I am on record as being a sucker for a nice bit of cello, and this is a very nice bit of cello indeed. (I read that this marks return to the centering of the instrument for Jensen, although it was also at the core of the last record of hers I bought, 2018’s For […]
Tag: genre_modern_classical
Chevaliers, the last LP from this French–Israeli duo (okay, they say they are from “Jerusalem and Lotharingia”, the latter of which existed in some form between 855 and 959 C.E. and straddled modern-day France and Germany… but they also say that they’ve lived in Lorraine, which ended up in the French side… and she sounds […]
Skodvin has been a favourite in these parts for yonks, whether under his own name, as Svarte Greiner, or as half of Deaf Center. This short is album of short tracks, 9 of them in 23 minutes. His juddering strings and floating analogue synths are at their darkly atmospheric best, and supplemented here by sighing, […]
The “postcards” of the title is quite apt here. We have ten tracks, each with something of the feel of a sketch, of modern classical music leaning towards drone. Instrumentwise, this Belgian ensemble have dug up some deep cuts from musical history, featuring (according to the blurb) hurdy gurdy, recorders, chalumeau, violone, the splendidly bonkers […]
Christina Vantzou’s No. 4 was really impressed me back in 2018, and it remains a firm favourite. So I was obviously excited to hear No. 5. It wasn’t really what I was expecting, and at first I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I found this much less accessible: to be honest, if it […]
I want to talk about just intonation. I know you can look this up on the internet, but most lay-person explanations tend to be all “oh no, maths is hard” and run away from it, whereas it’s really nothing more than a bit of multiplication, and it’s quite interesting. So let’s do it. Sounds consists […]
This opens with a delicate melody played by Jonny Nash on piano and a plucky-sounding thing which turns out to be Dani Luca on cimbalom, and is soon joined by Ana Stamp singing a Romanian folk-song in a simple, intimate tone. And that, basically, is the album. Isn’t that enough for you, you monsters? Well, […]
Big ups to Another Timbre for putting together this entrancing set of performances of works from across Georgia Rodgers’s decade-plus-long composing career. There’s a decidedly minimal/drone flavour to this record, but there’s a wide variety of styles within that. The opening number, the punningly (I assume) titled Base, is a slow-burner for bassoon and double […]
This is just jaw-dropping. If I tell you it’s kind of violin-based electro-acoustic, you may think you know what to expect, but I don’t think you do. This record is packed with astonishing sounds: it wails, it thrums, it pulses, it soars, it laments, it floats. Oh, and there are some heartstring-tugging melodies, too. Elbo’s […]
Hans Op de Beeck‘s Staging Silence is a film art series in which a camera points at a table as hands come in from either side to construct and transform dioramas of various tranquil scenes, such as a wooden jetty on a moonlit lake, often out of recognizable everyday objects. Elegantly lit, and presented in […]
dogrando writes about some records 