Flotation Device top 15 recordings from 2013

Every December, KBCS invites producers to prepare a list of the year’s best recordings, so each year my Flotation Device co-host John Seman and I prepare our own top 15 lists. This year’s list draws from the sound worlds we provisionally describe as creative and improvised music, experimental soundscapes, etc. Pacific NW artists are represented by a number of great releases this year. These are in no particular order:

Lori Goldston: Film Scores (Sub Rosa)

William Parker: Wood Flute Songs (Aum Fidelity)

Bill Orcutt: A History of Every One (Palilalia)

Syrinx Effect: Gnarly and Sweet (self-released)

Powerdove: Do You Burn? (Circle into Square)

Neil Welch: 12 Tiny Explosions (Table and Chairs)

Figeater: Sweet Figeater Surprise (self-released)

Steve Peters: Lingua Franca (Present Sounds)

John Luther Adams: Inuksuit (Cantaloupe)

Samantha Boshnack/B’Shnorkestra: Go To Orange (Present Sounds)

William Winant: Five American Percussion Pieces (Poon Village)

Angelica Sanchez, Wadada Leo Smith: Twine Forest (Clean Feed)

Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog: Your Turn (Northern Spy)

Chuck Johnson: Crows in the Basilica (Three Lobed)

Okkyung Lee: Ghil (Ideologic Organ)