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When the Past Begins to Make Noise Again
At Geneva’s Archipel Festival, lost instruments and occult soundscapes are brought to life in a journey through speculative rituals and experimental music.
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The Hunt for Sound Installations in Nuremberg
From seductive echoes in an abandoned yeast factory to allergy-inducing angel wings in a baroque church – Musik Installationen Nürnberg put the body in motion, but left the question of what a music installation truly is unanswered.
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Spor Festival at Twenty: the Eternal Play of Sound
From giant flutes to performative rituals – the anniversary edition of the Aarhus-based festival unfolded the materiality of sound and musical collaboration in new forms.
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Estonians Can Truly Compose – Especially for Voice
Estonian Music Days revealed how a young, vocally attuned community of composers in the small country between Finland and Russia combines historical depth with freedom, resonance, and intimacy.
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An Operatic Vision Lost in Translation
Bent Sørensen’s new operatic collaboration with Jon Fosse falls short of what it might have been.
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The City that made Noise into History
At the Copenhagen Museum, the city’s forgotten soundscapes are brought to life – from street cries and gongs to nervous night sirens – in an exhibition that lets the echoes of the past resonate in present-day ears.
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Punk is Dead and Opera is Not Feeling Well Either
Damon Albarn’s Mozart spin-off »The Magic Flute II« is replete with synths and spectacle, but does it truly capture opera’s essence – or merely its aesthetics?
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From Factory Floor to Operatic Frustration
Jenny Wilson’s first opera – an adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s »Women as Lovers« – delivers sharp theatricality and biting satire but struggles to find its musical voice.
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Who said that simplicity should be simple?
Three albums with music for string quartet – and the likes – by Jürg Frey, Simon Christensen, and Anders Lauge Meldgaard each approach musical simplicity in their own way. But they aim for entirely different things with it.
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When Sound Becomes Body and Struggle
»Bodies of Sound« gathers reflections from women and non-binary individuals on sound as experience, strategy, and resistance. This book should be read by anyone interested in sound as something beyond just music.
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Head to Venice and Hear Foreign Songs Everywhere
War, refugees, and destruction are inescapable at the Venice Biennale. You can feel it, see it, hear it – it's all-encompassing. Has Venice ever been this filled with sound?
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»Ist nix für Frauen«
Powerful Rhythms and Empowered Voices dominated at the opening night of Heroines of Sound Festival in Berlin.