Contemporary music is still alive – but often despite its own obsession with complexity and endless duration. That became clear at the festivals in Witten and Cologne.

Dark Music Days in Reykjavík offered everything from Bára Gísladóttir’s orchestral darkness to noise, seaweed and quiet song in Harpa – in a music scene where community matters as much as the export adventure.

Four Scandinavian musicians and a Canadian banjo amateur/karate instructor cross the American South to find out whether they can become a band – somewhere between Schubert, country, and doubt.

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.

In Reykjavík, snow falls sideways, and sorrowful reindeer sing. Dark Music Days unfolds the winter darkness in experimental tones where silence and noise meet – and even a harp made of yarn tells stories.

Chaotic times call for chaotic music. But also soft techno, flutists and yoga balls. Jennifer Gersten and Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek wrap up the musical year in a conversation between New York and Aarhus.