Earlier this week we learned of the sad news of the death of choral conductor and organist Martin Neary. Neary was known primarily for his work with the choir at Wesminster Abbey, put in to perspective by this fine obituary of his work on the Presto website. I wanted to take the opportunity to put together a short playlist of some of Neary’s recordings, which you can find below.
The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 was an incredibly intense event, a memorable occasion where it seemed the UK – and especially London, where I was – ground to a halt for an hour. The music that stayed in our consciousness afterwards, as well as Elton John’s reworking of Candle In The Wind, was the remarkable Song for Athene by John Tavener. Neary ensured it was given the best possible performance, which speaks volumes for his musicality and temperament.
Song For Athene leads the playlist below, which concludes with Neary playing Widor’s effervescent Toccata:
edited from the press release with extra words by Ben Hogwood
MF Robots build upon the success of first single Hello Sunshine on their own imprint Good People Records (a joint venture with Republic Of Music) with Children of the World, the Afro-soul-funk fuelled second single taken from the forthcoming album III (three), out Feb 2026.
It is a ray of late summer sunshine for sure, with a singalong chorus that proves difficult to shift after a few listens, and a breezy, funky vibe with Afro grooves added.
Jan Kincaid, co-founder of MF Robots, comments : Children of the World is a freewheeling fun ride, through a hazy summer block party, dancing, hanging out, a neighbourhood homage to simpler times, to innocence but also with a “Go get it, the world is YOURS” message to ourselves to not lose that youthful ,driving energy for life ,the sense that anything is possible ,that we have when we are younger and less burnt by a tricky world….”We wanted this to have a kind of feeling like a freewheeling bike ride at sunset, not really going anywhere In particular but with the sun on your skin ,losing yourself to a perfect moment”… Sunshine is indeed something you could think of a lot with this second single and the album to follow. MF Robots hope you enjoy this release as much as they did making it!
This release follow their 2021 Break the Wall record (reviewed on Arcana here) which was released to rave reviews. Collaborating for the first time while recording and performing with one of the UK’s most successful Acid Jazz bands, The Brand New Heavies in 2013, founder / drummer Jan Kincaid and vocalist Dawn Joseph discovered immediate musical chemistry and began writing songs together right away. They soon left the band to concentrate on their own work, starting MF Robots (Music For Robots) and releasing an eponymous debut in 2018. The album was so well received that the duo soon morphed into a band as they found themselves in-demand at venues and festivals all over Europe including being personally invite on tour across Europe by Lenny Kravitz.
The forthcoming long player III represents a new sonic and song benchmark for Jan and Dawn, reflecting the MF Robots project coalescing and maturing while fine-tuning their material, both on the road and in the studio.
You can explore purchase options for Children of the World by clicking here
Published post no.2,672 – Monday 29 September 2025
TERRA MEMORIA Kaija Saariaho String Quartet Shostakovich String Quartet No 3 in F, Op. 73 plus a selection from 24 Preludes Op 34 Rubicon Classics RCD1218 Release date: 31 October 2025
“I feel when writing for a string quartet that I’m entering into the intimate core of musical communication.” Kaija Saariaho
Following two highly acclaimed composer-led volumes of Tchaikovsky’s string quartets last year, Dudok Quartet Amsterdam returns to another of its signature concept albums with a mix of thought-provoking repertoire. Terra Memoria is the Quartet’s sixth album on the Rubicon Classics label and features Shostakovich’s third string quartet, from 1946, paired with Kaija Saariaho’s second String Quartet Terra Memoria from 2007. It is something of a partner to their 2022 album, Reflections, which paired Shostakovich’s String Quartet No 5 Op 92 with Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No 4and also featured other of the Quartet’s transcriptions of Shostakovich’s Preludes Op 34.
As a result of the Dudok Quartet’s inimitable and deeply inquisitive approach to understanding and expressing what they discover in these scores, they find that although Shostakovich and Saariaho are very different in their compositional approach, the outcome is similar; both possess unmistakeable musical signatures which empower their communication of imagination and emotion to performers and listeners alike.
Initially, Shostakovich gave titles to the five movements of his quartet No. 3, referencing a range of feelings and responses to the threat and ultimately the destruction and desolation of war. If these titles intended any kind of narrative or explanation, the composer gave no reason for soon withdrawing them and, as Dudok violinist Judith van Driel explains, the force of the music cancels out any need for words; “Playing or listening to the third movement [for example] gives an infinitely more accurate meaning, by making adrenaline rush through your body causing your ears to ring from an unrelenting pounding. Its meaning is manifest in your sense of terror, fear and anger, whether or not you have ever experienced war up close.”
Throughout the quartet Shostakovich uses various compositional techniques to provoke immediate and reactive personal responses that are sometimes ambiguous and sometimes at odds – yet co-existing with each other. From the pastoral opening to the meandering melody searching for meaning in the fifth movement, it is the music that elicits inexplicable – in the most literal sense – and instinctive feelings.
Saariaho expressed a love for the richness and sensitivity of the string quartet sound, although she only composed two works in the genre. The second, Terra Memoria, captivated the Dudoks from the outset when they worked on it with her in 2011 (they were enchanted further by her music when they collaborated in the world premiere of her penultimate opera, Only the Sound Remains, in 2016). Saariaho references the work as being ‘for those departed’, those whose lives are over, with nothing to be added, while those left behind are haunted by dreams and memories and find that the shape of remembrance can change as time passes.
But this explanation is only a starting point for the listener or player to make personal associations through experience of the composer’s sound world. Familiarising itself with her unique musical vocabulary was an absorbing and rewarding journey for the Dudok Quartet as they encountered a variety of unusual playing techniques and inventive musical mutations that include experimental threads of electronic music, minimalist-type repetition and operatic styles. For them, Saariaho’s music evokes a kind of intermediate zone between the known and the unknown, the living and the dead.
The Dudok Quartet is also known for its own transcriptions of works not originally composed for string quartet and rounds off the album with a selection from Shostakovich’s PreludesOp. 34 written for piano, all of them tiny gems which elicit personal stories and associations in the listener and player.
“We aim to show that music affects people; that music can lead us to profundity and connection especially when it provokes friction. The true meaning of music reveals itself in a shared experience in which you, as a listener, play a vital role.” Dudok Quartet Amsterdam
The Dudok regularly performs in the UK and will feature Saariaho’s Terra Memoria in recital with Schubert’s Death and the Maiden in Portsmouth, Sheffield, Macclesfield and Hastings in November 2025, and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No 3 on tour in early 2026 – to the US in January and Scotland in February. Click here for further information.
Terra Memoria Dudok Quartet Amsterdam Rubicon Classics RCD1218 Release date: 31 October 2025
Dmitri Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 3 in F, Op. 73 (1946) I. Allegretto II. Moderato con moto III. Allegro non troppo IV. Adagio (attacca) V. Moderato
Kaija Saariaho – Terra Memoria (2007) for String Quartet Shostakovich – 24 Preludes, Op. 34 No. 1 in C major – Moderato No. 2 in A minor – Allegretto No. 4 in E minor – Moderato No. 6 in B minor – Allegretto No. 12 in G sharp minor – Allegro non troppo No. 22 in G minor – Adagio
Collabs 3000 – Chris Liebing & Speedy J (aka Jochem Paap) -announce the 20th Anniversary Edition of their smouldering collision of taught techno rhythms and sonic abstraction, Metalism,and the release of tracks from their first collaboration in nearly two decades. Metalism will be available in full on vinyl for the first time, and on CD and digitally – both with the original artwork by The Designers Republic – on 14 November. That will be preceded by the ‘2025 EP’, available now on vinyl (limited edition of 500), with the digital following on 7 November, via NovaMute.
The 2025 EP kicks off with ‘Zwart’, a track of driving kaleidoscopic techno burrowing deep into your brain and limbs, and ‘Spiegeling’, where propulsive techno rhythms, and minimal ricocheting melodies coalesce for this essential dancefloor track. Both cuts offer a tantalising glimpse of what these two these two Techno titans have been creating nearly 25 years after they originally joined forces for Collabs 3000. Artwork for the EP is a playful nod to ‘Comedian’, Maurizio Cattelan’s controversial conceptual artwork and references the duo’s “bass banana”, which is passed between them to signal whose turn it is to lead the beats.
Techno innovators, Chris Liebing & Speedy J, began their Collabs 3000 project in 2001, at Frankfurt’s notorious U60311 club. Liebing and Paap, already key players in the European Techno scene, performed an off-the-cuff set that saw Liebing mixing out of a Speedy J live set and Speedy J bouncing off Liebing’s selections behind the deck, creating an utterly unique set.
Soon after that set the pair recorded at Paap’s studio in Rotterdam for a release for Speedy J’s celebrated collaborative series on NovaMute, Collabs. The resulting 12” helped to define the sound of early ‘00s Techno and their chemistry in the studio meant that they soon reconvened to record an album, Metalism.
The 20th Anniversary edition of Metalism has been remastered by Chris Liebing, and comes housed in the original art by The Designers Republic. The eleven relentless, layered tracks that move from brutal tough drums and dancefloor bound techno to more experimental meanderings, combine the pair’s mastery of subversive electronics and peak time techno and have lost none of their sheer power in the intervening years.
The 20th Anniversary Edition of Metalism is available on double vinyl, CD and digitally on 14 November via NovaMute. Pre-order HERE 2025 EP is out now on limited vinyl, and digitally on 7 November via NovaMute. Pre-save HERE
Published post no.2,661 – Thursday 18 September 2025
Arcana.fm 