• 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
Tag:

ensemble

  • FestivalsPremières

    Only Connect 2025

    by 5:4 April 22, 2025 • 14:30
    April 22, 2025 • 14:30

    Let’s return to one of the great maxims of not just contemporary but all music: size isn’t important. In the case of Norway’s Only Connect festival, its short, 2½-day duration belied the fact that its content was highly concentrated. As such, one event started to blur into the next, into …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Mads Emil Dreyer – Figure Pieces

    by 5:4 April 16, 2025 • 16:14
    April 16, 2025 • 16:14

    One of the more beguiling things to have entered my ears recently is Figure Pieces, a new 22-minute EP from Danish composer Mads Emil Dreyer. Two of Dreyer’s Forsvindere pieces were featured on his album Disappearer, released last year, and Figure Pieces demonstrates the same fascination with the permutational possibilities …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 5)

    by 5:4 March 28, 2025 • 12:06
    March 28, 2025 • 12:06

    One of the most fascinating events at this year’s Musica Nova festival was LOKS – four concerts at once. Not so much a performance as a film juxtaposing and compositing four separate performances, it featured music by four composers whose initials form the title: Lauri Supponen, Oene val Geel, Krists …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 March 13, 2025 • 12:32
    March 13, 2025 • 12:32

    Being the risky, aspiringly cutting edge things that they are, contemporary music festivals always tend to be a bit hit and miss. Very little i heard at Musica Nova 2025 fell into the latter category, but there were a few pieces that slipped through the quality net, being memorable for …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 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
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 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
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 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
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 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
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 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
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Advent Calendar

    Aphex Twin (arr. Stefan Freund) – Cock/Ver10

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

    i’ve always felt surprised that Aphex Twin‘s music can be transferred from its original electronic form into instrumental configurations. The proof that it can has been demonstrated several times, ever since Philip Glass’ masterful orchestration of Icct Hedral way back in 1995, and in previous Advent Calendars i’ve discussed arrangements …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Advent Calendar

    Lauri Supponen – Continuo

    by 5:4 December 6, 2024 • 06:00
    December 6, 2024 • 06:00

    6 December is Finland’s Independence Day, so today’s Advent Calendar piece is by Finnish composer Lauri Supponen. Continuo (which i briefly discussed earlier this year) is a short ensemble work, composed in 2021, that’s rooted in much earlier music, Frescobaldi’s Recercar con obligo di cantare la quinta parte senza toccarla. …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2024 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 November 30, 2024 • 09:19
    November 30, 2024 • 09:19

    At the more serious end of the expressive spectrum, there was a lot to take in during my long weekend at this year’s HCMF. It was disappointing to witness, in Ann Cleare‘s TERRARIUM, yet another example of that which has become so prevalent at HCMF in recent years, a multimedia …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2024 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 November 28, 2024 • 12:50
    November 28, 2024 • 12:50

    Despite the fact that in recent years my general feeling about the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival is that it’s become over-familiar and rather predictable – perhaps in need of a fresh start / reboot – my experience during the opening weekend of this year’s HCMF was genuinely unexpected: music that …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Mads Emil Dreyer – Disappearer

    by 5:4 November 7, 2024 • 12:13
    November 7, 2024 • 12:13

    i want to flag up a recent release by Danish composer Mads Emil Dreyer, featuring two works i previously encountered at the Dark Music Days festival in Iceland. More specifically, two works and two sibling works, as the four pieces included on his new album Disappearer comprise a pair each …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Amy Brandon – Lysis

    by 5:4 August 23, 2024 • 10:04
    August 23, 2024 • 10:04

    Lysis is the name of Canadian composer Amy Brandon‘s latest album, featuring eight works for various chamber, ensemble and electroacoustic groupings. The word ‘lysis’ is a word with several meanings, mostly biological, primarily referring to the breakdown of cells. There’s something very apt in that choice of word for Brandon’s …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Age Veeroos – Outlines of the Night

    by 5:4 August 20, 2024 • 10:48
    August 20, 2024 • 10:48

    Waiting for me on my doormat when i returned from Vienna a few days ago was a new CD of music by the Estonian composer Age Veeroos. i’ve been doubly excited waiting for it to arrive, partly because i was honoured to be asked to write the liner notes for …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Tróndur Bogason & Aldubáran – The Distance Between Us

    by 5:4 August 8, 2024 • 10:10
    August 8, 2024 • 10:10

    Another of my exciting recent Faroese discoveries, while preparing for the recent World New Music Days, is The Distance Between Us, a collaboration between composer Tróndur Bogason and the Faroes’ principal new music ensemble, Aldubáran (who were prominent during WNMD). In many respects the album’s title, and accompanying artwork, tell …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Festivals

    World New Music Days 2024, Faroe Islands (Part 5)

    by 5:4 July 27, 2024 • 09:36
    July 27, 2024 • 09:36

    Several events that i’d had high hopes for at this year’s World New Music Days turned out to be disappointingly underwhelming. Among them was the concert given by Danish choir ARS NOVA which, overall, featured surprisingly unadventurous repertoire, mostly standard text settings with almost nothing really exploring the voice as …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Festivals

    World New Music Days 2024, Faroe Islands (Part 3)

    by 5:4 July 17, 2024 • 11:04
    July 17, 2024 • 11:04

    i wrote before about the way the World New Music Days acts like a hadron collider, smashing together diverse stylistic and aesthetic ideas from around the world. One of the startling truths to emerge from this violent eclecticism is that, what makes bad music bad, wherever it comes from in …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    viibra – viibra

    by 5:4 June 19, 2024 • 06:00
    June 19, 2024 • 06:00

    Anyone familiar with Björk’s album Utopia – my Best Album of 2017 – will be aware of the ensemble of flutes that features prominently in most of its tracks. Seven of those flautists, Áshildur Haraldsdóttir, Berglind María Tómasdóttir, Björg Brjánsdóttir, Dagný Marinósdóttir, Sólveig Magnúsdóttir, Steinunn Vala Pálsdóttir and Þuríður Jónsdóttir, …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 6

Subscribe to 5:4

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