Christian M. Newman

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New Release Update, “Euronymous”, perf. by LFT

We are so pleased to announce that a future release will feature a recording of Newman’s 2016 master’s thesis work, “Euronymous” for Low Frequency Trio, as performed by The Low Frequency Trio. This enchanting performance will feature on a collection of Newman’s acoustic works from 2016-2023. More coming soon! ***JULY 2024 UPDATE*** Due to unforeseen difficulties of funding related to the Ukraine/Russia War, this release has been postponed with further updates coming this Fall. Stay tuned for more information, and subscribe to Newman’s Instagram page for latest announcements.

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Live Performance as member of Shoulder Voices- September 20, 2024

Live at Launchpad: Talking Hours & Gilead Album/Vinyl Release,, 9 pm, Launchpad Albuquerque, 618 Central Ave SW, Abq, NM, 87102: $15 at the door.

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Recording Project- “Three Fantasies” recorded in Keller Hall, June 2, 2023

Newman recorded the three fantasies within the span of three hours on June 2.In a statement from October 2 Newman explained, “I nearly went insane recording these piece;. all I could hear were rattling notes, and buzzing notes, or notes that sounded too punchy, on and on. And my eyes were totally bugging out from so much rapid scanning back and forth. I’m glad Clifford (Grindstaff) recommended I be patient before I made any decisions about the quality of the recording. He pointed out I was too far in it to know, so I waited all Summer.And he was right. It’s really a good performance of the pieces, and the sound quality is beautiful.”

The first fantasy is available to stream on the new promo album, “Secret September ” Mixtape

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Album Release- “Burn the Dry Grass” now available across all streaming platforms, August 26, 2023

After more than a year, Newman has finally made this record available across all streaming platforms. Now in an expanded form including interludes multiple versions of tracks, and a strange spoken word dialog given by an anonymous speaker in a South African accent, this new version is expansive, and flows beautifully between tracks and clarified sections.

The speaker sets a perplexing tone for the record as she begins, “At the setting of the desert sun, I shook with cold, and I burned the dry grass”. The alternate versions given in the last section, leave a strange sense of loss, or dimming to the content that is compelling, and somehow very tragic.

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Live Event- Faculty Spotlight Series with Maxine Thevenot, Organ: Michael Walker, Horn. Feat. Sean Kennedy, Solo Tuba: Mary Anne Ybarra, Piano Accompaniment, April 29, 2023

Dr. Sean Kennedy premiered the tuba pieces after an extensive collaboration and numerous rehearsals with the composer. These were premiered with an open stage configuration, and half-open curtains in the hall created an interesting resonance for the performance that seemed to originate from multiple locations within the space. Dr. Kennedy gave a remarkable performance of the works, which seemed both ‘secretive’, and dramatically forceful for some passages.

“Three Fantasies…” were performed for the first time as a complete set, with the first two being world premiere performances. These pieces were dedicated to Newman’s longtime patron, Willy Larson- a person who had been a significant early supporter of Newman’s composition and piano playing.

These works represent a significant culmination of Newman’s piano studies, and offer a broad and dramatic arc for the listener. Formulated from a singular harmonic motif, the three fantasies utilize a specific set of modern and modernist pianist elements of form and performance practice. Yet predominantly, these works are designed like a traditional rococo fantasy, albeit one built on a ‘post-tonal’ harmonic framework.

Newman was very clear that these are uniquely New Mexican pieces, that is, one’s directly inspired by the New Mexican landscape, rocks, fossils, and vast openness. in the tradition of Messiaen’s “Bird Music”, Newman intends to evoke a specific sound quality reflecting a place and things in or around it. A lengthy article is currently under construction and will be made available in the coming weeks.

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Artwork Highlights, December 2022

“in secret” for solo tuba (December 15)

Newman completed a set of three pieces for solo tuba this week after “literally months of mulling over sounds, and wondering what a tuba does on its own time”. The pieces are of a virtuosic nature, and represent “an earnest attempt to create the fullest possible sound from a single instrument. There should be no sense that these works are lacking, or missing some fuller sound. Hence the subject, “in secret”. Its a sort of paranoid manner, and style”. Dedicated to Newman’s virtuosic tubist friend, Dr. Sean Kennedy, these pieces may receive a premiere in the coming months, so stay tuned.

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New Electronic Works with Kenneth Cornell- “5000 Fingers”, John Wiese, and No Age @ Launchpad, Abq, Nov. 17

Angayme K.Oss, AKA. Kenneth Cornell premiered a new project with Newman this past Thursday, opening for the aforementioned acts as they toured through Albuquerque. The duo, known as “5000 Fingers”, performed a blistering, synth/noise set built from a unique blending of Newman’s electroacoustic trickery with Cornell’s masterfully-manipulated modules, and pedal-board grinding. The set made for a nice mood setter before Wiese’s brilliant audio thrashing, and a lengthy, resounding No Age set. Keep your eyes out for a possible release next year?

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Piano Premiere- Fantasy on Re- “Diatryma” (2022)

On November 3, Newman premiered his piano piece, Fantasy on Re- “Diatryma” (2022), in Keller Hall at UNM. Part of a mixed program with members of the ABQ Composer’s Collective, the piece was one of five world premieres by Chris Orphal, Eduardo Oreo, Doug Falk, and Alex Retiff.

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“Today is an Important Day. I’d Better Try and Look My Best”-

On October 13, Newman released an excellent remix of materials found on Leviathan, and other releases, with the rather lengthy title listed above. This along with a rather hideous, facial-morph visualizer. Plans are in place to include this track as part of a re-release of something, but no clear details have been given this far.

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Artwork Highlights, September 2022

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Available Across Major Platforms, Beginning this Weekend, Sept. 15

Newman’s musical output will slowly appear on major streaming platforms after this weekend. We asked for a schedule, but the best we got was that “Burn the Dry Grass” is first, or among the first few. We can also expect some things to remain exclusive to Bandcamp, while some things will not appear on Bandcamp at all for licensing reasons. We can expect at least one cover song, and a possible record of Newman’s piano playing. This is dependent on the ability of archivists to extract the files from some odd software, though, so don’t expect anything too soon. Expect something else though,

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“sequentia espiritus sancti”- Four Compositions in Graphic Score Form, September 12, 2022

Vivid bands of color, light flecks and swirling arabesques are arranged according to a strict color palette in these evocative displays. Currently in the final editing and compilation stages, these four works are a continuation of Newman’s graphic scores and para-pointalist images, ie, “Horses Breaking Through the Frothing Sea”. Also related to his earlier B & W PRAEGRESSUS Scores (master’s thesis, 2015). Publication coming soon?

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Live Performance- Selections from “Synth Summer Fantasy”, Live on OCD Hour w/Lobsterbreath, broadcast on DFM RTV INT (dfm.nu), August 31, 2022

On 8/31, Newman was hosted by Lobsterbreath at his personal studio to perform synth works from his upcoming EP, “Synth Summer Fantasy”. This a sort of supergroup project with writing by Newman and added details licks and vocal parts by Lady Uranium, Mark Datter, and Anna Mall.

The overall tone and style is a lot more in the direction of pop music in comparison to a lot of his solo projects or notated music. Here we find a lot of synth arp patterns, bright melodies, and sad, diatonic harmonies. Whispered vocal lines and eighties vibes are all over this thing, which Newman has dubbed, “21st Century Yacht-Rock for the Ages”.

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Release- “Hot Summer Nights” (2016); Digital Remaster and Track Edits, August 31, 2022

Digitally remastered, and cut into succinct tracks, Newman dropped an official release of his 2016 master’s thesis, “Hot Summer Nights”- Electroacoustic Works for Mixed Ensemble. This was mastered in Portland and Albuquerque, although not much info was made regarding the approach used to remaster the works in this set. It sounds a bit harmonically richer, and has overall gentler peaks than the original. Overall, it flows nicely, and more clearly delineates a lot of the content in a clearer fashion. Still wondering about the cources and methods foir creating these sounds are in this set. It’s an interesting blend of tone qualities that are of somewhat obvious origin, like strings or harps, but are accompanied by something, not artificial, exactly, but unidentifiable. In particular, there’s a sense of emerging complex waves from murky origins, all placed within a clear harmonic language.

Summer 2022 Projects

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Live Performance with Mark Datter, NOKTUNE, Lady Uranium, and Angaym K.Oss, July 22 @7 pm

Live Performance with Anna Mall, Simple Hands, and more, July 9 @7 pm

Noise Remix Alert, June 11, 2022

On June 10 of this month, Newman ‘slapped together’ a cover of Zoviet France’s 2000 ambient noise work, “Something Spooked the Horses” from the Album, The Decriminalization of Country Music. Newman explained during the mastering session that the piece and the group had been highly influential on his teenage psyche. “They didn’t write just shrill noise, or rely on something that made an obvious, identifiable sound. Usually their identifiable sounds were physical instruments, or samples of real ones. Same with (Einsturzende) Neubauten, I just found something compelling about their approach….”

This particular cover is very faithful to the original, especially for a Newman remix/cover thing. Although not formally the same, it conveys much the same spirit. It also includes a second appearance of Newman as a slide guitarist, contrary to his own public statements. His first appearance was on Sigils and Other Spells

Give the cover a listen here:

Give Sigils and Other Spells a listen here:

Sigils and Other Spells by Anna Mall

New Release: “Burn the Dry Grass” EP (May 16, 2022)

In a not-so-surprising move, the new ep, Burn the Dry Grass, was released quietly this evening, via small Instagram update. The seven tracks were selected from the original possible ordering of more than fourteen songs, and feature an assortment from each category of the original possible selections.

The track list includes a spacious vocal piece featuring Anna Mall, and five-year-old, Rhys Ronan Newman, fleshed out by low synth passages on a blasting bass double 18” cabinet. The EP also includes one of the two slated NOKTUNE/Lobsterbreath remixes, along with two of the works from the four-song “Censorship Party” set premiered in March. The remaining three tracks feature sound samples and shorter passages from the Analog Therapists source sounds from 2018. In particular, these sounds utilize some of the dark clicking and string ensemble sounds created for Mike Smith’s live reading of his chapter, “The Speed of Grass” in 2015.

You can stream and purchase the EP here:

Simple Hands- An Evolving Journey of Improvisation, and Adding New Members, Summer 2022,

Stue Trory remains a catalyst for rapid response projects involving Newman since before their “bizarre vacation to SXSW” with Unit 7 Drain in 2008. This year’s doings-a-transpiring required some filling of time for a show, hence the deployment of the strike force, ie. a new jam band, Simple Hands- first a rock duo, then a trio, and finally a quartet by the the premier.

Featuring Jessica Mills on saxophone, Nic Jenkins on Bass, Trory on guitar, and Newman on drums, the quartet played something like a funk 70’s jam session. There were some poppy bass licks, bright Sax melodies, and chugga- guitar riffs a plenty. Newman laid down some grooves mostly in a heavy funk style with the occasional foray into some Brit pop sixteenth-note territory. Should we expect a release from this group? Word has it, the group already faces internal disputes, with one source claiming they’ve already lost Jenkins. Stay tuned for updates, and hopefully a track or two.

Analog Therapists (2018)

In Summer 2018, good buds and sporadic collaborators, Stue Trory, and C.M. Newman reformed their once-a-decade-project, Analog Therapists (originally, offensively spelled, “ANALog theRAPISTS“), after Trory proposed the idea and mentioned adding a third member to noted New Mexico composer, Raven Chacon. This was to be a one-time-performance noise trio opening for New York multimedia duo, Ariadne. “My favorite moment of that show was when a piece ended and a little kid shouted, “what are you guys doing?” I feel like he really got it somehow”. Newman apparently extracted five or six tracks from rehearsal sessions and produced them into a studio EP, which has sat on a hard drive since 2019 .

Now these tracks are slated to appear on an expanded forthcoming EP. This volume is set to include the AT tracks in some form, and most likely as an independent section of the record, with the “censorship” material as a first part, the AT tracks second, and the two N/L tracks at the end. It sounds like the album will be arranged as a series of folios, many of which take on a more personal, ‘miniature’ quality. Definitely some drumming with a prepared kit, thick washes of electro acoustic clicking stuff, a sad harmony from a screechy viola. Expect noise, and crunchy sounds. Yum.

A Great Wave of Piano Music

Studio EP Upcoming Release

Update: what’s taking so long with this thing???!!!! NOKTUNE/Lobsterbreath remixes, apparently, May 1; Analog Therapists, May 11

The ep will now feature two remixes of a piece, “Guaranteed Return”, by noise/ambient/experimental sound co-composers, NOKTUNE and Lobsterbreath. Further, there is some additional drum piece in the works, although none of the tracks have yet been recorded. The full collection will now have a broader name, and will include these and possibly other tracks from the 2018 project, Analog Therapists, who left numerous Newman classics on the cutting room floor. This will help to “make it more of an experience” according to Newman.

Live Premiere, March 16, 2022

EP Release, February 2022

EP Release, December 2021

Graphic Scores Collection in Prepublication Stages…or is it?

EP Release, December 2021