I haven't received my physical copy yet, but apparently, the hype sticker says:
recorded in conjunction with a documentary film entitled "Sex in Today's World".
Friday, May 15, 2026
ZAPPA'S TTG CONCERT
THE DMYTRO RADZETSKYI BAND
On their latest release, The Dmytro Radzetskyi Band included two pieces that were written by Christian Vander / Magma, next to the original compositions by Dmytro.
"Live At Gram"
by Dmytro Radzetskyi Band
"Live At Gram"
by Dmytro Radzetskyi Band
JOERI CHIPSVINGERS - NEEM EN EET HIERVAN
- Joeri Chipsvingers: Neem En Eet Hiervan
(2026, cd, Belgium, fons records)
Joeri Chipsvingers (alter ego of Michiel De Naegel) released "De Avonturen Van Joeri Chipsvingers" in 2020.
"Neem En Eet Hiervan" is Joeri Chipsvinger's second release.
"Neem En Eet Hiervan" is Joeri Chipsvinger's second release.
In Flemish.
Collaborating with the 12-piece Nemø Ensemble, De Naegel creates what has been aptly described as "Disney on acid". The instrumentation is dense, dynamic, and rapidly shifting. Flutes, piccolos, clarinets, and strings paint a vibrant backdrop that mimics the erratic movements of a mind under siege.
Neem En Eet Hiervan strips away all pop conventions to offer a raw, beautiful listening session. It is challenging, overwhelming, and utterly unique.
Download/streaming on Bandcamp, but also availableon CD and on LP.
STUDIO DAN - HOW'S YOUR BIRD
How Is Your Bird?
Manfred Weissensteiner
How does a contemporary orchestra — an instrumental ensemble like Studio Dan — end up making theater productions for children in the first place? Especially now, when everything is getting tighter anyway. Why spend money on sophisticated contemporary children’s theater with more than two people on stage? Why not simply give old fairy tales a trendy makeover? That gets ratings.
.jpg)
© Karolina Preuschl
And then there’s this: making Zappa accessible to children — audible as music and visible as theater. Sure, I know they enjoy playing his music and that they play it well. I also know that Daniel listened to him a lot in his youth and was, in a way, musically socialized through him.
But ultimately, the whole undertaking feels rather out of time. The world has turned several times since then and somehow arrived somewhere we certainly never expected. The hopes, visions, and ideas for a peaceful, healthy, happy future that were formulated back then have all, in retrospect, failed and revealed themselves to be naive.
And now a hero from the flower-power seventies is being dug up again — for children, no less. It almost seems cynical.
On the other hand: what kind of world are we supposed to show children today? What kind of future?
After all these introductory questions, I would now like to make a case for Studio Dan’s decision to create sophisticated music theater for young audiences — with all the clichés and familiar arguments that already appeared in the forewords of program booklets back in the seventies. But perhaps they have been forgotten, buried beneath the urgency of current debates and replaced by the merely factual.
Precisely now, theater for children and young people that takes them seriously aesthetically and intellectually is not simply a “nice to have,” but a necessity. The reason lies less in theater itself than in the world young people are growing up in today.
Children and teenagers often experience crises simultaneously: climate change, wars, social insecurity, digital overstimulation. Theater has to engage with these realities — not abstractly like the news, but emotionally and tangibly, live. It offers a space where people can process and understand things together instead of standing alone in front of a screen, and at its best, it can provide orientation in a complex world.
In theater, young audiences directly encounter other realities of life. They see characters who doubt, fail, and hope. This experience strengthens empathy — something we desperately need in polarized times. Theater is one of the few places where people practice putting themselves in someone else’s shoes and shifting perspectives.
Many young people today feel more powerless than empowered. Good children’s theater does not only present problems, but also possibilities for action. It conveys the message: you can change something. Agency instead of helplessness.
Quite demanding and rather pathos-filled — but one has to believe in something.
So the next question is: what kind of world should we show them?
Honesty is crucial. That means we must not sugarcoat things. Children notice immediately when adults are pretending. Themes such as fear, injustice, or anxiety about the future can and should appear. But hope must remain tangible.
Not as a kitschy happy ending, but as an attitude: people find solutions, community is possible, change happens when someone begins. Theater may show that the world is complicated — and still shapeable.
And what kind of future?
Perhaps the more important question is not: what future do we show? but rather: what attitude toward the future do we convey?
Curiosity instead of fear, the courage to ask questions, diversity as normality, overwhelm and failure as part of development — and contradiction and rebellion as strengths.
And so we move from the general to the specific. To the question of why Studio Dan chose Zappa as the basis for a children’s program.
If the parameters mentioned above define contemporary, honest theater for young audiences, then the Zappa framework on which How Is Your Bird? is based is actually a stroke of luck..jpg)
Manfred Weissensteiner
How does a contemporary orchestra — an instrumental ensemble like Studio Dan — end up making theater productions for children in the first place? Especially now, when everything is getting tighter anyway. Why spend money on sophisticated contemporary children’s theater with more than two people on stage? Why not simply give old fairy tales a trendy makeover? That gets ratings.
.jpg)
And then there’s this: making Zappa accessible to children — audible as music and visible as theater. Sure, I know they enjoy playing his music and that they play it well. I also know that Daniel listened to him a lot in his youth and was, in a way, musically socialized through him.
But ultimately, the whole undertaking feels rather out of time. The world has turned several times since then and somehow arrived somewhere we certainly never expected. The hopes, visions, and ideas for a peaceful, healthy, happy future that were formulated back then have all, in retrospect, failed and revealed themselves to be naive.
And now a hero from the flower-power seventies is being dug up again — for children, no less. It almost seems cynical.
On the other hand: what kind of world are we supposed to show children today? What kind of future?
After all these introductory questions, I would now like to make a case for Studio Dan’s decision to create sophisticated music theater for young audiences — with all the clichés and familiar arguments that already appeared in the forewords of program booklets back in the seventies. But perhaps they have been forgotten, buried beneath the urgency of current debates and replaced by the merely factual.
Precisely now, theater for children and young people that takes them seriously aesthetically and intellectually is not simply a “nice to have,” but a necessity. The reason lies less in theater itself than in the world young people are growing up in today.
Children and teenagers often experience crises simultaneously: climate change, wars, social insecurity, digital overstimulation. Theater has to engage with these realities — not abstractly like the news, but emotionally and tangibly, live. It offers a space where people can process and understand things together instead of standing alone in front of a screen, and at its best, it can provide orientation in a complex world.
In theater, young audiences directly encounter other realities of life. They see characters who doubt, fail, and hope. This experience strengthens empathy — something we desperately need in polarized times. Theater is one of the few places where people practice putting themselves in someone else’s shoes and shifting perspectives.
Many young people today feel more powerless than empowered. Good children’s theater does not only present problems, but also possibilities for action. It conveys the message: you can change something. Agency instead of helplessness.
Quite demanding and rather pathos-filled — but one has to believe in something.
So the next question is: what kind of world should we show them?
Honesty is crucial. That means we must not sugarcoat things. Children notice immediately when adults are pretending. Themes such as fear, injustice, or anxiety about the future can and should appear. But hope must remain tangible.
Not as a kitschy happy ending, but as an attitude: people find solutions, community is possible, change happens when someone begins. Theater may show that the world is complicated — and still shapeable.
And what kind of future?
Perhaps the more important question is not: what future do we show? but rather: what attitude toward the future do we convey?
Curiosity instead of fear, the courage to ask questions, diversity as normality, overwhelm and failure as part of development — and contradiction and rebellion as strengths.
And so we move from the general to the specific. To the question of why Studio Dan chose Zappa as the basis for a children’s program.
If the parameters mentioned above define contemporary, honest theater for young audiences, then the Zappa framework on which How Is Your Bird? is based is actually a stroke of luck.
.jpg)
© Nikola Milatovic
Because there they are: the surprisingly fertile points of connection. The wild mix of genres, the playful approach to music and form, the joy of experimentation, the unexpected ruptures and turns — all of this is particularly well suited to children, because they are free of rigid categories and often accept shifts in style more naturally than adults do. Zappa’s grotesque humor, his absurd characters, and exaggerated situations fit as well. Added to this is rhythm, which can be translated into physicality, movement, and even language. Zappa’s collage-like works intersect with modern children’s theater, which often moves away from classical linear storytelling and instead works through images and associations.
So what at first glance may seem like an odd combination — Frank Zappa and children’s theater — ultimately makes sense, is fun, and offers hope for tomorrow.
So in the end: a kitschy happy ending after all.
See for yourself — ideally accompanied by a young person — from May 28 to 31 at Dschungel Wien.
SN.FM - RADIO SUPERNOVA VOL. 1
- SN.FM: Radio Supernova Vol. 1
(2025, lp, Germany, private release)
SN.FM (real name Sebastian Tomczak) released a piece entitled ‘Black Napkins’ on his first album, “Radio Supernove Vol.1’.
It’s not the Frank Zappa composition, but it did mention FZ in the lyrics, featuring German rapper Dexter.
52 seconds into the track
Ich höre 'Black Napkins' von Zappa
(Rest In Peace)
Du hörst durch die halb geöffnete Tür eine Wutanfall von Papa
Vinyl release but also available on digital music platforms.
I received my LP copy last week.
Comes in a beautiful fold-out cover.
DANKSY - WORM & GOD
- Danksy: Worm & God
(2026, download/streaming, --, digital music platforms)
= digital single
- feat. Dweezil Zappa
Available on iTunes.
- feat. Dweezil Zappa
Available on iTunes.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
FRANK ZAPPA - ZAPPA '66 - VOL.1 - LIVE AT TTG STUDIOS
- Frank Zappa: Zappa '66 Vol. 1 - Live At TTG Studios
(2026, download, --, --)
Physical objects are moving, downloads are being transferred, and sounds are shaping sculptures !
"Zappa '66 Vol. 1 - Live At TTG Studios" is out !
A great start of the day...
FLAT EARTH SOCIETY - MISSA ASINORUM
- Flat Earth Society: Missa Asinorum
(2026, cd, Belgium, zonk records)
Great concerts and a superb album.
In the newly accepted standard way that world leaders communicate, Peter Vermeersch adds:
Out on LP, CD and Bandcamp.
Essential listening !!
ANTHONY GARONE - OK, BUT WHY?
- Anthony Garone: OK, But Why?
(2026, cd, --, moonjune records mjr142)
Anthony Garone is putting words into action.
His Make Weird Music (MWM) website and YouTube channel has been showcasing and promoting music from the other side of the fence for years, and now, Anthony has released his own album.
His Make Weird Music (MWM) website and YouTube channel has been showcasing and promoting music from the other side of the fence for years, and now, Anthony has released his own album.
14 tracks.
Dense and polyrhythmic. The way that I like it.
The album kicks off quite heavy and then slowly shifts into a more calming atmosphere.
Dense and polyrhythmic. The way that I like it.
The album kicks off quite heavy and then slowly shifts into a more calming atmosphere.
The list of guest musicians is quite spectacular. As a result, with a few exceptions, there are different musicians on each track which adds a personal touch and different flavours to each piece.
Out on the MoonJune Records label.
I bought the CD but the album's also out on vinyl, or as a download/streaming digital thing.
I bought the CD but the album's also out on vinyl, or as a download/streaming digital thing.
Recommended listening.
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