Music
Coming Together: Long Play 2022
By George GrellaLong Play is a Bang on a Can initiative, so that means the festival had concerts dedicated to music by the founders, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars were one of the central ensembles—and yes, they played their arrangement of Eno’s Music for Airports.
In Conversation
Valgeir Sigurðsson with Ondrej Veselý
By Ondrej VeselyValgeir Sigurðsson is a cross-genre composer and producer from Iceland known for his mixture of contemporary classical writing and use of electronic production familiar from popular styles. Sigurðsson has composed music for film and visual media, stage, as well as concert works and operas. He is also one of the founding members of the Bedroom Community label, which is a global collective of artists active in contemporary classical, alternative, and experimental music.
Listen Festival, Brussels
By Martin LongleyFanfared as a “celebration of music and diversity,” the Listen Festival mostly revolves around contrasting breeds of electronica, ranging from idiot-bangin’ house to the most diaphanous environmental strokings. Brussels gorges on sounds that, via different routes, are descended from dance floor culture, in all its variegated manifestations.
Ukrainian Rhapsody
By Scott GuttermanWhen pianist Vadim Neselovskyi played at a benefit for Ukraine at Roulette in April, he brought something that the other participants, even major figures like Fred Hersch and John Zorn, could not: a life spent growing up in the country by the Black Sea, in particular the ancient port town of Odesa.
