Well, the highlight of the month (and, little Albert's arrival aside, of the year - although it's been a low bar) had to be going to the Friday of Arctangent's 10th anniversary festival with Frank (more on him below), my best mate Kate and her good buddy Emma. As ever, the day featured a great assortment of music at the meeting point of metal, electronica, punk, math rock and even rap. We saw a bunch of great acts, including (off the top of my head) Animals as Leaders, Ihsahn, Three Trapped Tigers, Fange, Maruja and Iress (a real revelation). But of course, the highlight - and indeed the reason I'd headed to the Mendips (other than the great company) - was Meshuggah.
I've lost count of the exact number of times I've seen the technical death metal Swedes, but it must be edging towards 20, across three different countries and in every size of venue from Brighton's Concorde 2 to the Royal Albert Hall (and including their last Arctangent show in 2019), and they've never been anything less than astonishing. But Christ, this was mind-blowing, with totally perfect sound from the very first notes. They remain the most uncompromising rock act I've ever seen - they're just so pure. Here's a video of them performing Perpetual Black Second, shot by someone who had a very, very good view!
And here's a Spotify playlist I put together based on the setlist:
Anyway, in the last year, I've managed to see all three of my favourite metal bands: Meshuggah, Tool (in London, with Frank) and Cult of Luna (in Bristol with Kate), so happy days!
The Brighton Guitar Quartet took the month off from performing (although not rehearsing!), but we're back in September with our final "public" concert of 2024, taking part in the first concert of the Sussex Musicians' Club 24/25 season. We'll be rolling out work by Bach, Phillip Houghton and Olga Amelkina-Vera, alongside performances by pianist Kevin Allen and soprano Daria Robertson. The concert is at 7pm on Saturday at the Chapel Royal, North St, Brighton.
Then it's on to preparing new repertoire for our 2025 season, which should kick off sometime in the spring. I mentioned last time around that I'd arranged John Barry's "You Only Live Twice" for the group. This month I took a crack at arranging a rather different piece, "Streams of Pleasure Ever Flowing", the stunning Air and Duet near the conclusion of Handel's oratorio Theodora. It was quite a task, and at my teacher Gregg Isaacson's suggestion I may yet tinker with the arrangement to make it a tad more democratic. But in the meantime here's a score video of the first draft (MIDI guitars at this point, I'm afraid):
Away from the guitar, but still on a composer-y note... A couple of months back I mentioned that I'd entered my first formal piano composition for inclusion in a New Music Brighton concert to be given by the pianist Karen Kingsley in October. Well, I'm delighted that the piece has been accepted! The concert is on Saturday 5th October at Brighton Friends’ Meeting House on Ship Street. Please come along if you can - there should be a great selection of music. Here's a reminder of the piece that will be getting its premiere, a jazz-ish piece based on melodic material from two very different Robert Johnsons, the Renaissance lutenist and the great Mississippi bluesman:
I'm now at work on a new piano piece for possible inclusion in another NMB concert to be given by the brilliant pianist and composer Nathan Williamson in the spring. I'm adapting music I'd originally conceived for the BQG, a chorale-like piece dedicated to Joe, Frank and Lily in recognition of the recent tragic loss of their mother. It's early days yet, and I've got a couple of months before the deadline, but in the spirit of sharing work in progress, here's a brief sketch:
I also seem to have got myself involved with The Musicians of All Saints, handling various aspects of their comms (website, newsletter and wotnot). Not sure how that happened, but there you go. A chamber orchestra based in Lewes and closely associated with New Music Brighton, MAS was founded in 1987 to perform contemporary classical music by living composers and 20th-century composers whose work deserves a second hearing. Sarah and I hugely enjoyed several of the concerts in their 2023/24 season, and it would be remiss of me not to mention their upcoming season, beginning with a concert at The All Saints Centre in Lewes on September 21st, featuring work by Mendelssohn, Handel, Geoffrey Alvarez and NMB member Peter Owen. You can buy tickets here.
Here's a recording of the orchestra playing Frank Bridge's "Lament for Strings", illustrated with lovely engravings of the Sussex countryside by Keith Pettit:
So, I said I had more on Frank. He's got his first gig of 2024 lined up on Thursday, October 17th at the Waiting Room in Stoke Newington. It's selling fast, so get your tickets soon!
Frank also gave a great interview to Magnetic Magazine, giving a thoughtful and detailed technical breakdown of how he made his beautiful track "Echoes of Tomorrow". If you haven't heard the piece yet (and why not?!), here it is:
Read/watched/listened to elsewhere
To repeat what I said last month, this is only scratching the surface, and I'm still presenting these links (mostly) with little in the way of comment, and in some cases somewhat gingerly. But infer away! The first two are links to the most recent Gresham lectures given by my former lecturer, the brilliant Milton Mermikides, which sadly I couldn't make. But I'm looking forward to his next series, beginning on September 12th at LSO St Lukes.
Musical Consonance and Dissonance: The Good, Bad and Beautifully Ugly - finally, he got around to Meshuggah! (@14'10")
Is Music Infinite? - check out the "heaviness contour" @ 10'31"!
Ted Gioia: Nine Observations on the Avant-Garde
... and again: The Death of the Magazine - Or what happens when journalism forgets about quality writing
... and again: My Alternative Tech Canon: 26 Mind-Expanding Books
Classical Nerd: Witold Lutosławski and the Taming of Chance
The Rest is History: A new series Henry IV and the build-up to the 100 Years War
Ian Pace: Academia must not dissolve scholarship into politics
Samuel Andreyev: Beethoven’s Bagatelles: the Universe in a Drop of Water
Matthew Crawford: Travelogue: Budapest and Croatia - Is Christianity sexy?
Michael Henderson: Is the Proms safe with the BBC?
N.S. Lyons: The Machiavellian cause of Britain’s disorder - The country is ruled by weak and effete foxes
Sam Harris: Letters to a Christian, 1
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The death of free speech in Britain
Christopher Snowdon: Champagne in the membrane - Alcohol is not a major risk factor for dementia
Charles Amos: Defending an outdoor smoke - There is no rational argument for prohibition
Marilyn Simon: "Unsex me here" and other bad ideas - On Nature and Man
Some musical listening
Here's a snapshot of my listening in August, with major hat tips to Stuart Maconie's ever-brilliant Freak Zone on BBC 6Music, BBC Radio 3's Record Review and Late Junction, and of course to Ted Gioia.
And from the DGMFS archive, as the summer wanes and we head into spider season (if the cobwebs in my house are anything to go by):
As ever, thanks to Sarah for all her endless support and patience. See you all next month, if not sooner!
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