This year's edition of Malmö's Intonal marks the festival's tenth anniversary. From its early days as a collaboration with Berlin's CTM and Krakow's famed Unsound festival, Intonal has grown into a thing completely of its own. Rather than trying to copy the successful but heavily international scene-driven formulas of other European festivals, it focused on cultivating a close relationship with the local audience – from the festival's intimate setting to the lineup, designed to both reflect the interests of the Malmö scene and showcase its talent. Some of the reasons for this are beautifully explained in the festival manifesto in the words of none other than the great Shania Twain.

Italian percussionist Irene Bianco's debut album Kronblade, released in October 2024 via Valentina Magaletti and Fanny Chiarello's wxmen-focused label Permanent Draft, garnered attention for its imaginative and subtly genre-bending approach to percussion.

Performance recommendation by Macon Holt Later this month, Danish composer, performer and recorder player, Kirstine Lindemann, will start a tour of Denmark to showcase a collection of both earlier and new compositions with collaborators Yiran Zhao and Irene Bianco amongst others. Known for previous work such as the piece Breath (2018) and her ongoing project with Zhao, OTHER EYE, Lindemann is ...