A few years ago, the Danish Composers’ Society (Dansk Komponistforening) conducted a survey, which confirmed that opera houses, orchestras, ensembles, etc. are, in our eyes, playing far too little new music, and that female composers are grossly underrepresented. After the review was made public, I was asked in an interview whether I could hear a difference in music made by women and men—because, if there wasn’t actually a difference, then it didn’t make sense, in the eyes and ears of the interviewer, to single out or advocate for music made by women. That was, of course, a provocation, but can you point to any differences in music made by women and men?

“The Unknown Inside Us” is a conversation between composers Marcela Lucatelli and Bent Sørensen about the current state of diversity in Danish institutions. Læs resten

Macon Holt “On Popular Music” is the latest addition to the Passive/Aggressive small prints series on contemporary music theory and sonic fiction. In this series:Macon Holt “On Popular Music” (2021)Pauline Oliveros “Bryd stilheden” (2021)Steve Goodman “Sonisk krigsførelse” (2020)Éliane Radigue “Tiden er uden betydning” (2019)“K-Punk: Or how Mark Fisher intensifies the political possibilities of music” (2019) In On Popular Music (a ...

I guess we’ve all been there – that molten, not-necessarily hot-mess after endlessly pressing repeat on that latest track which happens to be able to take you on. Where and how does it happen? This fiddling of emotions between something that is your heart and something that is a heart in a pop production.

Feature by Macon Holt Behind the auspicious campuses of The University of Copenhagen and the national broadcaster, Denmark’s Radio, just far enough along an unassuming main road that stretches into what those who dwell on the mainland might call, deep Amager, we find one of the newest independent venues for artistic and musical residencies and documentation distribution, Polychrome. The building, which could easily be mistaken ...

Esther “Esther” (Textur, 2020) – review by Macon Holt The second release from the Copenhagen based label Textur is the self-titled EP by Esther; a collaboration between producers Martin Messell and Andreas Høegh. Over the six tracks, the duo reconstitute the audio of live multi-instrumental improvisation into pieces of glitch infused ambience.

Manuel Göttsching & Cirklen – photo: Christian Møller Blæhr Festival of Endless Gratitude, Koncertkirken, Copenhagen, September 10-13 – live report by Wieland Rambke For the 13th year now, Festival Of Endless Gratitude opened its doors for an adventurous audience. What today is a festival celebrating experimental music from around the globe has gone through a long history of changes now: Originally a ...

Marcela Lucatelli “Anew” (self-released, 2020) – review by Macon Holt “Anew” is the latest album from the Copenhagen-based, Brazillian composer/vocalist/concept engineer (to borrow Kodwo Eshun’s term) Marcela Lucatelli. The record sees her taking her expertise in extended vocal techniques as a way to perform an improvisational exploration of a computer programming manual while providing herself with piano accompaniment. But the facts of ...

In December 2019, the cultural theorist and P/A contributing editor, Macon Holt, published his first book, “Pop Music and Hip Ennui: A Sonic Fiction to Capitalist Realism”, from Bloomsbury Academic. In this essay Holt explains key points of the book and tries to answer the question, What is a Sonic Fiction of Capitalist Realism? – drawing on the writings by Kodwo Eshun, Mark Fisher and Slavoj Žižek, afrofuturist artefacts by Sun Ra and Drexciya, as well as pop music as manifest by Jessie J and Beyoncé.

Essay by Macon Holt. Illustration by Joakim Drescher. Photo by Nick Lowe (creative commons). Læs resten

Essay by Wieland Rambke Look at a lava lamp. You always see the same thing while the shapes within keep changing. In presenting you with a visual stimulus that is in perpetual motion, it is as predictable as it is surprising. Everything that happens inside the lava lamp merely confirms the limited range of what it does. There is something hypnotic and ...