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5:4
Announcements

Fermata Brum

by 5:4 June 27, 2022 • 16:42 0 comment

Olga Neuwirth – Orlando

by 5:4 June 27, 2022 • 16:12 0 comment

Gigs, gigs, gigs: BEAST FEaST 2022: Resonances

by 5:4 June 23, 2022 • 14:02 0 comment
CD/Digital releases

Annelien Van Wauwe – Flow

by 5:4 June 20, 2022 • 15:59 0 comment

Lera Auerbach – 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano & Oskolki

by 5:4 June 15, 2022 • 16:23 0 comment

JH – APEIROZOAN

by 5:4 June 11, 2022 • 18:21 0 comment
CD/Digital releases

LEYA – Eyeline

by 5:4 June 6, 2022 • 16:46 0 comment

Juliana Hodkinson – Angel View

by 5:4 May 31, 2022 • 12:23 0 comment

25 years on: John Wall – Fractuur

by 5:4 May 26, 2022 • 05:00 1 comment
CD/Digital releases

Orphax – Spectrum

by 5:4 May 23, 2022 • 10:37 0 comment

Tālivaldis Ķeniņš – Symphonies Nos. 5 & 8

by 5:4 May 19, 2022 • 17:01 2 comments

New Estonian Chamber / Choral / Orchestral Music

by 5:4 May 16, 2022 • 16:29 0 comment

more articles

  • Announcements

    Fermata Brum

    by 5:4 June 27, 2022 • 16:42
    June 27, 2022 • 16:42

    i’m heading off to Birmingham this evening, to savour the next few days’ acousmatic delights and disorientation at the BEAST FEaST festival. Words to follow once i’m back next week.

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Olga Neuwirth – Orlando

    by 5:4 June 27, 2022 • 16:12
    June 27, 2022 • 16:12

    There’s something rather depressing about the fact that, despite nearly a century separating the publication of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando in 1928, and the première of Olga Neuwirth‘s opera Orlando in 2019, the topic of gender identity and fluidity continues to be regarded as such a hot, controversial topic in…

    Read more
  • Announcements

    Gigs, gigs, gigs: BEAST FEaST 2022: Resonances

    by 5:4 June 23, 2022 • 14:02
    June 23, 2022 • 14:02

    It’s no fewer than 40 years since the formation of BEAST – Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre, one of the leading organisations pioneering the creation and presentation of electronic music. To celebrate this milestone, next week Birmingham University will be hosting BEAST FEaST 2022, a four-day extravaganza of concerts, installations and…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Annelien Van Wauwe – Flow

    by 5:4 June 20, 2022 • 15:59
    June 20, 2022 • 15:59

    Flow is the title of a new album featuring Belgian clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe wielding the less common basset clarinet. Invented in the 1770s by Theodor Lotz (who had previously created the basset horn), the purpose of the instrument was in part to extend the lower range of the clarinet.…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Lera Auerbach – 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano & Oskolki

    by 5:4 June 15, 2022 • 16:23
    June 15, 2022 • 16:23

    Chamber music implies a particular kind of intimacy, and that’s overwhelmingly the case on a new album of music by Russian-born composer Lera Auerbach. Part of its intensity comes from the fact that the performers are Avita Duo, comprising pianist Ksenia Nosikova and her violinist daughter Katya Moeller. This in…

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    JH – APEIROZOAN

    by 5:4 June 11, 2022 • 18:21
    June 11, 2022 • 18:21

    far away and hidden in the lands beneath no moon,in gorges below pinnacles upon which dwell the dead,a cavern, overshadowed by encircling mountains, gapesbeneath a narrow vault across whose dark the stars are sped.from deep down in its cave there comes a sinister refrainthat resonates the barren, shadowed valleys with…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    LEYA – Eyeline

    by 5:4 June 6, 2022 • 16:46
    June 6, 2022 • 16:46

    One of the more beguiling albums i heard in 2020 was Flood Dream by New York duo LEYA. That being said, at the time i wasn’t at all sure what to make of it, except that it left me intrigued, fascinated and, in a way that i couldn’t really articulate,…

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Juliana Hodkinson – Angel View

    by 5:4 May 31, 2022 • 12:23
    May 31, 2022 • 12:23

    i’ve crossed paths with the music of Juliana Hodkinson on a few occasions over the last few years, and they’ve always been somewhat discombobulating experiences. My response each time has been ambivalent, primarily due to the way that Hodkinson seeks to harness – and, potentially, rely upon – physical and…

    Read more
  • AnniversariesCD/Digital releases

    25 years on: John Wall – Fractuur

    by 5:4 May 26, 2022 • 05:00
    May 26, 2022 • 05:00

    Fractuur, released in 1997, occupies an interesting position in the output of British composer John Wall, coming at a pivotal point in his approach to working with sound. On Wall’s previous album Alterstill, released two years earlier, he had created five ambitious sound sculptures, playfully constructed from samples plundered from…

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Orphax – Spectrum

    by 5:4 May 23, 2022 • 10:37
    May 23, 2022 • 10:37

    When it comes to drones, i tend to feel that each listener’s mileage doesn’t merely vary, but is often entirely unique. Nonetheless, from my perspective there are some nice things going on in Spectrum, a new two-track album from Netherlands artist Sietse van Erve, a.k.a. Orphax. The essence of each…

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Tālivaldis Ķeniņš – Symphonies Nos. 5 & 8

    by 5:4 May 19, 2022 • 17:01
    May 19, 2022 • 17:01

    A long-standing interest of mine is exploring symphonies by composers i’ve never heard of. Apropos: Tālivaldis Ķeniņš, who until relatively recently i didn’t know was one of Latvia’s foremost 20th century composers. However, Ķeniņš was arguably as much Canadian as Latvian; after Russia re-occupied Latvia during World War II, Ķeniņš…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New Estonian Chamber / Choral / Orchestral Music

    by 5:4 May 16, 2022 • 16:29
    May 16, 2022 • 16:29

    As an appendix to my coverage of this year’s Estonian Music Days, i want to highlight three new anthologies of Estonian contemporary music. Focusing on chamber, choral and orchestral music respectively, and featuring a diverse collection of ensembles and vocal groups, they complement and expand upon a previous series of…

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2022 (Part 4)

    by 5:4 May 9, 2022 • 09:52
    May 9, 2022 • 09:52

    A disconcerting aspect of some of the pieces performed at this year’s Estonian Music Days was the extent to which their material, language and / or behaviour was obviously begged, borrowed and / or stolen from heavily-worn musical conventions, to the point of outright cliché. This was especially apparent in…

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2022 (Interlude / Part 3)

    by 5:4 May 5, 2022 • 05:00
    May 5, 2022 • 05:00

    In addition to conventional acoustic and electronic music, there was the opportunity to explore a variety of audiovisual work during my time in Tallinn. This was primarily due to COMMUTE, a fringe festival run by the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, with late evening concerts each day, after the…

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2022 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 May 2, 2022 • 05:00
    May 2, 2022 • 05:00

    The smallest-scale events at this year’s Estonian Music Days were a pair of chamber concerts at each end of the festival. Irina Zahharenkova’s keyboard recital at the Arvo Pärt Centre encompassed extremes of musical invention. The most egregious were two works dating from the early 1990s by a Russian guitarist…

    Read more
  • AnnouncementsFestivals

    Gigs, gigs, gigs: Proms 2022

    by 5:4 April 29, 2022 • 09:59
    April 29, 2022 • 09:59

    This year’s Proms season has been announced in the last few days, and alongside all the standard fare, there’s the usual small smattering of contemporary music to get mildly excited about. Scanning through the programme, the most immediate thing that leapt out was familiarity, even predictability, the festival in general…

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2022 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 April 28, 2022 • 16:51
    April 28, 2022 • 16:51

    Even before my plane touched down at Tallinn airport, i knew that this year’s Estonian Music Days was going to feel a bit different. Last year marked the 20th anniversary of Estonia’s independence from Soviet occupation, and one of the effects of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine is that Tallinn…

    Read more
  • Announcements

    Fermata Eesti

    by 5:4 April 17, 2022 • 05:00
    April 17, 2022 • 05:00

    This morning i’m setting off for Tallinn, to explore the eclectic shenanigans at this year’s Estonian Music Days. Words to follow once i’m back later next week.

    Read more
  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Helena Tulve – Lament (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 16, 2022 • 05:00
    April 16, 2022 • 05:00

    Curating this year’s Lent Series, focusing on death, grief and loss, has been something of a difficult experience. As i mentioned at the start of the series, this theme has felt unavoidable and inevitable at the moment, but at the same time works such as the ones i’ve featured, that…

    Read more
  • Lent SeriesPremières

    James MacMillan – The Keening (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 13, 2022 • 05:00
    April 13, 2022 • 05:00

    The penultimate work in this year’s Lent Series is one that ended up having to wait over a quarter of a century from the date of composition to receive its first performance. James MacMillan completed his orchestral piece The Keening in 1987, while studying for his PhD at Durham University.…

    Read more
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5:4
  • About
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Complete list of ratings
    • Compositions reviewed on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
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