• 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
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

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 February 26, 2025 • 10:08
    February 26, 2025 • 10:08

    i’ve commented before on my general disinterest, and usual disregard, for music festival themes. Musica Nova, Helsinki’s biennial new music extravaganza, opted for ‘together’ as its theme this year, and while that word is sufficiently vague as to have almost no meaning, there were numerous times when that word insinuated …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Žibuoklė Martinaitytė – Aletheia

    by 5:4 February 24, 2025 • 06:00
    February 24, 2025 • 06:00

    Of the four portrait discs i’ve been spending time with lately, the most successful overall is Aletheia, a new album of choral works by Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, performed by the Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Kļava.

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Grażyna Bacewicz – Complete Orchestral Works Vol. 3

    by 5:4 February 19, 2025 • 06:00
    February 19, 2025 • 06:00

    Two years ago i wrote that a composer i’d been “trying to get the measure of” was Grażyna Bacewicz. Since then, CPO have helped that process with a series of albums exploring her orchestral music, the latest of which, Complete Orchestral Works Vol. 3, has recently been released. It’s clear …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Outi Tarkiainen – Midnight Sun Variations

    by 5:4 February 14, 2025 • 06:00
    February 14, 2025 • 06:00

    Continuing my short survey of recent portrait discs, a different kind of surprise came from Midnight Sun Variations, a collection of orchestral works by Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen. The world première of Midnight Sun Variations, performed at the 2019 Proms by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by John Storgårds, left me …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Kristine Tjøgersen – Between Trees

    by 5:4 February 9, 2025 • 06:00
    February 9, 2025 • 06:00

    There were a couple of occasions last year when i commented on the potential hit-or-miss quality of portrait albums, in relation to the music of Bára Gísladóttir and Rolf Wallin. i’ve been reflecting on this further while listening to four other recent portrait discs, which i’ll be exploring in the …

    Read more
  • Announcements

    Fermata Musica Nova

    by 5:4 February 5, 2025 • 06:00
    February 5, 2025 • 06:00

    First thing this morning i’m setting off for Helsinki, to attend this year’s Musica Nova festival. It’s my first time at Musica Nova, and my first time in Finland, so lots to explore and discover. Rest assured there’s more coming up on 5:4 during my absence, and there’ll be words …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Kenneth Kirschner – April 27, 2023 and more

    by 5:4 February 3, 2025 • 09:22
    February 3, 2025 • 09:22

    Notions of continuity are often complicated in Kenneth Kirschner‘s music. That’s just as true for the connections between material in his compositions as it is between the compositions themselves, as Kirschner has been exploring various parallel and interconnected trains of thought throughout his career, regularly returning to ideas that he …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Yarn/Wire – Currents Vol. 8

    by 5:4 January 30, 2025 • 06:00
    January 30, 2025 • 06:00

    To conclude this month’s focus on post-festive free(down)loading, i’m turning to one of the Currents albums released by two-piano, two-percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire. Over the last decade, the quartet has released 10 albums in the Currents series, showcasing an array of works composed for them. Not surprisingly, with such a diversity …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Hakushi Hasegawa – iPhone 6 Plus

    by 5:4 January 26, 2025 • 08:38
    January 26, 2025 • 08:38

    While it didn’t end up in my Best Albums of 2024, one of the releases that almost made it into the list was Mahōgakkō by Japanese musician Hakushi Hasegawa [長谷川白紙]. It’s an insanely, gleefully over-the-top cavalcade of pure pop extroversion, exhausting yet irresistible, mind-melting in its complete stylistic and artistic …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Subsea – Untitled V

    by 5:4 January 22, 2025 • 06:00
    January 22, 2025 • 06:00

    The assorted members of Australian experimental group Ektoise are involved in a plethora of other musical outlets, one of which is Subsea, the solo project of Jim Grundy. Untitled V is an album released in 2017, and while the title suggests otherwise, doesn’t appear to be the fifth in a …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Man Without Country – Daytrotter Session – Aug 5, 2013

    by 5:4 January 18, 2025 • 07:43
    January 18, 2025 • 07:43

    One of the most exciting – and, typically, underappreciated – pop acts of the 2010s was Man Without Country, the welsh duo of Tomas Greenhalf and Ryan James. Beginning in 2011, they released a series of truly outstanding singles – including King Complex, Inflammable Heart, Puppets, Migrating Clay Pigeon, Closet …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Lauren Redhead & Alistair Zaldua – San Servolo Registri Festival Concert

    by 5:4 January 14, 2025 • 09:32
    January 14, 2025 • 09:32

    An interesting album that came out quite late last year is San Servolo Registri Festival Concert, featuring assorted organ-based electroacoustic works performed by Lauren Redhead and Alistair Zaldua. It’s a curious mixture of music, yet while the pieces demonstrate a certain amount of diversity, several of them share aspects in …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Þóranna Björnsdóttir – Þyrpingar

    by 5:4 January 10, 2025 • 08:55
    January 10, 2025 • 08:55

    The most immersive Icelandic music i’ve encountered is by Þóranna Björnsdóttir, whose collaborative work LUCID blew my mind a few years back (becoming by Best Album of 2019), and who has consistently captivated me on the various occasions i’ve heard her performing live. Released in 2022, Þyrpingar [convergences – the …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Laura Sheeran – Music for the Deep Woods

    by 5:4 January 6, 2025 • 11:10
    January 6, 2025 • 11:10

    It’s January, when we take time to recover from the repercussions of our festive financial shenanigans, and i once again turn my attention to some of the best music available that doesn’t require – but no doubt deserves, if you can – any kind of payment. i originally cottoned on …

    Read more
  • Best of the Year

    Best Albums of 2024 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 December 31, 2024 • 00:00
    December 31, 2024 • 00:00

    And finally we reach the zenith, the apex of this year’s best albums, each and every one of them a bewilderment of shock, awe and wonder.

    Read more
  • Best of the Year

    Best Albums of 2024 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 December 30, 2024 • 00:00
    December 30, 2024 • 00:00

    It was 16 years ago that my first Best Albums of the Year list was published, and for most of the years since there have been 40 entries on the list. However, there were many times when recommending 40 as genuinely ‘best’ felt like a struggle, and a few years …

    Read more
  • 20th CenturyAdvent Calendar

    Hugh Wood – Variations for Orchestra

    by 5:4 December 25, 2024 • 05:00
    December 25, 2024 • 05:00

    HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Behind the final door on this year’s Advent Calendar is a short but exciting work by one of England’s more curiously neglected composers, Hugh Wood. The Variations for Orchestra began life 30 years ago, apparently composed over a three-year period from 1994 to 1997. That seems a surprisingly …

    Read more
  • 20th CenturyAdvent Calendar

    Galina Ustvolskaya – Symphony No. 5 “Amen”

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

    Everybody needs more Galina Ustvolskaya in their life. Especially at this time of year, which so easily and so unthinkingly tends to the traditional, the saccharine and the stupid. i’ve explored Ustvolskaya’s bracingly refreshing, invariably mesmerising music on several occasions, including her first and third symphonies. i remarked before about …

    Read more
  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir – Ecognosis (World Première)

    by 5:4 December 23, 2024 • 06:00
    December 23, 2024 • 06:00

    Behind today’s Advent Calendar door is an ambitious work by arguably Iceland’s most exciting and radically forward-looking composer of recent years, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir. Ecognosis was composed in 2021, a work for bass clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and various transduced tam-tams. It was intended to be premièred at the Dark …

    Read more
  • 20th CenturyAdvent Calendar

    Giacinto Scelsi – Maknongan (kannel version)

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

    On 3 December i explored a performance of Giacinto Scelsi‘s enigmatic late piece Maknongan on electronics. This second performance, which comes from the same concert, uses the kannel – the Estonian folk zither – performed by Anna-Liisa Eller with a mixture of fingers and ebow.

    Read more
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 80

Subscribe to 5:4

Eesti Muusika Paevad / Estonian Music Days 2025 World New Music Days 2025 Nils Henrik Asheim: Lydkilder Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices Music Beyond Airports: appraising ambient music Simon Cummings | 間 Studies vol. 6

  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • Rss
  • Mixcloud
Footer Logo

© Simon Cummings

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