Category Archives: On record

Switched On: Christian Prommer: Rhythmique Nocturne (Compost Records)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Rhythmique Nocturne is the first solo album from Christian Prommer in over ten years, picking up from the successes of Drumlesson Zwei and Übermood, complementing his work as part of Trüby Trio, Fauna Flash, Drumlesson and Voom:Voom.

Prommer, in the words of his Bandcamp, “distils ten years of Berlin into a twilight drift between order and abandon. Daytime studio sketches are pulled apart at night, reshaped by shifting perspectives that swing between jazz harmony, textural experimentation, and the heavy gravity of techno basslines and analog drums. Intimately close-mic’d piano, drums, percussion, cello, and strings are constantly recontextualized—dropped into new rooms, resonances, and imagined spaces—so their meaning keeps mutating. Room noise, human breath, and accidental sounds are folded into the pulse, turning spill and imperfection into rhythm. Even a piano lid thudding shut on Dark Matter is claimed as part of the beat, underscoring an album that embraces freedom, spontaneity, and the beautiful lack of accountability that defines this city at night.”

What’s the music like?

The extended quote shows everything that this album is about, rhythm being the prime focus but with instrumental colour always carefully considered and imaginatively sourced.

What strikes the listener is the forward momentum Prommer enjoys on each track, the fusion between jazz and dance that working extremely effectively, the grooves driven by the lower end of the piano working a treat.

The likes of Algorhythmic and Dark Matter reach thrilling highs, powered by sharp piano stabs and quick beats, their lean and wiry kinetic energy getting the foot tapping straight away. Black Mamba adds deeper feeling, a darkly glinting track that builds effectively, while Bosss lets Kelvin Sholar’s piano run free. Tryin’ Times harks back to the Truby Trio, sashaying into the room in the company of Justine Hoerwarth, whose vocal timing is ideal.

Providing contrast is the deep Struck, vocalist Leona Berlin multitracked on a smoky slower jam, and Night Society, whose orchestral palette grows in poise and power.

Does it all work?

It does – and with atmospheric slower tracks complementing quickfire missives, the contrast is ideal.

Is it recommended?

Yes. An album that fizzes and pops in all the right places!

For fans of…St. Germain, Brandt Brauer Frick, Truby Trio, Jazzanova, Kyoto Jazz Massive

Listen / Buy

Published post no.3,006 – Thursday 3 September 2026

Switched On: Abul Mogard & Rafael Anton Irisarri – Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun (Black Knoll Editions)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This is the second collaboration between Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri, created during a three-day residency at Berlin’s Morphine Raum. The duo recorded their performances live while also reshaping their work, using rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar. All were captured through a vintage (1970s!) mixing console and microphones placed around the room.

As the pair returned to their home studios, Mogard manipulated the existing material through his studio in Rome, while Irisarri added guitar textures and treatments in New York. Then, passages recorded by cellist Martina Bertoni and violinist Andrea Burelli in Berlin added new layers to their work, after which Mogard reassembled everything into the final versions.

What’s the music like?

Like a slow-moving swan, this album proceeds serenely with no hint of the process going on underneath. Heard on headphones, there are moments of heart-shifting beauty as the slow moving but firmly set musical processes make their mark, and the harmonies make telling turns when led by the bassy drones.

This is the case for In the Eastern Wild, a descriptive number that grows in stature to become an awesome presence, a wall of sound complemented by Over The Domes, held exquisitely in suspension.

The centrepiece of the album is A Blue Descent, where immersive ambience takes on new levels with the help of Bertoni’s long-breathed cello phrases, brooding yet uplifting, and In A Quiet Radiance, which goes through a similarly pronounced crescendo. Here Burelli’s violin sits above with a wordless vocal, all beautifully judged and woven together.

The comedown from this is the huge space found by Of Blessed Ages, then the wall of outdoor white noise that is Among Shadows, with a drone you could happily dive into.

Does it all work?

Yes. The pair work as one throughout, the music unfolding with a natural beauty and stature rare in ambient music.

Is it recommended?

With great enthusiasm. This is music that can calm the fevered brow, but also warm the cold heart, for there are great emotional depths found through the smallest movement. A deeply impressive achievement.

Listen / Buy

Published post no.3,005 – Wednesday 2 September 2026

On Record: Royal Ballet Sinfonia / Pete Harrison: Adam Saunders Orchestral Music (Heritage Records)

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Royal Ballet Sinfonia / Pete Harrison, Gavin Sutherland (The Magical Kingdom), Barry Wordsworth (Journey to Lapland)

Adam Saunders
The Magical Kingdom (2003)
Fairytale Sleighride (2008)
Journey to Lapland (2020)
Ballet for Strings (2025)
Capriccio (2025)
Parade of the Snowman (2025)
Sinfonietta (2025)
Sketches of New York (2025)
Three Pieces (2025)

Heritage Records HTGCD117 [68’12”]
Producer Philip Lane Engineers Tony Faulkner, Mike Ross-Trevor (The Magical Kingdom)

Recorded 4 February 2023 at CTS, Wembley (The Magical Kingdom), 12 September 2023 (Journey to Lapland) and 2, 3 January 2026 (all other works) at Henry Wood Hall, London

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

His work having featured on several of its miscellanies, Heritage now issues an album devoted to the music of Adam Sanders (b.1968); his skill when navigating various genres and blurring of easy distinctions between ‘light’ or ‘serious’ music made evident throughout this collection.

What’s the music like?

His music often having an illustrative or pictorial aspect does not lessen Saunders’ technical command in a medium for which he has keen affinity. This is as evident in the earlier pieces here as in those more recent works that, between them, make up the larger part of this album.

The curtain-raiser that is Capriccio having launched proceedings with wit and insouciance, Three Pictures demonstrates Saunders’ all-round versatility across three movements which take in the animated Fanfare and Celebrations, the raptly evocative landscape conjured by Rivers of Calm, Peaks of Magnificence, then the final burst of activity conveyed through Dances of Exuberance. With its often resourceful scoring for strings and harp, Sketches of New York is the highlight of this collection – whether in the pulsating while never mindless activity which characterizes Bustling Metropolis, the elegiac expression of Lonely Souls, the lilting elegance of Green Dances, or the lively and joyful abandon of A City at Play.

If the sprightly and entertaining march-past that is Parade of the Snowman has not become a regular seasonal fixture on Classic FM, it certainly ought to be. As, for that matter, should The Magical Kingdom which subtly refits the British light music from an earlier era for the present day. It lasts barely 10 minutes overall, but Sinfonietta cannily outlines a symphony   in miniature as it moves from the spirited incisiveness of its initial Allegro, via the tranquil eloquence of its Adagio then the humorous resolve of its Scherzo, to the brilliant display of its final Allegro. One of the relatively few abstract compositions in Saunders’ output, this is also one of the most appealing and it would be worth the composer building on its promise.

Fairytale Sleighride finds Saunders back on familiar ground and what is another miniature made for Christmas with tuned percussion to the fore. More substantial (indeed the longest overall work on this collection) is Ballet for Strings – its five movements at once dance-like though self-sufficient in content as they take in expressive characters which are respectively humorous in intent; gracious while not a little nostalgic; animated but with searching asides; delicate in scoring if robust in spirit; then energetic to a degree that sees the overall sequence through to a decisive close. It only remains for Journey to Lapland to round off proceedings with its ‘adventure’ being played out for the pleasure and enjoyment of listeners everywhere.

Does it all work?

It does. Those having heard Saunders’ overture Pirates Ahoy! (Dutton CDLX7190) or one of the seasonal pieces on Heritage’s Christmas anthologies (HTGCD139 and HTGCD299) will find much to enjoy, not least with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia so attuned to his attractive idiom.

Is it recommended?

It is, not least as enhanced with excellent sound produced by and informative booklet notes written by Philip Lane, among the leading British light-music composers of his generation. Hopefully there will be further opportunities to hear Saunders’ orchestral work before long.

Listen / Buy

You can explore purchase options at the Heritage Records website. Click on the names for more information on composer Adam Saunders, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and conductors Pete Harrison, Gavin Sutherland and Barry Wordsworth

Published post no.3,003 – Tuesday 1 September 2026

Switched On – James Murray – Islands Alight (quiet details)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

James Murray’s contributions to the quiet details series now number three, building on the Slowreels – Everyday Exotic collaboration with Ian Hawgood and Weeds, his debut solo album.

About the sequel, James has said, “Islands Alight making landfall amidst these relentless heatwaves and impending drought feels about right; environmental anxiety courses through the album like wildfire, consciously balanced only by the rising of pale, elemental waters.

Developed over four years, the origins go back further still. Drawing together wide- screen melodic, rhythmic and electroacoustic concerns, Islands Alight stands as a deliberate, defining work at the confluence of ambient dub roots and the artist I am now.”

What’s the music like?

Murray has a special way of working with deep musical ambience that combines both restfulness and emotion. Islands Alight is undoubtedly suitable for hot weather listening but has a cool edge to it, calming the fevered brow.

After Shallows sets the scene, its deep sounds in contrast to its title, before Becalmed builds with steady intensity, with stately and rather gorgeous shifting patterns. Whale Isles pans out again for an expansive view, and has real presence, glinting at the edges but underpinned by solid bass. Albatross soars but also applies a firm beat, before Murray goes for deeper bass with Sargasso, the dub elements coming through. In fact the percussion is deceptive, providing strong rhythmic profiles but somehow sitting in the background.

Does it all work?

It does. Murray paces things to perfection, and the overall ambience is lasting long after the album has finished.

Is it recommended?

Enthusiastically. The best ambient music manages to soothe but also inspire, and James Murray is capable of providing both in equal measure. An album to put on repeat, for sure.

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,995 – Monday 24 August 2026

On Record – Raphael Wallfisch, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods – John McCabe: Symphonies 2 & 3 and Cello Concerto (Signum Classics)

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Raphael Wallfisch (cello), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

John McCabe
Symphony no.2 (1970-71)
Symphony no.3 ‘Hommages’ (1978)
Cello Concerto ‘Songline’ (2007)

Signum Classics SIGCD1007 [67’32”]
Producer Andrew Keener Engineer Oscar Torres, Matthew Swan

Recorded 9-11 June 2025 at City Halls, Glasgow

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Signum Classics makes a notable addition to the discography of John McCabe (1939-2015) with his Second and Third Symphonies, alongside his Cello Concerto, given committed and perceptive performances from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Kenneth Woods.

What’s the music like?

Ranging over four decades, McCabe’s seven symphonies are a defining factor of his output and his achievement overall. An ability to reassess the genre afresh each time is hardly less true of those 20 or so concertos which, between them, encompass the entirety of his career.

Certain listeners may have encountered the Second Symphony via Louis Frémaux’s recording (EMI/Warner) made soon after the premiere. The catalyst was Sam Peckinpah’s Western The Wild Bunch (1969) and though McCabe does not follow this hard-hitting scenario literally, he does chart its emotional and maybe its experiential trajectory. A speculative woodwind phrase pervades the single movement whose five sections purposefully alternate fast and slow tempi, incisive and reflective moods, on its course to a visceral while cathartic denouement. That the work emerges full circle, the same yet different, comes as no surprise given its inspiration in a film which was unyielding in its fatalism but highly enlightening through its innate realism.

The stylistic consistency of McCabe’s idiom across several decades is borne out by his Cello Concerto, the ‘Songline’ of whose subtitle references that route taken through its content by the listener akin to aboriginals tracing a physical path through the Australian terrain; even a psychological path through their culture. Tersely though cogently argued, its outer Allegros frame a lengthy Adagio that takes in elements of slow movement and scherzo – separated by an accompanied cadenza where the soloist interacts with luminous tuned percussion in what ranks among its composer’s most eloquent inspirations. Neither are those closing bars, their abruptness dispelling any equivocation, seem other than inevitable in terms of a conclusion.

Stemming from what was a productive period for the genre in the UK, the Third Symphony is a highlight of McCabe’s output. The ‘Hommages’ of its subtitle makes reference to Haydn and Nielsen – but any such allusions are merged into a cumulative structure whose three (more or less) continuous movements unfold from an oblique if stealthy sonata design, via a ‘Fantasia’ more intermezzo than slow movement, to a ‘Fugue-Variations’ which gradually propels the whole orchestra towards an inexorable culmination with resplendent brass then ricocheting percussion. One of the most visceral endings in the modern symphonic repertoire that made an audible impression at its premiere, 48 years ago, and would doubtless do so again today.

Does it all work?

Yes, not least with Woods so attuned to McCabe’s idiom: the Second Symphony less taut if more flexible than Frémaux’s pioneering account and the Third a reminder of why Charles Dutoit’s premiere left such an impact. Nor is Raphael Wallfisch at all wanting in Songlines.

Is it recommended?

Indeed, enhanced by spacious yet detailed sound with informative notes from Guy Rickards. Hopefully Woods and the BBCSSO will take McCabe’s final two symphonies into the studio, while such major works as the Third Piano and Second Violin Concertos also await recording.

Listen / Buy

You can explore purchase options at the Signum Records website, and listen to excerpts from the album at Presto Music. Click on the names to read more about composer John McCabe, cellist Raphael Wallfisch, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kenneth Woods

Published post no.2,986 – Tuesday 17 August 2026