Q2 New Release listening round-up

Here are the new releases I've been checking out since the start of April - mostly albums with the odd EP. Hat tips, as ever, to John Kieffer's Sound Unbound, Ted Gioia, Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on BBC 6Music, Radio 3's New Music Show and Record Review, Frank Hopkins and Boomkat. I've included links to Spotify or Bandcamp, label information and short, occasionally somewhat subjective descriptions.

Sam Amidon
Salt River (River Lea)
Folk music from the future

Amosphère
Cosmogonical Ears (Hallow Ground)
Slowly evolving sonic meditations from the Paris-based composer and multi-disciplinary artist

John Barber
Rivers, perf. Sarah Latto/ Fourth Window (Signum Classics)
Elegant choral settings of poems from Robert Herrick to Emily Dickinson

Bon Iver
SABLE, fABLE (Jagjaguwar)
Neo-folk meets neo-soul

Anouar Brahem
After the Last Sky (ECM)
Graceful chamber pieces for oud, cello, piano and bass

Benjamin Britten
Sinfonia da Requiem/Winter Songs/Prince of the Pagodas, perf. LPO/Gardner (LPO)
Exuberant symphonic Britten performances

Helen Charlston
If the Fates Allow - Music by Purcell & his Contemporaries (BIS)
Stunning songs from the English Baroque

Djrum
Under Tangled Silence (Houndstooth)
Minimalist piano improvisation + spellbinding electronics

Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe
Lateral (Decca)
Blissful, super-minimal ambient collaboration

Jürg Frey
Voices, perf. Exaudi Vocal Ensemble (Neu)
Contemporary choral composition.

Gaiko
Gaiko (Nous'klaer Audio)
Debut album by a young Belgian-Japanese producer

Gazelle Twin
Black Cab (Invada)
Soundtrack to Bruce Goodison's horror film

Lukas Geniušas & Anna Geniushene
Hallelujah Junction: Adams, Stravinsky, Gershwin and Copland (Alpha)
20th Century American music for two pianos

Ghazi & Boom.Diwan x Arturo O'Farrill
Live in the Khaleej!
Kuwaiti pearl diving work songs go jazz!

Mary Halvorson
About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
Cutting-edge jazz guitar

Barbara Hannigan/Katia Labèque/Marielle Labèque/David Chalmin
Electric Fields (Alpha)
Music for soprano, piano and electronics

Toby Hay
New Music for the 6 String Guitar (The state51 Conspiracy)
Beutiful solo acoustic guitar work

Arve Henriksen/Trygve Seim/Anders Jormin/Markku Ounaskari
Arcanum (ECM)
Folk-jazz-improv supergroup!

Hiromi's Sonicwonder
OUT THERE (Concord/Telarc)
Shamelessly virtuosic 21st century jazz fusion

Toshio Hosokawa
Futari Shizuka - The Maiden from the Sea (Naxos)
Contemporary Japanese single-act opera

Keith Jarrett
New Vienna (ECM)
The piano master returns with a series of challenging solo improvisations

Guillaume de Machaut
A Lover's Death, perf. Orlando Consort (Hyperion)
The final instalment of the Orlandos' Machaut’s complete songs

Mazenta Z
Doubt thou the stars are fire (Bandcamp)
Exquisite guitar and electronics improvisations

Pan-American & Michael Grigoni
New World, Lonely Ride (Kranky)
Exquisite pedal steel, guitar and electronic soundscapes

Stephano Pilia
LACINIA (Die Shachtel)
Sacred minimalism and chamber drone

Lucy Railton
Blue Veil (Ideologic Organ)
Stunning cello drone recorded in the Église du Saint-Esprit church in Paris

Timothy Ridout
Telemann-Bach-Britten-Shaw (Harmonia Mundi)
Solo viola works, ancient and modern

Robert Schumann
Twilight Schumann Songs, perf. Ian Bostridge & Saskia Giorgini (Pentatone)
Liede perfection

Tenebrae, Nigel Short
A Prayer for Deliverance (Signum)
Modern and post-modern choral works

These New Puritans
Crooked Wing (Domino)
Ethereal but urgent post-rock

Erkki-Sven Tüür
Aeris (ECM)
The tenth symphony from the Estonian composer

Alex Ventling & Kim Paterson
Conversations (Thick Recoreds NZ)
Intimate electric piano and flugelhorn jazz

Yo La Tengo
Old Joy (Mississippi)
Soundtrack to a 2006 film by Kelly Reichardt

April-June 2025 Round-Up

Once again, it's been a while, but the funny thing about being busy is that one's left with so little time to write about it! Anyway, here goes.

The first thing to point out (and the eagle-eyed among you will already have spotted this), is that I've made a little addition to the website, a scrapbook of Sketches and Work in Progress. Aside from my ongoing larger compositional work, the main strands there will be: harmony exercises based on Vincent Persichetti's "Twentieth-Century Harmony"; Bach chorales arranged for classical guitar quartet; a potential collaboration with the viusal artist Anno Mitchell based on Aristophanes' "The Birds"; species counterpoint exercises; and more Bach chorales - this time with my own re-harmonisations. I'm also posting some of the many sketches I did as part of my Master's course at Surrey, although some of that work might seem a little jejune by now!

BGQ return to St Laurence Church, Falmer (picture credit: Paul G. Terry)

OK, moving swiftly on... I've had lots - and I mean lots - of classical guitar whatnot going on. Principally, of course, this has centred on the launch of The Brighton Guitar Quartet's 2025 season. Having done a couple of warm-ups at Springboard and at Hove Library's lovely monthly "Live Lounge" earlier in the year, we kicked off in earnest in May with our return to St Laurence Church in Falmer. Our new set is a bit of a monster, mostly comprising new material, including a Vivaldi concerto for strings arranged by Jurg Kindle, excerpts from Vincent Lindsey-Clark's "Away to New Zealand" (its UK premiere!), the Brazilian composer Paulo Bellinati's fiendishly tricky "Baião de Gude" and my own arrangement of John Barry's "You Only Live Twice".

We went on to roll out the same set at Christ Church in Worthing in June, our third visit there! We're now taking a brief break over the summer to work on some new material (including a new piece by the Brighton-based composer Chris Gander), in preparation for autumn gigs in Shoreham (as part of the Adur Arts Live festival), West Blatchington, and Rottingdean. And we've already got our first show of 2026 lined up, as part of Brighton Unitarian Church's lunchtime concert series. Full details are on our website, and you can follow us on Instagram for updates. But in the meantime, thanks to everyone who's come along to support us, to the concert organisers for inviting us to play, and of course to the estimable Gregg Isaacson for whipping us into shape!

Back by popular demand, no less!

Under slightly less pressure, I've had a lot of fun sitting in on various ensemble workshops. In April and May, I attended Bach-focused workshops in Lewes led by the brilliant Steve Gordon. Given the amount of prep the BGQ shows have required, I asked Steve to keep me on the (apparently) simpler guitar 3 and 4 parts, but, well, it's Bach, so it's never exactly a walk in the park. But as I say, a lot of fun - so thanks to Steve for inviting me. Oh, and at one of the workshops, my buddy Paul Dallaway and I turned in a performance of Lindsey-Clark's lovely duet "Paraguaya":

Steve also asked me if I'd sit in on an ensemble he was leading in Bexhill last weekend, part of an AK Classical Guitar Society session, this time taking a look at a Mozart trio. Lovely stuff! The afternoon also featured a presentation from luthier Stephen Eden and a fantastic recital by Simon Pearce. And as part of the "student" performance, Tom Ansell (an excellent young guitarist also based down here in Brighton) and I turned in a performance of Andrew York's highly atmospheric (if quite tricky!) "Andantino". Thanks to the AKGS's founders Kianush Robeson and Anastasiya Kryvanos for organising these excellent events and for inviting me along.

AKGS, take a bow!

I've also been hosting "Second Thursday Club", a monthly, er, soirée for classical guitarists, mostly students of my teacher Gregg, which have been huge fun - a, dare I say it, safe space for guitarists of all standards to try out new material and well, to just hang! I've enjoyed turning in a couple of solos, as well as playing in duos with Paul and Tom and of course with the BGQ. Thanks to everyone for coming along and making it such a blast (and to Sarah for her continued forbearance!)

Now that's what I call concentration!

Next month I'll be at the Royal Greenwich Guitar Festival, working on ensemble pieces by Luc Lévesque, Carlos Gardel, Thierry Tisserand and Jurg Kindle, and I'll be back with Steve Gordon's group in Lewes looking at some Brahms (which will will be interesting on guitar!)... so I really should be practicing than writing this blog post. Sigh.

On to some composition updates. I've had two premieres of short pieces performed over the last month. In York, the fantastic Duncan Honeybourne played my piano miniature "Vexopédie No.1 (An Ostracised Beetle)" as part of a concert commemorating the centenary of Erik Satie's death, put on by Late Music, York. Thanks to Duncan for his wonderful playing, and to David Lancaster for inviting me to participate. Here's Duncan's performance:

A week later, back here in Brighton, my recent piece "Maraṇasati" was premiered by vibraphonist/percussionist Adam Bushell and cellist Bela Emerson in a concert showcasing graphic (or otherwise non-standard) scores by NMB composers. The concert was a huge success, and I was thrilled with how Adam and Bela interpreted my score. Thanks to them both for all the huge effort they put into preparing all the music; to NMB's John Petley, Lluís Nadal, Roger Harmer and Martyn Adams for their hard work in putting the concert on; and of course to my friends and family who came along in support.

The next NMB concert is in September and features woodwind players Hannah Shilvock and Catherine Underhill, and pianist Viola Lenzi. I've contributed a short piece, "Jazz-Rock Kidnap Showdown on the Vallance Road" (yes, it's a mouthful), written for oboe, bass clarinet and piano. Here's my programme note, for context: "This piece started out as an homage to the Miles Davis sideman and bass clarinettist Bennie Maupin, but try as I might, I couldn’t stop it turning into a pastiche of 70s UK cop show themes. Oy veh: honour thy mistakes as hidden intentions. So instead, imagine Maupin, on a rare London visit with Miles, bundled into the back of a Ford Cortina at the end of a sawn-off shotgun, driven through the back streets of Bethnal Green to meet a jazz-lovin' and slightly demanding gangster’s girlfriend, with Regan and Carter in hot pursuit. Or something."

This score video of the piece features fairly shonky MIDI; I can't wait to hear it played by real musicians!

I've also recently written another guitar quartet, "A Curious Lobster", for one of Gregg's non-BGQ guitar quartets. It's intended to be an intermediate-level piece, although I have to say that some of the chord voicings and campanella effects in guitar 3, and some of the 12th-17th fret lines in guitar 1, might be a tad challenging! It turns out it's actually rather tricky to write convincing music that's nonetheless relatively easy to play and put together. Who knew?! Once again, this rendition is MIDI-only, and it will be lovely to hear it played properly at some point.

And I'm currently working on yet another guitar quartet, this time an arrangement of Neil Young's "Don't Let It Bring You Down", which I'm hoping to play with Paul Dallaway, Tom Ansell and Shaun Bullard at Guitars by the Sea here in Brighton in October. (By the way, there are still places left on the course, so any local budding classical guitarists who haven't already signed up really should - it's great fun, and hugely rewarding!). Anyway, the piece needs a lot of work, but here's a sketch of work in progress:

And should regular readers (both of you) think that my falling in love with "the dots" means that I've abandoned my more longstanding practice of electro-acoustic composition, fear not! Here's my latest sketch for a potential collaboration with Anno Mitchell; I'm not sure if the "collab" will come off, but I think the pieces I've done so far stand up in their own right, so who knows, there may at least be a new Boom Logistics album in it!

Finally on the composition front, as I mentioned at the top of this post, I've recently embarked on a fairly mammoth task, working through the several hundred harmony exercises in Vincent Persichetti's "Twentieth-Century Harmony". It's early days so far, but I'm collating score videos of the short exercises as I go along in this YouTube playlist. Here's an example, a short piece for three Bb clarinets exploring dissonant and consonant intervals:

Here's a snapshot of my listening since April. Hat tips, as ever, to John Kieffer' Sound Unbound, Ted Gioia, Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on BBC 6Music, Radio 3's New Music Show and Record Review, and Boomkat. Next week I'll post a full list of the new releases (albums and EPs I've been listening to over the same period.

I committed at the beginning of the year to do a lot more "deep" reading this year, but I have to confess that I haven't been true to my word. So little time! However, in May, I did read two wonderful, if very different books, Michael Symmons Roberts' "Quartet For the End of Time" and Alexander Goehr's "Composing a Life". The latter might be a little too technical or specialist for the general reader, but I can't recommend Symmons Roberts' book highly enough. While it takes the Messiaen piece of the title as its starting point, it's really a highly poetic exploration of grief (specifically the loss of one's parents) and religious faith. Really beautiful stuff. Both books were birthday presents from my wife and soul mate, Sarah (who appears to know me better than I do - I didn't even know about these books). 

Finally, a short round-up of things I've been reading and listening to online, with the usual caveat that not everyone will share all my somewhat heterodox leanings

The Critic: What killed English football fandom?

Paul Lay: Musical morphine - Radio 3 has given up its time-honoured mission to inform, educate and entertain

The Spectator: Geoff Dyer – the Proust of prog rock and Airfix

Ted Gioia: Hollywood Will Be a Ghost Town in Five Years 

Ted, again: Substack Has Changed in the Last 30 Days

And again: Are We Living in a Time of Cultural Collapse?

Stars after stars after stars: How CDs help fight distracted listening

And again: Why record stores are fighting to survive

notizen zur musik: The Endeavour of Allan Holdsworth

Matthew Crawford: Your call is important to us... The effectual truth of AI

Neuguitars’s Substack: Terje Rypdal Group, NRK TV-Special Live in studio (1978)

Pierre d’Alancaisez: Cultural institutions are offering kindergarten radicalism

IEA: Is it time to drop the word “liberal”? A response to Rod Liddle

The Classical Nerd: The “Supermusic” of Alvin Lucier

Luca Watson: Nobody likes the yookay aesthetic

History Reclaimed: Sonita Alleyne and “Lived Experience”

Rob Henderson: Thoughts on communist takeovers + a review of “Meeting with Pol Pot”

Cultural Capital: How to read and why

We Have Ways of Making You Talk: 5 Days in May - The build-up to Dunkirk

The Rest is History: Peter the Great and the Rise of Russia

Sam Harris: An interview with David Deutsch

Milton Mermikides: From Thin Air - Minimalist and Process Music from Africa to Arvo Pärt

 

 

February-April round-up

Ok, it's been a bit of a while since my last round up, so bear with me - quite a lot to cover!

Let's start with the Brighton Guitar Quartet, which is the principal focus of my classical guitar pursuits, and, increasingly, of my somewhat jejune efforts as a composer and arranger. We kicked off 2025 with our usual "pre season friendlies". In what's become something of an annual tradition, we played in the ensemble category of the Springboard competition in Hove. This year was adjudicated by the guitarist and arranger Gerard Cousins, for whom we played extracts from Vincent Lindsey-Clark's amazing (if somewhat gruelling) piece "Away to New Zealand". I think we all agreed that Gerard gave us the most insightful and attentive commentary we've ever had at Springboard. (In passing, I also had to dep for Rachel Baker in one of my teacher Gregg Isaacson's other quartets, the Power Players - thanks for having me guys!)

We followed up Springboard with a brief, half-hour set at Hove Library as part of their ongoing Live Lounge series, turning in "New Zealand" again, alongside pieces, or extracts of pieces, which will feature in our 2025 set, including Turina's "Miramar", local composer Bernd Rest's "Velo!" and my own arrangement of John Barry's "You Only Live Twice", surely the greatest of all Bond theme songs!

Our first "proper" concert of the year is on Saturday, May 24th, when we'll be making our third appearance at the lovely St Laurence Church in Falmer. Other shows this year include Christ Church in Worthing ( June 17th), St Mary de Haura in Shoreham (August 31st), and St Mary's, West Blatchington (September 6th), with more to be announced. Full details and updates on our website.

More classical guitar fun... In early April I was delighted to be back at West Dean College in West Sussex for a three-day ensemble workshop led by Andrew Gough and Vincent Lindsey-Clark. (Vincent will get a few more mentions here, so from now on he's just "Vincent"!)

The gang at West Dean! (credit: Andrew Gough)

The quartet I played in worked on Lee Sollory's lovely arrangement of Albéniz' "Córdoba", Mark Houghton's "Latin Nights" and an arrangement of, er, "Billie Jean" by Michael Langer. As ever at West Dean there was an informal, if still nerve-racking, student concert. I've written here previously about my recent struggles with public solo playing, so it was a challenge to play in front of this lot (especially Andrew and Vincent!), but I played Roland Dyens' "Letter mi-longue" and Vincent's "Rio by Night". Here's the former:

Thanks to Andrew for the seamless organising and brilliant, insightful ensemble leading.

Having, for personal reasons, taken most of 2024 off from workshops, festivals and the like, I've lined up a lot this year, including a Bach workshop led by Steve Gordon in Lewes later this month (having attended one in March), an AKCG session in Bexhill led by Kianush Robeson in June, the Royal Greenwich Guitar Festival in July, Gerald Garcia's weekend at Benslow Music in Hitchin in October and the fourth Guitars by the Sea (with Vincent as the guest ensemble leader) down here in Brighton a couple of weeks later! There are still places left at the GTBS, so please consider it - the previous incarnations have been a blast, and Vincent is a fantastic ensemble leader!

GTBS is co-led (with Steve Gordon) by the seemingly indefatigable Jon Rattenbury; Jon and his colleague, guitarist and luthier Nick George also organise the twice-yearly Platfrom event at which Brighton-based amateur classical guitartists (along with, on this occasion, a mandolin player and singer songwriter!) get to play for each other, with Jon's excellent Brighton Guitar Group ensemble as the linchpin. I played Vincent's duet "Paraguaya" with my great buddy Paul Dallaway and for a solo turned in Dyens' "Lettere mi-longe" again. Thanks to Jon and Nick for organising such a great event, and thanks to my great friends Nick and Smilia for coming along to support us!

The Brighton Guitar Group in full flight!

Final classical guitar whatnot. I hosted the inaugural "Second Thursday Club" at my place last week. It's an ahem, "safe space" for (mostly) my teacher Gregg's students to play for each other, solo, or in various combinations, with a bit of ensemble "fun" sight reading thrown in for good measure. It was a blast! Thanks to my BGQ colleague James Hartt for agreeing to host the next one - looking forward to this being something of a tradition!

Olivier rocks it at Second Thursday Club!

On the composition front, my efforts over the last month or so have been largely focussed on a submission for a New Music Brighton concert to be given by cellist Bela Emerson and vibraphonist Adam Bushell in June at the Friends Meeting House in Brighton. The call for submissions was a rather unusual one: "Scores should be almost entirely "non-standard", using graphic or textual instructions (eg. durations, dynamics, mood/effect) to encourage a high degree of improvisation and interpretation. Some standard notation or other strictly musical prompts (eg. modal centres, a tone row, chord charts) may be included, but kept to a minimum... "

In the end, I went almost fully "graphic", and given that I'm not exactly "visually skilled" that was something of a challenge, but for what it's worth, I've posted the "score" below, necessarily without audio, of course. The concert in june will be recorded so I'll post a score video shortly afterwards. If I get aroud to it I'll write about the process of creating the piece at more length at some point, but for now, for context, here's my programme note: 

Death, and its proximity, have been a major feature of my recent experience. This piece is at least in part a response. It takes its form from the Buddhist “death meditation” Maraṇasati, in which the meditator considers the nine stages of corpse decomposition, contemplating the inevitability of death. What strictly musical cues there are derive from the Lutheran chorale “Every Mortal Soul Soon Must Perish” – a Christian response to death to complement the piece’s  Buddhist framework. Minimal direct musical instructions are given; rather, the score is intended to inspire the performers to respond to the piece's overarching themes and intentions.

On more "formal" compositional footing... Recently I was totally floored on hearing Händel's aria "Laschia Ch'io Pianga", from his opera Rinaldo, towards the end of the fantastic Netflix adaptation of The Leopard, and immediately set about arranging it for guitar quartet. It still needs quit a bit of work in terms of dynamics and general performance instructions, so I'll have to wait until next time to post a fully-realised score video, but until then here's a work-in-progress MIDI realisation:

I haven't made it along to much live music so far this year, but there have been a couple of highlights. Having returned to live music making last year, my son Frank embarked on his first national - and, indeed, international! - tour, supporting the amazing Halina Rice. We caught the first of Frank's two shows at the Old Market in Brighton, and it was sensational. It's great to see Frank back in his groove again.

Frank on home turf in Brighton

Then last weekend saw the final concert in the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra's centenary season, and what an undertaking it was, with the orchestra tackling Messiaen's mammoth Turangalîla-Symphonie. Joanna MacGregor, who's done such great work as the orchestra's Music Director over the last three years, conducted, with Joseph Havlat on piano and Cynthia Millar playing the ondes Martenot. It was a truly astounding show, with an almost sold-out audience on its feet at the end. Let's see what next season brings!

A few other music things, then. Last March, to mark International Women's Day, I put together a "Women in Modern Music" playlist on Spotify, celebrating the often under-sung contributions of women composers and improvisers to avant-garde, post-modern or experimental music since the 1960s. This year, I updated the playlist and wrote an extensive blog post about it. Here's the playlist - all 26 hours of it!

Following my attempt at a list of my favourite albums of 2024, I thought I'd start tracking my listening to new album releases quarterly; here's what I came across from January to March. And in the meantime, here's a snapshot of my overall listening since the beginning of the year:

Finally, a word about the Lewes-based Musicians of All Saints, whose excellent work I've mentioned here previously. There are three concerts left in their 2024-25 season. On Sunday, June 15th, the viola quartet the Barefaced Violas will be playing at St Peter's Church in Offham; a week later, the MAS string quartet will also be at St Peter's; and the season closer sees the full MAS string orchestra return to St Michael's Church in Lewes. Full details are available on the MAS website. Please get along to some of the shows if you can - it's vital to support grassroots music making of this quality.

And before I finish with some recent online reading and listening, I have to mention what's been the highlight of non-musical life so for this year. I don't normally touch on "retail politics" here (although some of my somewhat heterdox views can be inferred from my various reading lists), but last month I was thrilled to meet Maurice Glasman, the architect of Blue Labour, while hanging outside Cadogan Hall in the interval of a Spectator event. I was honestly like a gushing fanboi! Anyway... 

 

Reading, listening, viewing, etc

Composer David Bruce on Jonny Greenwood's relationship with the ondes Martenot

Nathalie Forget Demonstrates the ondes Martenot

(Yes, I went down a bit of an ondes Martenot rabbit hole after the BPO's Messiaen concert... )

Samuel Andreyev in another fascinating conversation with composer and music engraver James Ingram

Andreyev again: Boulez at 100

NS Lyons: American Strong Gods - Trump and the end of the Long Twentieth Century

Kathleen Stock: How to free the universities; woke waste is ruining academia

The Rest is History: 4-part Belgian Congo series

Classical Nerd: George Crumb; the method behind the magic

Sam Harris: The Legacy of Christianity - A Conversation with Tom Holland

Ted Gioia: The New Aesthetics of Slop

More from Gioia: What's happening to students?

And more: Nine Rules for Technology

Michael Henderson in The Spectator: What happened to Radio 3?

Spectator Holy Smoke podcast: An interview with James Orr

Spectator Chinese Whispers podcast: Rana Mitter on the legacy of Sun Yat Sen

John Gray in the Spectator: A Christian revival won’t save the deluded West – but it might teach it to accept its fate

Joanna Williams in Spiked: Paddington - patron saint of the liberal elites

Mark Almond in The Critic: WNO’s curtain call? Behind the ovations for Britten’s masterpiece looms the death of opera in Wales

Unherd: Freddie Sayers in conversation with Maurice Glasman (yes, him again!)

Unherd: Florence Read in conversation with Slavoj Žižek

 

 

 

 

New album listening in 2025... so far!

Although I've been tracking my listening fairly rigorously in Spotify playlists for a few years now, I haven't been keeping a record of newly released albums (or the odd EP) I've been checking out. So I thought I'd do that this year, on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Here are the new releases I've heard since the beginning of the year. Hat tips as ever to: Ted Gioia, Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on BBC 6Music, The New Music Show and Record Review on Radio 3, Gramophone, Metal Injection and Boomkat (and various friend and family members, of course!)

J.S. Bach
The Art of Fugue, perf. Phantasm (Linn)

J.S. Bach
A Life in Music, Vol.2, The Weimar Years, perf. Les Arts Florissants (Juno)

Adam Bałdych
Laeta Mundus (Anaklasis)

Béla Bartók & György Ligeti
String Quartets, perf. Marmen Quartet (BIS)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Early String Quartets, perf. Calidore Quartet (Hyperion)

Claire Booth & Andrew Matthews-Owen
Paris 1913: L'Offrande lyrique (Nimbus)

Pierre Boulez
Livre pour Quatuor, perf Quatuor Diotima (Pentatone)

Laura Cannell
A Compendium of Beasts, Vol. 1 (Brawl)

Bertrand Chamayou
Ravel Fragments (Erato)

Claude Debussy
String Quartet & Sonatas, perf Nash Ensemble (Hyperion)

Dirty Projectors/David Longstreth
Song of the Earth (Bandcamp)

Ensemble Peregrina; Ensemble Dragma
The Krasiński Codex - Fifteenth Century Music from Cracow (Raumklang)

Faithxtractor
Loathing and the Noose (Bandcamp)

Golem mecanique
Siamo tutti in pericolo (Bandcamp)

T. Gowdy
Trill Scan (Bandcamp)

David Grubbs
Whistle From Above (Bandcamp)

The Halo Effect
March of the Unheard (Nuclear Blast)

Tim Hecker
Shards (Kranky)

ilinx
Flipperen (Bandcamp)

Patricia Kopatchinskaja/Thomas Kaufmann/Camerata Bern
Exile (Alpha)

K. Leimer
Proximate Forms (Palace of Lights)

Oksana Linde
Travesías (Buh)

Linkin Poe
Bloom (Tricki-woo)

Jan Lisiecki
Preludes by Chopin, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Messiaen and Górecki (Deutsche Grammophon)

Gustav Ljunggren/Emil de Waal
Mikroklima (April)

Malmin
Med Åshild Vetrhus (Bandcamp)

Micro Moon
Figure in a Landscape (Clay Pipe)

Olga Anna Markowska
ISKRA (Norman)

Paleface Swiss
CURSED (Nuclear Blast)

Maurice Ravel
String Quartet, perf Attaca Quartet (Platoon)

Alessandro Scarlatti
Il Giardino di Rose, perf. La Ritirate (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)

Robert Schumann
Violin Sonatas, perf Ibragimova/Tiberghien (Hyperion)

Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartets 2, 7 & 10, perf. Jerusalem Quartet (BIS)

Tamara Stefanovich
Organised Delirium (Pentatone)

Tó Tripps & Fake Latinos
Dissidente (Bandcamp)

Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons (& other works), perf Théotime Langlois de Swarte/Le Consort (Harmnia Mundi)

Joni Void
Every Light is a Life (Bandcamp)

John Zorn
The Complete String Quartets, perf. JACK Quartet (Tzadik)

John Zorn
Bagatelles Vol.1, perf. Mary Halvorson Quartet (Tzadik)

John Zorn
Bagatelles, Vol. 2, perf. Erik Friedlander & Michael Nicolas (Tzadik)

John Zorn
Bagatelles, Vol. 3, perf. Trigger (Tzadik)

Various Artists
Korean Soundscapes: Contemporary Piano Solos, perf. Eun-Hee Park (Navona)

Women in Modern Music - A Playlist for International Women's Day, 2025

Last March, to mark International Women's Day, I put together a "Women in Modern Music" playlist on Spotify, celebrating the often under-sung contributions of women composers and improvisers to avant-garde, post-modern or experimental music since the 1960s. To some extent, it was an attempt to bring together two generally very different parts of my life: my involvement with the women-focused investment network Angel Academe and my deep interest in all kinds of modernist music. As it happened, the playlist was received really well, so over the last year I've been continually adding to it, and it currently runs to over 200 pieces (each by a different composer or musician), and a whopping 25 hours!

The initial playlist primarily featured chamber, orchestral and electro-acoustic work, with the odd foray beyond. I've since tried to add more jazz, free improvisation, contemporary electronica and some out-rock. The parameters of the playlist might seem somewhat arbitrary or even capricious, but I've applied something of a "know it when I hear it" rubric to the whole process. There's no folk here, for instance, nor any mainstream rock. As a result, some musicians have necessarily been omitted despite being absolute giants in their field. Indeed, it's meant that some of my very favourite musicians don't feature; Sandy Denny, Björk and most especially Joni Mitchell immediately spring to mind. Forgive me!

Those of you with a strong jazz bent will note one egregious omission, the American jazz big band leader and composer Maria Schneider. Ms. Schneider has taken a principled and highly public stance against music streaming and tech in general, so unfortunately I was unable to include any of her work, despite her being unquestionably one of the most consequential jazz musicians of the 21st Century. 

Finally, some hat-tips. Three shows on BBC Radio 3 have been invaluable: The New Music Show, Late Junction and Record Review, with a special shout-out to the brilliant Kate Molleson. Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on BBC 6music is also a great font of weird and beautiful music. The American jazz critic and cultural commentator Ted Gioia has provided many rabbit holes down which I've fallen. And of course, my deepest gratitude is to my wife and Angel Academe co-founder Sarah Turner, who's given me the space and encouragement to do all of this, while having to put up with a sometimes disturbing domestic sonic environment.

As ever, if you think there's anything obviously missing, let me know in the comments below and I'll rectify it immediately! In the meantime, here's the playlist, and a full list of all the composers and performers, with one-line bios and relevant links...

Agathe Max
French violinist and composer
https://www.agathemaxmusic.com/about/

Aileen Sweeney
Scottish composer
https://www.aileensweeney.com

Akiko Yamane
Japanese composer, producer, and artist
https://akikoyamane.com

Alice Coltrane
American jazz musician, composer, and bandleader
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Coltrane

Alice Zawadski
Anglo-Polish singer, violinist, improviser and composer
https://www.alicezmusic.com

Amelia Cuni
Italian Dhrupad singer and composer
https://www.ameliacuni.de

Amina Claudine Myers
American pianist, organist, and composer
http://www.aminaclaudinemyers.com

Angelica Sanchez
American jazz pianist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelica_Sanchez_(musician)

Anna Clementi
Swedish-Italian voice artist and actress
https://www.annaclementi.com

Anna Clyne
English composer
https://www.annaclyne.com

Anna Meredith
Scottish composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music
https://www.annameredith.com

Anna Thovaldsdottir
Icelandic composer
https://www.annathorvalds.com

Anna von Hausswolff
Swedish singer, songwriter, composer, and pipe organist
https://annavonhausswolffmusic.bandcamp.com

Anna Zielinska
Polish violinist and improviser
https://annazielinska.wordpress.com/bio-en/

Annea Lockwood
New Zealand-born American composer
https://www.annealockwood.com

Anne Boyd
Australian composer
https://www.fabermusic.com/we-represent/anne-boyd/works

Annette Peacock
American composer, musician, songwriter, producer, and arranger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Peacock

Ann Eysermans
Belgian composer, performer and conceptual artist
https://www.anneysermans.be/over-mij/

Bára Gísladóttir
Icelandic composer and double bassist
https://www.baragisladottir.com/about.html

Beatrice Dillon
British electronic music producer, DJ, and artist
http://dillonwork.com

Bela Emerson
British cellist and community musician
https://belaemerson.com

Betsy Jolas
Franco-American composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Jolas

Brìghde Chaimbeul
Scottish experimental piper
https://www.brichaimbeul.com

Camila Nebbia
Argentine saxophonist, composer, improviser, visual artist and curator
https://www.camilanebbia.com

Carla Bley
American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader
http://www.wattxtrawatt.com

Caroline Shaw
American composer, violinist, and singer
https://carolineshaw.com

Cassandra Miller
Canadian experimental composer
https://cassandramiller.wordpress.com

Catherine Christer Hennix
Swedish musician, poet, philosopher, mathematician and visual artist
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/catherine-christer-hennix-album-guide

Catherine Lamb
American composer and violist
https://www.sacredrealism.org/artists/catherine-lamb/

Cathy Berberian
American mezzo-soprano and composer
https://cathyberberian.com/music/

Charlotte Bray
British composer
http://charlottebray.co.uk

Chelsea Wolfe
American singer-songwriter and musician
https://chelseawolfe.com

Chen Yi
Chinese-American composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Yi_(composer)

Cheryl Frances Hoad
British composer
https://www.cherylfranceshoad.co.uk

Chiyoko Szlavnics
Canadian experimental composer
https://www.chiyokoszlavnics.org/welcome.html

Claire M Singer
British composer and organist
https://www.clairemsinger.com

Clara Ianotta
Italian composer
http://claraiannotta.com

Claudia Molitor
English-German composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Molitor

Colleen
French composer of electronic and ambient music
https://colleenplays.org

Daniela Huerta
Mexican multimedia artist, DJ, and sound therapist
https://huertadaniela.com

Daphne Oram
British composer and electronic musician
https://www.daphneoram.org

Delia Derbyshire
English musician and composer of electronic music
https://deliaderbyshireday.com

Diamanda Galás
American singer and songwriter
http://diamandagalas.com

Dobrinka Tabakova
Bulgarian-British composer
https://www.dobrinka.com

Dobromiła Jaskot
Polish composer
https://www.dobromilajaskot.com

Dorothy Ashby
American jazz harpist, singer and composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Ashby

Du Yun
Chinese-American composer and performance artist
https://channelduyun.com

Eiko Ishibashi
Japanese composer, singer-songwriter and musician
https://eikoishibashi.bandcamp.com

Elaine Mitchener
British-Caribbean experimental vocalist, composer, and movement artist
https://www.elainemitchener.com

Elena Ruehr
American composer
https://elenaruehr.org

Eleni Karaindrou
Greek composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleni_Karaindrou

Éliane Radigue
French electronic music composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Éliane_Radigue

Elin Forkelid
Swedish jazz and free jazz saxophonist
https://elinforkelid.com

Elizabeth Maconchy
Irish-English composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Maconchy

Elizabeth Ogenek
American composer
https://elizabethogonek.com

Ellen Arkbro
Swedish composer
https://www.ellenarkbro.com

Ellie Wilson
British composer and violinist
https://www.elliewilsonmusic.co.uk

Emilie Cecilia LeBel
Canadian composer
https://www.emilielebel.ca

Emily Praetorius
American composer
https://www.emilypraetorius.com/

Emma-Kate Matthews
British architect, artist, musician and composer
https://www.ekmworks.com

Emma Ruth Rundle
American singer-songwriter, artist and guitarist
https://www.emmaruthrundle.com

Erika Angell
Swedish vocalist and composer
https://www.erikaangell.com

Eve Beglarian
American composer
https://evbvd.com

Fang Man
Chinese composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fang_Man_(composer)

Freya Waley-Cohen
British-American composer
https://www.freyawaleycohen.com

Gabriela Lena Frank
American pianist and composer
https://www.glfcam.com

Gabrielle Cerberville
American composer and interdisciplinary artist
https://gabriellecerberville.com

Galina Ustvolskaya
Russian composer
https://ustvolskaya.org/eng/

Geri Allen
American jazz pianist, composer, and educator
https://geriallen.com

Gloria Coates
American composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Coates

Graciela Castillo
Argentine electroacoustic composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graciela_Castillo

Hania Rani
Polish pianist and composer
https://haniarani.com

Hannah Kendall
British composer
https://hannahkendall.co.uk

Helen Svoboda
Finnish-Australian double bassist, vocalist, composer
https://www.helensvoboda.com

Hilda Dianda
Argentinian composer, musicologist, music educator, and conductor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Dianda

Hilda Paredes
Mexican composer
https://hildaparedes.com

Hinako Omori
Japanese singer and composer
http://www.hinakoomori.com

Hiromi
Japanese jazz composer and pianist
https://www.hiromiuehara.com

Ikue Mori
Japanese drummer, electronic musician, composer, and graphic designer
https://ikuemori.com/home.html

Inca Ore (Eva Saelens)
American composer and musician
https://incaore.bandcamp.com

India Gailey
Canadian cellist, improviser, composer and multidisciplinary artist
https://indiagailey.com

Ingrid Laubrock
German jazz saxophonist
http://ingridlaubrock.com

Isobel Waller-Bridge
British composer
https://isobelwaller-bridge.com

Jacqueline Nova
Colombian musician and author
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Nova

Jaimie Branch
American jazz trumpeter and composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaimie_Branch

Jasmine Myra
British saxophonist, composer and bandleader
https://jasminemyra.com

Jasmine Wood
American composer, producer and multidisciplinary artist
https://www.jasminewood.xyz

Jeanine Tesori
American composer and arranger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanine_Tesori

Jeanne Lee
American singer and poet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Lee

Jennifer Higdon
American composer
http://jenniferhigdon.com

Jessie Montgomery
American composer and violinist
https://www.jessiemontgomery.com

Joanna Bailie
British composer
https://joannabailie.com

Joan Tower
American composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Tower

Joëlle Léandre
French double bassist and composer
https://www.joelle-leandre.com

Johanna Bramli
British musician, sound artist, composer and performer
http://www.johannabramli.com

Judith Bingham
British composer and mezzo-soprano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Bingham

Judith Weir
British composer
https://www.judithweir.com

Julia Holter
American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist, and academic
https://juliaholter.com

Julia Hülsmann
German jazz pianist and composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Hülsmann

Julia Wolfe
American composer
https://juliawolfemusic.com

Kaija Saariaho
Finnish composer
https://saariaho.org

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
American composer, performer and producer
https://kaitlynaureliasmith.com

Kali Malone
American composer and organist
https://kalimalone.com

Karen Tanaka
Japanese composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Tanaka

Katherine Hoover
American composer and flautist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Hoover

Kayla Painter
British experimental artist and producer
https://www.kaylapainter.com/

Keiko Fukiie
Japanese composer
https://www.keiko-fujiie.com

Rie Nakajima
Japanese artist and musician
https://www.rienakajima.com

Kerensa Briggs
British composer
https://www.kerensabriggs.co.uk

Kerry Andrew
British composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Andrew

Kris Davis
Canadian jazz pianist and composer
https://krisdavis.net

Laurie Anderson
American multimedia artist and musician
https://laurieanderson.com

Laurie Spiegel
American electronic composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Spiegel

Laetitia Sonami
French performance artist and composer
https://sonami.net

Lara Sarkissian
American electronic musician and sound artist
https://larasarkissian.bandcamp.com

Laura Cannell
British composer, improvising recorder player and violinist
https://lauracannell.com

Laura Kaminsky
American composer
https://laurakaminsky.com

Laura Toxvaerd
Danish saxophonist, composer and author
http://www.lauratoxvaerd.dk/index.htm

Laurel Halo
American electronic musician
https://www.laurelhalo.com

Leila Bordreuil
French-American cellist, composer, and sound-artist
http://www.leilabordreuil.com

Lena Lapelyté
Polish artist, musician and composer
https://www.linalapelyte.com

Lera Auerbach
Austrian-American composer, conductor and concert pianist
https://leraauerbach.com

Leslie Uyeda
Canadian composer, conductor and pianist
https://www.leslieuyeda.com

Libby Larsen
American composer
https://libbylarsen.com

Linda May Han Oh
Australian jazz bassist and composer
https://lindamayhanoh.com

Linda Perhacs
American psychedelic folk singer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Perhacs

Lisa Bielawa
American composer and vocalist
http://www.lisabielawa.net

Lisa Gerarrd
Australian singer and composer
https://www.lisagerrard.com

Lisa Illean
Australian composer
https://www.lisaillean.com.au/

Lisa Mezzacappa
American bassist, bandleader, and producer
https://www.lisamezzacappa.com/

Lisa Streich
Swedish composer
https://www.lisastreich.se

Lisa Ullén
Korean-Swedish pianist, improviser and composer
https://lisaullen.com

Liza Lim
Australian composer
https://lizalimcomposer.com

Lotta Wennäkoski
Finnish composer
https://lottawennakoski.com

Lotte Anker
Danish saxophonist and composer
http://www.lotteanker.com

Loula Yorke
British composer and improviser
https://loulayorke.com

Lucia Dlugoszewski
Polish-American composer, poet and choreographer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_Dlugoszewski

Lucy Railton
British cellist, composer and curator
https://lucyrailton.com/

Lucy Walker
British composer
https://www.clarehall.cam.ac.uk/directory/lucy-helen-walker/

Magdalena Długosz
Polish composer
https://culture.pl/en/artist/magdalena-dlugosz

Maggie Nicols
Scottish free-jazz and improvising vocalist, dancer, and performer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Nicols

Maja Osojnik
Slovenian singer, composer, improvising electroacoustic musician, sound artist and producer
https://maja.klingt.org

Makiko Nishikaze
Japanese composer
http://www.makiko-nishikaze.de/biography_e.htm

Mariam Rezaei
English composer, writer, performer, DJ and improviser
https://mariamrezaei.bandcamp.com

Marie Awadis
Armenian composer and pianist
https://www.marie-awadis.com

Marie de la Nuit
French sound artist
https://mariedelanuit.bandcamp.com

Marilyn Crispell
American jazz pianist and composer
https://marilyncrispell.com

Mari Takano
Japanese composer and pianist
https://maritakano.com/en/

Marta Forsberg
Swedish-Polish composer, sound artist and musician
https://martaforsberg.com/about/

Martyna Kosecka
Polish Composer, Conductor and Performer of contemporary music
http://www.martynakosecka.com

Mary Halvorson
American avant-garde jazz composer and guitarist
https://www.maryhalvorson.com

Mary Kouyoumidjan
Armenian-American composer
https://www.marykouyoumdjian.com

Mary Lattimore
American harpist
https://marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com

Matilde Meireles
Portuguese sound artist and researcher
https://matildemeireles.com

Melinda Wagner
American composer
https://www.melindawagnermusic.com

Meredi
German-Armenian composer and pianist
https://www.meredi.de

Meredith Monk
American composer and performance artist
https://www.meredithmonk.org

Mette Henriette
Sámi-Norwegian saxophonist and composer
https://mettehenriette.com

Mica Levi
English musician, composer, producer, singer, and songwriter
https://micalevi.bandcamp.com

Mieko Shiomi
Japanese artist and composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mieko_Shiomi_(composer)

Miyoko Yokoyama
Japanese composer
https://www.miokoyokoyama.com

Misato Mochizuki
Japanese composer
https://www.misato-mochizuki.com

Missy Mazzoli
American composer and pianist
https://missymazzoli.com

ML Buch
Danish musician, composer, and producer
https://www.mlbuch.com

Moor Mother
American poet and musician
https://moormother.net

Myra Melford
American jazz pianist and composer
https://www.myramelford.com

Nala Sinephro
Belgian experimental jazz musician
https://nalasinephro.com/

Natalia Beylis
Irish composer and sound artist
https://nataliabeylis.bandcamp.com

Nico
German singer-songwriter and actress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nico

Nicola LeFanu
British composer, academic, lecturer and director
https://www.nicolalefanu.com

Nicole Mitchell
American flautist and composer
https://www.nicolemitchell.com

Nina Garcia
French guitarist, composer and improviser
https://ideologicorgan.bandcamp.com

Noiko Koide
Japanese composer
https://www.schott-music.com/en/person/noriko-koide

Noriko Matsueda
Japanese composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noriko_Matsueda

Oksana Linde
Venezuelan composer and electronic musician
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksana_Linde

Olga Amelkina-Vera
Belarusian-American guitarist and composer
https://www.olgaamelkinavera.com

Olga Anna Markowska
Polish interdisciplinary artist and musician
https://www.olgamarkowska.com/olgaannamarkowska

Olga Neuwirth
Austrian composer
http://www.olganeuwirth.com/about.php

Paola Prestini
Italian composer
https://www.paolaprestini.com

Patricia Brennan
Mexican vibraphone player, composer and improviser
http://www.patriciabrennanvibes.com

Patricia Wolf
American musician, sound designer, and DJ
https://patriciawolf.bandcamp.com

Pauline Oliveros
American composer and accordionist
https://paulineoliveros.us

Pouloumi Desai
British multidisciplinary artist and curator
https://poulomidesai.tumblr.com

Reena Ismail
Indian-American music composer
https://www.reenaesmail.com

Ruth Goller
British bassist, vocalist, and composer
https://www.ruthgoller.com

Ryoko Akama
Japanese-Korean composer and installation artist
https://ryokoakama.com

Sachiyo Tsurumi
Japanese composer
https://soundcloud.com/tsurumi-sachiyo

Sally Beamish
British composer
https://www.sallybeamish.com

Sang Mi Ahn
South Korean composer
https://donne-uk.org/author/ahn-sang-mi/

Santa Ratniece
Latvian composer
http://santaratniece.blogspot.com/

Sarah Davachi
Canadian composer
https://www.sarahdavachi.com

Sarah Hennies
American composer and percussionist
https://www.sarah-hennies.com

Sarah Kirkland Snider
American composer
https://www.sarahkirklandsnider.com

Sarah Nemtsov
German composer
https://www.sarah-nemtsov.de/en/biography/

Sara Schoenbeck
American jazz bassoonist
https://www.saraschoenbeck.com

Sasha Scott
British producer, violinist, and orchestrator
https://www.sashascott.com

Satoko Fuji
Japanese avant-garde jazz pianist, accordionist and composer
https://satokofujii.com/wp_site/

Serafina Steer
British harpist and composer
https://serafinasteer.bandcamp.com

Shiva Feshareki
British-Iranian experimental composer and turntable artist
https://studiofeshareki.com

Shulamit Ran
Israeli-American composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shulamit_Ran

Sofia Gubaidulina
Russian composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Gubaidulina

Stina Stjern
Norwegian composer and musician
https://stinastjern.bandcamp.com

Susan Alcorn
American composer, improviser, and pedal steel guitarist
https://www.susanalcorn.net

Susanne Abbuehl
Swiss/Dutch jazz singer and composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanne_Abbuehl

Susie Ibarra
American composer and percussionist
https://www.susieibarra.com

Suzanne Ciani
American musician and sound designer
https://suzanneciani.bandcamp.com

Sylvie Courvoisier
Swiss composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader
https://www.sylviecourvoisier.com

Tania Chen
English pianist and interdisciplinary sound artist
https://taniachen.com

Tania Léon
Cuban-American composer
https://www.tanialeon.com

Theresa Wong
American cellist, vocalist, composer and improviser
https://www.theresawong.org/about

Tomeka Reid
American composer, improviser, cellist, curator, and teacher
https://tomekareid.com

Tonia Ko
Hong Kong composer
http://toniako.com

Unsuk Chin
South Korean composer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsuk_Chin

Valentina Magaletti
Italian drummer, percussionist, improviser and composer
https://valentinamagaletti.com

Valerie Coleman
American composer and flautist
https://www.valeriecoleman.com

Wang Jie
Chinese-American composer
https://wangjiemusic.com

Wendy Eisenberg
American guitarist, banjo and improvisor
https://www.wendyeisenberg.com

Yağı Michiyo
Japanese koto player, improviser and composer
https://www.michiyoyagi.com

Yazz Achmed
British-Bahraini trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer
https://www.yazzahmed.com

Yoko Ono
Japanese multimedia artist, singer and songwriter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ono

Yumi Saiki
Japanese composer
https://www.zen-on.co.jp/en/publishing/cr/composers/detail/47/

Yvette Janine Jackson
American composer and sound artist
http://www.yvettejackson.com

Zoë Mc Pherson
French/northern Irish artist, performer, sound designer,
https://zoemcpherson.xyz

January and Early-February Round-Up

It's been a busy start to the year, but mostly on the "prep" front, so this won't be a long post*, but here goes...

BGQ hard at work at Boom Studios ;-)

The Brighton Guitar Quartet had already started work on material for our 2025 concerts at the end of this year, but we're now diving in in earnest, and are currently working on Vincent Lindsey-Clark's "Away to New Zealand", and Paulo Bellinati's "Baião de Gude". They're both challenging pieces and are taking a lot of work, but I think they're going to sound fantastic by the time we roll them out. We've currently got shows lined up at Hove Library in April, St Laurence, Falmer in May and Christ Church, Worthing in June. Check out our website or our Instagram feed for more details and new concert announcements.

Having eased off on the festival/workshop front last year, I've already lined up quite a few for the year: Steve Gordon's Bach workshop in Lewes in March, a short course at West Dean led by Andrew Gough and Vincent Lindsey-Clark in April, The Greenwich Guitar Festival in July, and, later in the year, Gerald Garcia's annual weekend at Benslow Music in Hitchin and the fourth Guitars by the Sea here in Brighton.

So with a huge amount of ensemble music to get together over the year, I'm going to let solo repertoire continue to take a bit of a back seat. That said, I'm still grinding away at it to some extent. I've discussed my struggles with it on a couple of occasions here, so won't reiterate them. But one route I'm taking is to visit much simpler material than I've been tackling over the last few years, and trying to make it sound as lovely as possible. When working on more challenging material it's all too easy to neglect the quality of tone. As I work on these more straightforward pieces I'm recording them and posting them on my Soundcloud page. Here's an example, Andrew York's "Awake" from his short suite 4 in A in 4.

And finally on the guitar front, Jon Rattenbury has invited me to join an electric guitar quartet with him, Brian Ashworth and my good friend Paul Dallaway. It's very early days yet and who knows if anything will come of it, but the sounds we were making at our first rehearsal recently were definitely promising. I'll keep you posted!

Lots of stuff going on on the composition front too. In January I finished a piece for inclusion in a Late Music, York concert in March commemorating the centenary of Erik Satie's death. Composers have been asked to write pieces of no more than two minutes taking inspiration from Satie's life and work. I decided to mash up Satie's most famous piece, the first "Gymnopédie" with perhaps his most notorious, "Vexations". Here's a score video of the finished piece (MIDI at this stage), complete with Satie-esque surrealist performance instructions. (Many thanks to the excellent David Lancaster for inviting me to participate).

The next project on my plate is to write a graphic score for a New Music Brighton concert to be given by Adam Bushell (vibraphone and hand percussion) and Bela Emerson (cello) at the Friends Meeting House in June. I've got until March to complete the piece, but I have to say it's pretty daunting. I've been researching a lot of the most famous (notorious?) graphic scores in the repertoire, including these beauties by George Crumb and Tōru Takemitsu respectively.

Beyond research, as a starting point, and always keen to recycle sketches, I'm revisiting a short piece I wrote for Cameron Graham's composition class in the first semester of my Master's course at Surrey. The piece, "Maraṇasati" (named after the Buddhist death meditation) co-opted material from Bach's chorale "Every Mortal Soul Soon Will Perish", Emily Dickinson's gothic poem "Because I Could not Stop for Death", and, er, "Scavenger of Human Sorrow" by the great Floridian metal band Death. I'm not sure how much of that will make it into the new piece, but, like I said, it's a starting point. For what it's worth here's the one-page score and an audio realisation:

 

I mentioned in my last round-up that I'm not neglecting my less "formal" electro-acoustic composition, and have just finished a new Abyssal Labs piece, "An Unanswered Prayer". As I said in my last post, when discussing the first sketch:

The piece is something of an experiment, trying to bridge the gap between how I've been making music since 2011 with my more recent "formal" practice, and takes a single piece of midi from a passage in (the aforementioned) "A Prayer, Lightly Offered" as its sole material. Although I worked in Logic to produce some of the atmospheres, both this and "Ghosts" before it were built in Ableton Live, which I'm now pretty much sold on it as a composition/production tool.

So, here's the final (pre-mastered) version. Many thanks to Frank Hopkins for the technical advice and to David Kaplowitz for his feedback.

Finally, I've been working on some sketches for a potential installation project, a collaboration with my great friend, the brilliant Anno Mitchell. It's very early days so far so I'll say no more for the moment, but as ever, in the spirit of sharing work in progress, I'll be posting the sketches on Soundcloud and showcasing some of them here.

Talking of Frank, he's going on tour in March supporting the brilliant Halina Rice, including two shows here in Brighton at the Old Market. Full tour details and tickets are available on See Tickets.  Please get along and support him if you can.

And while I'm promoting others' work mode, a couple of more classically orientated shows to encourage you to attend. On Saturday, March 1st the string orchestra The Musicians of All Saints will be performing the fourth concert of their 2024/25 season in Lewes, with a programme that includes work by Bach, Elgar, and Malcolm Arnold; tickets are available here. And on the afternoon of March 22nd New Music Brighton will be hosting our first concert of 2025, at the Friends Meeting House in Ship Street. The concert is a memorial to the composer Malcolm Lipkin and will feature a performance of some of his work by Nathan Williamson alongside new work by some of NMB's composers. Tickets are available here.

Ahead of International Women's Day on March 8th, I've been busy extending the "Women in Modern Music" playlist I put together for last year's IWD. The playlist now runs to over 200 pieces, with more jazz, free improvisation and electronica than last time around, although still with a strong emphasis on chamber and orchestral work. I'm also compiling a long blog post to accompany the playlist, with explanatory notes and links to all the composers and musicians featured. I'll publicise it all on March 7th.

In the meantime, here's a snapshot of my listening in January:

I'll leave you with some things I've been reading, listening to and watching over the last few weeks, with the usual caveat that not all of my readers will share my tastes, inclinations and leanings!

The Rest is History on Suetonius' "Lives of the Emperors"

Unherd: In Search of Wild Gods - Nick Cave and Tom Holland in conversation

Sam Harris: Letters to a Christian, Part 2

Dana Gioia on Stephen Sondheim

Matthew Crawford: Living in Wonder - A review of Rod Dreher's new book

Sympathetic Opposition: Contra Scott Alexander on Taste - Good taste is the capacity for pleasure, and the discernment to find it

Ted Gioia: Why Gregory Bateson Matters - Or what a counterculture might look like in the 21st century

And more from Ted: John Coltrane's Love Is Still Supreme at Age 60

And on more: The Music Business is Healthy Again? Really?

Dan Carlin: A Mania for Subjugation - the second part of his epic account of Alexander the Great

NS Lyons/The Upheaval: Colonization, Replaceable Man, and Love of One’s Own

Joel Kotkin: LA’s dreams went up in flames - Politicians are to blame for a shocking lack of preparation

Matthew Crawford, again: Managerialism will be an impediment to cultural renewal. What Netflix can teach us about the deep structures of en-shit-ification

These Times (Helen Thompson and Tom McTague): What Trump Wants - Greenland and more

Dominic Cummings: Reading list (from 2022)

Charles C. Mann: Fertilization, irrigation, genetics: the three practices that let us feed the whole world for the first time in history

More next time!

 

* Er, turned out not so much ;-)

A Round-up of my 2024

I've been doing quarterly and, more recently, monthly updates on the blog here all year (sadly not much else), so this will be something of a round-up of roundups; as a result, I'll try to keep it light and refer to the previous posts where necessary.

AFNFH - welcome to DGMFS!

Now I normally concentrate mostly on music and general art stuff in these round-ups, but I have to begin with something else. The highlight of what has been, on several fronts, a frankly difficult year, was that Sarah and I became grandparents, welcoming one (ahem) Albert Frank Nikky Ferrier Hopkins to the world. Congratulations to Molly and Joe for bringing a real ray of light into all our lives!

OK, on to more usual matters. It was the busiest year so far for the Brighton Guitar Quartet, with shows at St Laurence Falmer, St Peter's West Blatchington, Christ Church Worthing, Hove Library and the Chapel Royal in Brighton. We also did quite a few "private" shows, including, a couple of the excellent "Platform" shows organised by Jon Rattenbury,  at Ellis Gordon Court in Newhaven (commemorating Housing 21's 60th birthday), at the Springboard competition in Hove (adjudicated by Richard Durrant), and at the annual bash at Bom-Banes in Kemptown organised by my teacher Gregg Isaacson for all his students and student groups. For the season we introduced a whole bunch of new material, including Phillip Houghton's very challenging "Opals" suite, pieces by Turina, Mussorgsky and Boccherini, and two of my own arrangements (of Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze" and, er, John Barry's "You Only Live Twice").

BGQ at the Chapel Royal, Brighton in October

We're working on new material for this year, and already have shows lined up in Falmer and Worthing, with more to be announced - keep an eye on the website for details. As ever, my thanks to Ruairi Gann, James Hartt and Olivier Thereaux for their great company and hard work, and to Gregg for his endless patience and guidance. Here's a recording of our concert in Worthing in June:

I've also been playing, somewhat more informally, in a great little classical guitar trio with Paul Dallaway and Shaun Bullard (whom I met at the Greenwich Guitar Festival a couple of years back), performing Roland Dyens' quite lovely "O Trio Magico" on a couple of occasions. Oh, and Shaun and I have put in a couple of performances of "The Aleph", a slightly warped take on a lullaby, written to celebrate Albert's birth (here's a MIDI version of the piece - I'm hoping to record it with Shaun at some point this year):

I've only attended one festival/workshop this year, the hugely enjoyable third instalment of Guitars by the Sea, organised by Jon Rattenbury and Steve Gordon. This year featured Mark Eden of the fantastic Eden Stell Duo as guest workshop leader and a Saturday evening concert by the brilliant young guitarist Kianush Robeson.

October marked the 10th anniversary of my taking up classical guitar and starting lessons with Gregg at the tender age of 47. If memory serves, I had a couple of reasons for taking it up. I was, frankly, embarrassed at my almost total inability to read music, despite having played guitar on and off since my early teens (and, yes, despite being awarded a diploma in jazz from the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles way back in 1987). I was also acutely aware of not being able to play solo, and not really having any repertoire to play "on demand". I had no idea where it would lead all those years back (and certainly not to a Master's degree!), but it's been the ride of my life - not without its challenges and disappointments, but rewarding at a very deep level. My deepest thanks to Gregg for being without doubt the best teacher I've had in any discipline: patient, yes, and endlessly insightful, but always demanding, a combination that's been perfect for me.

In general, for reasons discussed here, I've taken a break from solo performance over the last year, concentrating instead on ensemble playing and composition (of which more below), but I'm hoping to return to it more seriously in 2025, and am already at work on Takemitsu's "Rosedale" (because of course I am). In the meantime, I'm gradually recording all of the pieces I've learned over the decade and I'm posting them on SoundCloud.

I took up "formal" musical composition even later than I took up classical guitar, really picking it up while studying for my Master's at Surrey in 2021/2. This year I've really got stuck in with a vengeance, not least spurred on by several opportunities to submit pieces for performances at various New Music Brighton concerts. Pieces this year include: two classical guitar sextets, "The Honeycomb Conjecture" and "The Level at Midnight"; two solo piano pieces, "Johnson & Johnson" (premiered by the brilliant Karen Kingsley at the Friends Meeting House in Brighton in October) and "A Prayer, Lightly Offered"; and the aforementioned guitar duo "The Aleph"; "The Pillars of Hercules", an electric guitar duet (which Paul D and I premiered, also at the FHM back the spring). I also began work on a set of solo guitar studies, which I'm calling "Picotudes", inspired by Reginald Smith Brindle's "Guitarcosmos" series. And finally, I've been continuing to transcribe pieces for the BGQ, recently arranging Handel's beautiful aria "Streams of Pleasure Ever Flowing" and, rather more differently (mentioned earlier), Barry's "You Only Live Twice". You can see score videos of all these pieces on my YouTube channel, but here's the most recent I've posted, the sextet "The Level at Midnight"; it was originally written for an NMB concert given by Jon Rattenbury's Brighton Guitar Group in the summer, and I've finally got around to recording it myself:

On the subject of New Music Brighton, in November I was appointed its chair, taking over from Guy Richardson, who's steered the organisation brilliantly for the last nine years - big shoes to fill! (I also seem to find myself increasingly involved with the Lewes-based string orchestra Musicians of All Saints - not sure how this keeps happening, but there you go). In the meantime, despite diving into "proper" composition quite so deeply, I'm still swimming in the same electro-acoustic waters, albeit less frequently. In the spring I finally got around to finishing "Ghosts of the Kemptown Branch Line", with which I resurrected my Abyssal Labs project, which I began work on in Annecy in 2023 (yes, I know, not a fast worker... ) The piece is still awaiting mastering and a formal "launch" on my Bandcamp page, but here it is in its pre-mastered form:

And over Christmas, I began work on a new Abyssal Labs piece, "An Unanswered Prayer". The piece is something of an experiment, trying to bridge the gap between how I've been making music since 2011 with my more recent "formal" practice, and takes a single piece of midi from a passage in (the aforementioned) "A Prayer, Lightly Offered" as its sole material. Although I worked in Logic to produce some of the atmospheres, both this and "Ghosts" before it were built in Ableton Live, which I'm now pretty much sold on it as a composition/production tool. Thanks to Frank (more of him anon) for AL tech support and advice! Although the piece is only in sketch form at the moment, in the spirit of presenting work in progress, here it is:

For a host of reasons, I haven't made it along to much live music this year, at least not by my standards. I did have a complete ball on the Friday of the Arctangent festival, headlined magnificently by Meshuggah, of course. Other standout shows included Tool at the 02, Richard Thompson at the Dome in Brighton, Patricia Kopatchinskaja performing Schoenberg's Violin Concerto at the Royal Albert Hall, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the Troxy. I have, however, been to a lot of classical concerts in and around Brighton, organised by NMB and MAS and also Sussex Musicians' Club. It's been a delight to hear a huge variety of (often very challenging) music performed at a very high standard by semi-professional and pro-am players. I urge everyone down here to get along to some of these concerts and support a vital, but overlooked, part of our local music ecology.

Hanging with Kate and Frank at Arctangent

For personal reasons perhaps the most meaningful live gig I went to this year was Frank playing the Waiting Room in Stoke Newington. Frank had taken something of a hiatus from both live performance and recording, and this was his first show of 2024, so it was great to see him back on such great from after a very difficult year. Frank's major release of the year was the fantastic "Echoes of Tomorrow EP", but here's his most recent single, "Loss Function", released at the tail end of the year:

While it's not been an especially big year for me on the live music front, I have nonetheless been listening to a huge amount of new music. A lot of listening recommendations have come from friends and family, but of the more traditional "gatekeepers", I have to mention: Ted Gioia's substack; Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone and Gilles Peterson, both on BBC 6Music; on BBC Radio 3, Record Review, The New Music Show, Late Junction and The Early Music Show; Metal Injection; and The Quietus. I attempted to compile a "Top 50 albums of 2024" in my last post of the year (a tricky exercise!), but in the meantime here's a snapshot of my listening over the year (although at 1100 pieces and a run time of 110 hours "snapshot" probably isn't the right word):

Oh, and one more playlist to be going on with. Back in March, to celebrate International Women's Day, I put together a "Women in Modern Music" playlist to celebrate the often underappreciated contributions of female composers and musicians to a range of contemporary music, from orchestral and chamber work to electro-acoustic, free improvisation, sound art, jazz and out-rock. At the time the time I first published the playlist, it ran to 100 pieces. However, I've been continuing to research and add to it, and by IWD this year I'm hoping it will be up to 200!

I have to confess that this hasn't been a big reading year for me, and in 2025 I'm really hoping to have more time set to one side for deep reading rather than endless scanning of online articles and blogs, but we'll see. I have to mention two standouts. I am, of course, a total Neal Stephenson fanboi, so it was great to see him back with the rollicking Polostan, the first of a new historical saga (his first since the Baroque Cycle). On the non-fiction front, I found David Goodhart's The Care Dilemma typically insightful, following on from the previous two books in his informal state of the nation trilogy, The Road to Somewhere and Head, Hand, Heart. As the year starts, I'm hugely enjoying Caitlin Horrocks' The Vexations, a fictionalised account of Erik Satie's life (thanks to the brilliant Anno Mitchell for the recommendation!)

Some 2024 reading, some light, some not so much

Away from music and (vaguely) intellectual pursuits, another confession: this has probably been my least athletic year in over a decade. But I have tried to keep at least somewhat in shape. I ran just two half marathons this year, The Brighton Half in February and the fantastic Three Forts Challenge, an annual trail run in the South Downs with which I normally celebrate my birthday in early May. But the biggest, well, ordeal I put myself through all year was the sponsored 100 Push-ups a Day Challenge I did for Cancer Research. I raised just shy of a grand for the cause; thanks so much to everyone who sponsored me. My God, it was brutal at times, but by the end of it I was pretty buff (for a 57-year-old, at any rate!)

I promise never to share this in public again

A final word. The older I get, the more grateful I am to have so many great friends around me. It's perhaps invidious to pick out individuals, but I will anyway; so thanks to the following for immensely welcome support, great company and fantastic conversation over the year: Kate Norton, Amy Taylor, Marc Jaffrey, Anno Mitchell, Nick Reynolds, Steve Morgan, Melissa Richardson, Nigel Huddleston, John Souter and David Kaplowitz. Thanks also to my amazing kids Joe, Frank and Lily, who've had their own truly horrible year. And of course, thanks to my wife, Angel Academe co-founder and soul mate Sarah Turner for her constant support and endless patience - none of this would be possible without her.

An attempt at a kind of 2024 Top 50 Albums list

It's the time of year when more serious, and certainly more seriously opinionated listeners than me tell you what you should have been listening to all year. Well, that's not what I'm doing here. Rather, I'm simply listing 50 albums that have given me pleasure this year, and in several cases a lot of pleasure. A few things to note before diving into the list...

• Despite the fact that some of my favourite live music moments of the year have been metal shows (Meshuggah! Tool! Animals as Leaders!) only one metal album has made the list, weirdly. I dunno, it just doesn't feel like it's been a defining year for metal releases. But feel free to argue (and make some welcome recommendations!)
• The list is a lot less guitar-y than you might expect of me. In fact, it's arguably way more piano-y. I think that's at least in part because was listening to so much piano music while prepping and composing my two first piano pieces, Johnson & Johnson and A Prayer, Lightly Offered.
• You'll notice a disproportionate amount of John Zorn in here. Some decades ago no-one who knew me would have been surprised at that, as I never stopped wanging on about him (I wrote about how seeing John Zorn's Naked City back in the late 80s pretty much changed my life as part of my Master's programme). However, over the years my ardent admiration hasn't exactly waned, but it's definitely, er, drifted. Partly that was an issue of access - it was hard even for a financially reckless record buyer like me to keep up with Zorn's output when it was only available in physical formats. But the migration of the Tzadik catalogue to Spotify has changed all of that (although to be clear, I'm still buying Tzadik CDs by the handful!) There are many problems with Spotify and at some point I might get around to addressing these, but I'm sorry, it's still an incredible resource.
• The attentive reader will note that there are a lot of women composers of various stripes on the list. To be clear, this is not me in some fit of virtue-signalling, which is a vanishingly unlikely prospect. It's just that I went down something of a rabbit hole back in March, researching and compiling a "Women in Modern Music" playlist to celebrate International Women's Day. And I've stayed down the rabbit hole: the original playlist ran to 100 pieces of music by women working in contemporary classical, jazz, free improvisation, sound art and out-rock, and is now up to 150. 
• If I had to pick just one album from the list it would be Rafael Toral's Spectral Evolution, which is quite exquisite. If you want to hear about how Toral made the record (which went through no fewer than 50 mixes!), I recommend Samuel Andreyev's excellent conversation with him, in which he talks in some depth about the compositional and recording process.
• Some hat tips! I've mentioned all of these sources before, but once again, I'm indebted to the following for fantastic recommendations: Ted Gioia's substack; Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone and Gilles Peterson, both on on BBC 6Music; and from BBC Radio 3, Record Review, The New Music Show, Late Junction and The Early Music Show. And of course thanks to all the friends and family members who've made recommendations across the year, especially Marc Jaffrey, Frank Hopkins, Steve Morgan and Nick Reynolds: your recommendations might not have made the list below (although Frank does feature on it!) but they've surely informed my "2024 Listening" playlist, which runs to a whopping 110 pieces of music clocking in at just under 108 hours.
• And of course thanks to Sarah for her endless patience with the almost constant sonic ambience!

Samuel Andreyev - In Glow of Like Seclusion

J.S. Bach - Preludes, Inventions, Sinfonias, perf. Mahan Esfahani

J.S. Bach - The English Suites, perf. Zhu Xiao-Mei

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

Surya Botofasina/Nate Mercereau/Carlos Niño - Subtle Movements

The Bug - Machines I-V

William Byrd - The Great Service and English Anthems, perf. Alamire

Tim Brady - Imagine Many Guitars

Benjamin Britten - Violin Concertos, perf. Baiba Skide

Laura Cannell - Earthlore

Laura Cannell - The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined

Loren Connors & Alan Licht - The Blue Hour

Beatrice Dillon - Seven Reorganisations, perf. Explore Ensemble

DKAPZ - Rule by Monsters

Elephant9/Terje Rypdal - Catching Fire

Graham Fitkin - Loosening

Dai Fujikura - Wavering World

Mabe Fratti - Sentir Que No Sabes

Frisell, Cyrille, Downes - Breaking the Shell

The Gesualdo Six - Queen of Hearts: Laments & Songs of Regret for Queens Terrestrial & Celestial

Bára Gísladóttir - Orchestral Works

George Frideric Handel - Theodora, perf. Arcangelo

Catherine Christer Hennix - Further Selections from the Electric Harpsichord

Frank Hopkins - Echoes of Tomorrow EP

Julian Lage - Speak to Me

Chris Lawrence - Kenny Wheeler: Some Gnu Ones

Emilie Cecilia LeBel - Landscapes of Memory

Brad Mehldau - Aprés Fauré

Brad Mehldau - After Bach II

Pat Metheny - MoonDial

Ennio Morricone - Crime and Dissonance

The Necks - Bleed

Rachel Podger/Brecon Baroque - The Muses Restor'd

Hania Rani - Nostalgia - Live

Alfred Schnittke - Film Music Vol 6

Franz Schubert - Wintereisse, perf. Rachel Fenlon

Brandon Seabrook - Object of Unknown Function

Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance - Jinxed by Being

Richard Skelton - the old thrawing crux

Sun Ra - Lanquidity (Reissue)

Laetitia Sonami - Éliane Radigue - A Song for Two Mothers/Occam IX

Rafael Toral - Spectral Evolution

Leslie Uyeda - The Sex Life of Vegetables

Freya Waley-Cohen - Spell Book

Patricia Wolf - The Secret Life of Birds

John Zorn - The Hermetic Organ Vol. 12 - The Bosch Requiem

John Zorn - The Hermetic Organ Vol 13 - Biennale Musica Venezia

John Zorn - Lamentations, perf. Lage, Riley, Frisell

John Zorn - Her Melodious Lay, perf. Lage/Riley

John Zorn - Hannigan Sings Zorn, Volume 2

October/November 2024 round-up

A relatively brief round-up this time out... or maybe not...

I mentioned last time that the Brighton Guitar Quartet had pretty much wrapped up our 2024 season, but we do/did in fact have a couple of "pre-season friendlies" lined up. Around Christmas every year our director Gregg Isaacson puts on an informal concert for all his students to play to each other at the delightful Bombanes in Kemptown, and this year played a short set there (and I even threw in a solo piece, my first solo outing in over a year). And we'll be playing another short set at Jon Rattenbury's excellent bi-annual Platform event. I'll also be playing in a trio with Paul Dallaway and Shaun Bullard (we're tackling Roland Dyens' "O Trio Magico") and I'll be giving my duet "The Aleph" another outing with Shaun. And it will be nice to hear pieces by three of my fellow New Music Brighton composers - Guy Richardson, Martyn Adams and Chris Gander - getting another outing following the Brighton Guitar Group's NMB concert earlier this year.

However, what I'm really excited to announce is that we're now lining up the first gigs of our 2025 "season". On Friday, March 14th (3.30pm) we'll be playing at Hove Library as part of their ongoing Live Lounge series. A month later, on 24th May we'll be back at St Laurence, Falmer for a late afternoon concert (exact time TBC). And on June 17th we'll be playing a lunchtime concert (for the third year running!) at Christ Church in Worthing. We'll also be putting in an appearance at the annual Springboard competition in March, which this year is adjudicated by the brilliant guitarist and arranger Gerard Cousins. As ever, all the details are on our website; more to add soon. Once again, thanks to Ruairi, Olivier, James and of course Gregg, for sharing the BGQ journey this year. I'm psyched about 2025!

On the subject of Gregg, I should note that I've just clocked in at 10 year studying with him! Lots to write about regarding that, and hopefully I'll get around to that in my next round-up post, but for now, I just want to log my deepest gratitude to him in public

Setting up the GTBS student concert at St Luke's

While I'm on the subject of classical guitar, I had a great time at the third instalment of Guitars By The Sea in October. Put on by Jon Rattenbury and Steve Gordon, the weekend is a kind of festival-come-workshop, and this year feaured Mark Eden of the fantastic Eden Stell Duo as guest workshop leader. The dazzling young guitarist Kianush Robeson gave a concert on the Saturday night, with lots of 20th Century works, including Reginald Smith Brindle's little-heard Three Etruscan Preludes (regular readers will know that I can never pass up an opportunity to mention Reggie). The weekend culminated in a student concert at St Luke's Church in Seven Dials, featuring two ensembles, the whole group playing as an orchestra and some solo slots. Oh, and Shaun and I premiered The Aleph, of course! Thanks to Jon and Steve for all their hard work in putting on such a great weekend. Here's to GBTS4!

I also mentioned last time that I had my piano piece "Johnson & Johnson" played by Karen Kingsley at a New Music Brighton Concert at the Friends' Meeting House. I'm delighted that I now have some audio of the performance. Thanks to Roger Harmar for his excellent recording.

I was also thrilled that Karen went on to play the piece at a concert at Portsmouth Cathedral earlier this month. Sadly a bad case of man flu meant that I couldn't make it, but I gather from a couple of my fellow NMB members that the piece went down well.

On a related note, I finally finished off my next piano piece, "A Prayer, Offered Lightly" and have submitted it for possible inclusion in a Malcolm Lipkin memorial concert to be given by Nathan Williamson next March. Fingers crossed; in the meantime here's a score video of the piece (MIDI only at this stage, but not a bad approximation!)

And talking of New Music Brighton, I'm honoured (if slightly daunted) to have been appointed chair, as the excellent Guy Richardson is standing down after nine years in the role!

Frank at The Waiting Room

I've made it along to a few gigs since I last posted. After some initial doubts, I was after all able to get along to see my son Frank do his first show of the year at the Waiting Room in Stoke Newington. It was a cracking set, running to almost 90 minutes and in front of a full house. Thanks to various friends for coming along and supporting Frank. Frank and I have also started doing some recording together, working on somewhat longer-form ambient pieces, with me adding guitar parts to Frank's beautful textures and harmonic progressions. More on that soon, I hope!

Setting up to record with Frank at "Boom Studios"

Anyway, others shows I got along to included: The Musicians of All Saints in Lewes (including the premiere of a great piece by Guy Richardson); the fine pianist Yoko Ono at the Chapel Royal in Brighton (with another NMB premiere, a beautiful Hokusai-inspired piece by Barry Mills); jazz pianist Joni Mayraz at the Jazz Cafe in Camden (thanks to Marc Jaffrey for getting me along to that); and the soul jazz quintet Butaxca (featuring my great buddy Steve Morgan on piano) at the Brunswick in Hove. I also went to a screening of Oleksandr Dovzhenko's masterpiece Earth at the Attenborough Centre in Falmer, with a beautiful live soundtrack provided by pianist Roksana Smirnova and guitarist Misha Kalinin.

 

Some reading/listening/viewing over the last few weeks, with the usual apologies to readers who might not share (all of) my interests and sensibilities:

The Rest is History's brilliant series on American politics in 1968

Ted Gioia: Is This the Worst Month Ever for Legacy Media?

Joan Bakewell interviews Marcel Duchamp for the BBC in 1968 (file under "different times, people")

Olivier Messiaen - The Music of Faith (The South Bank Show, 1985) (ditto)

The amazing jazz keyboardist Hiromi plays an NPR "Tiny Desk" gig

Charles Ives Society: Improvisation and Ives

Ted Gioia again: What You Can Learn from Just Seven Pages by Hannah Arendt 

Ian Pace: Why Christian culture is essential to education

Spiked: The myth of the population time bomb

Matthew Crawford: Anti-Humanism and the Post-Political Condition

Chris Snowdon for the IEA: Not Invented Here #4 - Smoking

John Gray: Trump and the triumph of illiberal democracy

And more from Gray, this time on Jordan Peterson

Brendan O'Neil Show: David Goodhart on how we're failing to care for the young and old alike

Sebastian Milbank: London has lost its soul

Sam Harris: Is History Repeating Itself? - A Conversation with Simon Sebag Montefiore

 

Anyway, enough of that. Here's a snapshot of what I was listening to in November:

In my next post, I'll be doing a wrap-up of the year. Bet you can't wait. As ever, my eternal gratitude to my wife and soul mate Sarah for endless support with all of this. Oh, and I just had to get in a crate of this for Christmas:

 

Early Autumn 2024 Round-Up

It's been a busy few weeks but has somehow felt less eventful than for a while, but that might say more about my state of mind than anything else.

The Brighton Guitar Quartet played our final couple of public performances of the year. In early September we played an afternoon show at Ellis Gordon Court in Newhaven, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Housing 21. We turned in a couple of sets featuring pieces we've rolled out over the year and revived a few from previous seasons, and it seemed to go down pretty well. Thanks to Housing 21 for asking us along (and happy birthday!) and to Ruairi for organising it all.

James and Olivier; insert your own caption

A couple of weeks later we played in the opening concert of Sussex Musicians Club 2024/25 season, alongside the amazing soprano Daria Robertson and pianist Kevin Allen, who treated us to Schoenberg's Op.23 - quite the season opener! We played Olga Amelkina-Vera's Ninochka, Phillip Houghton's Opals suite (our best performance of the piece so far, IMO - it certainly seemed to be especially well received) and my own arrangement of Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze.

Shiny heads at work

So that's us done for the year, but we're already at work on material for next year, getting our teeth stuck into a fairly large-scale work by Vincent Lindsey-Clarke and my arrangement of John Barry's You Only Live Twice. Anyway, I just want to take this opportunity to thank James, Olivier and Ruairi for their commitment and great company this year, and of course thanks to our director Gregg Isaacson for all his guidance, insight and patience with us. Here's to 2025!

While I'm on the subject of classical guitar, I'm looking forward to the third instalment of Guitars By The Sea in a couple of weekends' time. Put on by Jon Rattenbury and Steve Gordon, the weekend is a kind of festival-come-workshop, and this year feaures Mark Eden of the brilliant Eden Stell Duo as guest workshop leader. The dazzling young guitarist Kianush Robeson will be giving a concert on the Saturday night, which you should get along to if you can! I'm especially excited to be giving my duet The Aleph its first live outing in performance with the excellent Shaun Bullard.

Right then, away from the guitar...

Saturday just gone I was delighted to have my first "formally" composed piano piece, Johnson & Johnson premiered in a New Music Brighton concert given by the fantastic Karen Kingsley at the Friends Meeting House here in Brighton. The concert featured 15 pieces by NMB composers, drawing on a massive array of influences including Baroque fugue (John Petley), Chopin (Lewis Dixon-Szul) and jazz (Lluís Nadal). Perhaps the most impressive entry, for obvious reasons, was Theme from an Unmade Film, by the 12-year-old (!) Ellery Mitchell. Congratulations - and thanks - to Karen for her Herculean work in putting the programme together. Thanks also to my friends Helen, Allan, Mel, Nick, Nigel and Marc (and of course Sarah) for coming along and supporting me, and thanks to the inestimable Peter Copley for his help in knocking the piece into shape (and making it vaguely playable). The concert was recorded, so once the performance of my piece is available I'll stick it up on Soundcloud. In the meantime, here's a MIDI rendition, complete with score.

As I mentioned last month, I'm now at work on another piano piece for possible inclusion in another NMB concert to be given by the brilliant pianist and composer Nathan Williamson in the spring. It's a very different sound world to J&J, something of a hymn, dedicated to Joe, Frank and Lily in commemoration of their terrible shared year, with love and admiration at how much they've supported each other. I hope to have the piece finished over the next few weeks, but in the spirit of sharing work in progress, here's the latest draft:

I haven't made it along to much live music over the last few weeks, but what I've seen/heard has been fantastic. Last weekend my good friend and Angel Academe colleague John Souter took me along to the Troxy in East London to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor's unexpected return to touring. I've seen Godspeed many times over the last two decades, but this was the most assured performance I've ever seen them give. As I pointed out on Twitter, the bloke in front of me in the queue to get in was wearing a Black Flag t-shirt, while I was wearing a Yes t-shirt, which I think sums things up nicely. If you don't believe me, check this:

Or as some wag on Twitter put it:

At the other end of the musical spectrum, Sarah and I (and Olivier!) went along to the first concert in the string orchestra Musicians of All Saints' 2024/25 season. The concert featured Handel and Mendelssohn alongside new work by Geoffrey Alvarez and NMB's Peter Owen and was brilliantly conducted by Maria Copley. Their next concert is November 9th, again at the All Saints Centre in Lewes. The concert will include two premieres of work by Peta Crompton and Guy Richardson. You can buy tickets here - and please do, these concerts are always a treat and we should support grassroots classical music-making of this quality.

Finally, my Brighton buddy and former Radio 3 colleague to me along to the Albert Hall for Prom 67, with the BBCSO conducted by Tarmo Peltokoski playing Vaughan Williams and Shostakovich. The highlight, though, was Patricia Kopatchinskaja performing Schoenberg's Violin Concerto; a truly mesmerising performance. Thanks to Brian for taking me along; as I write there are 6 days left to hear the prom on BBC Sounds.

Pat Kop in action

I mentioned last month that my son Frank has got his first show of the year lined up for next week at the Waiting Room in Stoke Newington. I'm gutted not to be able to make the gig, but please get along if you can. Tickets are available here.

A highlight of the last month was attending a day-long conference at Goldsmiths College co-hosted by Goldsmiths and the University of Surrey: More Sounds, More Personalities, British Post-Minimalism, 1979-1997. The day had been curated by composers Ian Gardiner and Tom Armstrong (one of the tutors on my Master's programme) and featured a series of fascinating - and wide-ranging - presentations looking at the turn British art music took in the 80s as it embraced pop aesthetics and electric instrumentation. Well, that and much more besides. Several of the papers are available as YouTube videos or blog posts; links to them can be found on the MSMP page on Ian Gardiner's website.

One name that cropped up a lot over the course of the day was, not unreasonably, that of Gavin Bryars. As it happens, at the event, I ran into composer David Lancaster whom I first met at a Gavin Bryars workshop in the French Pyrenees last summer. It was great to catch up with both him, and of course with Tom.

In the meantime, my record-buying habit, if not exactly out of control, is certainly coming along nicely ;-)

Some of that lot features in this Spotify playlist of highlights from my listening over the last three months, with hat tips, as ever, to Ted Gioia, Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone and three Radio 3 shows in particular: the New Music Show, Record Review and Late Junction. The playlist also features more recent jazz than normal, as a result of reading Nate Chinen's Playing Changes - Jazz for the New Century, recommended to me by Paul Dallaway. It's an informative, if occasionally frustrating read, and if I get the chance I'll write a little bit more about it here.

And now for a little bit of reading/listening/watching, with the usual caveat that some of this will not jive with everyone's interests or inclinations!

Milton Mermikides: Magical Mystery Tour - The Invention of The Beatles

Discogs: 3 Trends That Prove CDs are Making a Comeback

Florence Read interviews Geoff Dyer

Improvising Life and Music with Jazz Legend Pat Metheny

Sam Harris interviews Richard Dawkins about his new book, The Genetic Code of the Dead

Ted Gioia: What's Happening to Entertainment?

And again: The Decline of the Novel - it's worse than you think

Nina Welsch: The nurseryfication of culture

Radio 3's The Sound of Cinema: John Barry - the music of James Bond

David Elstein: The near-invisibility of the Proms on BBC TV is a symptom of the collapse of public service broadcasting in Britain

Frank Furedi: We’re sending far too many people to university

Alexandra Wilson - The inexorable decline of arts education and the rise of knee-jerk politics and managerialism

Marilyn Simon: Why does hot girl summer have to end?

Matthew Crawford: Individualism creates mass men, not individuals

The Atlantic: The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books

Robin Ashenden: The 1990s were Britain’s sunset years

Sam Buntz: Yuval Noah Harari has written another long book with little wisdom

Oh, and some recent non-screen-based reading!

Finally, from the DGMFS, er, archive... Abyssal Labs is a project I began in 2012 and abandoned in 2014, a series of dark ambient soundscapes (or whatever) originally conceived to accompany yoga and other contemplative practices. I don't think it really achieved its aims, but in revisiting the music I figured it stood up on its own terms and last year revived the series with Ghosts of the Kemptown Branchline. Anyway, back in 2012 I put together a series of short playlists showcasing some of the music that inspired the series, and I've recently combined them into one set, which runs to a fairly mammoth 28+ hours. So enjoy!

That's it for now. As ever, thanks to Sarah for her endless love, patience and support.