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CD/Digital releases

  • CD/Digital releases

    Elif Yalvaç – Vection

    by 5:4 June 11, 2024 • 14:16
    June 11, 2024 • 14:16

    i sometimes wonder whether i’ve come to prize obfuscation in music more than clarity. When things are unclear, things get interesting, the ear and mind work harder, there’s potentially something to be discovered. This is one of the primary aspects that i’ve been revelling in when spending time with Turkish …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Nestor – Bórdice

    by 5:4 June 7, 2024 • 11:53
    June 7, 2024 • 11:53

    For many years i’ve been a keen follower of the work of Noé Cuéllar and Joseph Kramer, better known as Coppice, and have often written about their unique electroacoustic output. There are many things that draw me to it, one of the strongest being the way in which they create, …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Gloria Coates – Time Frozen – Works for Chamber Orchestra

    by 5:4 April 19, 2024 • 16:34
    April 19, 2024 • 16:34

    This time last year I was deeply immersed in the music of Gloria Coates. preparing for the Dialogue we were planning to record in July. It still fills me with deep sadness that Gloria’s cancer got to her before we could get together, but it’s been nice to see a …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Lee Fraser – Live at Parken, Vienna, 05.08.23

    by 5:4 April 16, 2024 • 14:04
    April 16, 2024 • 14:04

    It’s been far too long. Six years since Lee Fraser‘s last album, Cor Unvers, and a full decade since his debut, Dark Camber, both of which were among my very best albums of 2018 and 2014 respectively, and both of which continue to blow my mind anew every time i …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Sanae Yoshida – My Microtonal Piano; Henrik Hellstenius – Public Behaviour

    by 5:4 April 4, 2024 • 15:16
    April 4, 2024 • 15:16

    I want to flag up two recent albums for which i’ve contributed liner notes, both of which focus on music from Norway, and both of which have coincidentally been released around the same time.

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Final works, 1979-80

    by 5:4 March 30, 2024 • 06:00
    March 30, 2024 • 06:00

    Symphony No. 16 (1979) Allan Pettersson’s final completed work shares some similarities to Violin Concerto No. 2, inasmuch as it blurs the distinction between symphony and concerto. Pettersson went as far as to describe the concerto as “a symphony for violin and orchestra”, and it’s tempting to regard Symphony No. …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 14-15, 1978

    by 5:4 March 26, 2024 • 06:00
    March 26, 2024 • 06:00

    Somewhat incredibly, for a man crippled by rheumatoid arthritis and essentially confined to his apartment (four floors above ground level without an elevator), Allan Pettersson managed to begin and complete his next two symphonies within a single year.

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphony No. 13, Violin Concerto No. 2, 1976-77

    by 5:4 March 22, 2024 • 06:00
    March 22, 2024 • 06:00

    Symphony No. 13 (1976) In the first part of this Lent Series, i remarked on the sorry fact that most of the admittedly sparse commentary on Pettersson’s music has invariably adopted the stance that it is all bleak, tragic and full of despair. Several of the preceding works i’ve explored …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphony No. 12, Vox Humana, 1973-74

    by 5:4 March 18, 2024 • 06:00
    March 18, 2024 • 06:00

    Symphony No. 12 “De döda på torget” (1973-1974) When Allan Pettersson began work on his Twelfth Symphony, it had been nearly 30 years since he had set text to music (in the 24 Barfotasånger, completed in 1945). He turned to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, selecting nine poems that would …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 10-11, Symfonisk sats, 1971-73

    by 5:4 March 15, 2024 • 06:00
    March 15, 2024 • 06:00

    Symphony No. 10 (1971-1972) Not since Harrison Birtwistle’s Exody have i had so much trepidation writing about an orchestral piece. Pettersson’s Symphony No. 10 picks up the baton from No. 9 and doesn’t just run with it, but positively sprints for a full 25 minutes. That in itself makes the …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 8-9, 1968-70

    by 5:4 March 11, 2024 • 06:00
    March 11, 2024 • 06:00

    Symphony No. 8 (1968-1969) Allan Pettersson’s previous two symphonies, though structured as single movements, both featured what amounts to two distinct sections. Symphony No. 8 is the same, though here Pettersson explicitly divides the work into two movements. This is an interesting decision, as it can easily be argued that, …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 6-7, 1963-67

    by 5:4 March 7, 2024 • 06:00
    March 7, 2024 • 06:00

    Symphony No. 6 (1963-1966) i said previously that Symphony No. 5 upped the ante, so perhaps it seems like hyperbole to say that in Symphony No. 6 Pettersson does it again, but there really is no other way of perceiving this vast 60-minute, single span behemoth. By this point in …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 4-5, 1958-62

    by 5:4 March 3, 2024 • 06:00
    March 3, 2024 • 06:00

    Symphony No. 4 (1958-1959) By now, the paradigm is well-established: Pettersson’s music is one of disruptive struggle, where contrasting, sometimes contradictory, musical ideas jostle and collide in a cycle of seemingly unstoppable volatility. In his previous work, the Concerto No. 3 for String Orchestra, Pettersson had allowed himself a greater …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 for String Orchestra, 1956-57

    by 5:4 February 29, 2024 • 06:00
    February 29, 2024 • 06:00

    Following on from his first three symphonies, in the mid-1950s Allan Pettersson’s compositional interest returned to strings, writing two more concertos, one small, one large.

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 1-3, 1951-55

    by 5:4 February 25, 2024 • 06:00
    February 25, 2024 • 06:00

    Having spent a little over a decade exploring chamber and vocal music, from 1951 onward the trajectory of Allan Pettersson’s compositional journey changed, and changed permanently. In a similar way to Mahler, as soon as Pettersson began work on his first symphony, in 1951, it evidently became clear to him …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: First major works, 1949-51

    by 5:4 February 21, 2024 • 06:00
    February 21, 2024 • 06:00

    Concerto No. 1 for Violin and String Quartet (1949) Arriving at Allan Pettersson’s first violin concerto comes as something of a shock. On the one hand, it continues the composer’s focus on chamber music that dates back to his earliest pieces, as well as his exploration of counterpoint, which was …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Early works, 1938-48

    by 5:4 February 17, 2024 • 06:00
    February 17, 2024 • 06:00

    In the second part of this year’s Lent Series, focusing on the recently released BIS Complete Edition of Allan Petterson’s music, i’m continuing to explore the earliest compositions, which include his first large-scale work.

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Early works, 1934-36

    by 5:4 February 14, 2024 • 06:00
    February 14, 2024 • 06:00

    About a year-and-a-half ago, in the summer of 2022, i emailed the Swedish label BIS to ask whether they might at some point box up all of their individual releases of Allan Pettersson‘s symphonies. (At the time i was immersed in the box set released by CPO, featuring all of …

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  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Francisco López – Heitsi-Eibib-Rec

    by 5:4 January 28, 2024 • 06:00
    January 28, 2024 • 06:00

    i’m concluding my January exploration of interesting free music with Heitsi-Eibib-Rec by Spanish sound artist Francisco López. Usually, López prefers to leave his works untitled, so Heitsi-Eibib-Rec is therefore somewhat unusual. Though the work doesn’t have an accompanying note – except to say it uses “original environmental sound matter recorded …

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  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Devotion

    by 5:4 January 24, 2024 • 06:00
    January 24, 2024 • 06:00

    The next freely available release i want to explore is Devotion, by US musician Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. It’s a 20-minute fantastical work that lives up to its title by suggesting varying forms of ecstatic focus.

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5:4
  • About
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    • Listening History
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    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
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    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
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