Into the Unknown

In Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s first opera, the Arctic becomes a landscape for music that moves slowly but contains immense power.

ByAndrew Mellor

What Is Ambient When Everyone Is Making It?

Three days at a conference on ambient music prompted me to reconsider the genre’s old heroes, its relationship with AI, and its strange journey from niche to ubiquitous background music.

ByKristoffer Møllegaard

Samsø Finds a New Sound

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.

ByAnia Mauruschat

Langgaard Lets His Hair Down

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.

ByCatja C. Gaebel

Irony Is Not Dead. It Has Just Got Feelings

For a long time I scoffed at metamodernism. Now it has made the last 30 years of composition music hang together. But it is misleading when music scholars call metamodernism a school.

ByJakob Gustav Winckler

Live From the Universe

Cosmic radiation passes through our bodies without us ever noticing. In a new exhibition, Christian Skjødt Hasselstrøm attempts to make this invisible stream tangible through sound, light and space.

Christian Skjødt Hasselstrøm – Media Art Biennale, WRO Art Center 2025. © Wojciech Chrubasik

ByLouise Steiwer

When Opera Leaves the House

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.

ByAndrew Mellor

The Art of Letting Go

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.