The Moondog Edition

It’s Thanksgiving week here in the US and we’re having a bit of fun with the format (plus doing some relaxing). Today’s WITI comes from a favorite newsletter of ours: Flow State. Each day’s email comes with 2 hours of music that’s suitable for working. Over the years I’ve found a huge number of new artists and CJN even contributed a treatise on William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops. This quick review of Moondog has been on my mind (and in my musical rotation) since I first read it in 2019. Hope you enjoy and go subscribe to Flow State. - Noah (NRB)

MC here. Good morning.

Today we’re listening to Moondog. He was a blind jazz and classical composer who inspired generations of musicians with his stripped-down, soulful, and mystical compositions. He was doing a form of minimalism before it was called that. Philip Glass and Steve Reich, who were studying music at Julliard while Moondog was busking in midtown Manhattan, cited him as a greater influence than anyone they studied in school. Today, we’re first playing In Europe, a collection of the classical pieces Moondog wrote in Germany in the ‘80s and ‘90s. A New Sound of an Old Instrument is a set of solemn pieces for organ, an instrument which the liner notes claim “can do anything a jazz band can do, as good, if not better.” We’re also including the recently-released Introduction to Moondog for a broad survey of his work if you’re interested; just note that it contains some vocal tracks.

In Europe by Moondog (40m) Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Tidal

A New Sound of an Old Instrument by Moondog (40m) Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Tidal

An Introduction to Moondog by Moondog (50m, 🗣️ on some tracks) Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Tidal

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & MC (MC)