Pastoral, personal, political: Sieben before, during and beyond lockdown

Matt Howden is a Sheffield-based singer, songwriter, composer, violinist, looping/sequencing technology expert, and teacher/practitioner of sound design and production. An independent, unstoppable musical force who somehow finds enough room under the radar to soar, he is always unpredictable, always reliable. One might have thought the restrictions imposed by the pandemic would slow him down a…

Second time, round: Kate Arnold, ‘Rota Fortunae II’ EP

For the second year running, Kate Arnold has released a set of songs that possess so much beauty, intricacy and eloquence, they are like precision hits of perfection. This is a genuinely long-awaited release: I’ve looked forward to a sequel ever since Arnold issued ‘Rota Fortunae I’ in February 2020. Understandably, the follow-up has taken…

Past presence: Dead Space Chamber Music and Kate Arnold

Two brilliantly-timed records that for me sum up the word ‘spirit’: both in the eerie, evocative atmospheres they conjure up, and the sheer inventive brio with which the music was created. * Dead Space Chamber Music are an intriguing collective from Bristol, UK, who seemingly belong to all genres or none. Within the first few…

Camerata Tchaikovsky’s ‘Russian Colours’ sheds new light on Alexander Glazunov

London-based string orchestra, Camerata Tchaikovsky, releases its second recording, Russian Colours on Orchid Classics on June 19th 2020. The heavyweights of the Russian romantic canon are all there on this album: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Borodin, Arensky, and the lesser known, and the under-appreciated, Alexander Glazunov.  Taught by Rimsky Korsakov at the St Petersburg Conservatoire,  Glazunov was…