electroacoustic

Most festivals go out of their way these days to jam-pack their weekends with all the best stuff, and that was certainly case at this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. There was so much to enjoy during the opening weekend it felt as if it lasted longer than just a …

In addition to the solos and duos i discussed previously, there were various ensemble performances at this year’s Sacrum Profanum, though they were very far from being highlights, memorable for the wrong reasons. As far as Stephen O’Malley‘s You Origin was concerned, one already knew what to expect. However, to …

While the Sacrum Profanum festival’s name hints at its beginnings, mixing sacred and secular music of the 18th and 19th centuries, today’s iteration bears no resemblance. Notions of ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ – absurdly outdated and meaningless concepts both – are absent, and the entirety of the festival programme focuses on …

Although this year’s AFEKT festival had a nominal theme, ‘Zwei Gefühle’ – from the eponymous work by Helmut Lachenmann – in practice it was a loose collection of thematic elements, primarily name-checking the 90th birthdays of Lachenmann and Arvo Pärt, and the 100th anniversaries of Berio and Boulez. Nonetheless, the …

Day 3 Drive along the valley and up the mountain to the Oberwald, viewing what remains of the receding Rhône glacier. On to the Grimselpass, already partially covered in snow, and further to the Grimselsee, site of the centuries old Hospiz hotel and the months old Spitallamm dam built right …

Day 2 Drinking cappuccino while watching the sun touch the tops of the mountains, i realise what i think are the heavily filtered sounds of doves making it through the triple glazing are actually UMS’s recorder, coming from the rehearsal directly below me. JIP’s voice joins in, gently cooing, and …

Prologue Tewkesbury to Birmingham to Geneva, then on one of the most beautiful train journeys i’ve known, round Lake Geneva and along the Rhône valley into the mountains. Going beyond Leuk, where i’ve always disembarked on my trips to Switzerland, feels weird and wrong. i acknowledge the Schloss on one …

Let’s talk about abstraction.

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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