Category Archives: Switched On

New music – Hannah Peel: Underland Original Score (Rivertones)

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posted by Ben Hogwood, with text from the press release

Hannah Peel’s original score Underland, Robert Petit’s film based on the Robert Macfarlane book of the same name, is out on CD today via Rivertones, followed by a world premiere of the score next week, part of the Hannah Peel In Focus series at the Barbican on 23-24 October 2026.

Hannah Peel’s Underland draws a glorious and vivid electronic map of the ground below, and what comes buried beneath that ground. Melodies that feel like they’ve been lifted directly from the soil merge with rhythm tracks that could be insects burrowing caves through the undergrowth, and gorgeous ambient echoes intertwined with spectral voices… these elements in Hannah’s hands are the true sound of the underground.

The premiere performance of Underland has been adapted by Kieran Brunt and will be performed by contemporary vocal ensemble Shards. For this unique performance, the score combines choir and electronics with stunning imagery from the film, adapted for stage by the director, Robert Petit.

Talking about the source material, Peel says, “I had read Robert’s book back in 2019, and even included some words from it for my 2022 album ‘The Unfolding’. The chance to actually compose for the book’s film in return though: beautiful synchronicity!”
Going on to explain, “Scoring for these astronauts of the underworld, those sacred ancient cave systems, the mysteries of the universe’s secrets, exploring what would they actually sound like? Those haunting descents that remind us of our planet’s past and future, asking us to look deep into our ancestors’ stories and evaluate where we will go next, made it a profound film to work on. I used ancient Mayan Pod Trumpets and an iron age horn called a Carnyx mixed with baroque choir, string orchestra and synths to bring to life a score that had to combine mythology, technology and possibility.”

Hannah Peel In Focus is a two-day takeover at the Barbican, opening on Friday 23 October at Milton Court on 23 October with PIA – a brand-new live music and dance production for her 7-movement odyssey Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia (2020). The production was created with choreographer Katya Bourvis and creative producer Tala Lee-Turton, and will be shaped by the sound of a 17-piece brass band.

This will be followed on Saturday 24 October with the Underland premiere and a live performance by Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang of their recent album The Endless Dance (Real World Recordings), an album grounded in the strength of ancient concepts. This will be a rare chance to see the album performed, as it comes alive with the joy and freedom of play as together, the artists travel through the 24 solar terms of the Chinese calendar with a cornucopia of sound in tow – synths and prepared piano alongside traditional and unconventional percussion that includes rice bowls and a jawbone.

Hannah Peel won Discovery of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards last week with her score for Midwinter Break.

Underland is out today on CD via Rivertones

Published post no.3,052 – Monday 19 October 2026

Switched On – Digitonal: The Night Album (Just Music)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

A great deal of thought has gone into Andrew Dobson‘s return to the long playing format under the Digitonal alias, after an absence of six years. The Night Album, released close to midsummer’s day in the UK, takes the small hours as its inspiration.

Dobson decided this would be his first fully solo album, and in addition – conscious of the lurking presence of AI – decided he would play all the instruments himself. As he said, “The electronics became a provocation for me to respond to and the production process a way of pushing my own limits and shaping something intentional.”

Having moved from London to Suffolk, Dobson experiences a slower pace of life – and reflects that in the album, designed as a nine-part suite journeying through the night time.

What’s the music like?

There has always been a poise to Dobson’s best work, and here it runs right through the music of The Night Album. To that we can add a deeper emotion, for there are some exquisite moments here that reward attentive listening in particular.

The clarinet has always been involved in Digitonal’s best moments and so it proves again here, with the beautifully weighted For The Birds. The riff is a subtly nagging one, mellow and thoughtful, while the cool accompanying keyboard sets just the right, peaceful mood. Similar qualities are at work in The Night Sparrow, though here the textures twinkle in the higher register. Evening Song takes the weight off its feet with a deceptively easy keyboard, mulling over its possibilities, while the closing Moon Sequence is a dappled beauty, resting easily if thoughtfully.

Does it all work?

It does, and works in all areas where noise-free listening can be secured. While very pleasant in the background, foreground listening is the way to go.

Is it recommended?

Yes. Digitonal maintains his high quality musical output but this is a notable step forward, allowing people to find peace in the small hours when they have The Night Album for accompaniment. From experience, it’s just as good in the middle of the day!

For fans of…Bonobo, Quantic, Zero 7, Bibio

Listen / Buy

Published post no.3,049 – Friday 16 October 2026

New music – Joseph McGann: Old Wounds (Young Echo Records)

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posted by Ben Hogwood, with text from the press release

Releasing under his own name for the first time, Bristol-based dubstep legend Kahn, aka Joseph McGann, reveals a different side on Old Wounds. Revisiting a shelved project from his earliest days as an artist, the album reveals a softer hue and sees McGann step forward as a singer for the first time. Drifting across a slow, smudged and hazy atmospheric backdrop that harks back the opiated sound-world of David Sylvian’s Japan or classic trip-hop, the record features contributions from Natalia Escobar (Poison Arrow),Bogues and Amos Childs (both Jabu / Young Echo)

McGann writes: “At times, it felt like Old Wounds was destined never to see the light of day. This is a body of work that began in the throes of youth but would remain unfinished until life had moved on, and enough distance existed to grant the necessary perspective to complete it. The core ideas for several songs on this record were conceived back in the early 2010s. The title track itself contains vocal performances originally recorded during one of my very first studio sessions with Amos Childs and Alex Rendall (Bogues), new-found comrades in the then fledgling Young Echo collective. The music made in those sessions was dear to us, but never found a home.

Years later, and with a mind to breathe new life into those early pieces we’d written, I reached out to the incredible Colombian artist Natalia Escobar (Poison Arrow) and it was through this crucial collaboration that Old Wounds truly began to reveal itself. Natalia’s voice and the story she told through her lyrics lent an aching intimacy that took the music to a whole new emotional dimension. She understood the heart and intention of the songs, and I’m eternally grateful to her for giving so much of herself to this album and for helping me to realise what it was meant to be.

To put it plainly; this is a record about longing. Not simply for a person, but for a peace. An attempt to navigate the unique grief of a love unrealised. And, as such, a life unrealised. The waking purgatory one exists in when there is an absence of love, and the agonising want to experience it.

A crying out to someone who isn’t there. 

Resigning yourself to bitter fantasy and dejection. 

Bereft to a point of self-sabotage. 

The sound of accepting your fate. 

This is music inspired by a period in my life I hope never to return to. 

It’s also my hope that, in completing this record and sharing it with you, I can honour these songs for what they are and finally let them go.”

With gratitude, Joseph McGann

Published post no.3,047 – Wednesday 14 October 2026

New music – Arandel: L’Heure du Loup (Edit) (InFiné)

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posted by Ben Hogwood, mostly with text from the press release

Arandel returns with L’Heure du Loup (Edit Version), the first single from his forthcoming album Cosmogonies du Silence, due out on InFiné on 22 January 2027.

Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s Hour of the Wolf, the track evokes the unsettling hours between 3 and 5 a.m., when fears and nightmares emerge.

Built around an improvisation on a small Baroque organ, the piece opens with an uneasy pulse before gradually unfolding into a powerful instrumental journey, driven by the drumming of Louis Delorme (Air, Sébastien Tellier, Katerine).

Moving from tension towards light, L’Heure du Loup offers a first glimpse into an album exploring the relationship between silence, memory and absence.

As you will hear below, Arandel gradually adds new colours to complement Delorme’s fluid drumming:

Created over a period of ten years, the upcoming album explores the relationship between silence, memory and absence. Combining electronic experimentation with acoustic instruments and echoes of Baroque music, it features contributions from Ben Shemie, vocalist and guitarist of Canadian band Suuns; Moroccan singer-songwriter Meryem Aboulouafa; British singer-songwriter and pianist Douglas Dare; and French actor Félix Maritaud (120 BPM).

Published post no.3,046 – Tuesday 13 October 2026

New music – Andy Bell & Masal: Common Primitives (Sonic Cathedral)

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posted by Ben Hogwood, with text from the press release

Andy Bell (Ride / Oasis) and Essex-based harp and synth duo Masal have released their new album Common Primitives, on the Sonic Cathedral label.

It’s their second collaboration, following 2023’s Tidal Love Numbers, and it’s a stunning, meditative collection which veers from kosmische to astral jazz by way of Turkish folk tunes and all the way back again.

The trio launched the album earlier this week with two incredible, intimate live shows at SJQ in Dalston, which saw them incorporating a cover of Faust’s proto-shoegaze classic Jennifer into their set.

The unlikely trio of Andy, plus Masal’s Özlem Şimşek and Alastair Johnson, first came together when the duo supported Andy at a show in Chelmsford in early 2022. Their first album – 2023’s acclaimed Tidal Love Numbers – consisted of four lengthy, almost ambient tracks and is included here on vinyl for the first time as part of a two-record set. By contrast, the seven tracks that make up Common Primitives are almost concise, but also a lot more layered and complex.

“We tend to work from initial, free-jammed ideas, building form and arrangement from there,” explains Alastair of their working method. “This album became a more iterative process where we went back over the ideas – adding, editing and cutting the original material. This approach led to more fleshed-out finished pieces and contrasts with the first album which all came together relatively quickly. Above all, we believe you should go where the vibe takes you.”

Published post no.3,043 – Saturday 10 October 2026