Inside this issue:

The Wire Tapper 47: featuring BirdWorld, Actress × London Contemporary Orchestra, Arp, The Space Lady, Hifiklub & Lee Ranaldo, and more.

When Less Is More: Over 22 pages our writers examine the turning points in music where stripping it down and cutting it back forged new worlds of sound, from composition to funk to punk, including:

Black minimalism: Taking in fine art, funk, religion, rap, tape loops and more, the story of black minimalism defies an official narrative tainted by prejudice and lies. By David Toop

Kurt Munkacsi: The recording engineer and collaborator – with Philip Glass, Richard Landry and David Rosenboom, among others – is one of minimalism’s unsung facilitators. By Tommy McCutchon

Bites

Neil Luck: Drama and ritual fuel the musical theatre of the London based composer. By Abi Bliss

Mary Stark: The film maker weaves her own path through folk history. By Katrina Dixon

Yximalloo: The self-described Japanese outsider scavenges for folk fragments. By Nick Currie

Louise Landes Levi: Drone and poetry versus environmental apocalypse. By Francis Gooding

Global Ear: Berlin: The electrified saz is charging up Turkish musicians in Germany’s hipster hotbed capital. By Robert Rigney

Invisible Jukebox: Edan: Will the polymathic rapper and producer remain humble (and magnificent) faced with The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Dave Tompkins

The Inner Sleeve: Michael A Gonzales on Marvin Gaye’s I Want You

Epiphanies: An encounter with thereminist Lydia Kavina sends Pram’s Harry Dawes into the afterfuture

On Screen: Stephen Schible’s Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda

On Site: Rie Nakajima, Joan Jonas

Soundcheck: 3 Rensa, Nima Aghiani, Ammar 808, Arthur King, Binker & Moses, BlackLab, Black Spirituals, Body/Head, RP Boo, Carla Bozulich, Nadine Byrne, Daniel Carter/Tobias Wilner/Djibril Toure/Federico Ughi, The Stanley Clarke Band, Cruel Diagonals, George Crumb, DIISSC Orchestra, E-Saggila, Max Eilbacher, Mark Fell, James Ferraro, Field Lines Cartographer, Gaika, David Grubbs & Taku Unami, Heroin In Tahiti, Homeboy Sandman & Edan, Khalab, Angélique Kidjo, Kids See Ghosts, Kyoko Kitamura/Joe Morris/Tomeka Reid/Taylor Ho Bynum, Sharron Kraus, Kajsa Lindgren, Lotic, Jodie Lowther & ARC Soundtracks, The Midnight Hour, Mo Kolours, Mueko! Mueko!, Drew Mulholland, Nas, The New Blockaders, Nurse With Wound, Okzharp & Manthe Ribane, Omas Sextet, Shuggie Otis, Poptone, Portland Vows, Rangers, Réelle, Kristo Rodževski, James Romig, Matt Sargent, Sleep, DJ Sprinkles & Hardrock Striker, Tenderlonious, James Tenney, Toshiya Tsunoda & Taku Unami, Twentytwentyone, Weeed, Wen, Kanye West, Alan Wilkinson/David Birchall/Andrew Cheetham, Alan Wilkinson/John Edwards/Steve Noble, Peter J Woods, Yob.

The Boomerang: AMM, “A” Trio & AMM, Alan Braufman, Peter Brötzmann/Juhani Altonen/Peter Kowald/Edward Vesala, Peter Brötzmann Octet, Don Cherry, Ché-SHIZU, John Coltrane, The Great Society, Paul Kantner & Grace Slick, Lena Platonos, James Stevenson, Carl Stone, Various 9 Trajectoires, Various Boombox 3: Early Independent Hip Hop, Electro And Disco Rap 1979–83.

Print Run: Berlin Sonic Places: A Brief Guide by Peter Cusack, What’s Big And Purple And Lives In The Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story by Cam Cobb, Over And Over: Exploring Repetition In Popular Music edited by Oliver Julien and Christopher Levaux, Samuel Beckett, Repetition, And Modern Music by John McGrath, The Sound Of Nonsense by Richard Elliott, Grime Kids by DJ Target, Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History Of Library Music by David Hollander, The Other Night At Quinn’s by Mike Faloon

On Location: Vision Festival, New York, US; Matana Roberts & Kelly Jayne Jones, Bradford, UK; Mary Ocher, London, UK; Brooklyn Raga Massive Sixth Anniversary Celebration, New York, US; Circle, Glasgow, UK; Anthony Braxton Zim Music, London, UK; Bubbles: Total Freedom + Mister Wallace + Juliana Huxtable, Los Angeles, US; Godflesh, London, UK