Scope Neglect is an experimental and genre-shifting album forged from Frost’s admiration for metal with the mindful removal of its conventional attributes. Where the record touches aspects of the genre, it’s met with glitching electronics, immersive ambient industrial churns and deeply contemplative explorations that result in something impossible to pigeonhole. Created with guitarist Greg Kubacki (from New York’s progressive metal band Car Bomb) and bassist Liam Andrews (from Melbourne band MY DISCO), the album was recorded at Candy Bomber studios in Berlin with engineer Ingo Krauss (Swans, Nick Cave, and Mick Harvey).
Fearsomely talented Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst continues his conquest of the major concerto repertoire for his instrument with this recording of Carl Nielsen's 1928 Clarinet Concerto, paired with a new concerto by Finland's Kalevi Aho. The Nielsen concerto is a dense work in which the clarinet and the orchestra spend a lot of time going their separate ways, with the path of the clarinet being very twisted indeed.
With Night Passages Martin Fröst fuses a centuries-spanning selection of music, from the famous to the rare, into highly original arrangements for clarinet, bass and piano. With his unusual ensemble he touches the genre of jazz, folk and turns traditional Baroque favorites by Bach, Scarlatti, Handel and Rameau into original arrangements. He also sends greetings from his home country, Sweden, with music by Romantic composer Hugo Alfvén and the traditional Polska from Dorotea. Martin Fröst is widely recognized as an artist who constantly seeks new ways to shape, challenge and rebuild the classical music arena and, together with Miles Davis, the only wind soloist to have received one of the world's highest music honors; the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.
Fearsomely talented Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst continues his conquest of the major concerto repertoire for his instrument with this recording of Carl Nielsen's 1928 Clarinet Concerto, paired with a new concerto by Finland's Kalevi Aho. The Nielsen concerto is a dense work in which the clarinet and the orchestra spend a lot of time going their separate ways, with the path of the clarinet being very twisted indeed. Difficult arabesques on the clarinet are interrupted without warning by heraldic blasts from the orchestral horns. The concerto was greeted by early reviewers as a radical modern work, and an instrumentalist wanting to push the clarinet into uncomfortable territory can still make it sound that way.
‘The fantastic thing about art and music is that one can pose questions and conjure up visions at the same time.’ The words are those of the Swedish composer Jesper Nordin, who does exactly that in Emerging from Currents and Waves. A large-scale work for orchestra, clarinet soloist, conductor and live electronics, Emerging… is a collaboration between Nordin, Martin Fröst and Esa-Pekka Salonen. All three are interested in how new technology can – and will – influence art and artistic expression, and in exploring the intersection of mankind, music and technology.
It was Thursday November 30th 2022. We took to the stage at the Komedia in Bath, our first UK tour since Dingwalls in 2017. We had our ever-patient compadre Rob Reed and his troupe of cheerful professionals in tow and not only did they have a load of top-of-the-range cameras with them, they had the talent and expertise to make us look presentable. We were determined to succeed and well…we only went and bloody did it, didn’t we? What we have here is that very film, on a glorious Blu-ray, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it.