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5:4
FestivalsPremières

Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 1)

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

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
CD/Digital releasesLent Series

Christopher McFall – Late Night Fate Directory

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

Mads Emil Dreyer – Figure Pieces

by 5:4 April 16, 2025 • 16:14 0 comments

Christopher McFall – Disengaged Songs for Disenchanted Lovers

by 5:4 April 14, 2025 • 10:26 1 comment
CD/Digital releasesLent Series

Christopher McFall – Epilog (Recombinant)

by 5:4 April 10, 2025 • 10:06 0 comments

Natasha Barrett – Toxic Colour

by 5:4 April 8, 2025 • 15:23 0 comments

Christopher McFall – An Eris 23

by 5:4 April 4, 2025 • 08:12 1 comment
Announcements

Only Fermata

by 5:4 April 3, 2025 • 06:00 0 comments

Christopher McFall – The Body As I Left It

by 5:4 March 30, 2025 • 09:42 0 comments

Musica Nova 2025 (Part 5)

by 5:4 March 28, 2025 • 12:06 0 comments

more articles

  • 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 …

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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 …

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  • 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 …

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  • 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 …

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  • 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
  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – This Heat Holds Snow

    by 5:4 March 25, 2025 • 10:32
    March 25, 2025 • 10:32

    One of the defining features of Christopher McFall‘s sound art is the ambiguity with which his source materials are handled. There’s at most a liminality to it – enough clarity (or ostensible clarity) to suggest something tangible – yet more often we’re left to fend for ourselves in worlds of …

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 4)

    by 5:4 March 22, 2025 • 09:26
    March 22, 2025 • 09:26

    Some of the most memorable performances at this year’s Musica Nova festival were of vocal works. The concert given by the Vicentino Singers was powerful not simply because of the abilities of the singers, but due to their size. Being a sextet, the level of intimacy they established was considerable; …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – The City of Almost

    by 5:4 March 20, 2025 • 09:43
    March 20, 2025 • 09:43

    i’ve been looking forward to this one. The City of Almost was the first of Christopher McFall‘s albums that i heard. i can’t remember what led me to it, but somehow in 2008 this CD, wrapped in a protective case of thick transparent paper, arrived at my door, and my …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – Sensuality May Be Found At The Mouth Of A Snake

    by 5:4 March 15, 2025 • 09:57
    March 15, 2025 • 09:57

    i wrote previously about Christopher McFall‘s tendency to construct his work via smooth fades and transitions, rather than abrupt changes. That’s overwhelmingly the case, perhaps more than anywhere else, in his 2008 album Sensuality May Be Found At The Mouth Of A Snake. Though released as one 31-minute track, the …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 March 13, 2025 • 12:32
    March 13, 2025 • 12:32

    Being the risky, aspiringly cutting edge things that they are, contemporary music festivals always tend to be a bit hit and miss. Very little i heard at Musica Nova 2025 fell into the latter category, but there were a few pieces that slipped through the quality net, being memorable for …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – Four Feels for Fire

    by 5:4 March 10, 2025 • 09:58
    March 10, 2025 • 09:58

    Four Feels For Fire was Christopher McFall‘s first physical release, put out on CD by renowned Belgian label Entr’acte in 2007. At 50 minutes’ duration, it was also his longest work so far, structured in five sections, the first four titled after the points of the compass, with a closing …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 March 7, 2025 • 10:21
    March 7, 2025 • 10:21

    Especially prominent at this year’s Musica Nova festival was the lavish organ in Helsinki’s Musiikkitalo concert hall, unveiled at the start of 2024. The largest modern concert hall organ in the world, its construction was partly made possible by one of Finland’s greatest composers, the late Kaija Saariaho, who in …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Christopher McFall – A Little Rouge

    by 5:4 March 5, 2025 • 08:48
    March 5, 2025 • 08:48

    20 years ago, US sound artist Christopher McFall quietly emerged via a Spanish netlabel with his first release, A Starved-Strafe Lancing Machine, an album i wrote about in 2022. Throughout his career, McFall’s output has deeply and consistently impressed me, and his releases have featured in many of my Best …

    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