Sonica Glasgow turned sound into massage, sweets into instruments and Serbian folk song into a psychedelic journey. The festival was most convincing when it dared to go all the way to the edge.
The Oslo-based contemporary music festival Ultima taught me that in a world where everything makes noise, silence can be the most radical expression of all. Perhaps we should send Ed Sheeran to Norway for a study trip?
In Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s first opera, the Arctic becomes a landscape for music that moves slowly but contains immense power.
On Samsø, Salad Days makes room for sound art, improvisation, noise and experimental music. The festival’s small scale creates a particular openness – but also leaves the project vulnerable, as it depends on the efforts of a few people.
The Rued Langgaard Festival opened up the composer’s universe to Sweden, visual art and new interpretations of his music. The strongest moments came when Langgaard escaped the familiar confines. The next step must be to bring him further out into Ribe.
Copenhagen Opera Festival has broadened the reach of opera while making it more experimental under Amy Lane. But when bold projects fail to find their form, the courage to experiment can tip into gimmickry.
On three new albums by Sofie Birch, Tyondai Braxton, and Gustaf Dicksson & co., electronics come alive, melodies are allowed to lose their way, and experimental music discovers a rare lightness.
The Bergen International Festival promised »endless love«. I listened closely – and found it everywhere from medieval madrigals to pop ballads spanning the centuries.
The German Moers Festival is no longer primarily a jazz festival, but a curated laboratory for free improvisation, sound art, compositional music, and political absurdism. At times it feels forced. Most of the time, it is liberating.
Klang Festival was at its strongest when the works spoke directly to the body rather than to the programme notes. Not everything succeeded, but this year's festival was willing to take risks.
At Jazzkaar, international stars are no longer the main attraction. Instead, the festival offers a glimpse of an Estonian scene in the process of shaping its own musical identity.
Niels Rønsholdt’s new music-theatre work »Osmosis« creates a compelling universe of inverted trees, yearning voices, and rock-inflected asceticism. Yet the work’s central idea remains elusive.