Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara play secret lovers in Carol, Todd Haynes’s sumptuous 2015 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s semi-autobiographical novel The Price of Salt. In 1950s Manhattan, Therese (Mara) is an aspiring photographer working in the toy section of a department store for the Christmas season. There, she meets the glamorous Carol (Blanchett), who is buying a doll for her daughter. Their chemistry is instant; an excuse to further meet is proffered when Carol leaves behind a pair of leather gloves. They share furtive, longing glances across the snow, have tête-à-têtes in the booths of cosy diners and reflect on failing relationships with men at holiday parties. The romance is slow burning and exquisite, the city blanketed with snow and lashed with rain, the cold-weather costuming immaculate. Rebecca Liu
Art
Flurry of excitement … Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth. Photograph: Sam Drake/Tate
Old paintings of snow scenes tend to be unavoidably nostalgic, a glimpse of a lost world that would be predictably rendered crisp and clean each winter. Not so with JMW Turner’s Snow Storm – Steam-Boat Off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842). Its little steamboat is imperilled at the centre of a terrifying vortex of black and grey, a symbol of humankind’s ingenuity rendered useless as immense natural forces bear down on it. In Turner’s day, these events were an anomaly, remembered for years by their witnesses. Adding extra drama to the work, the artist famously – and probably falsely – claimed that to experience this icy tempest’s effects he’d been lashed to the mast for hours and feared for his life. The mortal threat posed by extreme weather needs no such embellishment now. Skye Sherwin
Music
Frosty reception … Liz Harris. Photograph: Garrett Grove
There is something about Grouper (AKA American artist Liz Harris) that has always reminded me of winter snowfall, albeit through a very melancholy lens. Heavy on the synths and light on vocals, Grouper’s 2011 two-part ambient album AIA: Dream Loss/AIA: Alien Observer blends church-like comfort and cold resignation, conjuring up a sense of the serenity that a mountain climber suposedly feels in their dying moments of hypothermia. Cheery, eh? Perhaps not overtly so, but whether you’re ducking on to a damp night bus or quietly ushering in the new year with a lonely toast, I promise there’s a romance to its quiet, meditative solitude. Jenessa Williams
Book
‘Prose as exquisite as the weather is cold’ … Orlando Photograph: –
The Great Frost that Virginia Woolf describes in Orlando is so severe that birds freeze in mid-air and drop like stones to the ground. “At Norwich,” she writes, “a young countrywoman started to cross the road in her usual robust health and was seen by the onlookers to turn visibly to powder and be blown in a puff of dust over the roofs as the icy blast struck her at the street corner.” This is also a season of delight: of ice fairs on the River Thames, where frozen roses shower down on Queen Elizabeth and her ladies, while coloured balloons hover motionless in the air. And then Woolf gives us the joy of skating downriver with a new love interest. Her prose is as exquisite as the weather is cold, creating one of the most memorable winters in literary history. Sam Jordison
Game
Winter of discontent … The Long Dark. Photograph: Hinterland Studio
Wintry set-dressing has been a video game standard since Super Mario’s first ice levels, but The Long Dark is a game about winter – specifically, an endless winter in the Canadian wilderness, where you must do what you can to survive wolves, hypothermia, bears, blizzards and all the other dangers that nature throws at you. It’s just you and the elements: you hunt, you forage, you explore to find shelter, and you keep going for as long as you can. The experience can be contemplative and beautiful, and it can also be brutal and pitiless. If that all sounds a bit much, you can always go and shout at dragons in the wintry power fantasy Skyrim instead. Keza MacDonald
Growing up in Atlanta, Maalik Glover was accustomed to seeing classical musicians who looked like him—until he started progressing in the field.
“The higher you go in classical music, the less people will look like you if you’re a person of color,” said Glover, a 25-year-old violinist who is Black. “It feels a little bit alienating to be a part of something that seems like you don’t really belong in visually. And this is one of the reasons why a lot of people quit.”
More:Columbus teen receives full scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston
Glover, however, continued to play and obtained degrees from Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). He and 26-year-old violinist Mwakudua waNgure were accepted into the Columbus Symphony in September.
They are the only Black members of the orchestra at this time.
Glover and waNgure advocate for more outreach to young musicians and more diversity programs for adults, but stress that even more effort is needed to fix the root of the problem.
“We still live in a time where it’s unique for a person of color to have a seat in a notable orchestra,” Glover said. “And there is, of course, a socioeconomic (disparity) between people of color and people who are in classical music. And it’s hard to really bridge that gap sometimes.”
CSO Violinist Maalik Glover
Violinist Maalik Glover is one of two Black musicians who has recently joined the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
The Columbus Dispatch
Both Glover and waNgure are graduates of the CCM and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Diversity Fellowship program. And last summer, they participated in a music program at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education center in New York.
They met Rossen Milanov, who is the director of both the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and the Columbus Symphony.
“When he heard them play, he wanted to bring them to Columbus on one-year appointments with the orchestra as full-time musicians,” said Daniel Walshaw, chief operating officer of the Columbus Symphony. “We see these two fantastic young players as some very promising musicians.”
Unfortunately, Glover and waNgure are still minorities in the industry; only 1.4% of orchestra musicians in the United States are Black, according to a study by the League of American Orchestras.
“I think of fellowships as being a good starting place, but maybe kind of like a Band-Aid on a larger, socioeconomic disparity think that is largely unaddressed,” waNgure said.
Buying instruments, paying for lessons, preparing for auditions and traveling to music festivals may be too expensive for some families of color, said waNgure and Glover.
Fortunately for waNgure, who grew up in Fort Myers, Florida, his parents prioritized lessons for him and his three siblings. They all played violin at the insistence of their father, who wanted to be a musician, but didn’t have the opportunity.
“He’s from Kenya. He wanted to be like a Kenyan pop star,” waNgure said. “My parents made it a priority. We didn’t do sports or martial arts or anything.”
waNgure went on to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy and obtain degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and University of Michigan.
CSO Violinist Mwakudua waNgure
Violinist Mwakudua waNgure is one of two Black musicians who have recently joined the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
Barbara J. Perenic, The Columbus Dispatch
Glover credits his success to a fellowship with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. As a teenager, he was granted access to private lessons as well as summer festivals.
“My mom was a single mother, and as much as I would’ve wanted lessons before my acceptance into the talent development program, we just knew it wouldn’t be financially possible,” he said. “Without that program, I’m not confident that I would have a career.”
Targeting people of color early is the only way to change the future, said Glover, who recently partnered with Urban Strings Columbus, a classical music program aimed at young string musicians from underrepresented communities.
“They’ll be able to absorb the information a little bit more organically, similar to their friends who are not people of color,” he said. “They’ll be able to be on the same track and have the same chance.”
More:A family atmosphere: Urban Strings orchestras foster rich environment for participants
While the Columbus Symphony has already been working with Columbus City Schools, Walshaw said the organization is in the early stages of developing a special program for diverse elementary and middle school students.
“We can always do more,” Walshaw said.
“Rossen has made it a priority to have diverse voices on the stage with the guest artists that work with the orchestra, and the music that we pick. When it comes to actual members of the orchestra, that’s a worldwide problem we all have in making sure that there are employment opportunities and a pathway to employment for minority groups that haven’t traditionally been a part of this art form.”
Year in and year out, musical history occupies a prominent place in Nashville, so central is it to how the Music City brand is marketed to the outside world. When a towering legend passes, as Loretta Lynn did this year, we expect reverent, public tributes from other country stars, like the medley that opened the most recent CMA Awards show. But as a close observer of the city’s multiple music scenes and industry sectors, I can attest that the shaping and spotlighting of musical legacy wasn’t limited to well-established forms in 2022.
Expanding the limits of legacy
Naomi Judds’ death, just a day before the Judds’ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, called for careful improvising. I witnessed the ceremony, and felt how its usual tone of familial dignity shifted a bit to allow for the expression of fresh grief. With the Judds’ final tour already scheduled, Naomi’s daughter and singing partner Wynonna stepped into a new role: performer and custodian of memory, singing each night alongside guest vocalists who count themselves among the duo’s many spiritual children.
John Prine was the subject of lavish tributes when he died in 2020. This year, though, the tending of his memory became an ongoing project, a week-long suite of events, ranging from multi-artist Ryman shows to a soiree at a fast-food joint that translated the warm empathy and folksy quirks he was known for into charitable fundraising.
But to only note the celebrations of those who’ve passed would be to overlook the important ways that living traditions were honored in 2022. A remarkable album from Tennessee Sate’s Aristocrat of Bands united the lineages of HBCU marching bands and gospel music, the contributions of student musicians and gospel luminaries, in the process, helping provide for the future of the historic AOB program. Embedding in the band room was some of the most exhilarating field reporting I did this year.
And from one of the most casually poetic voices in Nashville’s hip-hop scene, Ron Obasi, part of the Third Eye collective, came a song naming local heroes and predecessors from the vantage point of a Black Nashville native. He likened his ambitious hustle to that of entrepreneurial artist and community educator Quanie Cash and baseball powerhouse Mookie Betts, who both came up here before him.
Dance, dance (pop) revolution
There are times when dance music goes partially underground, but it never truly goes away. In 2022, the sound and energy of dance music was reabsorbed into pop, and often in ways that nodded to club culture as a source of inspiration. Beyoncé pulled it off on the grandest scale, with a sleekly sequenced exploration of the pleasure and power of house music, invoking the art form’s Black and queer pioneers in the process, Grace Jones included. Drake went there, too. And so did the band Seratones.
On an album released through New West, a roots-centric, Nashville-based indie label, they treated the synthetic textures of disco as an emotionally rich tradition to play with, at moments, echoing the ecstatic sounds of former Nashvillian Donna Summer.
In an interview nearly a decade ago, Miranda Lambert told me that she had little interest in dance remixes of her songs, despite how many of her peers dabbled in the practice. But when I sat down with her again this year, she explained that she’d changed her mind and commissioned a tropical house remix of a single with feedback from her brother, who’s gay, in hopes of giving her queer fans something for the dance floor.
In the old-time string band scene, Jake Blount even used acoustic elements to approximate four-on-the-floor disco grooves and dramatic strings.
Albums that contain multitudes
Jake Blount did his experimenting on an especially high-concept concept album that unfurled an Afrofuturistic storyline. Through radically reimagined a capella field recordings, spoken liturgies, rapped verses and liner notes, all of which he dissected for me, he depicted survivors of an environmental apocalypse finding new meaning in their ancestors’ songs.
The idea of an album as a collection of music meant to be heard all at once can seem almost quaint now, its importance eroded by the ways that TikTok and prime streaming playlist placements can rocket seemingly random songs to viral popularity. So I think it’s worth noting the resurgence of concept albums and cohesive song cycles this year, particularly in roots and country realms.
That not only applies to Blount’s work, but also Leyla McCalla’s. She dug into the archives of Haiti’s first independent radio station and shaped a rhythmically vivid, political and personal story of the relationship between Haiti and the US around bits of that audio.
Tyler Childers took what can be an austere musical form—country gospel—and recorded a set of those songs three different ways. One version features a lean, lusty live band and at the other extreme, the performances were taken apart, reassembled and looped to surreal effect.
Ingrid Andress made a country-pop singer-songwriter album that subtly probed the flexibility of country’s sonic and moral values, a searching approach that I asked her about when I visited her home for an interview, while on a rollicking, rootsy song cycle, Adeem the Artist did their scrappy, immensely clever part to counter troubling narratives of race, gender and class they’ve picked up on in some modern country songs.
But no artist committed themselves to a concept more thoroughly, or spiritedly, than Ashley McBryde. She made up a small, working-class town with her songwriting buddies, then enlisted them to play parts in the cast of salty characters she imagined living there. She was so intent on conveying the personality of each protagonist that she only sang lead on a handful of songs herself.
An open letter calling on the Juilliard School to take disciplinary action against composer Robert Beaser for alleged “decades-long abuse of women and power” has attracted the signatures of about 450 composers, musicians, educators and arts leaders.
By late Friday, after an initial 120 people had signed the letter, Beaser, 68, a former chair of the prestigious Manhattan music school’s composition department, had taken leave from his teaching post as the school launched a third-party inquiry into the allegations.
“In light of the ongoing investigation, and following discussions with Bob earlier this afternoon, we want to notify you that Bob will step away from his teaching duties and other faculty responsibilities while the investigation is being conducted,” Juilliard Provost Adam Meyer wrote in a letter to composition faculty members on Friday. “This change will be effective immediately.”
Last week, the Berlin-based classical music website VAN magazine published the results of a six-month investigation into allegations of misconduct against several Juilliard faculty members, including Beaser, who, the magazine said, “faces multiple, previously-undisclosed allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct from the late 1990s and 2000s.”
These include alleged “repeated sexual advances to sexual relationships with students,” as well as claims that these relationships directly affected critical decisions Beaser enacted as department chair at Juilliard.
The report cites the account of one anonymous former student who described an “instance in which Beaser offered her a promising career opportunity before attempting to obtain sexual favors in return.”
“What will you do for me?” Beaser allegedly asked.
“I am more than willing to participate in Juilliard’s outside investigation in order to protect and defend my reputation,” Beaser wrote Sunday in a statement to The Washington Post. “Until the school concludes this process, I have agreed to be on leave from my teaching position.”
The VAN story also included accounts of other abuses at the school, including claims from a student alleging uninvited advances by Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning composer and Juilliard professor Christopher Rouse, who died in 2019, as well as allegations against Juilliard professor John Corigliano, a longtime composer and faculty member accused by eight former Juilliard attendees for an alleged “unofficial policy” against taking on female students. (Corigliano denied the claims in an email to VAN.)
The open letter — hosted on a Medium account attributed to “Composers Collective” — trained focus on Beaser.
“Though we recognize and appreciate the need for due process,” the letter reads, “the volume of allegations, testimony, and supporting evidence of Beaser’s misconduct are undeniably unsettling. Until the investigation is resolved, Beaser’s presence in the Juilliard composition department could jeopardize the emotional well-being of students and inhibit a safe and healthy learning environment.”
“Sexual discrimination and sexual harassment have no place in our school community,” wrote Rosalie Contreras, Juilliard vice president of public affairs, in a statement Saturday. “We take all such allegations extremely seriously.”
Although the VAN report was unable to confirm whether complaints from two students lodged against Beaser in 2018 ever led to Juilliard officials launching Title IX investigations, Contreras confirmed that internal investigations took place at the school “in the late ’90s as well as in 2017/18” but did not elaborate on their findings.
“Allegations that were previously reported to The Juilliard School were handled at the time, based on the information that was provided,” the statement reads. “However, in order to review new information and to better understand these past allegations, the school’s current administration has launched an independent investigation.”
Juilliard’s policy on faculty-student consensual relationships explicitly forbids relationships between faculty and undergraduates, and “discourages” them for graduate students.
“In addition to creating the potential for coercion, any such relationship jeopardizes the integrity of the education process by creating a conflict of interest and may impair the learning environment for other students.”
Students contacted for VAN’s report characterized Beaser’s conduct as being well beyond an “open secret,” and paint a picture of the overall climate for women enrolled at the prestigious music school as stubbornly toxic.
Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, who helped write and post the open letter Friday, is one of an alliance of anonymous female composers confronting the school’s alleged “long history of tolerating and covering up sexual misconduct and discrimination.” Snider assembled the coalition in the wake of #MeToo to provide a forum for female composers to discuss their own experiences of abuse and harassment in their profession.
Snider did not attend Juilliard, nor does she have any professional affiliation with it (in addition to working as a composer, Snider is also co-artistic director of New Amsterdam Records), but believes this distance from the institution — as well as the reach of its influence over composers’ careers — is what has given her the liberty “to speak on behalf of my many female colleagues who could not.”
She is also quick to point out that the scourge of sexual harassment within composition programs extends far beyond one school; it’s embedded deep into the culture of classical music education, she says. As a student, Snider had her own run-ins with sexual harassment at the hands of a powerful professor (whom she declines to identify) that she says continue to be “painful and traumatic.”
“That was the reason I got connected with these women in the first place,” she says. “I could really sympathize with what they’d been through and the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness, because it tends not to be about your abuser; it’s about the network of men at the top of our field who are friends and who protect each other. … If you come forward and name one person, you’re asking for retribution from basically a cabal of older, successful men who hold the keys to all the opportunities.”
Following the posting of the open letter, Snider has received notes from men at Juilliard who similarly feel unable to come forward for fear of retribution.
“They are the masters, and they are infallible, and they can make you or break you,” a male conservatory professor of composition who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional retribution wrote to Snider in a text message shown to The Post. “Gatekeeping doesn’t even cover it.”
Composer Jefferson Friedman, who attended Juilliard from 1998 to 2001, then taught at the school for several years, left a comment on one of Snider’s recent Facebook posts in which he recalled feeling “actually afraid of [Beaser].”
“Did I know what Beaser was doing at the time?” Friedman wrote. “Yes, everyone did. Do I wish I had spoken up? In hindsight, of course, yes I do. But Beaser was the ultimate gatekeeper back then. … His entire deal has been creating a fiefdom where he has as much of a power imbalance as possible.”
As of Sunday, several high-profile names from across the classical and new-music fields had signed the open letter, including Missy Mazzoli, Gabriela Lena Frank, Vijay Iyer, Tyondai Braxton, Andrew Norman, Claire Chase and Nico Muhly.
Snider encountered particular trepidation from men in the music community, hesitant to sign for fear of retribution. Though sympathetic, the dissonance wasn’t lost.
“What I gently tried to tell them was that this is the same kind of fear that women have always had,” Snider says. “We’re so frequently harassed or mistreated or abused, and there’s no one to speak up about it to. Additionally, we then need to try to get those abusers to still like us enough to write letters of recommendation or to recommend us for prizes. It’s an impossible situation for women to advocate for themselves.”
By the signing deadline of 3 p.m. Friday, Snider says 90 percent of the men who had been on the fence came through at the last minute with signatures.
“I think they started to see that there’s more safety in numbers.”
Snider and the as-yet-unnamed coalition of composers are planning their first in-person strategic meeting in January to discuss further actions in directly addressing “intersectional” abuse and harassment across the composition community and classical music in general — where systemic inequities and imbalances have roots that run centuries deep.
“The positive thing to say about all of this,” Snider says, “is that it’s one of the very first times — maybe the first time in the history of our composition community — that men and women and people of all genders have come together to stand up and protect one another. It’s such a momentous occasion in our field, and I think it speaks volumes about the possibility for growth and change.”
The lyrics of “Cam Sung Ai Dung Cam Sung Em” (You Can Cuckhold Anyone But Me) by singer Phi Phuong Anh are predictably ridiculous:
“Cuckolding can neither be created or destroyed. It only moves from one person to another. You can cuckold anyone but don’t cuckold me.”
Music producer VirusS called the lyrics unacceptable and has asked audiences to stop sharing poorly written songs that attack the tastes of youth culture and lower local music industry standards.
Many songs with allegedly absurd and meaningless lyrics have ended up trending on social media. Detractors say this is because artists only care about viewership instead of making good music.
“Tat Ca Dung Im” (Everybody Stands Still) was hyped as a comeback for singer Ngo Kien Huy. But disgruntled listeners were infuriated by the nonsense hook with lyrics like “Everybody stands still, don’t move”.
Another recent song skewered for its completely inane lyrics is Hoang Yen Chibi’s “U! Em Xin Loi” (Ok! I’m Sorry). Listeners questioned the meaning and message of the repetitive chorus “You want to break up? Not that easy” and “Sit down, sit down, sit down.”
“Anyone has a clue what she’s trying to deliver in this song?” user Ngoc Yen commented on YouTube. “She should put more effort into her songwriting. I think she can do better than this.”
Some other V-pop songs have been criticized for their inappropriate content.
Singer Chi Pu’s singles “Black Hickey” and “Sashimi” were criticized for being sexually suggestive and glorifying workplace affairs. After that, Chi Pu announced she won’t be releasing new music anytime soon and even canceled her plan for a debut album.
The public has also sounded disappointment with local artists who borrow too much from international stars.
Listeners have noticed the similarities between Jack’s new single “Ngoi Sao Co Don” (Lonely Star) and Canadian singer The Weeknd’s 2020 megahit “Blinding Lights.” Jack seemed to mimic both the content and style of the song.
Critics have also said the ballad “Dap An Cuoi Cung” (The Final Answer) by singer Quan A.P. was similar to the song “How Have You Been?” by Chinese singer Eric Chou in 2016.
Many say the Vietnamese pop scene is crumbling under the trending weight of meaningless lyrics. But singers keep hopping on the bandwagon.
According to musician Nguyen Van Chung, perfection in music comes when everything about a song is true and beautiful. That includes melody, lyrics, meaning and title, he said.
Composer Nguyen Minh Cuong told Thanh Nien Newspaper he was worried about the future of popular music in his homeland.
“It’s true that a series of songs have been criticized for their ridiculous and meaningless lyrics,” he said. “Of course, the bad songs will fade away soon, but if we don’t raise awareness among young people, they will easily become a trend. Social networks often create trends for trashy songs, and the more absurd the song, the easier it is to get noticed, which eventually poisons both the music industry and public tastes,” he argued.
Of course, there are two sides to every coin. This year has also showcased creativity, passion and great artistic effort in many new music releases.
Hoang Thuy Linh’ new album “Link”, which infuses modern instruments with traditional Vietnamese music, received laudatory reviews from domestic and international critics.
“Link’s most convincing moments arrive when sonic experimentation matches lyrical conceit. Hoang Thuy Linh’s playful navigation of Vietnam past and present, something central to her art, exists even here,” wrote Pitchfork, one of the world’s most influential music criticism websites.
Singer Phung Khanh Linh also surprised everyone when she put out “Citopia”, an album that focuses on city pop, a popular urban sound from Japan in the 1980s. Fans lauded the album for its concept and musical scope.
“There is plenty of great Vietnamese music out there, you just need to know what to listen,” Minh Hien, a music promoter in Hanoi, said.
If you’ve ever discovered a great song, played it non-stop, and then came to hate it within a week or two, you’re well aware that too much of a good thing can make it infuriating. On that same note, when a movie with a 112-minute runtime repeats the same tune at least 18 times (the soundtrack lists 17 songs, but doesn’t account for the doorbell), it heads into dangerous territory.
To keep the soundtrack from becoming too repetitive, Williams’ theme was mixed into a variety of different music styles — jazz, tango, mariachi, and more. Several variations included flashy accompaniments that were heavily influenced by their respective genres, allowing the tracks to practically hide the melody and bring some new music into the mix. And although Williams wrote mournful, catchy lyrics to the “The Long Goodbye” theme, all but two of the soundtrack’s songs were instrumental, minimizing the chances of the vocal repetition becoming a nuisance.
Mumbai-based Indian musician SCayos recently announced his next album, Whatever Happens, Happens. As the 20-year-old artist and producer indicates, the album is about dealing with grief.
He elaborates, “Loss is experienced in so many ways and everyone copes very differently, but there are 5 main stages of it which I chose to express through the album: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Each track is my take on these stages, how I felt during the times of loss, and how I got through them.”
His latest single is called “Under The Stars”. This track sums SCayos’ his lo-fi style.
Listen to the song and follow SCayos on Instagram.
Francisco López‘s second live performance at Cafe Oto, in March 2015, makes a strong contrast to the first (featured earlier this month); where that had harnessed electronic elements largely devoid of referential qualities, this piece focuses on a juxtaposition of sounds that are clearly derived from (or intended to imitate) field recordings.
The opening minutes are entirely granular, a texture made up of an increasing density of clicking, chittering insect sounds, complicated by one layer that projects something akin to purring. After around five minutes this has grown to the point that it seems obviously artificial – the layered result of a great many sounds – though always retaining the sense that every individual element is something authentically real. That artifice is subsequently reinforced by the first of what will become a characteristic series of abrupt cuts, replacing everything with the soft, humming buzz of bees, a light, tickling texture occasionally featuring the close-up buzz of an individual bee.
Another jump cut transports us to an interesting place where hovering bands of noise form the gentle backdrop to small, possibly electronic insect sounds. This is soon followed by another cut, into a world populated entirely by dry objects, bouncing around off a myriad surfaces (with more than a few echoes of Aphex Twin’s Bucephalus Bouncing Ball). This punchy environment very slowly becomes more generalised (though no less powerful) as the force of the impacts is pulled back, until all that remains are a few creaking squeaks. More cuts propel us first into the middle of a pig sty, then to a firework display.
This marks a turning point in the performance, as López adds to the fireworks a mixture of both evocative and abstract elements, conjuring up a crackling fire and what could be a number of pipes kicking out assorted pitch bands. This leads to another example of what was the primary characteristic of his first performance, a texture comprising various diverse elements but where nothing predominates. We’ve moved far away from obvious field recordings, immersed within vague patter, clunk, noise and a gentle but driving pulse. There’s a crescendo, then nothing at all, and finally the possibility of people slowly fades into view, eventually filling our ears.
The final jump cut takes us to a call and response between a man and a group of children. On the one hand, it’s a strange moment, partly because it comes after such an abstract sequence, partly because the sound of people have been hitherto absent, partly because it persists for so long in an evidently completely untouched or unfiltered way. On the other hand, it works to diffuse the preceding narrative tension, throwing us back to the world of openly evocative sounds, and continuing the basic approach that permeates this entire piece: a whistle-stop tour through diverse, disjunct sonic habitats.
WILDWOOD — Riley Green has joined the roster of artists scheduled to perform at the third annual Barefoot Country Music Fest in June.
Green is the 2020 Academy of Country Music award recipient for New Male Artist of the Year. He performed last summer at the TidalWave Music Festival on the beach in Atlantic City.
He will join country music stars like Blake Shelton, Kid Rock, Darius Rucker and more than 40 other artists on the beach June 15 to 18.
For more information about the festival and to purchase tickets, visit bcmf.com.
MANILA, Philippines — Araneta City, also known as the City Of Firsts, has long been known for its Christmas Blueprint: family time, community and holiday merriment. Without fail, this blueprint has proven to be successful for decades. Even before the eye-catching yuletide displays, a lot of QCitizens, and even those who lived in the far-flung provinces of Luzon, consider Araneta City as their home for the holidays.
Since the pandemic and for the previous two Christmases, Novotel Manila has released original music compositions with uplifting messages devoted to its supporters and front liners to touch the hearts of numerous Novo-Fans.
This time around, Novotel Manila switches things up and opts for a different way of using a video narration to touch the hearts of its viewers entitled “Home” produced by the hotel’s Marketing Communications team in collaboration with Halikon Films director Arvin “Kadiboy” Belarmino and director of photography and editor Tristan Cua.
The hotel’s moving narrative depicts the life of a busy vlogger, Hayley, who no longer has time for her parents. But since it is the Christmas season, it’s a common tradition for Filipinos to reconnect and gather for the holidays. Check out the video after the jump:
It is a relatable story as we have all occasionally been caught up in life’s busyness, yet Novotel Manila embraces every heart yearning for true love and connection.
Families, couples and friends can enjoy and make themselves comfortable in their one and only home in the City of Firsts, thanks to all the festive deals planned by the hotel’s Heartists for this special season.
Have a merry magical stay
Enjoy the best time of the year with Merry Magical Stays curated to satisfy the needs of families seeking a joyous staycation. Bed, breakfast and dinner packages in December start at P8,000 nett for non-holiday dates, while stays during the holidays (December 24 and December 31) start from P12,000 nett.
Each merry magical stay includes complimentary use of the InBalance Fitness center and pool, free use of the Kids Club by Novotel for one hour per day for two children, and a 10% discount on all massage treatments at the InBalance Spa. Early check-in and check-out are also included, subject to room availability.
Taste merry magical flavors
Bring the whole family to Food Exchange Manila to enjoy a wide array of festive buffet selections such as Roasted Tandoori Australian Lamb Leg, Roasted Turkey, Roasted Chimichurri Salmon, Singaporean Chili Crab, Glazed Christmas Ham and much more for only P2,888 nett per person.
Choose from the highlighted buffet dates: December 24 (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.) Christmas Eve Dinner Buffet, December 24 (11 p.m. to 2 a.m.) Christmas Midnight Buffet or Noche Buena, and December 31 (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.) New Year’s Eve Dinner Buffet. A glass of red wine, white wine or a special holiday beverage is served to each diner as a beautiful end to the meal.
A merry magical beginning
Every ending is followed by a fresh start. The days till 2023 are being counted down at Novotel Manila. On December 31 from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Monet Grand Ballroom.
Join in the fun and enjoy a memorable countdown celebration with lots of delicious food, sparkling drinks, great music and merriment with family and friends for only P2,888 nett per person, inclusive of one glass of sparkling wine or sparkling juice. Admission begins at 7 p.m., and the buffet is available from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. This offer is available to in-house guests for just P2,223 nett per person.
With your family and friends surrounding you this Christmas season, find the meaning of true ‘’home’’ this holiday season at Novotel Manila, a home for every heart. Packed in this highly regarded international brand hotel is a complete experience where you would feel at home and take time to enjoy the moments that matter.
For inquiries and reservations, please call (02) 8 990 7888 or email [email protected] More information about Novotel Manila Araneta City, its facilities and services are available at www.novotelmanilaaranetacity.com.
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