Nick Storring

Those Who Walk Away. The Infected Mass. Though Gavin Bryars’ 1972 The Sinking of the Titanic is itself widely known, its influence on subsequent works by other composers has yet to be duly recognized. One could argue that Bryars’ work gave rise to an entire subgenre’s worth of imitators who wrapped their elegiac[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 127

Mark Hannesson. Angels. When one thinks of the work of the Wandelweiser label’s composers, one might imagine an ultrafragile, moment-to-moment formlessness that hovers indefinitely for a piece’s duration—any given sonority is somehow equivalent to any other. Mark Hannesson’s new disc of solo[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 127

The Cosmic Range. New Latitudes. I’d certainly forgive someone who proclaimed that capital-P psychedelia’s death knell sounded long ago. With so many acts flogging the familiar, tired mélange of tropes pilfered from various underground-rock sources of yore, it’s difficult to find any new music[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring

Benedict Schlepper-Connolly. The Weathered Stone. At a time when rhythmic repetition in chamber music is so often co-morbid with cloyingly banal indie-isms, The Weathered Stone, from Irish composer Benedict Schlepper-Connolly, offers a rather bright glimmer of hope.   From the outset, with its first and titular track (a[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 126

Amy Brandon. Scavenger. Truro-based guitarist and composer Amy Brandon is a quietly singular figure whose musical language hovers softly between numerous familiar styles—notably outside jazz, fingerstyle, and modern composition. Scavenger, her debut recording, isn’t especially conspicuous, yet it’[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 126

Various Artists. Kudatah—Vol. 1 Electronic dance music has always been notorious for its overly rarefied stylistic niches. Within the past few years, the cartoonish overabundance of incomprehensible genre designations has folded in on itself, producing a vast polymorphous body of peculiar and self-aware work. Record labels[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring

R. Andrew Lee. Adrian Knight—Obsessions. The last decade has seen an increase in long, single-movement repertoire for the piano, much of which has been the vehicle for inventive and introspective compositional voices.   Adrian Knight’s quietly eccentric “Obsessions” is a potent addition to this[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 125

Sarah Hennies. Gather & Release. The phenomenological aspect of sound has long been the foremost concern of percussionist and composer Sarah Hennies’ work. While her music often exploits the way we hear, it never comes off as some mere exercise.   Gather & Release bends her fascination with the[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 125

Open Waters Festival. Since 1990 the Upstream Music Association has been a crucial part of Halifax’s vibrant music community—both as presenter and as ensemble. For nineteen years, veteran improviser Paul Cram, a longtime Upstream affiliate, was artistic director. Lukas Pearse, an industrious and[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Nick Storring Issue 125

Quatuor Bozzini. Aldo Clementi: Momento. The press release for Quatuor Bozzini’s new Aldo Clementi portrait disc alludes, in the form of a quote from the composer, to a peculiar sort of metamusical morbidity that was allegedly integral to his thinking. While his eldritch outlook is documented elsewhere as well, what is[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring

Jonathan Adjemian and Mike Smith. Transcombobulation. Even though it’s likely that analogue synthesizers are even more popular now than in their supposed heyday, it’s still difficult not to associate their sound with another era. Fortunately, the Toronto synth duo of Mike Smith and Jonathan Adjemian don’t let that get in the[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring

Thanos Chrysakis. Above The Hidden Track An Endless Blaze. Electronic musician (and, elsewhere, pianist) Thanos Chrysakis’ newest release is dominated by dense continuous textures that throng the sonic field. It’s an undeniably intense listening experience, with less breath and fewer blatant contrasts than some of his other solo work.[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 124