Released earlier this year, A Sky So Close is the latest solo album from Thievery Corporation co-founder Eric Hilton.
“This record is an atmosphere, a state of mind. I indulge myself by making music that I want to listen to,” he says. “It’s a more solitary record than some of my other work, there is not a big list of guest performers on this one. It’s really like my stream of consciousness.”
What’s the music like?
This slow-paced, lounging music is the sort of thing Hilton can do in his sleep, but few can match the richness and sense of atmosphere that he achieves. Beats are slow, based on hip hop, but the music above has no restrictions in terms of colour or region, which makes it all the more intoxicating.
Hilton has a lovely sense of pace in his music, not to mention the colours the listener experiences in each. Akasha is languid and rather exotic, Breathe Me In is set in a sensual heat haze, while The Endless Raga is a beauty. There is an elegance to his writing that comes across in the title track, as the press release promised, and throughout he creates vivid pictures in the listener’s eye.
Ghatam goes deep, with some lovely sonorities, while the Natalia Clavier guest slot on Lalita is a rather special one.
Does it all work?
It does, largely. The only qualm – a very slight one from this listener – is that Hilton uses the same pitch (‘D’) for the root in a lot of his work. It would be lovely to hear him branch out from this a bit more.
Is it recommended?
It is indeed. Eric Hilton makes sultry summer music – and the hotter the temperature the more you’ll enjoy this rather seductive album.
For fans of… Thievery Corporation, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Nightmares On Wax, Quantic
from the press release. Picture of Benjamin Appl (c) David Murano
The Oxford International Song Festival marks its 25th anniversary with a thrilling and wide-ranging programme centred on the theme of love. Spanning 59 events, the Festival explores love in its myriad forms – its joys, complexities, and heartbreaks expressed in music and poetry, and its creative force in the lives of composers and poets. Alongside headline recitals by world-leading artists, audiences can enjoy lunchtime, rush-hour and late-night concerts, as well as study events. The programme is further enriched by choral music, dance, chamber works and discussions.
The Festival opens on 9 October with a recital by Dame Sarah Connolly, also marking the Festival’s first event at the newly opened Schwarzman Centre. Baritone Matthias Goerne makes his Festival debut on 10 October with a performance of Schubert’s Winterreise at the Olivier Hall. Other featured singers include Carolyn Sampson, Benjamin Appl, Katie Bray, Roderick Williams, Alice Coote, Katharina Ruckgaber, Johannes Kammler, Camilla Tilling, Sarah Maria Sun, Anna Prohaska and Christoph Prégardien. They are joined by pianists including Joseph Middleton, Tamara Stefanovich, James Baillieu and Pauliina Tukiainen, among many others, including the Festival’s Artistic Director, Sholto Kynoch.
The programme includes several world premieres: Nardus Williams performs Marriage of…?, a new work by Associate Composer Emily Hazrati and librettist Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambahksh; Katy Thomson and Rustam Khanmurzin premiere a new work by John Webb, exploring the corrupting nature of power; and Anna Dennis and John Reid present The Silent Songs of Josefine, a bold new Kafka-inspired work by Can Bilir.
The Festival’s central weekend (17–18 October) is devoted to the music of Franz Schubert, with Graham Johnson continuing his landmark exploration of the composer’s final years, 200 years on. Other highlights of the weekend include Camilla Tilling returning to perform Schubert’s Rückert settings and Helen Charlston (below) performing Die Schöne Müllerin, both with Sholto Kynoch; and Sarah Maria Sun performing Der Hirt auf dem Felsen with pianist Jan Philip Schulze and clarinettist Julian Bliss.
On Wednesday 21 October, the New Generation Day showcases three concerts in partnership with the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, all recorded for future broadcast. Performers include baritone Andrew Hamilton and pianist Michael Pandya; soprano Erika Baikoff with Sholto Kynoch; and Konstantin Krimmel with Ammiel Bushakevitz, presenting a programme that includes Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel.
Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton explore the passing of the year in a programme featuring Helen Grime’s Seasons, written for them in 2025. Alice Coote and Julius Drake present an imaginative recital blending repertoire from David Bowie to Mozart. Renowned pianist DameImogen Cooper performs Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch as part of her final concert season before retirement. Juliane Banse returns with pianist Alexander Krichel, dancer István Simon and choreographer Andreas Heise for a danced performance of Mozart songs and piano music.
Instrumental highlights include appearances by the Carducci String Quartet, performing the Mozart Quintet with Julian Bliss and Alec Roth’s Seven Elements with James Gilchrist, guitarists Bryan Brenner and Václav Fuksa, and accordionist Murray Grainger. Eight Oxford Song Young Artist duos each give short showcase slots at the start of headline evening recitals in the first week of the Festival. In the second week, they immerse themselves in the residential Mastercourse, led by Jan Philip Schulze, with daily public masterclasses.
With thousands of tickets priced under £20, discounts for multiple bookings, and £10 tickets available for under-35s, the Festival remains accessible to the widest possible audience.
Each autumn, audiences from around the world are drawn to Oxford for the Festival’s outstanding artistic quality and the city’s unique atmosphere. Performances take place in a range of venues, including the historic Holywell Music Room – Europe’s oldest purpose-built concert hall – as well as the Levine Building, the Olivier Hall, Garsington Studios at the Wormsley Estate and, for the first time, spaces within the Schwarzman Centre.
Public booking opens on Wednesday 20 May. Tickets can be booked online at oxfordsong.org or via the Box Office on 01865 591276 (Monday to Friday, 11am–1pm).
The roots of Signals can be found in the Surrey Hills. There, James Dean witnessed a phosphorescent sphere in the sky above Pitch Hill, close to the Mullard Space Science Laboratory; a phenomenon seen by friends and reported in the local press.
The memory has stayed with Dean since, and now he uses his BUNKR alias to tell the story of the hills and their significance in his life, whether this mysterious event, childhood bicycle adventures or post-midnight raves.
What’s the music like?
Typically engaging, but this time around BUNKR’s music has more subtle yet far-reaching emotional depth. The Light We Saw paints an evocative picture of that night, but is only the beginning of the story, continued by the spacious 96 Refraction, where dreamy synth loops encounter distant breakbeats on the horizon, their initial ambience cleverly pivoted for them to take control of the track.
Quarry Transcendence is a hive of rhythmic activity, over and above the held chords, while the reflective These Hills goes into deeper, more thoughtful territory. Eyes Like Mirrors plays out without beats, a thick cloud of ambience that sparkles at the edges – the ‘sci-fi daydream’ that Dean hints at in his album commentary. This Side Of Forever wraps up the vision beautifully, a coda of analogue drums and bright synth lines glinting at the edges.
Does it all work?
It does, and thanks to clever sequencing the album has a really satisfying ebb and flow the whole way through.
Is it recommended?
Yes, with enthusiasm. BUNKR is becoming a real force to be reckoned with in electronic music, and this descriptive album is another valuable string to his bow.
by Ben Hogwood. Image by La Presse, courtesy of Wikipedia
Two French composers share significant anniversaries on this day. The first, organist-composer Marcel Dupré, was born on this day 140 years ago. His innovations for the instrument were many, and here is one of his most thrilling works – the early Prelude and Fugue in B major, once proclaimed to be ‘unplayable’ by fellow composer Charles-Marie Widor:
Sharing this anniversary is Adolphe Adam, who died on this day 170 years ago, in 1856. One of his most celebrated works is the ballet Giselle, premiered in 1841 with the ballerina Carlotta Grisi in the title role (below). The ballet, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, can be listened to below:
On this day in 1936, the first performance took place of Prokofiev’s much-loved Peter and the Wolf. This piece was commissioned by the Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow, and given its first performance on May 2 in the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Prokofiev dedicated the work to his children.
You can enjoy the witty and touching setting below, in an arrangement for chamber ensemble at the Royal College of Music, narrated by Lucy Hollins and conducted by Sam Scheer:
Arcana.fm 