Tag: Melanie Dyer

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For roughly half of the year I listened to everything, almost or near enough. Then I wilted, or the opposite of that, for come the summer I perked up in my stool and began to listen to summer ambiances like the chirping of birds, the splashing of hose pipes and water pistols or the sizzling of a barbecue. As...

Introduced by a deft clangour of gongs and chimes then a few drum rolls which might suggest something in the spiritual jazz vein, the bassist Michael Bisio's new album NuMBq proves something else entirely. From the moment those drums taper off and Marianne Osiel blows the first notes of her cor anglais or English horn - a sound which...

For the Uyghurs of the Tarim Basin who continue to raise a voice against the twin spectres of internment and cultural assimilation, muqam remains a key mode of expression, the name for a set of melodic formulas which guide musical improvisation and often take the form of sprawling epic suites. Combining song, dance and instrumental sections, characterised by rhythmic...