by Ben Hogwood, with text lifted from the press release
It is interesting to monitor the regularity with which Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings gets remixed in dance circles. The track is clearly a hugely popular bridge between classical music and trance – and another new take confirms its staying power.
Here, from the press release, “Three major names in electronic music come together for a powerful new take on one of the most recognizable records in dance music history. Brennan Heart, HI-LO, and Project Zeitgeist (alter ego of Australian hardstyle act Toneshifterz) unite on Adagio For Strings, out now via HILOMATIK – delivering a modern reinterpretation of the legendary Tiësto classic” (Tiesto, of course, putting his own slant on the Barber original).
The press text continues from a dance music perspective. “Looking at the track through a 2026 lens, the trio reshape the iconic melody into something darker, heavier, and built for today’s dancefloors. While the emotional core that made the original so memorable remains intact, this version leans into driving techno rhythms and hard dance intensity.
The result is a track that balances nostalgia with modern production. Brennan Heart brings his unmistakable hard dance energy, HI-LO adds a raw techno edge, and Project Zeitgeist contributes a cinematic touch that amplifies the composition’s drama. That track has already been supported by the likes of Armin van Buuren (live), Space 92 (live), Maddix (live), Nifra (live), and Lilly Palmer.
You can listen below:
“What do you do with one of the most iconic records in dance music history? I have been playing and messing around with different versions of this Tiesto classic over the years, as you may have heard in my sets, but when Brennan Heart sent me a collab idea for a proper hard techno rework of Adagio for Strings, “I knew this one would really stand out and would be perfect for 2026! I had a lot of fun working on this one with him and Project Zeitgeist, and it’s been amazing to see all the reactions to this banger at the shows! :)” – HI-LO
For many listeners, the original Adagio For Strings holds a special place in dance music history. This new version honors that legacy while opening the door for a new generation of festival moments and club memories.
Brennan Heart, HI-LO, and Project Zeitgeist Adagio For Strings is available now via HILOMATIK.
by Ben Hogwood, with text lifted from the press release
Another in the 24HR series featuring pure field recordings, Stuart presents some excerpts of recordings he has been making for Constable Ambisonic in 2025-26. The premise of this project is to make 20 one hour long ambisonic (360º) audio recordings of the locations of paintings by John Constable. Excerpts of the audio will be exhibited with the original paintings at Christchurch Mansions in Ipswich during ‘The Hay Wain: Walking Constable’s Landscape‘, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth.
20-minute excerpts can be found on the Stuart Bowditch Podcast, and on his Soundcloud page. Some full length recordings are available as a #slowwtv film on the project YouTube channel, where you can subscribe, follow or share.
Constable Ambisonic is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through an Arts Council Project Grant, with match funding from Colchester and Ipswich Museums, and support from National Trust, Flatford.
Stuart has been recording sound in urban and rural environments since 2005 with artist residencies in Canada, Austria, Portugal, Rochester, Felixstowe, Southend and Colchester. His work has been exhibited internationally in China, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and nationally across Essex, Suffolk, London and further afield in the UK. The cassette is presented in a bespoke cover individually cut from recycled card stock by Nick Dawson (Eumig/Details), with text and artwork inserts, a Constable Ambisonic sticker and released in a limited edition of 20.
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/
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