Prologue Tewkesbury to Birmingham to Geneva, then on one of the most beautiful train journeys i’ve known, round Lake Geneva and along the Rhône valley into the mountains. Going beyond Leuk, where i’ve always disembarked on my trips to Switzerland, feels weird and wrong. i acknowledge the Schloss on one …

Let’s talk about abstraction.

This year’s Warsaw Autumn festival didn’t so much have a theme as a keyword: “clearing”. Referencing Heidegger’s use of the term (lichtung), the idea was that it “symbolises a new stage, a new opening and chance, in both the social and individual dimension. The word carries the hope that we wish to …

This morning i’m setting off for the Swiss Alps, where for the rest of this week i’ll be based in the small village of Münster. More specifically, i’ll be at MEbU, aka Münster Earport, both the home and performance complex of experimental duo UMS ′n JIP, aka Ulrike Mayer-Spohn and …

The last time i wrote about Danish composer Rued Langgaard, it was to celebrate a new recording of his Symphony No. 1, not only one of his own best works but a symphonic masterpiece in its own right (surely the best first symphony by any young composer; he was a …

Neglect has also surrounded the symphonies of Estonian composer Lepo Sumera. He’s generally lauded, loudly, within his homeland, but Sumera’s symphonic cause – comprising six symphonies, the last completed not long before his sudden death in 2000 – has been almost entirely limited to Estonian conductors. Parvo Järvi recorded a …

First thing this morning i’m setting off for Poland, where i’ll be checking out the remaining days of this year’s Warsaw Autumn festival. Back next week.

The second of Czech composer Miloslav Kabeláč‘s eight symphonies has come out in a new recording by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jakub Hrůša. i got to know his symphonies a few years ago, in the excellent Supraphon box set, and found him to be a curiously inconsistent …

One of my biggest classical music bêtes noires is the way so much significant music is allowed to be forgotten, with concert programmers snoozing on their laurels as they serve up yet another reheated season of the same old, same old. That’s especially the case where symphonies – and, more …

The other day, almost literally apropos of nothing, i found myself listening to Toni Braxton’s 1996 song ‘Un-break My Heart’ (i’d like to say i got there sideways from listening to Anthony Braxton, but that’s not true). Written by Diane Warren, there’s a lot to like about this song, particularly …

Where does Kilimanjaro end and Mount Fuji begin? Geographically speaking, that question is obviously absurd, but in relation to the Darkjazz Ensemble of one and the Doomjazz Corporation of the other, the relationship is more complex. Beginning in the mid-noughties, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – a group with shifting membership …

This morning i’m setting off for a few days in Berlin, where i’ll be checking out the long-awaited reunion concert by The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble / Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation at the Lido on Friday night, and also recording the equally long-awaited next 5:4 Dialogue over the weekend. Back next …

The good people at Seismograf – one of the few really interesting sources discussing new music these days, and pretty much the only one i read – asked me recently to contribute to their “Would you like to see my playlist?” series. It’s recently been published, and i thought i’d …

i’ve recently returned from four days in Estonia, where i spent my time exploring the music of two figures, both of whom fall outside the strict definition of “Estonian Composer”.

A couple of months ago, when writing about this year’s World New Music Days in Portugal, i mentioned a talk by Miso Music co-founder Miguel Azguime, given during a colloquium exploring the festival’s theme Thirst for Change. i was deeply struck by the force of Azguime’s words, which i found …

If you’re in the mood for something a bit left-field to liven up your summer, you could do worse than check out Aggregate, a double album featuring “new works for automated pipe organs”. i know, right? i’ve experienced my fair share of automated organ music, and it invariably tends toward …

Another year, another Grażyna Bacewicz portrait CD. CPO’s series Complete Symphonic Works, begun in 2023 and featuring the WDR Symphony Orchestra, concluded after three volumes with the wildly inaccurate claim that they’d released the lot. The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Orchestral Works series on Chandos, also begun in 2023, has only …

Often, when i’ve written about music from the Faroe Islands, i’ve remarked on the fascinating way they make diverse genres blend and mingle. What often emerges is a unique kind of hybrid, comprising elements from prog rock, jazz, contemporary, experimental and electronic. But not always, and certainly not in the …

Today i’m setting off for a week-and-a-bit’s vacation in the Czech Republic. No festivals, no concerts, all holiday. See you on the other side.

i started smiling even before i started listening. There’s playful and there’s joyful – and then there’s actual play and joy. To spend time with Alex Paxton‘s music is to enter a soundworld that’s all about the latter. It’s a world where the idea of being embarrassed, reserved, sensible or …