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5:4
CD/Digital releases

Toivo Tulev – Dawn, Almost Dawn

by 5:4 June 18, 2025 • 16:16 0 comments

World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 1)

by 5:4 June 15, 2025 • 08:15 0 comments

Erkki-Sven Tüür / Max Bruch – Violin Concertos (Hans Christian Aavik /...

by 5:4 June 4, 2025 • 09:00 0 comments
Announcements

Fermata WNMD

by 5:4 May 29, 2025 • 12:00 0 comments

In memoriam Per Nørgård

by 5:4 May 28, 2025 • 16:03 3 comments

Just Dropped In, Coventry: LEYA w/ Vanessa Bedoret

by 5:4 May 27, 2025 • 16:36 0 comments
FestivalsPremières

Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 3)

by 5:4 May 22, 2025 • 09:14 0 comments

Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 2)

by 5:4 May 17, 2025 • 10:01 0 comments

Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 1)

by 5:4 May 12, 2025 • 16:17 0 comments
Announcements

Fermata Eesti

by 5:4 April 24, 2025 • 06:00 0 comments

Only Connect 2025

by 5:4 April 22, 2025 • 14:30 0 comments

Christopher McFall – Late Night Fate Directory

by 5:4 April 19, 2025 • 17:29 0 comments

more articles

  • CD/Digital releases

    Toivo Tulev – Dawn, Almost Dawn

    by 5:4 June 18, 2025 • 16:16
    June 18, 2025 • 16:16

    My first impression of Toivo Tulev, established nearly a decade ago during my first few sojourns to Estonia, was of a composer whose language was one of polarised extremes. The more i’ve got to know his music over the years, the more that first impression has been confirmed: Tulev’s is …

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 1)

    by 5:4 June 15, 2025 • 08:15
    June 15, 2025 • 08:15

    Contemporary music festivals often feel the need to impose a theme on the proceedings, but in the case of this year’s World New Music Days, hosted in Portugal, it was less a theme than a rallying cry. “Thirst for Change” was the phrase hanging over the festival, though as with …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Erkki-Sven Tüür / Max Bruch – Violin Concertos (Hans Christian Aavik / Odense Symphony Orchestra / Gemma New)

    by 5:4 June 4, 2025 • 09:00
    June 4, 2025 • 09:00

    Hot on the heels of the recent Estonian Music Days, there have been several interesting new releases of Estonian music. Among them is a new recording of Violin Concerto No. 2 “Angel’s Share” by one of the country’s most accessible composers, Erkki-Sven Tüür, featuring soloist Hans Christian Aavik with the …

    Read more
  • Announcements

    Fermata WNMD

    by 5:4 May 29, 2025 • 12:00
    May 29, 2025 • 12:00

    This afternoon i’m packing my bags for Portugal, where i’ll be throwing myself into the non-stop sonic overload that is the World New Music Days, flitting between Lisbon and Porto. This is one of contemporary music’s most engrossing and exhausting festivals, so all being well i’ll make it through all …

    Read more
  • Commemorations

    In memoriam Per Nørgård

    by 5:4 May 28, 2025 • 16:03
    May 28, 2025 • 16:03

    Even though i knew this day was coming, and potentially coming soon, i’m still deeply sad at the news that Per Nørgård has died today. What makes me even sadder, instinctively, is that i feel i don’t know his work better, that there’s so much of his output i’ve not …

    Read more
  • Concerts

    Just Dropped In, Coventry: LEYA w/ Vanessa Bedoret

    by 5:4 May 27, 2025 • 16:36
    May 27, 2025 • 16:36

    Last Saturday i found myself in the salubrious confines of Just Dropped In, a small record shop in central Coventry, for a live performance by US experimental duo LEYA, comprising harpist Marilu Donovan and violin-vocalist Adam Markiewicz. In hindsight, being something of a shrine to all that’s vintage – with …

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 May 22, 2025 • 09:14
    May 22, 2025 • 09:14

    Over the last 10 years, as i’ve been immersing myself ever more deeply into Estonian contemporary music, i’ve tentatively reached a point where i feel i can be more or less confident of what certain composers will or won’t do. Yet i mentioned in Part 1 of the lingering sense …

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 May 17, 2025 • 10:01
    May 17, 2025 • 10:01

    Two concerts of special interest that happen each year during the Estonian Music Days are those focusing on works by student composers. One of these took place in Tartu, at the Heino Eller Music School, being the final concert of the 2025 Young Composer competition. The requirements on this occasion …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 May 12, 2025 • 16:17
    May 12, 2025 • 16:17

    Anniversaries were the focus at this year’s Estonian Music Days festival. The festival’s theme, ‘Sada’ (100), celebrated the centenary of the country’s Composers’ Union. There was therefore something of a retrospective flavour to certain aspects of the festival, revisiting significant works in addition to paying tribute to various notable figures …

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  • Announcements

    Fermata Eesti

    by 5:4 April 24, 2025 • 06:00
    April 24, 2025 • 06:00

    It’s that time again: this morning i’m setting off for this year’s Estonian Music Days festival, which this year is celebrating 100 years of the country’s Composers’ Union. Back in a couple of weeks, with all the words to follow.

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Only Connect 2025

    by 5:4 April 22, 2025 • 14:30
    April 22, 2025 • 14:30

    Let’s return to one of the great maxims of not just contemporary but all music: size isn’t important. In the case of Norway’s Only Connect festival, its short, 2½-day duration belied the fact that its content was highly concentrated. As such, one event started to blur into the next, into …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – Late Night Fate Directory

    by 5:4 April 19, 2025 • 17:29
    April 19, 2025 • 17:29

    The aim of this year’s 5:4 Lent Series has been twofold: first, to celebrate the work of US composer and sound artist Christopher McFall, and second, in collaboration with McFall, to re-release his work after many, many years of languishing completely unavailable. In the early stages of planning this series, …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Mads Emil Dreyer – Figure Pieces

    by 5:4 April 16, 2025 • 16:14
    April 16, 2025 • 16:14

    One of the more beguiling things to have entered my ears recently is Figure Pieces, a new 22-minute EP from Danish composer Mads Emil Dreyer. Two of Dreyer’s Forsvindere pieces were featured on his album Disappearer, released last year, and Figure Pieces demonstrates the same fascination with the permutational possibilities …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – Disengaged Songs for Disenchanted Lovers

    by 5:4 April 14, 2025 • 10:26
    April 14, 2025 • 10:26

    Familiarity can go a long way to diminish the effects of ambiguity. By now, 40 days into this Lent Series, we’re accustomed to the fact that immersing oneself within Christopher McFall‘s work is to enter a dark world of shapes moving in shadows, where sounds hint, suggest and allude, but …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – Epilog (Recombinant)

    by 5:4 April 10, 2025 • 10:06
    April 10, 2025 • 10:06

    After the unexpected tangibility of An Eris 23, explored last time, Christopher McFall‘s 2012 album Epilog (Recombinant) isn’t just a return to his more familiar umbral soundworld, but to a degree that is way more than usually abstract. It takes as its starting point the materials he used when creating …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Natasha Barrett – Toxic Colour

    by 5:4 April 8, 2025 • 15:23
    April 8, 2025 • 15:23

    It seems fitting that the unique acousmatic music of Natasha Barrett, a composer whose life and work have encompassed the UK (originally, for a while) and Norway (later, for much longer), should have been primarily served by labels from those two countries. In earlier times it was the Oslo-based Aurora …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – An Eris 23

    by 5:4 April 4, 2025 • 08:12
    April 4, 2025 • 08:12

    When exploring This Heat Holds Snow, i mentioned how Christopher McFall’s music features passages i call ‘in between’, states where things are more than usually elusive and / or blurred. The conclusion of that album took the three discrete elements in McFall’s work – pitch, rhythm and noise – and …

    Read more
  • Announcements

    Only Fermata

    by 5:4 April 3, 2025 • 06:00
    April 3, 2025 • 06:00

    At the crack of dawn this morning i’m setting off for Norway, to experience this year’s Only Connect festival, taking place in Stavanger. Back after the long weekend with words aplenty, but rest assured the ongoing Lent Series will continue in my absence. Ha det for nå!

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – The Body As I Left It

    by 5:4 March 30, 2025 • 09:42
    March 30, 2025 • 09:42

    i often find myself thinking of the word ‘concrete’ when listening to Christopher McFall’s music. It’s because of the way that word’s meanings have a contradictory presence: many of the sounds McFall uses feel solid, firm; yet the soundworlds he creates tend toward vague, allusive and abstract environments. Concrete, yet …

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 5)

    by 5:4 March 28, 2025 • 12:06
    March 28, 2025 • 12:06

    One of the most fascinating events at this year’s Musica Nova festival was LOKS – four concerts at once. Not so much a performance as a film juxtaposing and compositing four separate performances, it featured music by four composers whose initials form the title: Lauri Supponen, Oene val Geel, Krists …

    Read more
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5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions explored 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
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Submission Contact Form