Cantaloupe Music

07/08/2025

Here's a lively convo with Matthew Shipp and Mel Minter for Mel's Musically Speaking blog; they cover Glenn Gould, John Coltrane, Alexander Scriabin and everyone in between.

https://matthewshipp.bandcamp.com/album/the-cosmic-piano

https://www.melminter.com/2025/07/06/a-fresh-communique-from-planet-shipp/ -7284

Matthew Shipp. Photo by Anna Yatskevich. My plan was to post three or four more short album reviews to lower the must-listen pile a little, as I did in the previous post. One of those albums was to…

06/27/2025

We’re so excited to be making more history with So Percussion! Let’s go for another 25 🎶

06/25/2025

So happy for this! 🙌🙏🎶

06/25/2025

Outstanding to hear Matthew Shipp's The Cosmic Piano mentioned on NPR Music's New Music Friday this past week (scroll ahead to 39:10 to hear Stephen Thompson's thoughtful review):

"Last month, the inventive jazz pianist Matthew Shipp made headlines when he posted a rant to Facebook that slammed André 3000's new recording of piano instrumentals. In the process, he wrote about the craft of improvisational piano, the work that goes into it, and that essay triggered a lot of conversations about whose music attracts attention from listeners — and more to the point, the press, including NPR.

"Now, perfect timing, Shipp has a new album of solo piano pieces. It's dense and enveloping, and an ideal soundtrack to what Shipp was just writing about last month. It's called The Cosmic Piano."

Haim leaves it all behind. Hotline TNT turns it up to 11. Yaya Bey threatens fear with a good time. World Cafe host Raina Douris joins Stephen Thompson to discuss their favorite albums out today.

06/20/2025

Ron Hart goes in-depth with Matthew Shipp for the Village Voice about The Cosmic Piano and plenty more. New album is out today!

The Village Voice sits down with jazz pianist Matthew Shipp to discuss Andre 3000's bad music, Rothko's great paintings, and much in between.

06/18/2025

"In the midst of other artful endeavors like collaborating once again with long-time musical partner Ivo Perelman (Armageddon Flower) and publishing a set of prose and essays (Black Mystery School Pianists and Other Writings), piano savant Matthew Shipp has made a new set of solo piano recordings.

The Cosmic Piano (June 20, 2025; Cantaloupe Music) is another thoughtful, spiritual outpouring of Shipp’s core being, using his piano as the vessel that puts it out there for all of creation, for all of time eternal."

We urge you to read this beautiful review for the Something Else! webzine by S. Victor Aaron in its entirety. And you can click through the links, or visit our Bandcamp page, to preorder The Cosmic Piano on CD.

Reaching deep down within himself is how Matthew Shipp can create a record like 'The Cosmic Piano' that rises well above being simply a 'solo piano' venture.

06/10/2025

Fantastic and comprehensive piece by Phil Freeman for Burning Ambulance on Matthew Shipp's solo piano music, including his upcoming album 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙨𝙢𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙤, out June 20 on Cantaloupe:

"What makes Matthew Shipp’s solo music endlessly fascinating to me is the way it feels like one endless piece. In live performance, he blends melodies together into hour-long suites, transitioning seamlessly from one of his own compositions to a standard to a passage of brand-new improvisation and on and on, but it all holds together because of his unique voice at the keyboard. His actual playing and his musical concept have a mysterious quality that he sometimes attempts to describe using terms drawn from astrophysics or religious mysticism, but it’s difficult to say how much of that comes with a wink; I mean, there’s a track on the new album called ’Suburban Outerspace’. But the way he actually strikes the keys, his sense of time and tempo, is unlike any other pianist I’ve ever heard."

A decade of cosmic piano journeys

06/08/2025

It's wonderful to hear our friend John Luther Adams holding forth with Andrew Ford on ABC Australia from his current digs in Canberra.

We encourage you to take an hour on this quiet Sunday to (re)acquaint yourself with JLA's history, his influences, and some of his most lasting and beloved works, including Inuksuit, Become Ocean and An Atlas of Deep Time.

John Luther Adams describes himself, tentatively, as an “elemental extremist”. New Yorker music critic Alex Ross describes him as “one of the most original musical thinkers of the 20th century”. Deeply attuned to the natural world, particularly his adopted home of Alaska, Adams’ music has ...

06/06/2025

Now streaming on all platforms: the spacious, exploratory title piece from Matthew Shipp's forthcoming album THE COSMIC PIANO (out June 20).

Get your ears on it today, and preorder your copy of the CD at the link below:

Listen to The Cosmic Piano by Matthew Shipp.

06/03/2025

Many thanks to KALX Berkeley and their listeners for elevating Carla Kihlstedt and Present Music's 𝟮𝟲 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘀 to the top spot last week. We really appreciate your support (and we can't do it without you)!

Top 35 Albums of the Week - Week of May 23rd, 2025Previous Chart > Carla Kihlstedt | 26 Little Deaths (Cantaloupe) Deerhoof | Noble and Godlike in Ruin (Joyful Noise) Dakh Daughters | Pandora’s Box (S/R) Fake Fruit | Mucho Mistrust (Carpark) Marlon Williams | Te Whare Tīwekaweka (Universal New Ze...

05/29/2025

Beyond pleased to see Anzû Quartet’s debut album ‘adjust’ listed this week in The New York Times’ 5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now — and in some esteemed company, with new recordings by Brooklyn Rider, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and more!

Brooklyn Rider’s exploration of the four elements, miniatures by Kurtag and the Anzû Quartet’s debut recording are among the highlights.

03/05/2025

THIS SUNDAY March 9: Don't miss Anzû Quartet at Roulette in Brooklyn, where they'll be previewing work from their upcoming album 𝙖𝙙𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩, out April 25 on Cantaloupe. Tickets are still available!

This Friday you can also stream the album's first single, Anna Webber's "adjust (part ii)," on all platforms, and preorder the CD on our Bandcamp page (link in the comments below).

A premiere of three ambitious new works performed by members of Bang on a Can, Mivos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and Bearthoven.