New Music Biennial review – from the novel to the

Southbank Centre, London
From a turntable artist’s orchestral remix to Gazelle Twin’s melodic revelry, composers reimagine classical

However deeply electronic composers and turntablists journey inside their own world of sound, the invitation to map their primary musical concerns on to a symphony orchestra usually proves impossible to resist. At the Southbank Centre’s New Music Biennial, some dealt with that crossover opportunity more resourcefully than others.

Dialogue by the British-Iranian turntable artist Shiva Feshareki failed to deliver on the promise of its premise: the material, which Feshareki composed for BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor André de Ridder, was pre-recorded, giving her the opportunity to transform it electronically before our ears. This throws up, she explained, the alluring prospect of hearing a transformation before the thing itself has been played orchestrally. In reality, though, the orchestral drones felt too broad and loosely argued to instigate a full-on dialogue between turntable and orchestra.

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by Philip Clark via Electronic music | The Guardian