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About Arcana

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

Playlist – Daniel Patrick Cohen

Daniel Patrick Cohen. Picture credit Alexandra Făgărășan

Arcana is delighted to hand our playlist baton over to Daniel Patrick Cohen, whose fascinating new album We Deliver is on our own playlist for review shortly.

Cohen, a Londoner living in Romania, has a particular love for film music and hip hop, and wrote a substantial score for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Pleasure Garden, as part of the British Film Institute’s Rescue The Hitchcock 9 enterprise, where composers were invited to score the director’s silent films.

With We Deliver, Cohen writes a love letter to hip hop in the form of a 32-track album featuring 67 musicians, described as a lo-fi work entirely made up of throwaway-type tracks that a hip hop producer might have written.

His playlist, then, contains 15 such ‘throwaway’ tracks, including inspired examples from the likes of Daft Punk, J Dilla, Radiohead, Björk and even Mozart alongside five of his own compositions blended in to reveal the loose connections. He elaborated for us:

“The idea is that these tracks were moments of magic which I imagine captured the mood on a day so perfectly that they resisted being developed and expanded. I think it’s worth elaborating that there’s nothing “lazy” about them; on the contrary, one could spend a lifetime waiting for these moments!”

In Memoriam Queen Elizabeth II

As a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, here is a small part of the deeply meaningful music from her funeral service at Westminster Abbey this morning, which also included new works from Sir James MacMillan and the Master of the King’s Music Judith Weir.

Two English works, by Sir Hubert Parry and Vaughan Williams, are included below. My Soul There Is A Country is the first of six Songs Of Farewell by Parry, for unaccompanied choir, written towards the end of the First World War.

O taste and see is a short motet that Vaughan Williams completed in 1953 for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. It is a short and beautiful piece:

Switched On – Slumberville: Harmony (Nettwerk)

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Harmony is the first album from Swedish producer Sebastian Fronda under his new Slumberville alias. Fronda has been making music for more than two decades, labelled as one of Sweden’s hip hop pioneers, and has established a strong live presence in the Nordic countries with more than 500 shows.

Slumberville is intended as a moniker under which he can make lo-fi music, dipping into his hip hop sensibilities but  making room for samples and appropriations from a number of musical forms. For Harmony, he ‘Google-watched’ a number of different places around the world, such as Paraná River, assembling a set of travelcards to document his findings in musical form.

What’s the music like?

Slumberville veers towards the horizontal in his approach on this album, but there are some enjoyably quirky moments that keep the listener guessing. For The Win is quite spiky, with its staccato cello, while Chinatown plays loosely with an Oriental melody.

The  most enjoyable track is Paraná River, with a couple of winsome melodies over a low slung bass and endearing hip hop beat, but a close second to this is the singalong What A Great Feeling, with its dreamy optimism. Fronda’s musical humour ensures there are plenty of wry smiles throughout.

Does it all work?

It does, largely – though some of the ideas here could be more fully developed into more tracks double the length. This is a compliment to the humour and subtle inspiration that runs through these tracks and their source material.

Is it recommended?

It is. Slumberville has made a diverting, quirky album that is a good deal of fun. It has endearing, light humour, and its beats have a spring in their step that lightens the mood.

Listen

Buy

Switched On – Collisions: Collisions (Naive / Believe)

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Collisions is so-named because it is the coming together of a musical trio. Tom Hodge, Ollie Howell and Ciaran Morahan are the three musicians in question, and each brings a different skill-set. Hodge is a film composer whose connections include Max Cooper and Floex, Howell is a composer and drummer, while Morahan is described as a ‘post-rock composer’, whose output includes work with Codes In The Clouds and VLMV.

What’s the music like?

There are two elements to the collaboration album – ‘Collisions’ tracks and ‘Motions’. The former set the scene and the sonic perspectives, while the latter offer free-form musical explorations, allowing Hodge’s piano and clarinet and Howell’s drums to work their magic largely unfiltered. This works particularly well. While the Collisions have a curious order (beginning with the spacious II then moving through I, III and IV), they are ideally paced. II offers a big panorama, with concrete heavy drums and spacey synths, while I is a really good blend of subtle, brushed drums and with a thoughtfully probing piano line, before bringing in a sonorous clarinet. III has a similar profile, though this time the piano is given more space to air its thoughts.

Does it all work?

Yes – and the three artists have managed to get the ideal blend of musical events and time for reflection. Collisions is in effect two genres – an underlying ambience, but with carefully thought out ideas above them that bring positive energy and vibrant colours.

Is it recommended?

Yes – enthusiastically. Collisions will reward those who enjoy musical ambience of a wider scope, such as Erland Cooper, or those who enjoy the chattering electronics of an artist such as Max Cooper, who has close connections here. Get it and revel in the musical inspiration.

News – Maria Marica wins the 2022 George Enescu International Competition, Violin Section

Maria Marica (above centre), won the 2022 George Enescu International Competition Violin Section after a Final in which she performed the Violin Concerto in D major Op. 77 by Brahms. The violinist also received a special award from the IMK Vienna Association, represented by jury member Igor Petrushevski: a concert as a soloist with the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 2023 in Prague.

Maria Marica will perform, together with cellist Benjamin Kruithof – who won the cello section of the Enescu Competition – the Double Concerto in A minor Op.102, also by Brahms. The Violin Final of the Enescu Competition took place on Tuesday 13 September at the Romanian Athenaeum. Romanian violinist Ștefan Aprodu was second, with Frenchman Grégoire Torossian third. The audience enthusiastically embraced the three orchestral concerts in which soloists performed some beloved violin works.