Free music

i’ve written previously about the precariousness of netlabels. One that i spent quite a bit of time with back in the day was Distance Recordings, which ran from 2008 until 2014. Their output was generally of a higher than usual standard for netlabels, which makes it all the more unfortunate …

Getting to know Estonian composer Olev Muska’s remarkable electronic music last year, and, more importantly, experiencing it in the context of a live event held in the Tallinn club HALL over the summer, made me aware of the label Glitch Please. That in turn led to me discovering a whole …

In the last few years, US composer Kenneth Kirschner has been exploring very large-scale compositional structures – three pieces since 2023 have had durations of over 3 hours – so i thought it would be nicely contrary to feature one of his shorter pieces, June 23, 2013, which has a …

Today’s bit of freely-available music is by French musician Marylou Mayniel, aka Oklou, whose fantastic album Choke Enough was one of my best albums of 2025. Earlier in her career, around a decade ago, she put out a number of self-released EPs, one of which, For the Beasts, was a …

Who’s up for some January stasis? German composer Robert Henke‘s 10-minute piece Oomoo is a beautiful demonstration of ambient stillness. It dates from late 2007, and is, according to Henke, based on “a single recording of a longer pad-sound of a Yamaha SY77 synthesizer” which “has been sampled, transposed, filtered …

i’ve been revisiting the music of Switzerland-based sound artist D’Incise (aka Laurent Peter) lately, and one work in particular i’ve found myself coming back to again and again and again. For many of his releases, Peter gives succinct information elaborating their inspiration and / or production, but for his 2012 …

i’m not going to pretend i can really hear the lyrics. But then, that’s not what drew me to Australian band Re:Enactment in the first place. They’re one of a sizeable number of a projects i discovered following first contact with Ektoise, whose assorted members have been active under a …

Happy New Year everyone! In usual 5:4 fashion, i want to start the new year, in the wake of the festive season’s (over-)indulgences, with an exploration of some great music that you can obtain completely free, gratis and for nothing. Though it should be stressed, if you want to, you …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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