Award-winning US pianist and composer Dustin O’Halloran releases new single Red – the second single taken from his forthcoming The Chromatic Sessions EP, to be released on 8 October on Splinter Music. An improvised piano piece recorded in a single take in his Reykjavík studio; it’s a rather beautiful private moment to make up the second of three tracks forming The Chromatic Sessions’EP.
It’s been a productive couple of years for O’Halloran. Late last year he scored two films, including Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. His ambitious 2024 album 1 0 0 1, released on Deutsche Grammophon, was an immersive concept album that asked questions about the place of human consciousness in the age of AI.
Red is a partner piece to Gold – released last month – with a final chromatic track titled Blue set to follow. The theme of colours emerged organically during the process of writing and recording. “It wasn’t something pre-planned,” says Dustin. “I was improvising on the piano every day, and I realised I was always thinking about colours as I wrote. When you have the mic set up and you’re recording, it puts you into deep focus. There’s something about that red light being on that really pulls you into the moment.”
O’Halloran has long experienced synaesthesia – a mingling of the senses that may sound familiar to many. It can be something as simple as a taste snapping us back to a place we’ve been, a familiar scent triggering a powerful emotional flashback, or – in Dustin’s case – a certain sound evoking the feeling of a colour. “I believe that people are more synesthetic than they realise,” he says. “It’s something that you can tune into. All sensations are ultimately translated in the brain — and I think you can learn to connect different parts of those sensations together.” Such connections are a theme that runs through ‘The Chromatic Sessions’ – including the connection between Dustin and his audience.
Each of the three singles that form ‘The Chromatic Sessions’ EP come with downloadable sheet music when bought on Bandcamp, allowing listeners to play the music themselves. It’s a gesture born of O’Halloran’s heartfelt wish to forge a closer relationship with his listeners. “Releasing music digitally feels so distant and disconnected,” he says. “And I think we’re all looking for connection. When people get involved in playing the music, it becomes part of them in a different way. It becomes communal. It becomes theirs.”
In a changing, unpredictable and turbulent world, something we can always rely on is a new Orb album, with the next holiday-for-the-head never far away. On what is quite possibly the millionth longplayer helmed by electronic lifer Alex Paterson; partnered with the now firmly-entrenched boy wonder Michael Rendall; the inspirationally productive outfit yet again deliver the goods, with one of their best yet.
“I was having a dream, and in this dream was an escalator descending out of the clouds, upon which were Buddhists and hipsters travelling downwards, and beckoning me down from the top, was Roger Eno. When I woke up, I had a text from him, asking if we fancied more collabs, so he’s on the record, amongst other friends.
New single Under The Bed, the second track to be taken from forthcoming album Buddhist Hipsters sees long-time Orb cohort Andy Falconer, whom Alex calls “an ambient god”, join forces with Alex, and the pair go so many fathoms deep that they aren’t merely out of their pit, but Under The Bed, and it displays all the awe of the cosmos like a planetarium from heaven. As the press release says – it is nearly ten minutes of pure, easy, hot-weather ambience.
“Recording the album and playing recent gigs have been comfortable, happy, and therapeutic experiences, largely due to Michael Rendall, who’s a genius that picks up anything he turns his hand to. We have a wonderful, simpatico relationship on record and on stage. Overall, the length, arc, and energy of Buddhist Hipsters energy mirrors one our fans’ faves, U.F. Orb.”Alex Paterson
Spontaneously Combust kicks off in fine style, with Steve Hillage’s unmistakeable guitar, Miquette Giraudy on vintage EMS synth, plus blue roomy bass, backwards vocals, and gentle dream house grooves. It features a top-secret sample, suggested to Alex by shopkeeper-par-excellence Michael King, taken from his mythical basement vaults at West Norwood’s Book and Record Bar.
A recent live set starter, P~1 slowly builds into firing cosmic D&B cyclones, whilst the bleeped-up late 70s synth of Baraka is an ode to a famous Kenyan blind rhino, who, tellingly is known as a symbol of resilience. Already a firm live favourite, A Sacred Choice is prime leaping reggae skank, with Youth on bass, Paul Ferguson on drums, Andy Falconer on atmospherics, and vocals by Eric Von Skywalker.
The title of the eastern influenced, orchestral drama of hip hop banger Arabebonics is a word invented by rapper Rrome Alone, who lends vocals to the track, with added BVs and strings from Violeta Vicci.
Elsewhere, prog-throbber It’s Coming Soon features Andy Cain’s dulcet tones, that grace this plaintive-arpeggiated-prog-throbber, on which Alex manages to smuggle a nod to his aunties Rose and June into the lyrics, before the dusty nostalgic vibes of Doll’s House glows and pulsates in all the right ways, scattering sound beams like a planet sized disco ball.
With Alex having met lovers rock legend Trevor Waters and discovering his classic Love Me Tonight, Rendall isolated the vocal using Logic, transforming the original into the pinnacle of the LP’s house music passage. Newly titled The Oort Cloud (Too Night) and aided by cult Manchester disc jockey Dr D, they embark on a classic NYC deepside journey, for a moment of dancefloor ecstasy.
Elsewhere, Andy Falconer joins forces with Alex on Under The Bed, while the delightful Khàron, named after the sister planet of Pluto, conjures a universe alive with light and celestial beings, largely aided by Roger Eno’s stunningly sparing piano. Finishing on a high, it bids us a warm goodnight.
Buddhist Hipsters is released on October 10th via Cooking Vinyl and will be available on CD with a 6 panel fold out sleeve, black double LP vinyl with a gatefold sleeve and limited-edition rust red, pink marble and yellow marble vinyl.
Clarice Jensen unveils new single Unity from her upcoming fourth solo album Inholidayclothing, out of the great darkness.
Composer and cellist Clarice Jensen unveiled Unity, the second single taken from her upcoming fourth solo album, In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness, out on October 17, 2025 via FatCat Records’ 130701 imprint.
In ‘Unity’, Jensen builds a symmetrical four-chord pattern that repeats steadily, through looping. Upon this she imposes a scampering arpeggio pattern that is irregular and additive, elongating itself through the repeats. She says,’The concept of unity suggests that many are being joined as a whole. In mathematics it is literally the number one. Unity depicts the multitudes (the evolving arpeggios) contained within a unified whole (the four-chord motif), examining the implications of one, or solo, or solitude and how oneness can imply both solitude and interconnectedness.’
‘Unity’ is the second glimpse of Jensen’s new material, following July’s ‘From a to b’. Jensen has been performing ‘from a to b’ as a solo piece while touring with My Chemical Romance, where it has resonated strongly with audiences. The track explores the idea of how and when a solo line becomes two, and how a singular melodic voice can become its own counterpoint.
In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness showcases Jensen’s distinctive compositional approach, in which she improvises and layers her cello through shifting loops and a chain of electronic effects, exploring a series of rich, drone-based sound fields. Pulsing, visceral and full of color, her work is deeply immersive, marked by a wonderful sense of restraint and an almost hallucinatory clarity. The album was recorded as part of the Visiting Artist Programme at Studio Richter Mahr, the creative space co-founded by Yulia Mahr and Max Richter in Oxfordshire, England.
Having made a solo move to the Berkshire Mountains in upstate New York in September 2020 after many years living in Brooklyn, Jensen found herself confronting and enjoying a newfound solitude as the non-stop movement and collaboration of city life as a musician had come to a standstill. The first LP she made post-move – Esthesis, released on 130701 in 2022 – is largely devoid of cello, synth heavy, and examines emotions in a self-conscious way from an isolated point of view that is nearly one-dimensional.
Jensen sets new parameters for In holiday clothing, placing the acoustic sound of the cello at the fore, and affecting the sound only through a few effects (octave displacement, delay, tremolo and looping). ‘It felt necessary to return to the rich acoustic sound of the cello that I’ve loved and produced for nearly my entire life, and to return to an expression of emotion that’s multi-dimensional and sincere,’ she notes.
As a soloist, Jensen endeavors to establish a new tradition of solo cello performance that integrates electronics with the storied and beloved performance practice intrinsic to the instrument. She places great importance on finding and working with effects pedals that integrate well with the cello, and avoids overt use of plugins or playback. Jensen considers the solo cello works of Johann Sebastian Bach as a central backdrop to this new album. Bach’s Solo Cello Suites display a rich range of voices created by one instrument. Having found ways to expand the sound and voice of the instrument through electronics, Jensen found it fitting to return to Bach’s works – music she has played for many years – as a way to touch back in with the tradition of the instrument.
As a composer, Jensen insists that the programmatic elements of her albums align and ring true. This album’s title is taken from the quote from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, ‘… what steps forth, in holiday clothing, out of the great darkness’. She writes, “the quote from Rilke had been bouncing around my mind for many years; the visualisation of musical ideas being born and echoing inside a ‘great darkness,’ then emerging ‘in holiday clothing’ felt very beautiful and tangible, and this essay, which to me is a manifesto in celebration of solitude, depicts what so many artists and composers experience when they endeavor solitary work. This album reflects a personal and conceptual exploration of what solo means.”
In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness is due out on 17th October 2025, and is available for pre-order on vinyl and pre-save on supporting digital streaming platforms.
Malcolm Arnold, by permission Fritz Curzon. Text adapted from press release by Ben Hogwood
Demonstrating why Sir Malcolm Arnold is one of the most versatile and resourceful composers; ’20 for 20’ is the theme celebrating the 20th Malcolm Arnold Festival with performances of all 20 of the composer’s Concertos for solo instruments taking place in Northampton, the town of his birth, over the course of the weekend 18-19 October 2025.
Directed by Paul Harris, The Malcolm Arnold Festival is an annual programme of events celebrating one of England’s most prolific, colourful and charismatic composers – Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006), who is probably best known for his internationally famous film scores, symphonic showpieces, and a canon of powerfully emotive semi-autobiographical symphonies.
INVENTIVENESS ON A SMALLER SCALE – MALCOLM ARNOLD’S CONCERTOS
Perhaps less well-known are Malcolm Arnold’s concertos, written throughout his long career and characteristic of the composer’s versatility in writing for a wide range of instruments and in appealing to both performer and listener alike; as such, they demonstrate all the hallmarks of the composer’s inventiveness in smaller scale.
Malcolm Arnold’s scoring for the concerto tends to favour the reduced forces of chamber orchestra or string orchestra and, according to Arnold authority Timothy Bowers; “Within an Arnold Concerto we find a lighter and more intimate world of expression. The influence of Sibelius in particular was embedded in Arnold’s concept of symphony form and scale”, explains Bowers. “He was also attracted to the sound world of Béla Bartók, particularly his ‘night music’.”
As a composition student of Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music and honing his craft as Principal Trumpet amongst the brass elite of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Malcolm Arnold immersed himself in the workings of the orchestra and went on to become one of England’s most skilled and versatile composers, with the ability to write for any instrument that was called for.
“Arnold was far more productive in this field than most of his contemporaries”, says Timothy Bowers, “and this suggests that the concerto was especially important to him as a form. The best of his Concertos are amongst the finest works that Arnold created, and as a body of work they represent a highly personal approach to the genre. The experience of listening and studying the Concerto series as a whole is immensely rewarding.”
Of the twenty ‘Concertos’ with opus numbers, seventeen are for instrumental soloist, of which three are duo-concertos, the majority lasting around fifteen minutes. The earliest were written for friends and colleagues, which lead to commissions from world-renown soloists including Denis Brain (horn), Julian Bream (guitar), Benny Goodman (clarinet), Michala Petri (recorder), and Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), hence those written for more unusual solo instruments, such as harmonica, organ, and piano duo, and in some cases more than one work for the instrument requiring both a different approach in style and orchestral forces.
Some are better known and more regularly performed than others and some are considered masterpieces of the genre, such as the Flute Concerto no.2, and the Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra.
HEAR ALL 20 CONCERTOS OVER A WEEKEND OF LIVE MUSIC
Festival Director Paul Harris is a composer and clarinettist as well as one of the UK’s leading educationalists and authors. As Malcolm Arnold’s co-biographer, he has worked tirelessly, as Founder-Director of the Malcolm Arnold Festival, to present the composer’s genre in an accessible and exciting format and to provide a platform for both professional and student musicians to perform the composer’s works.
“We’re delighted to be holding the Festival at the very prestigious Cripps Hall which is part of Northampton School for Boys – the very school the young Malcolm Arnold attended!”, says Paul Harris. “For Saturday’s evening concert we transfer to St Matthew’s Church which will provide the opportunity to hear a rare performance of the ‘Grand Concerto Gastronomique’ for Waiter, Eater and Food; a suite of short orchestral pieces, in characteristic Arnold style, and calling for a wordless soprano in tribute to Dame Nellie Melba!
Taking part this year are the LGT Orchestra – an award-winning string ensemble featuring talented young soloists from over 20 nations; Equilibrium Symphony Orchestra – who’s young musicians already have professional solo experience, as well as regional orchestras and youth ensembles that include Bedford Sinfonia, Berkshire Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the London Choral Sinfonia.
GALA CONCERT, GUEST SOLOISTS AND A WORLD PREMIERE
Saturday evening’s Gala Concert provides the opportunity to hear Malcolm Arnold’s Concertos for Trumpet, Harmonica, and Organ, with soloists Nick Budd, Shima Kobayashi and Thomas Moore, while pianist John Lenehan will perform a World Premiere of his own two-hand arrangement of the Concerto for Two Pianos (3 hands) and Orchestra.
The Festival will be welcoming a plethora of guest soloists including: Joshua Milton and Nico Varela, (piano); Poppy Beddoe and Christian Hoddinott, (clarinets); Emmanuel Webb and Elif Ece Cansever, (violins); Hugh Millington and Gonçalo Maia Caetano, (guitars); Michala Petri, (recorder) –who will also be giving a talk; Maria Filippova and Daisy Noton, (flutes); Sarah-Jane Bradley, (viola); Daniel Fergie, (oboe); Junyu Zhou, (saxophone), and Ben Goldsheider and Finnian Smith, (horns).Conductors include Hilary Davan Wetton, Mattea Leow, Ian Smith, Jonathan Burnett and Ben Copeman.
The Festival programme will include complementary works by Malcolm Arnold’s composition teacher, Gordon Jacob; one of his major influences, Jean Sibelius, and fellow composers William Walton, Ruth Gipps, and Malcolm Williamson.
HOW TO BOOK
Day Ticket – allows entry to either Saturday or Sunday’s concerts, priced at £15
Weekend Ticket – allows entry to both days, priced at £25 Under 18s/Students, FREE
Gala Concert – priced separately at £10. Under 18s/Students, FREE
Currently readying a new album for release next year, and ahead of his October tour, Beverly Glenn-Copeland today shares highly emotive and deeply moving cover versions of two Marvin Gaye classics, What’s Going On and Save The Children, via Transgressive Records. Marvin Gaye’s landmark album What’s Going On delivered a profound message of unity and social awareness. Released in 1971, the album confronted pressing issues such as war, racism, and police brutality, all while urging us to care more deeply for one another and the world we share. All these themes can be connected to the events of today and have moved Glenn deeply: Gaza, the attacks on Trans rights and the Black Lives Matter movement. These new recordings are Glenn’s personal response to our current times and articulate the mission behind all of his music: to bring communities together, build collective resilience and speak truth to power.
Commenting on the two cover versions Glenn says: “Marvin Gaye was my teacher. Though I didn’t get the chance to meet him in this life, his untimely death broke my heart. I still listen and learn from his wisdom. Marvin’s music is prophetic and his message of unity through love still rings true today. I’m honoured to be covering these two deeply meaningful songs that captured the zeitgeist of a nation at a pivotal time in our shared history. Listen to his introspective lyrics. Dance to his soulful grooves. Get yourself alive in the hands of a master and heed his call.”
Glenn will soon be returning to these shores for a highly-anticipated October UK tour. These are his first UK shows since 2019 and the extraordinary career renaissance triggered by the rediscovery of his classic Keyboard Fantasies album. The tour will see Glenn-Copeland perform tracks from his acclaimed 2023 album The Ones Ahead as well as fan favourites from across his storied career, accompanied by creative partner and musical producer Elizabeth Copeland.
Published post no.2,625 – Wednesday 13 August 2025
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