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CD/Digital releases

  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: Hans Werner Henze, Coppice, Galina Ustvolskaya, Gabriel Ledoux, Susanna Gartmayer, Alva Noto, Robert Normandeau, Erik Nyström

    by 5:4 June 5, 2015 • 10:55
    June 5, 2015 • 10:55

    Not many new releases have made much of an impact on me during the last month. Among the few that have, though, is a new box set from Wergo bringing together all ten of Hans Werner Henze‘s symphonies, performed by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Marek Janowski. Henze’s symphonies were an …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: Simon Steen-Andersen, Monty Adkins & Stephen Harvey, Jennifer Walshe

    by 5:4 April 13, 2015 • 12:32
    April 13, 2015 • 12:32

    My round-up of the most interesting new releases this time features three objects: a film, a box and a book, each desirable for very different reasons. The film, available from Dacapo Records, is a much-to-be-celebrated DVD release of Simon Steen-Andersen‘s bewilderingly marvellous work Black Box Music. The memory of my …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: Mark Andre, John Wall & Alex Rodgers, Phil Minton & Simon H. Fell, Kreng

    by 5:4 March 14, 2015 • 11:43
    March 14, 2015 • 11:43

    If there’s one thing that many of the more interesting new releases i’ve heard have in common, it’s doing new and unusual things with conventional sounds, objects and forms. To this end, the most impressive disc of orchestral music I’ve encountered recently is Mark Andre‘s … auf … (Wergo). There’s actually …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Markus Reuter, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Arditti Quartet, Eric Craven, Audiobulb, Zbigniew Karkowski, Nordvargr, Stockhausen

    by 5:4 January 26, 2015 • 22:28
    January 26, 2015 • 22:28

    It’s a while since i’ve had a chance to survey new releases, so there’s quite a few that are overdue being highlighted. Some of them appeared on my recent Best Albums of the Year list, such as Anna Thorvaldsdottir‘s Aerial, out on Deutsche Grammophon. As i’ve mentioned in my previous articles …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: Messiaen, Paul Dolden, Richard Uttley, iamamiwhoami, Davíð Brynjar Franzson, Shivers

    by 5:4 November 19, 2014 • 22:00
    November 19, 2014 • 22:00

    Among the crop of more interesting recent releases is a reissue of Messiaen‘s complete organ works that is easily the most affordable currently available. Treasure Island Music has brought together the famous recordings made by Jennifer Bate in the late 1970s/early 1980s—originally issued by Unicorn-Kanchana/Regis—in a 6-CD slimline box set …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: ensemble/orchestral

    by 5:4 October 20, 2014 • 11:40
    October 20, 2014 • 11:40

    The majority of new releases to have come my way recently have featured music for ensemble and/or orchestral forces, each disc of which is usually devoted to the work of a single composer. The opportunity to scrutinise an individual’s work in great depth at times turns out to be something …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: electronic

    by 5:4 October 11, 2014 • 17:45
    October 11, 2014 • 17:45

    Turning to electronic music, i want to highlight several recent releases from the Entr’acte label. Founded in 1999 in London but today based in Antwerp, Entr’acte’s output has always made an impression long before any of the music has been heard. Their approach, not unique but certainly unusual among labels …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: chamber

    by 5:4 September 24, 2014 • 23:07
    September 24, 2014 • 23:07

    The 5:4 doormat has been inundated with a stream of new releases falling onto it through the last few weeks, many of which are outstanding and deserve fuller treatment in due course—but to at least get the ball rolling, here’s an overview of some of the best, starting with chamber …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: Fuzzy, Craig Leon, Gareth Davis & Machinefabriek, Tim Hodgkinson

    by 5:4 June 26, 2014 • 23:24
    June 26, 2014 • 23:24

    Have you heard of Fuzzy? No, i hadn’t either – so i was pleased to explore a new compilation of music by the enigmatically-monikered Danish composer (otherwise known as Jens Vilhelm Pedersen), recently released by DaCapo. Chimes of Memory presents five works, most of them pretty hefty and which together …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: Duologue, OY, V/Vm

    by 5:4 June 22, 2014 • 15:32
    June 22, 2014 • 15:32

    Among the swathe of new releases currently jostling around the 5:4 jukebox, i want to start by flagging up two interesting recent releases, both serendipitous discoveries from the panning-for-gold approach to listening that is my modus operandi these days. First is Duologue, a five-piece from London whose latest EP, Memex, …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    CD roundup (gli altri)

    by 5:4 April 29, 2014 • 21:27
    April 29, 2014 • 21:27

    Having recently examined the more interesting soloistic and orchestral new releases, it’s time to give an overview of the best of the rest, music that doesn’t fit quite so easily into nice categories. First, released today on the Innova label, is Sunken Cathedral, the new album from Korean-American composer and …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    CD roundup (ripieno)

    by 5:4 April 6, 2014 • 15:53
    April 6, 2014 • 15:53

    Alongside the collection of soloistic new releases i recently reviewed, several impressive new CDs of orchestral and ensemble music have emerged lately. One of the most surprising, from an aesthetic perspective, is the latest disc of Mark-Anthony Turnage‘s music released by LSO Live. The surprise is encapsulated in the titles …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    CD roundup (concertante)

    by 5:4 March 2, 2014 • 23:02
    March 2, 2014 • 23:02

    Judging by the majority of CDs that have been sent to me recently, contemporary music is seeing a surge in recordings of works highlighting solo instruments. The collection i have received occupies different regions of the avant garde, from the most familiar and accessible to its forbidding outer fringes. Somewhere …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    An inner conflict of cosmic proportions: Man Without Country

    by 5:4 November 10, 2013 • 17:25
    November 10, 2013 • 17:25

    Many’s the time i decide to write about a composer, group or artist and find it almost unconscionable that i haven’t done so already. That’s overwhelmingly the case with Man Without Country, a duo from south Wales whose unique brand of dreamy electronic pop has been doing the rounds for …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Swagger, languor and a force field: the soundtracks of Maniac, Only God Forgives and Upstream Color

    by 5:4 October 20, 2013 • 14:56
    October 20, 2013 • 14:56

    It’s some time since i’ve explored movie soundtracks on 5:4, but there have been three this year that have stood out from the crowd, all very far indeed from the conventions of cinematic swooshery. That in itself isn’t terribly surprising, as their respective films are, to differing degrees, at some …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Sonic ceremonial & blasted bedrock: Paul Jebanasam – Rites; The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation – Roadburn

    by 5:4 October 19, 2013 • 18:29
    October 19, 2013 • 18:29

    My favourite album of 2012, Kreng’s epic Works for Abattoir Fermé 2007–2011, dove into the deepest depths of doom-laden, gothic, dark ambient. It’s not going to find an equal any time soon, but there have been two albums this year that have come particularly close. The first is by Paul …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Formalised and spontaneous: Liza Lim – Tongue of the Invisible

    by 5:4 October 15, 2013 • 14:56
    October 15, 2013 • 14:56

    New and not-so-new CD and digital releases have had pretty short shrift on 5:4 this year, which might suggest not much has been making an impression. Not only is that wrong, it’s almost ludicrously so in the case of the most recent CD in Wergo’s ongoing ‘edition musikFabrik’ series. i’ve …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Mixed but strong & accessible: Joseph Phibbs – The Canticle of the Rose

    by 5:4 July 9, 2013 • 18:13
    July 9, 2013 • 18:13

    A few weeks back, NMC Recordings brought out the latest in their ongoing ‘Debut Discs’ series, this time devoted to the music of Joseph Phibbs. It’s an ambitious album, presenting two lengthy song cycles alongside a cluster of additional songs and a pair of instrumental works, focusing on soloists Helen-Jane …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Fearless forays into choral hinterlands: Exaudi – Exposure

    by 5:4 May 10, 2013 • 17:22
    May 10, 2013 • 17:22

    Newly available this week from the thoroughly ambitious Huddersfield Contemporary Records is Exposure, a collection of choral works performed by contemporary music’s most adventurous cluster of vocalists, Exaudi Vocal Ensemble, directed by James Weeks. As with all of HCR’s releases (the rest of which are well worth exploring – details …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Minimal and dangerously liminal: Jakob Ullmann – fremde zeit addendum 4

    by 5:4 May 6, 2013 • 19:03
    May 6, 2013 • 19:03

    Despite the fact that writing about amazing music is such an unalloyed pleasure, there are times—many more times than i would care to admit—when the music skitters away, becoming elusive when confronted by one’s attempts to speak of it. Perhaps there’s no dishonour in being confounded by glory, but the …

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Nils Henrik Asheim: Lydkilder Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices Music Beyond Airports: appraising ambient music Simon Cummings | 間 Studies vol. 6

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5:4
  • About
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    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
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    • Mixtapes
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