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  • CD/Digital releases

    Iceland Symphony Orchestra – Atmospheriques Vol. I

    by 5:4 September 9, 2023 • 06:00
    September 9, 2023 • 06:00 1 minutes read

    Two years have passed since the Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s previous series of albums, Recurrence, Concurrence, Occurrence, and their latest release, Atmospheriques Vol. I, is the start of a new series. As before, the orchestra is conducted by Daníel Bjarnasson, and the emphasis is again on Icelandic composers, though here they’re …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2023: the premières (Part 3)

    by 5:4 August 30, 2023 • 16:20
    August 30, 2023 • 16:20 2 minutes read

    Staunch conservatives don’t merely hold sway over our current government but also, it seems, our concert halls, judging by the latest desolation of premières at this year’s Proms. In the case of the Prelude and Fugue in G major by Rachel Laurin, posthumously premièred in Isabelle Demers’ organ recital, i …

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  • Announcements

    Gloria Coates, 1933-2023

    by 5:4 August 19, 2023 • 09:55
    August 19, 2023 • 09:55 4 minutes read

    i was deeply saddened to receive a message around an hour ago, with the news that composer Gloria Coates has died. i only began to spend significant time with Gloria’s work last year, when it finally dawned on me just how fascinating and remarkable it is. This led to my …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2023: the premières (Part 2)

    by 5:4 August 15, 2023 • 12:45
    August 15, 2023 • 12:45 2 minutes read

    It’s been a disappointing, demoralising experience spending time with the most recent batch of premières at the Proms. Derrick Skye‘s Nova Plexus, premièred by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the end of last month, was easily the most egregious of them, being yet another example of the cinematised …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2023: the premières (Part 1)

    by 5:4 July 29, 2023 • 13:07
    July 29, 2023 • 13:07 1 minutes read

    Back in April, when i summarised the new music featured at this year’s Proms, i mentioned that the time might have come for me to finally give up trying to find some enthusiasm for its safe, unimaginative offerings. The 2023 season has been up and running for a couple of …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Alvin Lucier – Swing Bridge / Sizzles; Bára Gísladóttir – SILVA; Kali Malone – Does Spring Hide Its Joy

    by 5:4 June 29, 2023 • 11:23
    June 29, 2023 • 11:23 1 minutes read

    It’s been interesting to compare and contrast three recent releases all of which feature drone at the core of their musical language. (The music is long, so i’m going to keep this quite short.) Drone music tends to operate in one of two ways: either by establishing a literal fundamental, …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Gloria Coates – Symphony No. 11 “Philemon und Baucis” (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 7, 2023 • 09:37
    April 7, 2023 • 09:37 2 minutes read

    i’m bringing this year’s Lent Series to a close with another of Gloria Coates‘ remarkable symphonies. Symphony No. 11 was completed in 1999, being a response to a commission from Baron von Freyberg for the Festspiele Europäische Wochen, with the stipulation that the work should be related to Ovid’s recounting …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Gloria Coates – Symphony No. 7 (UK Première)

    by 5:4 March 14, 2023 • 07:48
    March 14, 2023 • 07:48 2 minutes read

    Gloria Coates‘ Symphony No. 7 was composed from 1989 to 1990, a highly politically-charged time for those (as Coates was) living in Germany. The Berlin Wall would subsequently fall (on 9 November 1989), but while this promised to usher in a new era of peace, the profound uncertainty that suffused …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Gloria Coates – Symphony No. 1 “Music on Open Strings” (UK Première)

    by 5:4 February 20, 2023 • 17:12
    February 20, 2023 • 17:12 1 minutes read

    For this year’s Lent Series i’m turning to a subject that’s one of my personal passions: symphonies. It’s interesting to hear how the word ‘symphony’ has, over time, been defined, consolidated, expanded, elevated, deconstructed, redefined, and along the way become sufficiently loaded that many contemporary composers choose to avoid both …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Dark Music Days 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 February 7, 2023 • 16:34
    February 7, 2023 • 16:34 1 minutes read

    Larger-scale works featured in several Dark Music Days events. One of the toughest to engage with was given by Caput Ensemble, a concert marred by the yawningly awful Polo by Simon Mawhinney, a quarter of an hour’s worth of relentless, faceless, arbitrary blarney. Veronique Vaka‘s Holos was marginally more interesting, …

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  • CD/Digital releasesFree music

    Danz CM – While Mortals Sleep (Original Score)

    by 5:4 January 16, 2023 • 08:36
    January 16, 2023 • 08:36 2 minutes read

    i’ve written about the music of Danielle Johnson – aka Danz CM (previously aka Computer Magic) – on a number of occasions. Her usual output is analogue synth-laden bedroom pop – growing increasingly sophisticated over the years, featuring in my Best Albums of the Year in 2018 and 2021 – …

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  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Elizabeth Ogonek – Sleep & Unremembrance (World Première)

    by 5:4 December 22, 2022 • 05:00
    December 22, 2022 • 05:00 2 minutes read

    For today’s Advent Calendar work i’m returning to one of the composers who stood out most prominently among the premières at last year’s Proms festival. Elizabeth Ogonek‘s Cloudline wasn’t just one of my own favourites, you evidently felt exactly the same way, as the work almost came top of the …

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  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Linda Catlin Smith – Wilderness (European Première)

    by 5:4 December 20, 2022 • 05:00
    December 20, 2022 • 05:00 1 minutes read

    Behind today’s Advent Calendar door is a beautiful, contemplative orchestral work by Canada-based composer Linda Catlin Smith. Wilderness was composed in 2005, and while it would be inaccurate to call it a work for violin and orchestra (still less a concerto), a solo violin has a role distinct from the …

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  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Milton Babbitt – An Encore (European Première)

    by 5:4 December 11, 2022 • 05:00
    December 11, 2022 • 05:00 1 minutes read

    There are some composers whose music i keep coming back to not out of love but with the attitude of a nutcracker, trying once again to break through its tough, tenacious surface. i don’t know Milton Babbitt‘s music well (as i admitted when noting his centenary a few years back), …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2022 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 November 30, 2022 • 14:27
    November 30, 2022 • 14:27 1 minutes read

    People doing interesting things to objects doesn’t necessarily create interesting music. Can we agree on that? i don’t think that’s a particularly outrageous thing to say, though there were a number of times during my six days at this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival when i found myself wondering otherwise. …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Congregation of Drones – Twenty Twenty

    by 5:4 October 4, 2022 • 14:58
    October 4, 2022 • 14:58 2 minutes read

    Is there a collective noun for drones? It wasn’t until i was about halfway through Twenty Twenty, the debut release from Congregation of Drones, that the question occurred to me. On the strength of this remarkable album, though, ‘congregation’ seems entirely appropriate. Congregation of Drones is a duo comprising violinist …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2022: Missy Mazzoli – Violin Concerto (Procession) (European Première)

    by 5:4 August 16, 2022 • 13:53
    August 16, 2022 • 13:53 1 minutes read

    Sunday evening’s Prom included the European première (so nice to see Britain still regarded as being in Europe) of Missy Mazzoli‘s new Violin Concerto. Parenthetically subtitled ‘Procession’, the work is something of a response to the time of lockdown, examining, in Mazzoli’s words “how we use music and ritual to …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    LEYA – Eyeline

    by 5:4 June 6, 2022 • 16:46
    June 6, 2022 • 16:46 6 minutes read

    One of the more beguiling albums i heard in 2020 was Flood Dream by New York duo LEYA. That being said, at the time i wasn’t at all sure what to make of it, except that it left me intrigued, fascinated and, in a way that i couldn’t really articulate, …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2022 (Interlude / Part 3)

    by 5:4 May 5, 2022 • 05:00
    May 5, 2022 • 05:00 2 minutes read

    In addition to conventional acoustic and electronic music, there was the opportunity to explore a variety of audiovisual work during my time in Tallinn. This was primarily due to COMMUTE, a fringe festival run by the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, with late evening concerts each day, after the …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Borealis 2022 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 April 2, 2022 • 12:27
    April 2, 2022 • 12:27 2 minutes read

    i wrote in Part 1 about the warm, inviting and relaxing atmosphere that pervaded each of the concerts at Borealis 2022. Establishing this kind of environment for audiences is vital, for two important reasons. First, because any festival that claims itself to be, as Borealis explicitly does, “for experimental music” …

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5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
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  • 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
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    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
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