New Classical
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This may be an overly personal take on Adam Coney’s new disc Pavilion, but the pulsating electronics that serve as a basis for opener “Brute Love” struck me as almost inexplicably pleasing. I love its pitch, even though I’m not sure why. And my reaction feels oddly emotional, given that we’re talking about electronic beeps.…
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Glasgow’s Blair Coron released his second album earlier this year, describing it as a combination of contemporary classical and folk music. In addition to his performance on piano, keyboards, synthesizer, acoustic guitar and (improbably) Nintendo DS, the disc features violinists Lesley Barr, Roo Geddes, Robyn Harris and Rhona Macfarlane, Kirsty McIntyre on viola, Catriona Mulholland…
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Even lovers of ambient music will accept that the genre has its limitations. Four decades after Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, too many new releases offer little more than waves of delicately performed synthesizer. Thankfully, progress has come in multiple forms: found sounds, glitch elements and drones are all fine examples of tools that innovative…
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Maryanne Amacher was not widely known when she passed in 2009, at least not in the way some of her colleagues were. Having studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen, and then gone on to work alongside John Cage, Anthony Braxton and others, she deserved a more prominent place in new music history. She described herself as a…
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Composer Anthony Pateras has two new releases for us today. The first is a second volume of his collected works, featuring 5 ½ hours of music produced between 2005 and 2018. The second finds him back with Sean Baxter and David Brown in a trio format. Pateras/Baxter/Brown’s Bern · Melbourne · Milan is a third…
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We are told that Ingar Zach’s latest is significant for two reasons. After exploring a variety of percussion instruments and developing a unique personal style, Floating Layer Cake is described in its notes as the “culmination of his percussion practice.” The album also marks a new beginning. For the first time, the 47-year-old Norwegian has…
The Moderns 