Essential Tremors

Pianist and composer Matthew Shipp has developed a musical language of his own, one that can be dense and forceful, spare and questioning, and sometimes all of those things within the same performance. Widely known through his work in saxophonist David S. Ware’s quartet, one of the defining groups in the New York free-jazz scene of the 1990s where, alongside bassist William Parker, he helped give that group both its foundation and much of its restless movement. His own recordings, whether for solo piano, a trio, or other combinations of musicians, have built an equally substantial body of work. In this episode, hear how songs by McCoy Tyner, Duke Ellington, and Albert Ayler influenced him. Shipp will perform at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN in April of 2027.
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While not necessarily a household name for those outside of certain music circles, there’s a good chance you know what Nigel Godrich’s work sounds like. As a producer and recording engineer, he’s helped make some of the most distinctive records of the past three decades—often with musicians interested in moving beyond whatever worked the last time. His relationship with Radiohead began as an engineer on their second album, The Bends. He went on to co-produce OK Computer, beginning a collaboration that continued through the band’s increasingly adventurous subsequent records, including Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), Hail to the Thief (2003), In Rainbows (2007), The King of Limbs (2011), A Moon Shaped Pool. He also produced Beck’s Mutations and Sea Change, Pavement’s Terror Twilight, and Paul McCartney’s Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, and is a musician himself, too, in Atoms for Peace with Thom Yorke, and in the trio Ultraísta with Laura Bettinson and Joey Waronker. He has a new record with Dhani Harrison titled Dragonflies, which was released September 18, 2026. Hear how songs by The Beatles, Grace Jones, and Public Enemy formed him.
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Although a drummer by trade and training, Joe Westerlund’s creative output isn’t limited to just that instrument, with a more accurate description being "Percussionist/Improviser/Composer." Initially a member of DeYarmond Edison with Justin Vernon and brothers Brad and Phil Cook, followed by Megafaun after that, Westerlund has since gone on to release multiple solo records, co-founded Setting, a trio with Nathan Bowles and Jaime Fennelly, and record a forthcoming record with Nicole Mitchell called Written in the Universe. We spoke to him live at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN, in March of 2026, where he spoke about how pieces by Milford Graves, Akron/Family, and Olaibe shaped his sensibiities. He'll also be performing at the next Big Ears Festival, taking place on April 1-4, 2027.
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Through his work in Mount Eerie and The Microphones, Phil Elverum’s deeply personal, human, and intimate songwriting has left a deep imprint on American underground music over the last 20-plus years. Over 30-odd releases, he has established a literary voice that is both nakedly honest but approachable and that draws the listener in even whilr covering emotionally difficult terrain. Hear how songs by The Ronettes, Julie Doiron, and Popol Vuh shaped his sensibilities. His most recent work, Night Palace, was released under the Mount Eerie imprimatur in November of 2024.
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Columbus, OH-based composer Brian Harnetty describes himself as an “interdisciplinary artist using sound and listening to foster social change.” While the meaning of such a description may not be immediately apparent, Harnetty’s approach becomes clearer when reading through his CV: he frequently uses archival material such as field and historic recordings to create sound collages, capturing the essence of a subject from the fragments of it he’s collected. Some specific examples of his work in this area are recording projects with the Appalachian Sound Archives in Kentucky, the Sun Ra/El Saturn Creative Audio Archive in Chicago, and the Anne Grimes Collection in the Library of Congress. Harnetty’s work has garnered acclaim from publications ranging from The Wire, to Mojo, to Aquarium Drunkard, all three of which honored his 2022 release Words and Silences, a sonic portrait of the Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton, on their “year-end best” lists. Here how works/performances by Igor Stravinsky, Frederic Rzewski, and Addie Graham informed his creative development.
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