Author Archives: Arcana

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About Arcana

My name is Ben Hogwood, editor of the Arcana music site (arcana.fm)

Let’s Dance – Defected presents House Masters: Luke Solomon

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Luke Solomon has been making house music for getting on 25 years, and for much of that time has been running the Classic label with Derrick Carter. With their concern now more intertwined with Defected, it is great to see him added to their House Masters roster – which has built up a formidable collection of US heavyweights and label-honed talent.

Recently Solomon has contributed to albums by Beyoncé and Honey Dijon, while honing his craft as a remixer – and this 35-track strong compilation brings that discipline together with original tracks.

What’s the music like?

Excellent – very danceable and a lot of fun. Solomon has been a consistent source of good time house music since he started making it, and this selection of tunes show just how versatile he is, too.

The ability to make listeners and dancers alike smile frequently is clear throughout, his sense of humour bubbling just below or above the surface a lot of the time. Highlights include a brilliant take on Powerdance‘s A Safe And Happy Place, and two mixes of Isolée’s Beau Mot Plage – that show off two fresh strings to his bow. There is a lovely disco infusion on Freesoul‘s Sane/Eyes and a super low slung groove for Horse Meat Disco and Kathy Sledge‘s Jump Into The Light. Light You Up – featuring Queen Rose and Amy Douglas – will put a smile on anyone’s face, with its uplifting lyrics, as will the Amp Fiddler-fronted Come On Over and Jon Marsh-featuring Lonely Dancer.

Does it all work?

It does indeed. Defected have pulled together the ideal career retrospective, but at the same time have been keen to emphasise that Solomon is still very much at the top of his game.

Is it recommended?

Enthusiastically. Luke Solomon has been at the forefront of UK house music for the last three decades, and his contribution to its excellence is heartily applauded here. He makes house music in a consistently inventive way while keeping to first principles, making it fun and entertaining. Go forth and purchase!

Listen & Buy

New music – James Newton Howard – Night After Night’: Music from the Movies of M. Night Shyamalan

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Intriguing news from Sony Classical tells us that next month they will release a collaboration between composer James Newton Howard and director M. Night Shyamalan. The record label take up the story:

Included on Night After Night are highlights from Howard’s haunting scores that became part of the identity of eight of Shyamalan’s eerie, mind-bending thrillers – The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), The Village (2004), Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010) and After Earth (2013).

For this album, James Newton Howard created eight suites that are piano-centric and include new and original material.  Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs throughout the recording.  Violinist Hilary Hahn recreates her contributions to the soundtrack recording of the score for The Village and cellist Maya Beiser reprises her performance of An Event from The Happening soundtrack.  Gavin Greenaway conducts the orchestra and chorus in Howard’s new arrangements.

When Howard came onboard during the post-production phase to score ‘The Sixth Sense’, Shyamalan said he “felt potential and excitement” in their work together.  In their mutual candour, each discovered a trusting creative partner in finding the right musical expression for Shyamalan’s supernatural thrillers.

You can listen to Morning from The Village below, with the haunting solo Hahn brought to the foreground:

New music – Bruce Brubaker: Eno Piano – Music for Airports, 2/1

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American pianist Bruce Brubaker is one of those artists whose every move is worth monitoring, for his musical quests bring many rewards.

Brubaker is perhaps best known for his work with the music of Philip Glass, John Cage and Meredith Monk, but now he makes a very intriguing turn in the direction of Brian Eno, creating an album for the InFiné label that will include a selection of ambient music, including Music for Airports.

The press release asks a question: “Can a single instrument convey ambient music originally made through studio techniques and tape loops? Eno Piano is a companion to Bruce Brubaker’s acclaimed album Glass Piano (2015) — even the two album covers are companions. Named by Pitchfork “one of the most exciting pianists in the contemporary American classical scene,” Brubaker, in Eno Piano, shows that just as the studio can be a musical instrument, a single musical instrument can be a studio.”

Have a listen below and see what you think:

Switched On: Thomas Fehlmann – Umdrehen (Edition DUR)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Umdrehen is a word that denotes a twist, a turning around, a reverse – and the name of Thomas Fehlmann’s new album.

It is effectively a title that gives Fehlmann free musical rein on a 40-minute set of musical experimentation. He refers to his approach as ‘generative music’, with the element of chance playing a role in his choices.

What’s the music like?

Not as playful as the above description might suggest. In fact some of this album operates under a dark cloud, wrapped in an ambience that can be cloying.

That said, there is a good deal of invention here that makes its best impression on headphones. Having established the dark, brooding textures, Fehlmann adds a shuffling beat and semi-industrial field recordings to Gelbe Kurve. There are some unnerving moments, such as Steinwurf, while Doppelherz opens out to a much wider expanse, offering a halo of light around the music. By contrast Feuchter uses mottled chimes, which prove to be comforting yet weirdly eerie. The delicate exchanges of Gehupft suggest the chance elements more, with a cold intimacy, while the soft hues of Prenzlau an sich are complemented with foreground chatter.

Does it all work?

Largely – though the feeling does persist that Fehlmann is in search mode, never quite pinning down a style of music to settle on. Because of that Umdrehen has a fleeting, fitful ambience.

Is it recommended?

It is – and Umdrehen is certainly an interesting addition to Fehlmann’s impressive discography, if not perhaps the most successful.

Listen

The BBC Proms 2023 – bringing in the masses

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Recent audience figures released by the BBC suggest the Proms have had a very big impact on new concertgoers this year. Here are some outtakes from the press release:

  • A record-breaking season online, with more than double the number of signed-in accounts accessing BBC Proms content on iPlayer and BBC Sounds compared to last year
  • Nearly 1 million people watched the First Night of the Proms on BBC Two, its strongest overnight TV audience since 2009
  • Proms content reached 3.2 million on TV during the opening weekend
  • A peak audience of 3.5 million people watched the Last Night of the Proms on BBC One
  • Well over half the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall have been total sell-outs
  • Average main evening attendance at the Hall was 93%, building on 85% in 2019

With Arcana’s blueprint being to bring classical music to those who might not normally listen to it (as well as sending electronic and pop music the other way!) this can only be described as fantastic news. The Director of the Proms is an incredibly difficult job to do – and having observed the juggling acts that previous incumbents have had to undertake to satisfy every different audience demand, I think it is fair to say David Pickard – and Roger Wright before him – have managed the changing habits of the last decade very impressively, not to mention the pandemic.

I have to admit that for me personally, the Proms are not as rewarding as they used to be. Yet this statement comes with a huge qualification, for I am 30 years into my classical music journey and first attended the festival in 1997. There have still been concerts that I have enjoyed immensely; I just attend less often than I used to.

The Proms should not be looking to satisfy my musical needs on a nightly basis. Instead it absolutely needs to be looking at the next generation of concertgoers, those who want to start out and get to know this wonderful area of music.

In order to bring them along, the festival needs to reach beyond the core classical at times, and that is why the range of artists – from The English Concert to Self Esteem to the premiere of Kurtág‘s End Game – is so important. Add in Anna Lapwood, Mariza, tributes to Northern Soul, Bollywood and Stevie Wonder, and one concert that I attended – the Jon Hopkins / BBC Symphony Orchestra collaboration – and you have greater inclusion than ever before.

Stood in the arena, I was aware that many around me were unfamiliar with the Proms or the Royal Albert Hall. What a memorable first visit they had! This is where a great opportunity exists, to give new concertgoers new memories that they will treasure. If their first visit is a success, it is fair to assume another one will follow – then another, and another…

Listening habits are changing in the era of streaming, and – like it or not – festivals like the Proms have a pressure (and even an obligation) to respond with concerts that their audiences will want to attend. To that end it is so important that seasoned classical concertgoers – while not being made to feel outcast – recognise that the make-up of some concerts in the season simply has to change, that it may well be the case that people applaud between movements, and that there may be a lot of distractions during the concert. Such things happen at pop gigs – and certainly did back in Beethoven’s day – and should be accommodated where possible.

I guess the point of this slightly rambling blog is to say that we have a duty (and hopefully a wish!) to pass on the love of classical music to other concertgoers – just as we do with our favourite bands. Let’s do that as much as we can!

Ben Hogwood