Category Archives: News

New music – Vince Clarke: The Lamentations of Jeremiah

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Yesterday Vince Clarke, founding member of Depeche Mode, Erasure and Yazoo, and all-round electronic maestro, announced a new album.

Due on 17 November on Mute, Songs of Silence is described as an ‘ambient instrumental album’. Its first single, The Lamentations of Jeremiah, represents a striking musical structure. A haunting solo cello line takes the lead, a true lament set against a drone accompaniment. It is certainly dark, but has at its heart an outpouring of emotion that is ultimately positive. Listen below:

New Music at the BBC Proms

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For our UK readers, a nod in the direction of BBC4 tonight – where there is a chance to experience some of the standout new music heard during this year’s BBC Proms festival.

There is a chance to experience more of one of today’s standout orchestral composers, Andrea Tarrodi – her Birds Of Paradise is featured, inspired by footage from David Attenborough’s Planet Earth and performed by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, conducted by Pekka Kuusisto (above, photographed by Mark Allan).

From the first night comes Let There Be Light, by Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak, while the National Youth Orchestra perform The Whole World, a heady new work from Errolyn Wallen.

You can watch from 8pm here

In appreciation – Brian McBride

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by Ben Hogwood. Photo by Steve Molter

Yesterday we learned of the sad and unexpected passing of Brian McBride, one half of the influential ambient duo Stars of the Lid.

Together with band mate Adam Wiltzie, McBride made subtly mesmerising music that left a lasting impression on its listeners. Influenced by but not restricted to modern classical music, the pair set about creating a unique sound, predominantly drone-based but carefully and beautifully constructed. Much of their best work was realised on the Kranky label, who revealed the news of McBride’s unexpectedly early passing.

This tribute on Pitchfork tells a fuller story, but in order to fully appreciate McBride’s genius, here are two listening links – one to the landmark Stars of the Lid album and their Refinement of the Decline, and one to McBride’s solo album When The Detail Lost Its Freedom

In appreciation – Jim Parker

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by Ben Hogwood

Yesterday we heard of the sad news of the death of Jim Parker – who, as this wonderful Guardian obituary illustrates, was a composer of rare talent for the small screen.

One of Parker’s calling cards was the music to the much loved British TV mainstay Midsomer Murders. If you’ve watched any of the episodes you will be aware of the musical attention to detail in the scene setting, Parker providing a vivid guide to the action taking place on screen, and hamming up the drama as and when needed.

That’s before we get to the theme, of course, which has become one of the most distinctive on TV with its gurgling clarinet and spooky mellotron.

Online now – Philip Sawyers’ Mayflower on the Sea of Time

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The latest addition to the English Symphony Orchestra library of online music is the first performance of Philip Sawyers‘ major choral work, Mayflower on the Sea of Time.

With its ‘luminous and ecstatic choruses’ picked out by Richard Whitehouse in his review of the initial concert, this is an affirmative and major piece by one of the finest contemporary English composers.

Soprano April Fredrick and baritone Thomas Humphreys are joined by the ESO Chorus and English Symphony Orchestra in the premiere from Worcester Cathedral, given on 17 June this year.

You can watch a preview clip below, and access the full performance at the English Symphony Orchestra website.