New Music Reviews
Les Égarés, London Jazz Festival, Cadogan Hall review - a wondrous musical conversationFriday, 17 November 2023
Combine four super-talents, masters of their instrument, and you might well expect a battle of egos or a clash of modi operandi. Not least, as in the case of Les Égarés, a quartet made up from two seasoned duos – the virtuoso jazzers Vincent Peirani (accordeon) and Émile Parisien (soprano sax) on the one hand, and the entrancing creative partnership of Ballaké Sissoko (kora) and Vincent Ségal (cello) on the other. And yet… Read more... |
Death Cult, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - The Cult revisit their post-punk rootsThursday, 16 November 2023
The Cult may have only really hit paydirt in the late Eighties when they started worshipping at the altar of the Rawk Gods of more than a decade before and welcomed Rick Rubin and Bob Rock to toughen up their sound on albums like Electric and Sonic Temple. Read more... |
Le Guess Who? 2023, Utrecht - deep listening and deft dancingThursday, 16 November 2023
On a Friday morning under the Dom Tower, the tallest church spire in the Netherlands, our enthusiastic guide explains that we’re standing on 2000 years of history. Formed on the frontier of the Roman Empire, Utrecht originally bordered the river Rhine. Read more... |
Album: Lucidvox - That's What RemainedThursday, 16 November 2023
That's What Remained is the aural equivalent of being pulled into a maelstrom and then surrendering to this powerful natural force. Initially, it does not seem safe. But it soon becomes apparent that submission isn’t a problem. It will be fine. Emerging from this experience is accompanied by a shakiness. But that’s OK too. Read more... |
Ben Folds, Royal Albert Hall review - piano pyrotechnics and modern musingsWednesday, 15 November 2023
When Ben Folds emerged in the mid-90s he was like Billy Joel’s snot-nosed little brother: another virtuoso pianist and songwriter but one whose style was sarcastic, subversive and a little bit punky. Read more... |
Hiromi's Sonicwonder, EFG London Jazz Festival, Barbican review - keyboard fireworks from a brilliantly versatile jazz pianistTuesday, 14 November 2023
To watch virtuoso jazz pianist Hiromi perform is to experience a vast weather system of sound; at some moments exuberant hailstorms of notes alternate with thunderous chords, at others, sombre atonal passages resolve into a burst of sunshine. Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 80: Nanci Griffith, Scuba, Dope Lemon, Aerosmith, Bob Marley, Pharoah Sanders and moreTuesday, 14 November 2023
VINYL OF THE MONTH Being Dead When Horses Would Run (Bayonet) Read more... |
Jambinai & Leenalchi, Southbank Centre review - contrasting faces of contemporary Korean musicMonday, 13 November 2023
Friday’s double-header at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank was not only one of the final gigs in this year’s K-Music Festival – entering its tenth year with an eclectic range of Korean artists and bands performing across London and beyond – but also one of the launch gigs for this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival, now entering its 31st year. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Incident at a Free FestivalSunday, 12 November 2023
“We got to play Stonehenge Festival when it was like just a field, a generator and stage. No rip-off burger joints. No packaged new age culture. Just good British hippiedom. A bunch of scruffy, dirty, bean-burger-eating, spliff-making hippies, and in the middle, a bunch of Hell’s Angels.” Read more... |
Korea On Stage, OVO Arena Wembley review - a symphony of lights, beats and empowermentFriday, 10 November 2023
Choruses rocked, choreo popped, and thousands of light sticks danced in unison, as an incredible lineup of nine acts lit up this fourth edition of Korea On Stage, celebrating 140 years of UK-Korea relations. Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Gilliver, Liverman, Rangwanasha, LSO, Pappano, Barbican revi...
For all its passing British sea shanties and folksongs, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony does Walt Whitman’s determinedly global-oriented...
theartsdesk Q&A: Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof on...
Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof is now an...
Bowling For Soup, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton review - nostalg...
Bowling For Soup are celebrating their iconic album, A Hangover You Don’t Deserve, on a fun-filled, energetic tour for its 20th...
Philip Marsden: Under a Metal Sky review - rock and awe
Working on materials was basic to human culture from the start: chipping at flint to make a hand-axe; fashioning bone or wood; drying hides....
Blu-ray: High and Low
Akira Kurosawa’s mastery of different genres is a given and one of High and Low’s strengths is a seamless blending of various...
The Years, Harold Pinter Theatre review - a bravura, joyous...
Annie Ernaux’s semi-autobiographical book Les Années charts a woman’s life across time and space, history and memory, through...
Nina Conti: Whose Face Is It Anyway?, Brighton Dome review -...
“I really am the repository for all your shit,” Nina Conti’s famous Monkey hand puppet tells her. Monkey may have a point.
The brilliance of...
Braimah Kanneh-Mason, Fernandes, Gent, 229 review - a beguil...
It was the sonically adventurous, shiveringly atmospheric cello piece by Latvian composer Preteris Vasks that proved to be the first showstopper...
Phaedra + Minotaur, Royal Ballet and Opera, Linbury Theatre...
Greek myths are all over theatre stages at the moment, their fierce, vengeful stories offering unnerving parallels with events in our modern world...