An excerpt from a feature I wrote for issue 63 of The New European looking at Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus and the entanglement of the German classical tradition in the rise of fascism.
A feature for issue 51 of The New European investigating the music of the Soviet avant-garde during the years immediately following the October Revolution.
Why should Bowie’s music, so often abstract, glacial, detached, obscure and mockingly ironic, hold such a powerful emotional appeal for so many?
Here are 10 books I particularly appreciated this year – though not necessarily published in 2016 – listed in alphabetical order.
A feature for issue 24 of The New European setting Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the ‘Eroica’, in its historical context: the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon.
Yesterday evening I started to put together some notes for a short post about David Bowie’s new album Blackstar, released just last week. Today I find myself writing, with great sadness, a few words about his death.
A new collection by electronica pioneer John Foxx imagining the rewilding of London offers a sonic tour through a new green city including ‘The Glades of Soho’ and ‘The Hanging Gardens of Shoreditch’.