CD/Digital releases

So it begins. To mark the recent centenary of Hans Werner Henze (born 1 July 1926), Wergo is undertaking a wholesale sweep through their extensive back catalogue of recordings of his music, boxing them up in five substantial volumes, together forming the Hans Werner Henze Edition. As such, this will …

It seems entirely appropriate that my relationship with ITERAE. the latest album from collaborators Joseph Branciforte and Jozef Dumoulin, is one that i’ve circled around and repeated numerous times. My first contact resulted in quizzical curiosity, with subsequent listens proving ever more beguiling. Furthermore, ITERAE provides both a complete 8-track …

An album i’ve kept returning to in recent weeks is Albumin, the latest collaboration from Jim O’Rourke and Jos Smolders. There are various reasons for that, but perhaps the primary one is its gripping spontaneity. The cover artwork is a telling analogue: a large red environment (clearly evoking the title), …

In recent years i’ve been increasingly impressed at the amount of radical musical invention coming out of Iceland. Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, Hekla Magnúsdóttir, Áki Ásgeirsson, Þóranna Björnsdóttir, Bára Gísladóttir, Berglind María Tómasdóttir, Davíð Brynjar Franzson, Lilja María Ásmundsdóttir, Ingibjörg Ýr Skarphéðinsdóttir, Sóley Stefánsdóttir – these are just some of the composers …

Tension, climax, release. That’s not simply familiar but one of the most fundamental progressions we encounter in all forms of art. So it’s been fascinating to hear how Lithuanian composer Justina Repečkaitė sidesteps and reconfigures this most basic dramatic contour repeatedly on the first album devoted to her music, Tapestries. …

There’s a striking image i vividly recall from when i first watched David Attenborough’s The Private Life of Plants. It featured time-lapse photography, focusing on a small, seemingly insignificant tendril lying on the ground. Through this simple act of televisual time dilation, we were able to cross the relativistic divide …

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more