show is a celebration of sonic invention, genre-defiance, and creative collaboration. We’re diving deep into the world of Bang on a Can, a musical collective that’s been reshaping the sound of contemporary classical and experimental music since the late 1980s.
Bang on a Can was founded in 1987 by composers Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Frustrated by the boundaries of academic classical music and inspired by punk, minimalism, noise, world music, and jazz, they envisioned a space where new music could thrive—wild, visceral, and unbound by category.
What started as a marathon concert in a SoHo art gallery became a movement: a group, a label, a festival, a touring ensemble—the Bang on a Can All-Stars—and an ecosystem supporting boundary-pushing music around the world. Today’s playlist features founding composers, All-Star performers, guest artists, and offshoot collaborations.

Playlist for the week of July 14, 2025:

00:00:00 Michael Gordon; Bang On A Can All-Stars – “Gene Takes a Drink”

00:09:55 Conlon Nancarrow (arr. Ziporyn) – “Studies for Player Piano No. 3c: Boogie-Woogie Suite”
00:13:16 Julia Wolfe; Choir of Trinity Wall Street – Anthracite Fields: IV. Flowers
00:19:53 van Ziporyn – Music from Shadowbang: No. 1 Angkat

00:22:53 Jeffrey Brooks – After the Treewatcher

00:30:43 Meredith Monk – The Games: Spaceship

00:35:02 Julia Wolfe – “Reeling”

00:43:02 Don Byron – “Fyodorovich”

00:45:25 Michael Gordon; Icebreaker – “Yo Shakespeare”

00:56:09 Terry Riley – “See Them Out There”

00:59:00  David Lang – “Cheating, Lying, Stealing”

01:09:30 Lao Luo & 龔琳娜 – “Tan Te”

01:12:54 Brian Eno; Robert Wyatt; Rhett Davies – “1/2”

01:21:46 Kyaw Kyaw Naing – “Seik Kyu Ahla (Version 2)”

01:26:15 Julia Wolfe – “Big Beautiful Dark and Scary”

A Reminder:

Next To Silence streams live at:

1700AM and on the web at PeaksIslandRadio.com

On:

Mondays Fridays @7:00PM

Tuesdays @Noon

Thanks for listening.

Dave

This Forest Is Not Yours

Show me your original face before you were born.

                     			—Zen Koan

I walked in

because I thought I could leave

myself behind.

The trees didn’t care.

The leaves kept falling—

with or without me.

I stood by the water

and saw a face.

Not mine.

Just shape and light—

no owner.

We want to believe

in something that stays.

But even stillness

moves

if you sit long enough.

Belief, doubt—

they’re just names.

What’s real doesn’t speak.

It doesn’t need to.

I turned back

and left nothing behind.

Nothing was ever mine

to begin with.

Peaks Island, Maine

July 7, 2025 – 1970’s Highlife from Ghana

This week Next to Silence presents some the best recordings of 1970’s Ghanaian guitar Highlife.

 The early 1970s marked a golden chapter in Ghanaian highlife music—a moment when village wisdom, city innovation, and post-independence energy converged in song. This was music built for both the dance floor and the spirit, composed of storytelling lyrics, percussive drive, and glowing melodic lines that seemed to float above it all. What you’ll hear in this playlist is a living memory of Ghana’s musical heartbeat—highlife in its guitar-band prime.

These are songs to move to, but also to sit with. They come from the people, and they bring the people together. These songs are meditations in groove, built to move both body and spirit. Let’s step into the pulse of early 70s Ghanaian highlife.

This show is dedicated to my brothers and sisters of Peace Corps Ghana 1970, along with the former students and teachers at Kadjebi Secondary School.

Playlist week of July 7, 2025:

00:00:00 African Brothers International Band – Ɛna Ɛye A Mane Me 

00:08:01  Francis Kenya; The Riches Big Band – Ensuah Nzema Kotoko – The Nezema Kotoko Family

00:14:16 Oyihwam Internationals – Anoma Franoas

00:22:08 Ashanti Afrika-Jah Int Band of Ghana – Ede Mabo

00:29:41 African Brothers International Band – Abusua Nnyɛ Asafo

00:32:59 Mangwana Stars – Atiadele

00:40:07 Kweku Dei; Guyoyo Guitar Band – Osikuni Atamfo (Gossiper Enemies)

00:45:26 City Boys Band – Nye Asem Hwe

00:52:04 F. Kenya – Engame Ma Menko

00:57:43 African Brothers International Band – Ebi Te Yie

01:01:08 St. Peter and The Holy Men – Bofoo Beye Abowa Den

01:04:20 F. Kenya – Nyameco

01:12:12 Nana Kwame Ampadu – Mede Aseda

01:19:50 Francis Kenya; The Riches Big Band – Madame Zehae Ala – Just As I Am

A Reminder:

Next To Silence streams live at:

1700AM and on the web at PeaksIslandRadio.com

On:

Mondays Fridays @7:00PM

Tuesdays @Noon

Thanks for listening, Dave

Unorthodox Congeniality

In a shed
behind a boat

a giraffe hugs

a mannequin

in lingerie.

She’s taped up

like hope

with no follow-through.

Left breast: duct tape.

Right breast: same.

They appear

to be having

a moment.

One arm raised,

one finger pointing—

at what?

Nobody knows.

Maybe God.

Maybe the fuse box.

You cannot

roller skate

in a buffalo herd.

But you can

make eye contact

with a fiberglass giraffe

and feel

understood.

Do giraffes

recognize mirth?

If so,

they hide their tell.

Too much thinking

chokes the magic.

Too much seriousness

snaps the string.

Let it be—

and the surreal settles

like a memory

of an almost familiar song.

Just look.

Don’t ask.

Sit still.

Don’t name it.

Don’t fix it.

Just—

watch.

People want meaning.

They want cause

and effect,

a punchline

with timing.

But not everything

needs to resolve.

A mannequin.

A giraffe.

Some duct tape.

And the question:

Do giraffes recognize mirth?

Or are they simply better

at not needing to?

Sense arrives late

and ruins the view.

You cannot

roller skate

in a buffalo herd.

But here,

you can listen

to plastic silence,

witness

unorthodox congeniality,

and know,

without knowing,

that stillness lives

in the unsolved.


Porter Lake, Maine