music

‘It’s about loneliness, really. It was the total opposite of that “It’s Friday night, let’s have sex” macho mentality that was in most rock music at the time’ Most of the people who started the Mekons and Gang of Four were on the same fine art course at Leeds University. In December 1976 we went to see the Anarchy tour at the nearby polytechnic. I liked the Sex Pistols but the Clash, in their pai…

On 2 November 2023, a dead man released a new song. John Lennon, murdered outside his Manhattan apartment building in December 1980, sang lead vocals on “Now and Then,” the final Beatles single, almost 43 years after his killing. His voice was not synthesised, not cloned, not approximated by an algorithm trained on his catalogue. It was his actual voice, recorded on a cheap cassette player at the…

O2 Kentish Town Forum, London After three unlikely Top 10 albums in the 90s, the trio are back – and on the basis of this rapid-fire set, you hope they’ll stick around Bob Mould has never seemed to have much interest in looking back. The bridges to a Hüsker Dü reunion were burned long before drummer and songwriter Grant Hart died in 2017; the notion that Mould might revive Sugar, the band who sco…

It's Miles Davis' centennial, and fellow musicians discuss how the shapeshifting innovator transformed music over and over again and became more than a jazz legend. He's a cultural cornerstone.

Exclusive: Exhibition to include letters, work permits and dry cleaning tickets that reveal little moments of domesticity in rock icon’s life When Jimi Hendrix lived in a bohemian London flat in the 1960s, he had little need for its kitchen as he had meals sent up from Mr Love, a groovy restaurant on the ground-floor of his building. While celebrities were downstairs, dining at heart-shaped table…

IntroductionAesthetic perception is a cross-modal phenomenon that integrates sensory, emotional, and cognitive processes. While traditionally focused on visual arts and music, recent research has extended this framework to phonaesthetics, which explores affective judgments of language sounds. This study investigates the intersection of musicality and phonaesthetic judgments, particularly focusing…

A music preparatory academy operates under a specific spatial logic: densely packed soundproof practice rooms, their number directly tied to tuition costs. This project begins by accepting that reality rather than denying it.

The trumpeter, composer and band leader still towers over jazz because he treated reinvention not as a betrayal, but as necessary for its survival The space reserved for Miles Davis in the pantheon of 20th-century music is not simply because he mastered jazz, but because he refused to let it stand still. As musicians and fans mark the centenary of his birth , Davis’s work still feels limitless. “…

His recent concerts are a thunderous call to fight for democracy. The nation could use more like him The Bruce Springsteen concert I went to in Brooklyn last week was unlike any concert I’ve attended in decades. It was far more than a fabulous, joyous concert; it was also an inspiring resistance event. From the get-go, the Boss made clear that this concert would be part of the anti- Trump resist…

_Contemporary Aesthetics_ 24. 2026This article traces a thread between Edo-period garden design and modern Japanese ambient music (kankyō ongaku). It focuses on the suikinkutsu — a buried ceramic pot beside a stone basin that produces soft, resonant echoes from dripping water — as an early example of deliberate environmental sound design. This tradition is connected to artists like Hiroshi Yoshim…

On May 31, Yo Sabri make a landmark appearance with the Nashville Symphony for an orchestral rendition of his new album, "Tennessee Desi," which blends Appalachian styles with Muslim devotional music.

(Warp) The Scottish electronic duo remain hugely influential – but their new album’s interrogation of religion is dubious, and the drum programming is worse still This is the first album in 13 years from Boards of Canada, and from the opening notes – an analogue synth rising and falling like a sound effect in a forgotten 1960s radio play – you’re thrust back into one of the most instantly recogni…

Ryan Porter was a central figure in the L.A. jazz scene, performing with Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington, and co-founding the West Coast Get Down.

In her debut album, 'Femme Illustrée,' the 25-year-old francophile puts a spin on Ray Bradbury’s 'The Illustrated Man,' embracing her own scars as a symbol of a life well lived.

In today’s Latin music landscape, looking backward has become a way to move forward. Álvaro Díaz is flipping the script.

Cutty Sark, London The Monteverdi Choir’s account of Purcell’s opera was delivered with devastating clarity, but it was somewhat smothered beneath a 200ft ship’s hull We know that Aeneas is going to sail away. We know it before he arrives, before he declares his love to Dido, and certainly before the Sorceress and her witchy acolytes get all eye-of-newt about it. But when your opera house is the…

With a dash of sci-fi, Colbert ended his CBS late-night show with a powerful musical sendoff featuring Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and Jon Batiste.

Relationships can be one of life’s most meaningful experiences, but they can also be incredibly complex. At their best, they are built on trust, connection, and mutual commitment. However, when that trust is broken through infidelity, the emotional impact can be deeply painful and long-lasting. It can leave both partners struggling with confusion, heartbreak, and ... Read more The post 45 Painful…

(Unheard of Hope) The Guatemalan newcomer and US veteran find striking common ground on an intimate collaboration full of agitation, complexity and uncanny chemistry This dreamlike, intimate album unites one of experimental music’s current stars with one of its most prolific veterans. During an interview promoting 2024’s acclaimed Sentir Que No Sabes , 34-year-old Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti p…