Sleep Token are off to a fast start to kick off 2023. Today (January 18th), the anonymous U.K. collective — who perform in masks and black hoods — surprise-released their third single of January: “Granite.” The song follows up “Chokehold” and “The Summoning,” both released during the first week of the month, and like its predecessors, it finds the group in stunning form, stretching from crystaline pop to crushing metallurgy. “Granite,” in particular, presents these contrasting sides to Sleep Token’s split personality in stark relief, giving no hint of the coming heaviness through most of its runtime before dropping the hammer.
Also, like the two preceding singles, “Granite” arrived with a striking CGI video showcasing a sci-fi-looking retro-futuristic warrior creature, this one with a cubic head and medieval-looking armor, brandishing two axes. Watch and listen above.
No word yet on whether Sleep Token’s three 2023 songs herald an imminent new album or not, but stay tuned for more surprises.
A radical new wave of artists are sweeping the previously elite world of classical music – with a little help from Squid Game, Dark Academia and fashion. Daisy Woodward explores how classical got cool.
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If asked to guess what under 25-year-olds are listening to, it’s unlikely that many of us would land upon orchestral music. And yet a survey published in December 2022 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) found that 74% of UK residents aged under 25 were likely to be tuning into just that at Christmas-time, compared with a mere 46% of people aged 55 or more. These figures reflect not only the RPO’s broader finding that under 35-year-olds are more likely to listen to orchestral music than their parents, but also the widespread surge in popularity of classical music in general, particularly among younger generations.
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There are plenty of reasons for this, from the playlist culture spawned by streaming platforms that make it easy for listeners to discover new artists and types of music to fit their mood, to the solace it provided during the pandemic, not to mention the profusion of classical music in pop culture hits like Squid Game. But perhaps highest on the list is the global wave of Gen Z and young millennial classical artists who are finding new ways to be seen and heard, and – just as vitally – new means of modernising what has long been branded music’s most elite and stuffy genre.
Fashion brand Acne Studios’ younger sub-label Face recently created composer-themed sweaters and bags (Credit: Acne Studios/ Face)
Unsurprisingly, social media has played a huge part in this, as a quick search of the popular TikTok hashtag “classictok” (currently at 53.8 million views) attests. There, as well as on Instagram, young classical artists have been making use of the digital realm’s democratic potential to lift the heavy velvet curtains on their art form, presenting classical music and its storied history in ways that are accessible, unintimidating and, most importantly, fun.
For French violinist Esther Abrami – who has more than 250,000 followers on Instagram, more than 380,000 on TikTok, and was the first classical musician to be nominated in the Social Media Superstar category at the Global Awards – the journey to social media fame stemmed from a desire to share her passion more widely. “I was studying at a top institution and most of the time I was practising for exams, so the whole joy of sharing was taken away. Then, at the very few concerts I did play, there was a very specific type of audience that wasn’t very diverse,” Abrami tells BBC Culture.
She noticed that a handful of classical musicians had taken to Instagram to broaden their own reach, and decided to do the same. “I started posting a few things, and was stunned by the reaction that I got. Suddenly you have people from around the world listening to you and telling you it brightens their day to watch you playing the violin,” she enthuses. “It opened this door to a completely new world.”
Nigerian-US baritone and lifelong hip-hop fan Babatunde Akinboboye enjoyed a similarly swift and surprising rise to social media fame when he posted a video of himself singing Rossini’s renowned aria Largo al factotum over the top of Kendrick Lamar’s track Humble. “I was in my car and I realised that the two pieces worked together musically, so I started singing on top of the beat,” he tells BBC Culture. He documented the moment on his phone and posted the video on his personal Facebook account, guessing that his friends would enjoy it more than his opera peers. “But I went to sleep, woke up the next morning, and it had expanded to my opera network, and far beyond that,” he laughs, explaining that within two days, his self-dubbed brand of “hip-hopera” had caught the attention of The Ellen Show, America’s Got Talent and Time magazine.
Nigerian-US baritone Babatunde Akinboboye sings “hip-hopera” – he initially became known for his rendition of Rossini blended with Kendrick Lamar (Credit: J Demetrie)
Both Abrami and Akinboboye came to classical music in their teens, late by conventional standards, and cultivated their passion for the genre independently. This remains a driving factor in their desire to reach new audiences, which they’ve achieved on an impressive scale, largely just by being themselves. “I ended up becoming an opera influencer by sharing the parts of me I felt comfortable sharing, which is a lot,” says Akinboboye, whose playful hip-hopera and opera videos and posts – taking viewers behind the scenes of a world still shrouded in mystery – have garnered him some 688,000 TikTok followers. “It’s a lot about how I relate to opera; my musical background was from hip-hop, but I still found a relationship with opera and that resonated with people,” he explains. “Almost every day I get a different message saying, ‘I went to my first opera today’. I think it’s because they’re seeing someone they feel comfortable or familiar with.”
‘Complex and profound’
Abrami, a similarly enthusiastic content creator, agrees: “I think putting the face of somebody not so far away from them to the genre is a big thing. That’s what I’m trying to do, to reach different types of people and create bridges, to show them that this music can really move you. It’s complex and profound and yes, it might take a bit of time to understand but once you do, it’s amazing.”
British concert pianist Harriet Stubbs is another avid proponent of classical music for modern audiences who has been finding her own ways of drawing in new listeners. During lockdown, the musician, who usually splits her time between London and New York, performed multiple 20-minute concerts from her ground-floor flat in West Kensington, opening the windows and using an amplifier to reach listeners outside. “I gave 250 concerts,” Stubbs, who was awarded a British Empire Medal by the Queen for this mood-boosting act of service, tells BBC Culture. “I did a range of repertoire from my upcoming album, and also things like All By Myself, which I chose ironically for that audience. And the thing is, people who thought they didn’t care for classical music came back every day because of the power of that music.”
The fusion of classical music with other genres is a major facet of Stubbs’s practice and, indeed, that of many others among the new generation of classical artists (see also the React to the K YouTube channel, where classical artists frequently reimagine K-pop songs with ingenious results, or Kris Bowers’ brilliant orchestral arrangements of modern pop songs for the much-buzzed-about Bridgerton soundtrack). Stubbs’s innovative first album, Heaven & Hell: The Doors of Perception (2018), was inspired by William Blake and features musical icon Marianne Faithfull. “I always wanted to tie rock’n’roll and classical music together and put them in the same space, supported by literature and philosophy and other disciplines,” she explains, adding that her next album, which she’s making with pianist and former Bowie collaborator Mike Garson, will be a “Bowie meets Rachmaninoff” affair.
Concert pianist Harriet Stubbs has collaborated with Marianne Faithfull, and is currently working on a “Bowie meets Rachmaninoff” album (Credit: Russ Titelman)
Interestingly, the current swell of enthusiasm for classical music has branched out to become as much of an aesthetic movement as it is a musical one. Digital microtrends Dark Academia and Light Academia – dedicated as they are to the romanticisation of a passion for art and knowledge through imagery – both make rousing use of classical music in order to create the desired ambience. Ascendant Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, meanwhile, uses atmospheric visuals as a powerful means of contemporising the baroque experience. Depressed by the lack of funding for music video production in the classical realm, he drummed up private sponsorship to make a 21-minute movie to accompany his 2021 rendition of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater. The resulting film conjures a compelling and suitably brutal scenario for the haunting 18th-century hymn, which The New York Times describes as “resembling a Polish remake of The Sopranos”.
“I’m really interested in storytelling. I always build an entire concept for my albums – the narrative, the photography, the videos,” Orliński tells BBC Culture. “I think now there is this whole new generation of people who really want to add to what classical music can be, to go beyond the singing and be challenged. You just have to know that the end product will be good, and that what you’re doing will serve the story,” he adds. This is certainly something Orliński has achieved in his own career: an accomplished sportsman and breakdancer, he wowed critics with his 2022 Royal Opera House debut, which found him pole-dancing in a spangled dress as Didymus in Katie Mitchell’s production of Handel’s Theodora. Other recent projects have included recording baroque tracks for forthcoming video games which, he says, was “an incredible experience” and is something he’s being asked to do more and more frequently, as the Metaverse beckons. “Sometimes you need classical music to touch the strings of somebody’s soul – a pop song won’t work.”
Classical music’s ongoing and often powerful intersection with pop culture is being foregrounded as part of the burgeoning interest in the genre, both inside and outside its famously guarded gates. The all-teen members of the UK’s National Youth Orchestra have just completed a mini tour that included a performance of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, replete with its opening symphonic sunrise eternalised by Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Last August saw the BBC Proms launch its first gaming-themed programme whereby the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra took on some of the best-loved songs in video game history. While the recent autumn/winter collection from Acne Studios’ younger sub-label Face offered up one of the most direct sartorial tributes to classical music to date, presenting crew-neck sweaters, T-shirts and tote bags embellished with the faces of Handel, Mozart and Bach in celebration of “the idea that a passion for classical music is the most left-field move imaginable for a modern-day teenager”.
Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński wowed critics with his performance as Didymus in Handel’s Theodora, which included a pole-dance (Credit: Michael Sharkey)
Orliński agrees that classical music has achieved an “almost hipstery” status of late. “It’s cool to go to the opera, to know something, and that’s because there are a lot of young artists delivering music on the highest level, while making it very entertaining,” he enthuses. There is, he observes, a revived interest in classical music personalities such as Maria Callas and Pavarotti, as well as “people like Yuja Wang” who are selling out concert halls, all of which he feels bodes well for the art form. “We have a long way to go to grow as much as other genres of music, but we’re moving forward.” Akinboboye, too, is tentatively hopeful. “I think opera is definitely being a lot more bold, and I hope that it continues because I think we can catch up,” he concludes. “[Classical music needs to] be brave, to do the scary thing. And it’ll work out, because audiences are ready.”
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A yearly joining of the jam bands, the Peach Music Festival has announced a juicy lineup for 2023.
The four-day event, set for June 29 through July 2, will see Goose, Tedeschi Trucks Band, My Morning Jacket, and Ween each headlining the festival on Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The upcoming headliners all had an eventful 2022, but are gearing up for an even bigger 2023. Along with their Peach appearances, Goose will be touring in support of their latest album, Dripfield. The band will embark on a 14-city, 20-show run set to kick off in late March. My Morning Jacket recently released a deluxe edition of their acclaimed 2011 album, Circuital, which includes 10 previously unreleased demos. The Tedeschi Trucks Band also dropped four new LPs in 2022—I Am the Moon: I. Crescent; II. Ascension; III. The Fall; and IV. Farewell—entering the new year with fresh tracks.
Having brought over a decade of jams to festival goers, the Peach Music Festival will play host to a special 2023 celebration, honoring the festival’s ties to the Allman Brothers Band. An Allman tribute band, Trouble No More, will perform a special set, playing the iconic rock band’s 1973 album, Brothers and Sisters, in its entirety. Last year’s festivities saw the tribute band perform the entire double album, Eat a Peach, in celebration of its 50th anniversary.
For the 2023 affair, the bill also includes a mix of Peach veterans and newcomers with acts like Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Les Claypool’s Flying Frog Brigade, Mike Gordon of Phish, Lettuce, Ripe, Twiddle, Duane Betts, Dogs in a Pile, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Circles Around the Sun, and Andy Frasco & the U.N.
See a full list of performers across the four-day event, below. Ticket packages and camping passes are on sale now.
Kenny Chesney continues to prove he’s a touring giant as he’s named Billboard‘s No. 1 country tour for 2022.
Chesney’s Here and Now Tour grossed north of $135 million. Throughout the trek, he played for 1.3 million fans across 41 shows, including 21 stadiums, making him the most popular touring country artist of the year. Here and Now marked his first trek since 2018’s Trip Around the Sun Tour, which Billboard reports also drew in 1.3 million people and $114 million.
The Here and Now Tour went through multiple iterations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally called the Chillaxification Tour, which was supposed to set sail in 2020 with Florida Georgia Line, Old Dominion and Michael Franti & Spearhead as the opening acts, but was rescheduled to 2021 due to the pandemic. However, as a result of the surge in COVID-19 cases in 2021, Chesney moved the tour to 2022 and renamed it the Here and Now Tour after his album of the same name, bringing Dan + Shay, Carly Pearce and Old Dominion with him.
“You don’t think about this stuff, just the way it feels to be back out there with the fans!” Chesney reflects in a press statement. “As good as No Shoes Nation is, and they’re the best, this year they took that heart and passion and brought it up six levels. Suddenly, me and my team were looking for ways to open up seats, move the stage back, create cleaner sight lines, so we could get every single person who wanted to be there into the venues.”
Chesney also landed at No. 9 on the total list of year-end top tours alongside superstars Bad Bunny, The Rolling Stones, Harry Styles and more. Morgan Wallen, Chris Stapleton, George Strait and Reba McEntire were among the other top touring country acts of the year.
Chesney is ready to get back on the road, as he’s announced the 2023 I Go Back Tour with “Half of My Hometown” duet partner Kelsea Ballerini joining as the opening act. The tour kicks off on March 25 in State College, Pennsylvania.
Photo Credit: Jill Trunnell / Courtesy of Essential Broadcast Media
Missing out on Black Friday deals is a thing of the past. Not only do deals last a couple of days after Friday, but they continue (and get better) the following Monday. Cyber Monday deals range from 10-80% off gear and accessories. Don’t miss out today. Here are 10 of our favorite Cyber Monday music deals.
1. Shure SM57 Dynamic Instrument Microphone
Now thru December 4 shop Guitar Center for Cyber Monday deals. Take advantage of 30% off gear. Guitar Center notes that most Cyber Monday deals ship for free! While you shop early, be sure to consider buying microphones for the new year. Save 10% on a Shure SM57 mic. It’s the ultimate instrument microphone for percussion — it isolates drums and reduces background noise for clean audio and rich vocal pickup. A drummer gave it a 5-star rating and wrote, “We were very glad, especially with comments after the gig such as, “the drums sounded very professional.” I highly recommend these to anybody because not only are they great for live gigs, but also when recording. We just finished recording our demo and can’t believe how well the drums sound.” Get it for under $90 today.
2. Victrola Retro Record Player
Vinyl lovers, rejoice. Here’s a perfect retro-style record player you’re bound to fall in love with. Seriously, if your vinyl collection is your pride and joy you have to have a record player that’s worth showing off as well. It features a 3-speed turntable and also works as a radio and Bluetooth speaker. You can also use a USB to play music from non-Bluetooth devices. Choose from 4 different colors. This record player is normally $150 but is on sale for $108.88.
3. Roland V-Drums TD-1DMK Drum Set
This Roland V-Drum Set is normally $700 but is on sale for $549.99. I bought this set recently, and wow that’s a steal. You still have to buy a kick pedal and a throne, so what you save on Cyber Monday can go towards more gear to complete the set. And of course, you can bet you’ll find a pedal and throne on sale, too. This kit is great for beginners, especially adults. With 15 preset drum kits and a built-in metronome, you’re bound for improvement. No delayed hits and true-to-life drumming will make practice fun. Great for a realistic drumming experience, it doesn’t get better than Roland.
4. Apple AirPods Pro with MagSafe Charging Case (1st Generation)
These Airpods are worth checking out. If you’re looking for a pair of affordable quality earphones, this is where to start. The AirPods Pro offers noise cancellation, and transparency mode, and is sweat and water-resistant. These are perfect for everyday use and working out. Enjoy more than 24 hours of total listening time. Get them for under $160 for a limited time.
5. Topvision Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Topvision projectors and speakers get lots of love from music and movie enthusiasts, especially this portable Bluetooth speaker. The speaker is 100% waterproof, making it a great speaker for outdoor fun (camping, beach days, and more). Charging and pairing it to your devices is simple. With a Bluetooth 5.0 connection, you’ll have it paired to devices within 50 feet in no time. As for charging, it uses a USB-C port, so ditch the batteries. It offers 12 hours of total playtime and has terrific 360-degree sound. It’s under $22 this week.
6. Vekkia Sheet Music Stand with Carrying Bag
A stand for your sheet music is a must, especially if you’re a beginner learning how to read music. They’re also great to keep around in music studios for songwriting and students. Save over $6 on this stand that’s adjustable from 32 to 56 inches. It’ll last a long time, thanks to anti-rust technology. It also comes with a carrying bag to keep it safe as you travel to and from home, school, or band practice. It’s super easy to assemble and one fan said it’s a great pick for outdoor gigs. Get it today for $33.59.
7. Evans RealFeel Practice Pad 6 in.
Consider this 6-inch practice pad for practice on the go. Some may prefer the 12-inch pad, but if you’re looking for a practice pad under $20, this is the best bang for the buck. The Evans RealFeel practice pad has a great rebound. It’s truly a great gift for drummers of all levels. Perfecting wrist and finger control here will make all the difference when it’s time to get on the kit.
Ernie Ball is everything and more when it comes to quality guitar strings. They’re loved by some of your heroes and you’ll soon see why. These strings are warm and have excellent projection. So, dig up that guitar from the storage and put some new strings on it. Grab a 4-pack today for $21.99.
If you’re looking for a quality audio experience via smart speaker, you can’t go wrong with Amazon’s Echo Dot. You can use Alexa for lots of help, but nothing beats asking your new smart speaker to play music as you clean, cook, or lounge in bed. Clear vocals and a deep bass throughout the house are a simple pleasure for all music lovers. Get it for $24.99.
It may be tempting to drop an entire paycheck on a pair of custom IEMs, but before you do that, consider an affordable pair of isolating earphones. Shure has a pair on sale for under $100 today. You’ll be able to enjoy your music and tune out ambient noise. Guitarists and drummers love them, plus, you can also wear them while you work out or run errands.
**All products are independently chosen by American Songwriter editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission.
“We can say that with Symphony of Sirens, Avraamov pioneered the idea of using non-traditional instruments for both composition and performance,” adds Khismatov. In later works, Avraamov would go on to incorporate tools such as saws, grinding wheels, axes and sledgehammers into his music.
Instead of a traditional score, he used written instructions and musical notation so simplified that anyone could understand it. “Symphony of Sirens exemplifies a mode of music making in which virtuosity, notation or traditional methods of musical arrangement are dispensed with in favour of a more conceptual approach,” says Stubbs. “It’s about how you sequence and juxtapose elements. That’s as true for the most recent EP by [British electronic musician] Burial as it is for Avraamov.”
Symphony of Sirens was attempted just once more, a year later in Moscow, though at a much-reduced scale. Undeterred, Avraamov began plotting his next project: installing powerful electroacoustic devices on Zeppelins and flying them above Moscow. Not content with conducting a city, Avraamov now had the skies in his sights.
There were two problems though. Firstly, Avraamov was broke. Secondly, the revolutionary atmosphere in Russia that had fostered a radical, artistic avant-garde was coming to an end. “Symphony [of Sirens] represents what a lot of early electronic music represents – a utopianism, a lost future,” says Stubbs. “It was commissioned at a time when it was still optimistically held that the grand, revolutionary egalitarian prospect of the Soviet Union could operate hand-in-hand with the artistic avant-garde. Sadly, that was quashed in time under Stalin.”
The Zeppelin project never left the drawing board, and Avraamov died in poverty and obscurity. Interest in his work only re-emerged in the 1990s, and the first reconstruction of Symphony of Sirens, based on Avraamov’s notes and using samples, took place in 2008. The following year, Khismatov debuted his own reconstruction (under his preferred translation, Symphony of Industrial Horns) at a fort in St Petersburg. It later appeared at Documenta 14 and has gone on to influence a new generation of electronic, avant-garde and politically motivated composers. In 2017, Avraamov made an appearance in the BBC documentary Tunes for Tyrants, with presenter Suzy Klein heralding the Russian as one of the forgotten geniuses of music, and even performing her own tribute to Symphony of Sirens as she stood on a Moscow rooftop and waved two red flags from side to side. Long after his death, Avraamov is finally getting his due.
For what feels like years, Noel Gallagher has been teasing an album of new music. Now, it could finally be upon us.
Gallagher, originally of Oasis and now of High Flying Birds fame, recently shared a cryptic teaser on his Instagram. Simply flashing with a date, “31.10.22,” and captioned “8.30AM (GMT),” the post is rife with things to come.
News of new music began to circulate in late 2020 when the singer was quoted by the British tabloid, the Daily Star, saying he had written a new song that he likened to The Cure.
The outlet quoted him as saying (sourced by music-news.com), “The stuff I’ve been working on is fucking great, really great … I’ve written a tune that sounds very much like The Cure, and I didn’t even have to dial back the copyright, it just sounds like The Cure. It’s called ‘Pretty Boy.’” He was also quoted in the summer of this year, detailing his new material as sounding “Bowie-esque” and “[Rolling] Stones-y” by the same outlet.
Gallagher welcomed 2022 by sharing a demo of a new track, titled “Trying To Find A World That’s Been And Gone: Part 1” on Jan. 1.
With the release, he wrote to fans on Twitter, detailing progress on the album. “So we didn’t actually get there in the end, did we? I finished writing/demoing the next NGHFB album about 10 days ago,” he wrote. “Thought you might wanna hear this little piece which – like last year’s offering – sounds quite appropriate for this New Year’s Day. Hope you had THE BEST night (as much as was allowed anyway) and hopefully, we’ll catch up somewhere in the summer. ONWARDS. NG.”
In June 2021, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds released their first greatest hits album, Back the Way We Came: Vol. 1 (2011–2021), but a new album would be the band’s first in five years, following-up their 2017 release, Who Built The Moon?
Check out the previously dropped demo while we await further news.
