The Music Show

ZÖJ, the collaboration between Gelareh Pour and Brian O'Dwyer perform the opening track from their new album, May The Devil’s Ear Be Deaf, live in the music show studios. The album was recorded at an artists retreat in Banff, Canada, and features music “built on fragility and on the fear of its own erasure." They also talk about performing a live score to a remarkable 1925 silent film, Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life.
The Three Seas have been coming together and then flying apart again for years, and they're back together for a live session in the Music Show studio. With band members living in both Australia and West Bengal, the music is an amalgam of Himalayan folk, Baul spiritual music, rock, dub, and jazz. Their latest album is called Antahkarana and it was recorded in Peter Gabriel's Real World studio, a high-tech idyll in the south west of England.
And we remember two giants of the classical world, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who has died at the age of 81, and Ruth Slenczynska, who has died at the age of 102. 
Tilson Thomas was known for his advocacy of modern American repertoire, and his life-long embrace of Mahler's titanic symphonies. In an archive interview, he tells Andy how he thinks about classical music as a whole, and Mahler in particular. 
We'll hear more from Andy's long conversation with Ruth Slenczynska, a child-prodigy concert pianist who learned with Rachmaninov and duetted with President Truman, next time on The Music Show. 
The Three Seas are currently on tour, dates available here
ZÖJ are performing Grass at The Capitol Theatre on May 1
Music heard in this program:
Title: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV903 Artist: Ruth Slenczynska Composer: J. S. BachAlbum: Ruth Slenczynska - Complete American Decca RecordingsLabel: Decca
Title: Symphony No. 4; iii. Fugue (Andante moderato) Artist: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Michael Tilson ThomasComposer: Charles IvesAlbum: Ives - Symphony Nos. 3 & 4, Selected American HymnsLabel: SFS Media
Title: Symphony No. 1 in D major, 'Titan'; iv. Stürmisch bewegtArtist: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson ThomasComposer: Gustav MahlerAlbum: Mahler - Symphony No. 1Label: SFS Media
Title: TermitesArtist: ZÖJComposer: Gelareh Pour & Brian O'DwyerAlbum: May The Devil’s Ear Be DeafLabel: Bleeemo Music
Title: Real WorldArtist: The Three SeasComposer: The Three SeasAlbum: AntaḥkaraṇaLabel: Earshift Music
Title: RongmoholeArtist: The Three SeasComposer: The Three SeasAlbum: AntaḥkaraṇaLabel: Earshift Music
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Antonia Gauci, AJ Bradford, and Tim Jenkins

The Mountain Goats started out as a solo project by then-psych nurse John Darnielle recording directly into a boombox in his room. Their latest album (Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan) is a "full-on musical", complete with french horn and a string section, recorded on what sound like very nice microphones. Darnielle's tastes and influences are esoteric and wide ranging, and so is this conversation with Ce Benedict, in which they discuss religious schisms, instrumental choices, and musical theatre. 
John Darnielle's new book, This Year: 365 Songs Annotated actually contains 366 songs and is published by Scribe.

Robert Finley's first album was called Age Don't Mean A Thing, which was fitting because he released it in his 60s. Before that, he was a military man and then a carpenter. When he began to go blind he sat down his tools and returned to music - initially the blues - but his latest album Hallelujah! Don't Let the Devil Fool Ya is a gospel album, and a very special one. 
Robert is on tour in Australia 16-19 May. 
Jake Mason's new album with the Jake Mason Trio is called The Modern Ark and it's got the hammond organ at its core. Jake joins Andy to talk about working with vocalists Kate Cebrano and Kurt Elling, why the trio is the perfect unit of music for him, and going ham(mond).

Film composer Bernard Herrmann’s career started and ended with classics: his first film was Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), his last was Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). But it’s the nine films that Herrmann worked on with Alfred Hitchcock that define his legacy, and in his new book, Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema, Steven C Smith examines the work they shared together.
Music heard in this program:
Title: Music from Psycho - The ShowerArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: PsychoLabel: Unicorn
Title: Music from The Trouble With Harry - OvertureArtist: Royal Scottish National OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: The Trouble With HarryLabel: Varèse Sarabande
Title: Music from The Man Who Knew Too Much - Storm Clouds CantataArtist: London Symphony OrchestraComposer: Arthur Benjamin & D.B. Wyndham-LewisAlbum: The Man Who Knew Too Much
Title: Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)Artist: Doris Day and Christopher OlsenComposer: Jay Livingston & Ray EvansAlbum: The Man Who Knew Too Much
Title: Music from The Wrong Man - PreludeArtist: The Warner Brothers Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: The Wrong Man
Title: Music from The Wrong Man - HandcuffsArtist: The Warner Brothers Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: The Wrong Man
Title: Music from Vertigo Prelude and RooftopArtist: Royal Scottish National OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: VertigoLabel: Mercury
Title: Music from Vertigo - Scène d'amourArtist: Royal Scottish National OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: VertigoLabel: Mercury
Title: Music from Pyscho - FinaleArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: PsychoLabel: Unicorn
Title: Music from North By Northwest - OvertureArtist: The M-G-M Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: North By Northwest
Title: Music from North By Northwest - The CrashArtist: The M-G-M Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: North By Northwest
Title: Music from North By Northwest - The Stone FacesArtist: The M-G-M Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: North By Northwest
Title: Music from Psycho - The CurtainArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: PsychoLabel: Unicorn
Title: Music from Marnie - PreludeArtist: City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Paul BatemanComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: MarnieLabel: Tsunami
Title: The KillingArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: Torn Curtain: The Unused ScoreLabel: Varèse Sarabande 
Title: This YearArtist: The Mountain GoatsComposer: John DarnielleAlbum: The Sunset TreeLabel: 4AD
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Antonia Gauci

There aren’t many bands that are still going after 50 years, but Sparks, who had their first big hit back in 1974 with This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, have seen a renaissance of sorts in the last few years - they wrote a film, starred in a documentary, collaborated with Cate Blanchett, and have released some of their best work. The brothers, Ron and Russell Mael, talk about their shifting style, creative use of repetition, and the work of Bernard Herrmann. 
After performing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Mo'Ju has swapped the stage for the library - as one of the musicians commissioned by the State Library of Victoria to write a song for their Rebel Heart exhibition, works inspired by letters that reveal tales of love, and of rebellion.
Sparks tour dates available here.
Music heard in this program:
Title: Far Too LateArtist: Mo'juComposer: Mojo Ruiz de LuzuriagaAlbum: Native TongueLabel: ABC Music
Title: Do Things My Own WayArtist: SparksComposer: Ron Mael & Russell MaelAlbum: MAD!Label: Transgressive Records
Title: This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of UsArtist: SparksComposer: Ron MaelAlbum: Kimono My HouseLabel: Island Records
Title: Tryouts for the Human RaceArtist: SparksComposer: Ron Mael & Giorgio MoroderAlbum: No. 1 In HeavenLabel: Virgin Music
Title: My Baby's Taking Me HomeArtist: SparksComposer: Ron Mael & Russell MaelAlbum: Lil' BeethovenLabel: Lil' Beethoven Records
Title: The Girl Is Crying In Her LatteArtist: SparksComposer: Ron Mael & Russell MaelAlbum: The Girl Is Crying In Her LatteLabel: Island Records
Title: AgapitoArtist: Mo'JuComposer: Mojo Ruiz de LuzuriagaAlbum: State Library of Victoria Exhibition Label: Independent 
Title: I Just Wanna KnowArtist: Mo'juComposer: Mojo Ruiz de LuzuriagaAlbum: Native TongueLabel: ABC Music
Title: Music from Psycho - The MurderArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: PsychoLabel: Unicorn
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Antonia Gauci