5:4

Like most of this year’s festivals the 2020 Proms was cancelled due to the pandemic, with the BBC offering a selection of ‘greatest hits’ from their Proms archive. That itself was pretty interesting, inasmuch as (just like with their broadcasts of Choral Evensong) it revealed how one year’s festival is…

We’re nearing the end of my alphabetical series of Isolation Mixtapes, celebrating some of the most interesting music from the last decade. This week features groups, composers and artists beginning the letter W, and as always there are two tracks from each of the years 2010 to 2019, explored in…

It would be disingenuous to downplay just how laugh out loud funny is so much of John Oswald’s music. And this is surely one of the main reasons why he has fallen foul of the more simple-minded legal “brains” in the pop industry, since a casual encounter with his later…

To return to the theme of reissues that i was exploring recently, another composer whose work has hitherto been languishing relatively unheard is the Canadian John Oswald. i first encountered his music around 25 years ago, at a Birmingham Symphony Hall concert where the Kronos Quartet included his astonishing electroacoustic…

This week’s Isolation Mixtape explores some of the most fascinating and beguiling music from the last decade by artists, composer and groups beginning with the letter V. As always there are two tracks from each of the years 2010-2019, featured in chronological order. Here’s the tracklisting in full, together with…

Released tomorrow is a new album of eight works by Icelandic composers, all of which have been curated by – and in some cases created in collaboration with – cellist and vocalist Gyða Valtýsdóttir. The general tone of these works, all of which are quite brief, is meditative in nature,…

As was the case at last year’s festival, most of the concerts at Forum Wallis 2020 focused on works for ensemble. However, while in 2019 the majority of performances involved larger numbers of players, due to the pandemic almost all of the pieces this year were for small chamber groupings,…

For the latest Isolation Mixtape, i’m focusing on some of the most enthralling music from the last decade beginning with the letter U. Once again there are two tracks for each of the years 2010 to 2019, explored in chronological order. Here’s the tracklisting in full, together with approximate timings…

i’ve often likened going to a music festival to an act of pilgrimage, and that feels especially true of Forum Wallis. The two-and-a-half hour train journey from Geneva, edging round the lake before passing by Montreux and on into the heart of the Swiss Alps, feels akin to leaving behind…

The twentieth instalment in my weekly Isolation Mixtapes is devoted to some of the best music from the last ten years by composers, groups and artists beginning with the letter T. Two tracks from each of the years 2010 to 2019 (three in the case of 2019, as i wanted…

This morning i’m setting off for five days in the Swiss Alps, where i’ll be checking out this year’s postponed Forum Wallis festival. Words to follow next week upon my return. Meanwhile, this week’s Isolation Mixtape explores some of the most interesting and marvellous music from the last decade by…

Despite being located at opposite ends of the aesthetic / behavioural spectrum, i’ve recently been finding that two new releases pose the same questions about the distinction between long- and short-term listening. In the case of Arboreal, the latest album by Canadian musician Jamie Drouin’s alter ego Liquid Transmitter, this…

Number 18 in my weekly series of Isolation Mixtapes explores some of the best music from the last decade by artists, composers and groups beginning with the letter R. As always, there are two tracks from each of the years 2010 to 2019, featured in chronological order. Here’s the tracklisting…

A couple of years ago i wrote about the world première of Erkki-Sven Tüür‘s Symphony No. 9, subtitled ‘Mythos’. It was a fantastic performance of what turned out to be a marvellous piece (i often find myself marvelling while listening to Tüür’s music), so it’s exciting to see that original…

For the latest Isolation Mixtape i’ve had to take a slightly different approach from usual. We’ve reached the letter Q in my alphabetical celebration of some of the best music from the last decade and, quite frankly, though i scoured my music collection like never before, trying to put together…

The most fascinating – and the most extensive – campaign of reissuing earlier work that i’ve ever encountered is by US artist Matt Waldron, better known as irr. app. (ext.). His earliest releases date from the late 1990s, a time when Waldron’s access to and capabilities with technology were apparently…

Another composer who has been polishing off, smartening up and reissuing old works recently is Canadian Paul Dolden. It always surprises me how underappreciated and even unknown Dolden’s music continues to be, particularly as it’s among the most extreme stuff i’ve ever encountered (and, for good or ill, people love…

This week’s Isolation Mixtape focuses on artists, groups and composers beginning with the letter P. As usual the mix celebrates some of the best and most striking music from the last decade, with two tracks from each of the years 2010 to 2019, featured in chronological order. Here’s the tracklisting…

A few months back i wrote about about the appearance of various releases by The Hafler Trio on Bandcamp, which quite apart from being highly unexpected (hitherto Andrew M. McKenzie had seemed opposed to his output being released in a digital format) is a very good thing indeed, since most…

A noticeable musical side-effect of the lockdown has been to take the opportunity to reissue composers’ earlier work, usually in some newly-polished or otherwise revised form. Four artists in particular – Roland Kayn, The Hafler Trio [Andrew M. McKenzie], Paul Dolden and irr. app. (ext.) [Matthew Waldron] have reissued work…