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5:4
CD/Digital releases

Alex Paxton – Delicious

by 5:4 July 13, 2025 • 11:22 0 comments

World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 4)

by 5:4 July 10, 2025 • 10:49 0 comments

World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 3)

by 5:4 July 4, 2025 • 09:19 0 comments
Benefactor posts

Know thyself: Turangalîla and me

by 5:4 July 2, 2025 • 11:28 2 comments

Formuls – Disorder as a function of time (from Graz to Holycross);...

by 5:4 June 28, 2025 • 08:17 0 comments

World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 2)

by 5:4 June 24, 2025 • 15:11 0 comments
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

more articles

  • CD/Digital releases

    Alex Paxton – Delicious

    by 5:4 July 13, 2025 • 11:22
    July 13, 2025 • 11:22

    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 …

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 4)

    by 5:4 July 10, 2025 • 10:49
    July 10, 2025 • 10:49

    Alongside chamber and electroacoustic music, the 2025 World New Music Days included a diverse range of ensemble and orchestral works.

    Read more
  • Festivals

    World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 3)

    by 5:4 July 4, 2025 • 09:19
    July 4, 2025 • 09:19

    The 2025 World New Music Days included a healthy amount of electronic and electroacoustic music. Interestingly, most of the best of them were individual submissions, not part of any country’s official selection. i’m not entirely sure what that signifies, but it’s worth noting. All of these works were performed in …

    Read more
  • Benefactor posts

    Know thyself: Turangalîla and me

    by 5:4 July 2, 2025 • 11:28
    July 2, 2025 • 11:28

    Self-knowledge is an ongoing, never-ending thing, isn’t it? The other evening i was streaming a performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie on the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall, and became increasingly aware of the extent to which this particular piece not only shaped me as a musician, but also revealed aspects of …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Formuls – Disorder as a function of time (from Graz to Holycross); Obsession as a function of time (inertia)

    by 5:4 June 28, 2025 • 08:17
    June 28, 2025 • 08:17

    It’s always good to hear new music from Birmingham composer James Dooley, aka Formuls. He’s recently put out two releases that are essentially siblings. It’s been a while (too long) since i last wrote about Dooley’s work, but on that occasion i was exploring music that sat in various levels …

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 2)

    by 5:4 June 24, 2025 • 15:11
    June 24, 2025 • 15:11

    The World New Music Days features a wide variety of instrumental combinations, but the majority of music featured at this year’s festival were chamber works. Some of these fell within a trio of “extraordinário” concerts, each focused on a solo instrument, clarinet, cello and saxophone.

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  • 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 …

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  • 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 …

    Read more
  • 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 …

    Read more
  • 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 …

    Read more
  • 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
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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