Today, Glasgow-based cellist, composer, and producer Oliver Coates releases his original score for Pillion, the acclaimed directorial debut from filmmaker Harry Lighton. The soundtrack’s physical release will coincide with the film’s US distribution in February, 2026 via A24.
Based on Adam Mars-Jones’ 2020 novel Box Hill and starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård, the British queer romantic comedy-drama film premiered in May at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Un Certain Regard’s Best Screenplay prize alongside nominations for the Caméra d’Or and the Queer Palm. Pillion most recently won Best Independent British Film, Best Debut Screenwriter, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hair Design at the BIFAs, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay at the Gotham Awards. The film is currently screening in UK theaters and is releasing February 6, 2026 in the US.
The score is romantic and melancholic, with wide-spaced music-hall melodies and rich harmonies. Piano-driven compositions are accompanied by spacey synth flourishes and haunting vocals from chrysanthemum bear, Nick Roder, and acclaimed Danish artist ML Buch. The rumbling and leather of distorted experimental cello techniques were the starting point – a granular imitation of bike engines.
Recording between Glasgow and Copenhagen, before final mixing by Christopher Elms in London, what results is a romantic electro-classical soundtrack (including a synth rendition of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie no.1) that feels akin to flying down an open road on a speeding bike.
Speaking on the score, Coates shares: “The score of Pillion came together with the brilliant shaping of director Harry Lighton, as we navigated rumbling time-stretched cello drones through to music-hall romance and bittersweet leaping melodies. There are many different keys, synths, voices and strings which swell and pulse to maximise a radiant sense of comedy mingling with melancholy. There were invaluable musical contributions from ML Buch on vocals, Lena Douglas on pianos, chrysanthemum bear and Nick Roder also on vocals, Tom Lessels and Kathryn Williams on woodwinds.”
Pillion follows Coates’ 2024 solo album Throb, shiver, arrow of time (RVNG Intl), which drew attention from Pitchfork, The Quietus, The Guardian, and more, as well as his celebrated scores for Aftersun (Charlotte Wells), The Stranger (Thomas Wright), and Occupied City (Steve McQueen), among other films.
Coates’ collaborative nature has led him to move fluidly between the roles of composer, performer, musician, and producer. Alongside his solo work, he is active across experimental, classical, and popular music, contributing to acclaimed live and recorded projects with Mica Levi, Arca, Dean Blunt, Jonny Greenwood, Malibu, and Joanne Robertson.
Listen to previews from the soundtrack at Boomkat, with the physical release due in February 2026 via A24 Music.
by Ben Hogwood. Image of Carl Nielsen in 1917 – unknown credit, used courtesy of Wikipedia
On this day 100 years ago – the first performance of Carl Nielsen’s Symphony no.6, the Sinfonia Semplice, took place in Copenhagen.
To mark the anniversary, Linn Records made a very intriguing release in September of a special version of the symphony. As the page for the album states, “conductor Ryan Wigglesworth joins Royal Academy of Music’s outstanding young musicians to revisit the composer’s later period. This recording showcases two works by Nielsen in two spellbinding arrangements by fellow-Dane Hans Abrahamsen. The No 6 ‘Sinfonia semplice’, written during a period of declining health, is viewed by some as a strongly ironic work. However, its lightness is also deeply sincere. With its crystalline weightlessness, Abrahamsen’s chamber arrangement reclaims both the quizzical spirit and sense of fragility in the original.
You can hear the album on Tidal by following the link below:
by Ben Hogwood. Image by Studio Harcourt – RMN, used courtesy of Wikipedia
On this day in 1908, the composer Olivier Messiaen was born…which gives Arcana the perfect excuse to post a performance of his remarkable seasonal composition for organ, La Nativité du Seigneur (The Nativity of the Lord or The Birth of the Saviour), completed in 1935.
To quote from my live encounter with the piece in 2019, “Nothing is ever done by halves with this particular French composer, and his response came in the form of a massive, nine-movement organ suite lasting just over an hour. For Messiaen, contemplation is achieved through massive added-note chords, complex rhythms and large structures. Each section in this 1935 work responds to images from the birth of Jesus, and it is one of the composer’s first works to use birdsong melodies and rhythms from India and Ancient Greece.”
You can enjoy the work in concert below, given by Richard McVeigh from York Minster – with the accompaniment of a score showing the organist’s markings:
Published post no.2,744 – Wednesday 10 December 2025
Back in March, Daniel Brandt released his third solo album Without Us, described as “a multimedia project that clashes head on with the spiralling chaos of our times”. In our review earlier this year, Arcana noted its “almost irresistible urgency”. Now it returns in remixed form, with Daniel – one third of celebrated German beatmakers Brandt Brauer Frick – taking up the story:
“I invited close collaborators, friends and artists I have been a fan of for a long time to create new versions of the music, including several artists who helped shape the original record. Akusmi, who played many of the guitars and is part of the live band, and Rashad Becker, who mixed the album, both created new versions. Adam Freeland – whom I met in the desert while working on the album, and later worked in his studio in Joshua Tree—also contributed a remix. The live premiere at the Barbican ended in a rave, and some of the remixes, like the ones by Camea, Adam and Hiro reflect that energy. I’m also thrilled to have inspirations such as Tangerine Dream and C. Diab to have contributed with their versions.”
What’s the music like?
Compelling. The range of musical styles on this collection is wide, showing the versatility of Brandt’s originals, and the scope with which he works when writing an album.
C. Diab begins with a full-bodied cello statement in a rework of Persistence, which breaks out into a kind of motoric drone / krautrock interface. Perhaps not surprisingly, the space around the music is pretty vast on the Tangerine Dream rework of Nothing To Undo. PNK goes through the wringer with Akusmi’s pinpricks of minimalist melody, a thrilling and energetic approach, while Rashad Becker is more maximalist in an eventful take on Without Us. Activity is also the name of the game in Bi Disc’s excellent, up-tempo remix of Steady, and then it’s great to see the name Adam Freeland pop up again on a driven yet ethereal take on Paradise O.D. The same track gets some oblique, funky turns from Hiro Ama, after we’ve heard from Camea (a super-deep account techno account of Resistance) and Brandt himself, with the clattering beats and piercing tones of Lucid.
Does it all work?
It does. The vision of Brandt’s original is retained, but the responses here cover a wide emotional response, and a satisfying cross-section of electronically driven genres.
Is it recommended?
It is indeed. Without Us is worth listening to as a double album – Brandt’s powerful original and this set of enjoyable and boundary-pushing remixes. Excellent stuff once again.
published by Ben Hogwood from the original press release. Photo above (c) unknown
The programme for the 77th Aldeburgh Festival takes place from Friday 12 to Sunday 28 June. Aldeburgh Festival has always been a place where music is made in full view of its past and its future; where composers, performers and audiences meet in the “holy triangle” Britten believed was essential to artistic life. In 2026, fifty years since Britten’s death, Britten Pears Arts reaffirms that principle as a living manifesto. 1976 marked an ending, but also a beginning: the moment the care, curiosity and exacting standards Britten and Pears brought to nurturing young artists became the enduring thread of the Festival and this organisation’s identity.
The 2026 Festival convenes artists who know one another’s work deeply—musicians who share a language of trust, risk and detail. Featured Artist Ryan Wigglesworth leads a circle of collaborators including Vilde Frang, Sophie Bevan, Steven Osborne, Lawrence Power and Nicolas Altstaedt. They come not simply to perform, but to pass on what they have learned: forming chamber groups, standing side by side with young players, and allowing music to reveal its meaning through shared attention.
In 2026 James Baillieu and Ryan Wigglesworth begin a 3-year tenure as Associate Directors of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. The aim is to build academies in which young, aspiring artists can flourish alongside their mentors and be celebrated in Aldeburgh Festival programmes, and to consider how important this venture is at a difficult time for the arts.
At the heart of this commitment is the new Festival Academy, directed by James Baillieu with Lise Davidsen, Caroline Dowdle, Julia Faulkner and Nicky Spence as faculty. Their work, and the Summer Academy that will follow it for instrumentalists and led by Ryan Wigglesworth, continues the legacy Britten and Pears established and marks a new way for the Young Artist Programme to work, enabling young artists to flourish when surrounded by the very best musicians, challenged, nurtured and invited to experience the generosity of audiences at Snape Maltings.
Pelléas et Mélisande, directed by Rory Kinnear with designs by Vicki Mortimer and lighting by Paule Constable, and performed by Sophie Bevan, Sarah Connolly, Jacques Imbrailo, Gordon Bintner, John Tomlinson and alumni of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, opens the festival with a work of delicacy and depth. Alongside Britten’s own late works, music by Feldman, Crumb, Kurtág and Henze sits beside 11 new works by Lera Auerbach, Tom Coult, Tansy Davies, Brett Dean, Lisa Illean, Natalie Joachim, Freya Waley-Cohen, Ryan Wigglesworth and others, maintaining Britten Pears Arts’ commitment to the composers of today and the artists who bring their work to life.
Andrew Comben, Chief Executive, Britten Pears Arts commented, ‘Aldeburgh Festival 2026 draws its joy from the energy of the musicians who gather here and the future they help reveal. At the heart of this is Ryan Wigglesworth, who I’m delighted to welcome as this year’s Featured Artist. His long association with the Festival will be reflected in performances as conductor, pianist and composer, joined by many of his closest artistic collaborators. 2026 marks fifty years since the death of our Founder, Benjamin Britten. His and Peter Pears’ commitment to supporting young artists remains central to our purpose, and the Festival and Summer Academies – led by James Baillieu and Ryan Wigglesworth – strengthen that legacy by placing outstanding young performers alongside world-class musicians as a core part of our programming. The Festival opens with a semi-staging of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, with an all-star cast and creative team, followed by a wide-ranging programme of opera, orchestras, choirs, chamber music, song, film, talks, walks and a fascinating visual arts programme featuring Ryan Gander, Ffiona Lewis and Kate Giles. Set across Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh and other Suffolk locations it continues to offer a beguiling combination of music, landscape and creative possibility. We really look forward to welcoming everyone in June.’
Ryan Wigglesworth this year’s Featured Artist commented, ‘Making music at Snape Maltings over the past 25 years has been one of the great pleasures of my life. From the start, it felt like home – a place where the most important friendships were forged, a place to grow and develop artistically. So, the invitation to be “Featured Artist” for the 2026 Aldeburgh Festival was a very special and joyous privilege. A strong sense of “family” has always been central to the spirit of the Aldeburgh Festival and accounts for why so many musicians feel drawn to put down artistic roots here. And what bliss it has been programming concerts involving so many of my dearest friends and colleagues:
Nicolas Altstaedt, Sophie Bevan (literally family!), Sarah Connolly, Jacques Imbrailo, Rory Kinnear, Vicki Mortimer, Steven Osborne, Lawrence Power, John Tomlinson, as well as all the members of the two orchestras I’m lucky to be associated with: the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Knussen Chamber Orchestra. (the latter itself a legacy of my “thanks-to-Snape” friendship with the late, deeply missed Oliver Knussen). It allows me the rare opportunity to wear all my hats under one roof, as it were: playing chamber music and song, premiering my new piece for Lawrence Power and the KCO, and conducting works that mean a great deal to me personally – none more so than Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. It really is a great honour.’
James Baillieu, Associate Director, Britten Pears Young Artist Programme commented, ‘I am deeply honoured and delighted to be appointed, alongside Ryan Wigglesworth, as Associate Directors of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme for 2026–2028. The Britten Pears Programme played a formative role in my own development as a young artist, and it is a profound privilege to return in this new capacity to contribute to its future. This appointment represents a deeply meaningful opportunity to help nurture the next generation of musicians within the creative and inspiring context that Britten and Pears established. I am excited to bring my experience, connections, and ideas to the role, and to be part of an ambitious new chapter in the life of this distinguished programme.’
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