Author Archives: Arcana

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About Arcana

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

Switched On – Faithless – Champion Sound (ADA)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The longevity of UK dance artists from the 1990s is truly impressive – with some, like Faithless, evolving through forced circumstances. When they lost the charismatic frontman Maxi Jazz in 2022 to a long-term illness, bandmates Rollo and Sister Bliss harnessed the spirit of collaboration, bringing in extra voices while acknowledging their band could never be the same again. And yet there is still room for ambition. Champion Sound is the biggest Faithless album to date, a ‘double double’ epic that takes its listener on a voyage. It is cleverly divided into four, essentially a group of mini albums that can be experienced as separate entities or as part of the bigger whole.

What’s the music like?

Consistently good. Champion Sound shows that the versatility Faithless showed in first two albums Reverence and Sunday 8pm was not misplaced – and they build on it impressively here.

We visit the club – of course – but in two very different ways. The second segment, Phone Number, tells through vocalists Nathan Ball and Amelia Fox the story of a couple who meet on the dancefloor but then can’t work out if their attraction is genuine or was situation-bound. Their songs are vulnerable and at times hit an emotional high.

Book Of Hours follows this, a broad instrumental section of reflective landscapes. Conceived as a tribute to DJ Shadow’s Entroducing album, it builds slowly but surely, opening out with strings and intricate breaks before an affirmative choral section, surely destined for Ibiza’s Café Del Mar.

From here the natural goal is within sight, and Champion Sound itself ends on a high with four no-nonsense anthems, making great use of guests L.S.K. (on the title track), Suli Breaks and Bebe Rexha (on the excellent anthem Find A Way) and finally Anthony Szmierek’s closing thoughts on Yes I Want It Too. Setting all this up is the first section, Peace And Noise, where Suli Breaks is the ideal match for the beats. “Let’s find love between the beats”, he suggests, “before we search for it between the sheets. Can we put the world on pause, while we take the night off and rejoice?” Prior to this we hear some of the last words recorded by Maxi Jazz, his brooding presence eliciting both a smile and a tear.

Does it all work?

Pretty much. It is hugely ambitious, and time constraints will mean Champion Sound can’t be experienced in its entirety – which is where the decision to divide it into four mini-albums of differing moods pays dividends.

Is it recommended?

It is – a really impressive achievement by Faithless, an album of highs and lows that shows Rollo and Sister Bliss still have the fire for their art. It rewards both dancing and thinking in equal measure.

Listen / Buy

You can explore purchase options for Champion Sound on the Beatport site

Published post no.2,657 – Sunday 14 September 2025

In Appreciation – Christoph von Dohnányi

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by Ben Hogwood Picture by Clive Barda

In the last week we learned of the sad news of the death of conductor Christoph von Dohnányi, at the age of 95.

You can read an obituary for him on the Guardian website, and tributes from each of the orchestras with which he had a special relationship – the Cleveland Orchestra, where he was chief conductor from 1984 until 2002, the Philharmonia Orchestra, where he was principal guest conductor, then principal conductor from 1997 to 2008, then honorary conductor for life – and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he worked from 1966 to 2019.

Dohnányi’s prodigious discography, mostly recorded on the Decca Classics, Telarc and Signum Classics labels, is rich in opera and symphonic repertoire, but he also had a reputation for fine recordings of modern music, including colourful examinations of the worlds of Webern, Carl Ruggles and Lutosławski. These recordings, together with a special Cleveland account of Dvořák’s Symphony no.6, make up the playlist below:

https://tidal.com/playlist/ae221923-6f02-4402-8d59-932b6a79c265

Published post no.2,656 – Saturday 13 September 2025

New music – Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan – Public Works and Utilities (Castles in Space)

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adapted from the press release by Ben Hogwood

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan – the one-man retro-futurist electronic project of Gordon Chapman-Fox – has announced his sixth album, Public Works and Utilities. It will be released via the Castles In Space label on October 10, alongside a new compilation, titled Appendix I, which rounds up the tracks from three Warrington-Runcorn EPs on one handy CD.

Public Works and Utilities is the sixth Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan album in less than five years and continues to explore new towns and the demise of the post-war consensus. This time, Gordon’s gaze falls on our public services that have been starved of cash or privatised since 1980.

“It seems ridiculous in hindsight for a developed country to have packed up and sold off vital infrastructure such as power, water or the rail network,” he says. “Forty years down the line, and all of these vital industries are barely functional. Their prime function now is to drain cash from our pockets and into the bulging wallets of shareholders.”

This anger continues to power Gordon’s desire to make Warrington-Runcorn a statement for the here and now, with the themes more relevant than ever, rather than an exercise in rose-tinted nostalgia. As the epic, 18-minute album closer will attest, ‘The People Matter’.

“This album very much came from my live shows,” says Gordon. “A lot of these tracks were designed to be performed live, and you will have heard quite a few of them if you’ve seen me live in the last year.”

As a result, there is a certain rawness, not to mention an almost upbeat danceable quality. The atmosphere of the previous albums has become fused with an urge to get you to move your feet.

The full tracklisting of Public Works and Utilities is:

1. Swift Safe And Comfortable

2. Sunset Over Stanlow

3. 800 Yards Down At Ince Six Feet

4. Water Treatment Works

5. Renewal And Regeneration

6. The People Matter

Released on the same day as the new album, the compilation Appendix I brings together three Warrington-Runcorn EPs onto CD for the first time, bringing together some of the more esoteric elements of the world of musical new town planning.

Building A New Town from 2023 moved the reference point of Warrington-Runcorn back from the synth-drenched late-’70s to the more post-psychedelic, folk infused world of Mike Oldfield and Pentangle. The four tracks are guitar-led, but retain Gordon’s mix of optimism and sinister atmosphere.

The next EP, A Shared Sense Of Purpose was the lead single from last year’s Your Community Hub album, and released in both 7” and 12” versions. This CD takes the single edit from the 7”, and adds the bonus tracks from the 12” – including a remix from the legendary Vince Clarke, and a another guitar-led folk remix of the title track.

Lastly, Overspill Estates adds four songs taken from the sessions for Your Community Hub that didn’t make it onto the final album.

Listen to Appendix I

The full tracklisting of Appendix I is:

1. A Fresh Dawn For North Cheshire

2. The View From Halton Castle

3. Solid Foundations

4. The Cornerstone

5. A Shared Sense Of Purpose (Single Edit)

6. A Shared Sense Of Purpose (Vince Clarke remix)

7. Oakwood

8. A Shared Sense Of Purpose (1973 version)

9. The People Of The Town

10. All Mod Cons

11. Open Green Spaces

12. All You Need In Five Minutes Brisk Walk

Published post no.2,655 – Friday 12 September 2025

In Appreciation – Arvo Pärt at 90

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by Ben Hogwood Picture by Kauppo Kikkas, used from the ECM Records website

Today marks the birthday of one of our most important and best-loved composers, the Estonian Arvo Pärt.

Pärt is best known as a composer with the ability to write music with a deep, spiritual connection, that often has a haunting and meditative quality. Yet a listen to a range of his works confirms that he is – and has been – so much more than that, with an early body of work that is uncompromising and challenging, to be heard alongside the deceptively simple, child-like pieces that make such an easy transition to relaxing playlists.

Pärt is most definitely a ‘playlist composer’, as short pieces such as Fur alina, Fratres and Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten confirm…but the playlist below brings these together with some of the earlier pieces, where a rebellious, pre-punk approach brought startling and compelling results. Try listening without skipping, so that you include the fascinating Symphony no.2 and the Credo. In context, the remarkable qualities of the shorter pieces take on new meaning.

You can listen to the playlist on Tidal below:

https://tidal.com/playlist/a304b83f-388f-4fc3-acd2-b4e7c3134b05

You can also listen to Warner’s excellent compilation The Sound of Arvo Pärt below:

Published post no.2,646 – Wednesday 3 September 2025

In concert – Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst @ BBC Proms: Mozart & Tchaikovsky

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Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst (above)

Mozart Symphony no.38 in D major K504 ‘Prague’ (1786)
Tchaikovsky Symphony no.6 in B minor Op.74 ‘Pathétique’ (1893)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Tuesday 9 September 2025

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) BBC / Chris Christodoulou

The music of Mozart is the lifeblood of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, so to describe their performance of the composer’s Prague symphony as routine is to say that everything was present and completely idiomatic.

Completed in Vienna, the Prague deserves to be mentioned with the last three symphonies as among Mozart’s greatest. In the hands of guest conductor Franz Welser-Möst, its phrases were stylishly turned, violins silky-smooth but keeping clear of full fat over-indulgence. This performance drew the audience in, with a chamber orchestra sound that acquired more beef when needed in the first movement, which had appropriate drama, or the boisterous passages of the finale. The woodwind were superb throughout.

Most intriguing was the Andante, a thoughtful repose whose chromatic melodies were lovingly shaped, while the central section was notable for its autumnal frissons whenever the music headed for a minor key. Meanwhile the faster music was imbued with the spirit of the dance, a performance carefully considered but let off the leash when appropriate.

Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique symphony took a while to get going, revealing the composer’s own Mozartian influence in the process. Initially the first movement felt underpowered, its sense of dread kept to a minimum and the second theme kept within itself – though that did mean a particularly beautiful clarinet solo from Matthias Schorn. This turned out to be an effective interpretative ploy on the part of Welser-Möst, for the impact of the stormy section was heightened, the orchestra suddenly playing hell for leather.

The 5/4 metre of the second movement was persuasively realised, the lilt of its dance compromised by unexpected syncopations, alternating between charming and disturbing. By this point the Proms audience notably rapt in their attention, and still between movements.

The scherzo felt Viennese yet acquired a manic need to please more in keeping with Mahler – not encouraged as much by Welser-Möst as previous Vienna Philharmonic incumbents (Herbert von Karajan, for example) but effective, nonetheless. It all set up the devastating pathos of the finale, taken relatively smooth and never lingering, but still uncommonly moving. Double basses were appropriately knotty, while the effect of the stopped horns, playing low and loud, was genuinely chilling. The fabled gong stroke, on the light side, was still a telling moment in the hall, as was the silence following the last note, Welser-Möst giving us over a minute to consider the masterpiece we had just heard. After that, there could be no encore.

Franz Welser-Möst is a subtle conductor who over the years has developed a close relationship with his charges in Cleveland and Vienna particularly. His poised approach brings optimum virtuosity and watertight ensemble, to which can be added artistic approaches with a great deal to commend them. In this case both Mozart and Tchaikovsky were the beneficiaries.

You can listen back to this Prom concert on BBC Sounds until Sunday 12 October.

Click to read more about the BBC Proms

Published post no.2,653 – Wednesday 10 September 2025