contemporary classical
Album Review : Lea Bertucci – Of Shadow and Substance : Pushing through electro -acoustic boundaries and shifting our perspectives.
For over a decade of releases and live performance Lea Bertucci has drawn on the shapes, sounds and possibilities of the clarinet, saxophone, strings, vibraphone and harp to create long form, experimental music that challenges, intrigues and entrances. This dedication means the New York based sound artist dances to the left of the leftfield, in …
News/Track/Video: Felipe Vaz – ‘The Well Frozen Piano’: inspirational connections with the La Monte Young masterpiece.
For Difficult Art And Music’ s latest intriguing release, Brazilian sound artist Felipe Vaz presents ‘The Well Frozen Piano’. A reconnection with American experimentalist La Monte Young’s seminal sixties centrepiece ‘The Well -Tuned Piano’, Vaz here explores both the intention and the internal workings of the original, seeking the spirit of ‘endless music’. Rarely ‘performed’ …
Album Review: Tegh & Adel Poursamadi – Ima ایما : probing electro-acoustic possibilities and reaching to the future.
As a practitioner and sound artist Shahin Entezami (aka Tegh) has produced a consistent stream of expansive works which have put him at the forefront of the Iranian experimental music scene, a community that continues to reach way beyond its homeland. His music entranced under the melodic swell of 2015’s undulating ‘Night Scenes’ then took …
New Track: Tegh & Adel Poursamadi probe electro-acoustic possibilities with Ijād ایجاد from soon come album Ima ایما
From the burgeoning expanse of Iran’s electronic and experimental soundscape comes the latest project from practitioner/sound artist Shahin Entezami aka Tegh. Collaborating with fellow Tehran resident, violinist Adel Poursamadi, a player steeped in classical Iranian music, the pair are set to release the intensely emotive Ima ایما album via Injazero Records (due 22nd July). As …
Live Review: Anna Meredith and the LCO – Barbican, London 30.4.22
Anna Meredith’s electronic pop music has always been orchestral in scale, layered, interconnected, harmonically complex and structured like a tight stack of circuit boards, wired for glorious sound. So the notion of performing her Mercury Award nominated second album FIBS with the London Contemporary Orchestra seemed more than a natural step to take, a drift …
Album Review: String duo Balladeste shine with sublime ‘Beyond Breath’
Balladeste are string duo Tara Franks ( cello) and Preetha Narayanan ( violin). Their much anticipated sophomore album, ‘Beyond Breath’ was released earlier this year in October 2021 to rave reviews, and quite frankly , it’s really no surprise. A reflective collection of new compositions taking inspiration from a set of Indian devotional songs from the …
Album Review: James McVinnie – Counterpoint
What is it about the tags neo-classical or contemporary-classical that often brings out that immediate ‘not for me’ reaction in people? Too much baggage, too many connotations associated with that word to the right of the hyphon. It’s musicians like organist and sound sculptor James McVinnie who can help shift mindsets . He may be …