John Shand Posts

August 28, 2024 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Goethe-Institut, August 9 8/10 Flying is miraculous not because of altitude, speed, precision or aerodynamics, but because of earth and gravity. So in creating music to celebrate birds and flight, Matthew Ottignon ensured that airiness and velocity are only part of the equation: he also often grounds the music in…

August 27, 2024 / Album Reviews - Archive

Empty Voices 9/10 What a shrewd way to draw you in. Hamed Sadeghi begins Empty Voices with a musical supplication, simply entitled Please. Lasting only two-and-a-half minutes, it sets Sadeghi’s ringing tar (a steel-stringed Persian lute) against a simple drone, and yet the sense of entreaty is palpable – as…

August 16, 2024 / Features - Archive

We have decided to resurrect Oscar Wilde one last time before gently sliding him back into his suitably ostentatious Parisian grave, and moving on to an ambitious new project. “I have put my genius into my life and only my talent into my works,” Oscar fibbed, having liberally sprinkled his…