This week we learned the sad news of the passing of pianist and conductor Jean-Bernard Pommier, at the age of 81. As well as being a highly regarded solo pianist, Pommier held a post with the Northern Sinfonia – as you can read from this tribute on the Cultured North East website
Pommier made several highly regarded recordings, including cycles of the Mozart and Beethoven piano sonatas – and the Tidal playlist Arcana have compiled recognises this, as well as recordings of the Brahms Violin Sonatas, in partnership with Jaime Laredo, and the Mozart piano concertos with Sinfonia Varsovia. You can access the playlist here
Analog Fingerprints was the alias adopted by Marco Passarani in the early 2000s, and Numbers have done us a favour by collecting the Rome producer’s releases for the Plasmek and Pigna labels.
Passarani was keenly aware of developments in techno music at that time, and his music takes influences from Chicago and Detroit artists while being something wholly original; so much so that Autechre stepped up to remix him in 2001. This was the year that Analog Fingerprints released its first music, and this anthology covers the releases up until 2003, including a remix of Raiders Of The Lost ARP’s Highway.
In the label’s words, “Analog Fingerprints Vol. 0 captures that moment of exchange: Rome to Glasgow, Detroit to Europe, experiment to dancefloor. It documents an artist recalibrating his sound and a network of scenes discovering one another in real time, connected by vinyl, faxes and shared intent.”
What’s the music like?
The extensive commentary on the Numbers Bandcamp site hits the nail on the head when describing Passarani’s music as “machine funk with restless experimentation”.
This selection of tracks shows his talent for taking minimal material and maximising it, always with both eyes on the dancefloor. The sound is sharp at the edges and though fragmented at times there are always shards of melody to grab onto.
Tribute is top notch, brilliantly constructed and executed, while Meta Tool ensures the collection gets out of the blocks quickly. Blue Screen does a neat line in crossrhythms, breaking into sped-up funk in its second half, while Matro’s beats and bleeps match up well in a track of busy activity.
Does it all work?
Yes. This is no nonsense music, cleverly put together, and Passarani clearly had a lot of fun making it!
Is it recommended?
It is – an essential gap-filler for fans, and more broadly a fine selection that shows just how strong techno was in Europe as well as America at the turn of the century.
For fans of… Kenny Larkin, Luke Slater, Dave Angel, Oliver Lieb
Montreal artist Tiga is back after a long absence – and in reality, the electronic music world have missed him. A distinctive and often humourous presence, he was a welcome part of the sometimes divisive Electroclash movement in the 2000s, his contribution being club-ready tracks that were often sultry and frequently showed off his wit and ability to craft a catchy hook.
HOTLIFE is only his fourth long player, for Tiga has been a prolific artist when it comes to releasing tracks – but he has gone big here, with a substantial record of 12 tracks lasting well over an hour.
Tiga’s absence from the music frontline can be partly attributed to illness, for he had a mystery neurological condition that he nicknamed ‘vibe fog’, and then found his creativity slowed – but not stopped – during lockdown. The roots of HOTLIFE trace back to then.
What’s the music like?
Given the album’s larger dimensions, it is to Tiga’s enormous credit that this is record not just sustaining interest the whole way through but reaching the sort of highs that made him such a good listen in the first place.
Right from the start it is evident that he is on form, with the cheeky Hot Wife, a collaboration with Boys Noize, ticking all the right boxes while sounding as though it was written yesterday.
As the album unfolds the biggest impression is made by the production sound, for there are some classy beats to unpack here, some fine riffing, and the sort of vocal couplets we were hoping for. “I got a new hobby, I put silk on my body”, he proclaims on Silk Scarf, channelling the spirit of Prince – with Fcukers vocalist Shanny Wise responding “Call me”, in sultry tones.
Lollipop and Cherry are brilliantly executed tracks with cheeky pop at their centre, while the more obvious dancefloor cuts – High Rollers and IAmWhatIAm – have all manner of thrills and spills when turned up loud.
The big surprise is a cover of the InXS hit Need You Tonight, repurposing the lyrics for the middle of a dancefloor. “Your moves are so raw!” takes on a whole different angle when repeated and given the deadpan treatment.
Does it all work?
It does. Tiga’s inspiration was clear for this album, and you really could dance the whole way through it – while singing at the same time.
Is it recommended?
Yes, with great enthusiasm. As underground electronic albums go, this is a great place to be in 2026. Fun and dancefloor satisfaction are guaranteed in equal measure.
For fans of… The Juan Maclean, Jamie Lidell, Cristian Vogel, Green Velvet
by Ben Hogwood Image (c) CBS Television, courtesy of Wikipedia
Last week we heard the very sad news of the loss of charismatic conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, after a long illness. You can read an obituary from Barry Millington at the Guardian website
Tilson Thomas was well-loved at all the orchestras where he held conducting positions – these included the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he was assistant conductor in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the London Symphony Orchestra, where he was principal conductor from 1988 until 1995, and the San Francisco Symphony, who he led until 2020. With the San Francisco Symphony, Tilson Thomas delivered a high quality survey of the works of Gustav Mahler, a journey you can take on this Tidal playlist
However the playlist I have compiled for Arcana is of shorter works, designed to show off the conductor’s affinity with music of his homeland – in works as varied as John Adams’ Lollapalooza, Ruggles’ Sun Treader, Copland’s Symphonic Ode and music by Charles Ives, with whom Tilson Thomas had a special affinity. Also included is a recent remastering of Tilson Thomas at the piano, partnering Jules Eskin in Debussy’s Cello Sonata, and a recording with the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, of which this writer is particularly fond.
The playlist ends with MTT conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic from the piano in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. You can listen on Tidal here
Sophie Bevan (soprano), Gareth Brynmor John (baritone), CBSO Chorus (chorus-master, David Young), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Ryan Wigglesworth
Purcell Funeral Music for Queen Mary Z860 (1695) Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem Op.45 (1865-68)
Symphony Hall, Birmingham Thursday 23 April 2026
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
Having begun five years ago in the (relative) aftermath of the pandemic, ‘CBSO Remembers’ has become a means of recalling those associated in some way with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and opportunity to schedule appropriate works with the CBSO Chorus.
This evening saw A German Requiem, Brahms’ largest and most-encompassing piece whose emotional impact is out of all proportion to its modest forces – not least compared with those settings of the Latin text by Berlioz or Verdi. Compiling his own text from the German Bible, Brahms drew attention not only to its linguistic basis but also the essentially humanist nature of its content. A work whose concern lies less with those departed than with those still living thereby conveys a message which, if not spiritually affirmative, is none the less one of hope.
The present account was nothing if not focussed on this latter quality, right from the outset of the initial ‘Blessed are they that mourn’ with its deft eliding between the ruminative and the aspiring. There was inexorable power to the fatalistic tread and fateful climaxes of ‘For all flesh is as grass’, with no lack of wistfulness in its central interlude then of joyousness in its unlikely if resolute continuation. To those earlier stages of ‘Lord, teach me’, as of ‘For here we have no abiding place’, Gareth Brynmor John conveyed earnest supplication with just a hint of strain; the ensuing fugues – energetic then defiant – retaining the requisite buoyancy thanks to a vividly incisive response by the CBSO Chorus and Ryan Wigglesworth’s astute marshalling of orchestral textures whose outward sombreness yielded a burnished richness.
In between these most dramatic movements, ‘How lovely are thy dwelling places’ unfolded as an oasis of unaffected calm, then ‘You now have sorrow’ brought a radiant response from Sophie Bevan in what was an afterthought for the work overall as well as its most personal, even confessional statement. It remained for ‘Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord’ to place the foregoing triumph in relief as it gradually retraced its musical steps toward an end of rapt acceptance; one whose understated depth characterized this performance as a whole.
At some 70 minutes the Brahms does not make a full programme on its own terms, so it was an inspired decision to preface this with Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary. Barely 15 minutes as to duration, its hieratic opening March is followed by a Canzona whose elliptical harmonies look forward almost 250 years to Tippett and which alternates with the setting of ‘Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts’ whose three stages move from stark anguish towards searching resignation: understandable, while eternally regrettable, this music should have been heard at its composer’s own funeral eight months later. A pity, too, on this occasion that the Purcell could not have elided seamlessly into the Brahms though, given the logistics when incorporating offstage brass into the onstage orchestra, this was most likely unfeasible.
More importantly, it anticipated the main work with absolute sureness. One looks forward to Wigglesworth’s future appearances with the CBSO which, next Wednesday, tackles Brahms’ Violin Concerto and then Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony alongside Stanislav Kochanovsky.
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