by Ben Hogwood, with text lifted from the press release
Contemplating the role of the album format in an attention-deficient society, Speedy J presents Walkman — a constantly shifting, 90-minute soundtrack to a journey of your choice. Jochem Paap‘s first solo album in over 20 years is a freewheeling, 20-track testament to his decades-deep studio skill and sonic versatility, running from skewed rhythmic rabbit holes to exploratory tonal abandon. You can listen to the first single, Arp Δmp Chasm, below:
For Paap, the traditional idea of the album had become obscured by listening habits and the non-stop information barrage of our digital lives. Having moved on from his breakthrough years releasing LPs and touring off the back of them, he was more inspired to develop his many-sided STOOR project and feed into a bigger artistic body of work than the temporary shelf-life of a single release. As is natural for any artist, his perspective shifted over time and he found himself drawn back to the idea of an album, realising he connected best with longer releases while he was on a walk, out for a run or generally in transit one way or another.
With an endearing call back to the humble Walkman, Paap (above) selected an hour and a half of material created during studio sessions at the beginning of 2025, perfectly sized to fit on two 45-minute sides of a cassette tape. As has long been the case for his studio practice, there were no fixed intentions when sitting down in the STOOR lab to start making noise — just a wealth of experience and an expansive set of tools to start exploring with. From hours of jams Paap pulled together standout moments and moulded them into a mixtape-like narrative ranging from two-minute beat nuggets to full-tilt techno workouts and immersive ambient drops. Every sound is intentional, but the overall delivery is instinctive and curious, showing multiple new dimensions to Paap’s sound and offering unpredictability at every turn.
‘Arp Δmp Chasm’ opens the album up in a thick blanket of humming, harmonic waves with an electric emotional charge, while ‘Ctrssalms17 (Cold Render)’ journeys through evocative blooms of melancholic, gritty pads and rugged, half-submerged tech funk. ‘Modern Birds (Origin Edit)’ reaches skywards with grand sweeps of dynamic, brilliantly rendered synthesis. From the dexterous drum science of ‘Drift Vector’ to ‘Osc Hop (Slow Collapse)’s lurching, beatless swamp of synths, on Walkman even the briefest snapshots leave an impression that lasts beyond the quick-scan cycle of the modern music experience.
With his return to the album format, Paap’s message is clear – put your headphones on, get outside and lose yourself in the sound of an artist constantly committed to moving forwards.
by Ben Hogwood, with text lifted from the press release
On Friday, London imprint Mercury KX announced Pioneers, a collaborative album honouring the radical women and gender-expansive artists who reshaped the language of electronic music. Inspired by the landmark documentary Sisters with Transistors, the project brings together a new generation of composers, producers and sonic experimenters to celebrate electronic music’s unsung heroines, not through imitation but through continuation.
Released across two digital chapters this spring, Pioneers forms a living lineage. Twelve new works respond to figures who transformed tape, voltage, voice and performance into tools of liberation.
Side A arrived on Friday 27th March, opening in a state of expanded awareness. You can listen on YouTube music
Arushi Jain’s No Way Back (for Pauline Oliveros) draws from the philosophy of Pauline Oliveros and her practice of Deep Listening. Composed in Raga Bhairav and structured around sustained vocal tones and modular synthesis, the piece treats listening itself as irreversible transformation. Once heard deeply, there is no way back.
Loraine James’ On Time (for Björk) stretches rhythm and atmosphere in tribute to Björk’s boundary-dissolving approach to composition, where digital texture and emotional intensity coexist in constant motion.
For Hand Movements (for Clara Rockmore), Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith honours theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore, whose invisible gestures shaped one of electronic music’s earliest instruments. Smith channels Rockmore’s balance of engineering precision and hypnotic expressiveness through fluid modular synthesis, tracing motion through voltage.
rRoxymore & Leila Adu summon the avant-pop authority of Grace Jones on I Have Seen That Grace Before. Drawing inspiration from the long-form drama of Slave to the Rhythm, their transcontinental collaboration blurs ambient psychedelia, undulating groove and vocal dualities, reflecting Jones’ fearless negotiation of gender, genre and performance.
On Wind Bathing (for Laurie Anderson), Holland Andrews & yuniya edi kwon transform intimate ephemera into euphoric devotion. Inspired by the singular world-building of Laurie Anderson, the track began with secret violin recordings and love letters before unfolding into something unexpectedly radiant. Intimacy becomes propulsion.
Closing Side A, TAAHLIAH’s Starlight (for Suzanne Ciani) refracts the shimmering architectures of Suzanne Ciani, particularly the romantic synthesiser classic Velocity of Love, into a contemporary meditation where new-age luminosity meets modern electronic form.
Side B, released Friday 17th April, moves deeper into electronic architecture and sonic myth.
Hinako Omori’s You found the allotment (for Delia Derbyshire) pays tribute to Delia Derbyshire’s tape-loop alchemy and mathematical imagination. Built from Moog synthesisers, granulated vocals and analogue tape recording, the track mirrors Derbyshire’s meticulous collage techniques, plotting sound with careful intention.
Kate Simko & Lara Somogyi turn toward the ambient universe of Wendy Carlos on Analog Season. Inspired by Sonic Seasonings and Digital Moonscapes, harp recordings are processed, sampled and re-synthesised into a shared landscape of analogue warmth and microtonal drift, entering into dialogue with Carlos’ expansive and often overlooked ambient work beyond Switched-On Bach.
Footwork innovator Jlin invokes the defiant glamour and rhythmic magnetism of Eartha Kitt on Earth A God, a tribute to performance as power and presence as percussion.
Laurel Halo’s Les Sirènes (for Éliane Radigue) echoes the slow-burning minimalism of Éliane Radigue, embracing sustained tone and psychoacoustic depth where sound becomes environment rather than event.
The album closes with AFRODEUTSCHE’s I See You (for Daphne Oram & Gertrud Grunow), drawing on the philosophies of Daphne Oram and Bauhaus theorist Gertrud Grunow. Created using the Mini Oramics system, the track blends subtle electronics with childlike wonder, offering a meditation on visibility, care and the unseen.
Celebrated for championing boundary-breaking artists, Mercury KX is home to acclaimed composers and innovative musicians such as DJ ANNA, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Ólafur Arnalds, LUXE and Erland Cooper, among many others. The label champions genre-defying, multi-disciplinary artists and curates immersive audio-visual worlds spanning electronic, modern classical, cinematic, alternative and ambient music. With Pioneers, Mercury KX continues that vision, foregrounding work that expands both form and perception.
From early theremin stages to tape machines, from Bauhaus theory to the San Francisco Tape Music Center, from ambient’s outer edges to contemporary club futurism, Pioneers reframes influence as active transmission.
These works do not simply honour the past: they extend its circuitry. Electronic music has always been shaped by women whose innovations were foundational yet often overlooked. Pioneers makes that lineage audible as living voltage.
Tracklisting:
Friday 27th March [Side A – Digital Release]
Side A A1 Arushi Jain: No Way Back (for Pauline Oliveros) A2 Loraine James: On Time (for Bjork) A3 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: Hand Movements (for Clara Rockmore) A4 rRoxymore & Leila Adu: I Have Seen That Grace Before (for Grace Jones) A5 Holland Andrews & yuniya edi kwon: Wind Bathing (for Laurie Anderson) A6 TAAHLIAH: Starlight (for Suzanne Ciani)
Friday 17th April [Side B – Digital Release]
Side B B1 – Hinako Omori: You found the allotment (for Delia Derbyshire) B2 – Kate Simko & Lara Somogyi: Analog Season (for Wendy Carlos) B3 – JLin: Earth A God (for Eartha Kitt) B4 – Laurel Halo: Les Sirènes (for Éliane Radigue) B5 – AFRODEUTSCHE: I See you (for Daphne Oram & Gertrud Grunow)
by Ben Hogwood, with adapted text from the press release
Set against the backdrop of ‘Elgar Country’, the Elgar Festival is a highlight of the West Midlands cultural calendar, this year taking place across the scenic destinations of Worcester, Malvern, and Pershore from 23 – 31 May 2026. The festival celebrates the enduring legacy of Worcester-born composer Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934), through a diverse programme featuring world-class artists and accessible performing experiences, talks, exhibitions and guided walks designed to attract the broadest audience.
GALA CONCERT IN WORCESTER CATHEDRAL
Amongst highlights this year is a Gala Concert in Worcester Cathedral on Saturday 30 May which features a performance of the rarely-heard Cello Concerto by Elgar in the version for Viola, prepared by Lionel Tertis and premiered under Elgar’s baton in 1930. The work is to be performed by one of today’s leading performers and educationalists, Rosalind Ventris, with the English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) under their Principal Conductor Kenneth Woods. For the second half, the ESO will be joined by the Elgar Festival Chorus for another Elgar rarity; the composer’s early ‘symphony for chorus and orchestra’, ‘The Black Knight’.
‘GREAT BRITISH TONE POEMS’
There will be a further opportunity to hear the English Symphony Orchestra – as Orchestra-in-Residence at the Elgar Festival – on Friday 29 May at Worcester Cathedral in a rousing ‘Great British Tone Poems’ programme, to include Elgar’s ebullient ‘Falstaff’, Bax’s evocative ‘Tintagel’ and Holst’s ever-popular ‘The Planets’ Suite.
STRING GREATS AND NEW DISCOVERIES
On Thursday 28 May, the ESO Strings perform at Great Malvern Priory in a programme of masterpieces from the string repertoire; popular works by Elgar alongside ‘Rakastava’ by Sibelius, and Schoenberg’s ‘Verklarte Nacht’ (‘Transfigured Night’), both haunting and powerful. The final work is ‘Night Windows’ by Thea Musgrave; a five-movement chamber work inspired by a painting of that name by Edward Hopper.
THEA MUSGRAVE CELEBRATED AS FEATURED COMPOSER
The distinguished 97-year-old Scottish-American composer, Thea Musgrave, is featured composer this year at the Elgar Festival and her work will be showcased in performances throughout the event.
GUEST ARTISTS
Guest artists include oboist Nicholas Daniel and composer and pianist Huw Watkins. I Fagiolini, the British solo voice ensemble and Director Robert Hollingworth will be making a special visit as part of their 40th anniversary tour. Already fully booked is an evening with cellists Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber, while leading record producer Andrew Keener will be reminiscing on his work in the studio with some of the most renowned Elgar conductors and instrumentalists from the 1980s to the present day.
In recital, soprano April Fredrick who, as ESO Affiliate Artist, is well-known to audiences for her many fine performances and recordings, will be joined by acclaimed composer-pianist Eric McElroy and guests Grace Shepherd, violin, and narrator Joseph Campbell Powell, to explore the World War I experiences in words and music of regional luminaries including composers Ivor Gurney, George Butterworth, Arthur Bliss, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
BEST-LOVED ENSEMBLES
Offering FREE admittance is a popular programme given by Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra co-founded by Sir Edward Elgar, providing an opportunity for families to experience the thrill of live orchestral music. Choral and song repertoire is to be performed by the region’s best-loved ensembles including The Elgar Chorale, and The Jenny Lind Singers who celebrate the works of women composers past and present.
An exciting new collaboration is to be led by Malvern-based multi-disciplinary artist Nakisha Swatton who is working with local amateur and professional musicians to create new musical portraits inspired by Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’. International competition winner Roman Kosyakov brings the 2026 festival to a close in virtuosic style with a piano transcription of Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’.
PARTICIPATORY EVENTS FOR MUSICIANS OF ALL AGES
At Malvern College, a ‘Come and Play Elgar’ day invites amateur musicians to perform alongside members of the English Symphony Orchestra in two of Elgar’s most challenging overtures as part of a collaborative workshop.
The ‘Elgar for Everyone’ Family Concert is hosted by ESO Youth’s patron, Classic FM broadcaster, composer and author Zeb Soanes, and provides an introduction to the orchestra for music lovers of all ages. Over 100 young musicians from across Elgar Country will play alongside their teachers and ESO mentors for a performance following rehearsals and workshops. A highlight of the program includes the premiere of the winning entries from the 2026 Young Composers Competition.
Participants from the Elgar Festival/Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Young Performer Showcase Programme will perform works for string quartet by Elgar and Rebecca Clarke at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, NT Croome Court.
FREE AND INFORMAL EVENTS
All concerts at the Elgar Festival offer free entry for under 18s accompanied by full-paying adults. Many other events are free-of-charge including relaxed concerts, talks, film and an exhibition.
‘ELGAR FOR EVERYONE’ – BACKGROUND TO THE ELGAR FESTIVAL
Since its inception in 2018, the annual Elgar Festival has grown from a weekend to a 9-day celebration of the life and music of Worcester’s most famous son and Britain’s great composer, Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), held at a number of integral venues of both historic interest and personal significance to the composer including Worcester Cathedral and Great Malvern Priory. The Elgar Festival was The Guardian’s Crtic’s Pick in 2018 and in 2022 featured as one of the top 20 Jubilee events. https://elgarfestival.org/about/
FURTHER INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS
Elgar Festival 23 – 31 May 2026 Patron: Julian Lloyd Webber Artistic Director: Kenneth Woods Orchestra-in-Residence: English Symphony Orchestra Programme information and ticket sales Online: www.elgarfestival.org Email: elgar@elgarfestival.org Telephone: 01905 611 427 In person: Worcester Theatres, Huntingdon Hall Box Office, CrownGate, Worcester WR1 3LD
HOW TO SUPPORT THE ELGAR FESTIVAL
The Elgar Festival is raising money to help deliver its 2026 iteration and to continue the development of its range of events for people of all ages, interests, and lifestyles. Funding continues to be a huge challenge across all arts organisations and donations are valuable in helping to continue the legacy of one of England’s most revered composers, contributing towards costs for relaxed concerts, artist’s fees and instrument and venue hire, and keeping the Free events free for all. https://elgarfestival.org/support/
by Ben Hogwood, with text lifted from the press release
Pye Corner Audio has announced a forthcoming new album, More Songs About The Sun, due for release on June 19. His second studio album for Sonic Cathedral is a sequel of sorts to 2022’s acclaimed Let’s Emerge!
The first single, Cycle, is out now on all digital platforms and you can watch the video here:
“Cycle is probably the most direct ‘pop’ song that I’ve written,” explains Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins, of the track, which was teased on last week’s vernal equinox and is released today, just ahead of the start of British Summer Time this weekend.
It’s an instant hit of sunshine, the portentous synth intro soon giving way to an indie-dance banger with a rare outing on vocals by Martin and added shoegaze / psych guitars from his sometime Sonic Cathedral labelmate (and Ride / Oasis member) Andy Bell.
You can watch the video below, and also listen / purchase on Bandcamp:
Wexford Festival Opera announces that one of the world’s most acclaimed operatic tenors, Joseph Calleja, will return to the Wexford stage for the Festival’s 75th Anniversary season, running from 15 – 31 October 2026. The Maltese tenor first graced the Wexford stage in 1998 at the age of 20, at the start of his illustrious career. Calleja will perform the role of Osaka in Mascagni’s Iris on 15, 23, 28 and 31 October, and will also feature in the Festival’s fundraising gala on 17 October alongside fellow opera superstars Ermonela Jaho, Daniela Barcellona, and Giorgi Manoshvili.
The fundraising gala concert, Cróí na Féile (The Heart of the Festival) – takes place at the National Opera House, Wexford, on Saturday 17 October. In what is expected to be a highlight of the 75th season, Ermonela Jaho, Daniela Barcellona, Joseph Calleja, and Giorgi Manoshvili will join forces with the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, conducted by Daniele Callegari (who first conducted at Wexford Festival Opera in 1998), to perform music by Puccini, Verdi and more.
In Irish, ‘Croí na Féile’ translates to The Heart of Festival (or The Heart of Generosity). It is a phrase used to describe a place, or a person, with a generous heart and represents the warm and welcoming spirit of Wexford that has always been central to the Festival’s identity.
Here, Ermonela Jaho shares her Wexford Festival Opera story:
Ermonela Jaho said: “My first time in Wexford was in 1999. Performing at the Festival felt truly significant. It was an extraordinary school for me, not only as an artist but also as a human being. Many great opera singers had taken their first steps there. Becoming part of that artistic family was very meaningful to me.”
In this video, Joseph Calleja shares his Wexford story:
Commenting on his return to Wexford Festival Opera Joseph Calleja said: “My Wexford story started in 1998 when I was 20 years old and just one year into my professional career. The impact of Wexford Festival Opera on my career has been massive. It is an incredible platform and has been the launchpad for so many great careers. I’m so looking forward to returning this year for the concert, and also to perform on the main stage in Mascagni’s Iris. Come and watch the stars of the next 10, 20, 30 years. See you there.”
Furthermore, we are delighted to announce 14 distinguished Ambassadors who will champion this landmark year. From legendary singers to visionary directors, these artists represent a ‘who’s who’ of the global opera world and share a connection to the Festival. They will champion this milestone year and celebrate the Festival’s unique mission of presenting forgotten or rarely performed works. The Ambassadors are Juan Diego Flórez, Joseph Calleja, Ermonela Jaho, Sinead Campbell Wallace, Claudia Boyle, Mariangela Sicilia, Celine Byrne, Daniela Barcellona, Aigul Akhmetshina, Paula Murrihy, Giorgi Manoshvili, Michele Mariotti, David Pountney, and Damiano Michieletto. Some Ambassadors credit the Festival as being the springboard for their global careers, having first graced our stages before going on to conquer the world’s greatest opera houses. We are honoured to have their support as they share why this milestone year is simply unmissable.
The 75th Wexford Festival Opera will run from 15 – 31 October 2026. Priority booking opens for Friends of the Festival on 22 April with general booking opening on 6 May. Full programme will be available on wexfordopera.com from 26 March.
Wexford Festival Opera would like to acknowledge and thank The Arts Council, Wexford County Council, Fáilte Ireland/Ireland’s Ancient East and the Festival’s Friends, Sponsors, and Donors for their invaluable and continued support.
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