Minimalism
En Atendant, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rosas, Sadler’s WellsTuesday, 06 November 2012![]() No one ever accused of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker of thinking small. Or not thinking, for that matter. Her international career began with a bang, when with only her second work she created Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich. And Reich... Read more... |
CD: The Bad Plus - Made PossibleThursday, 18 October 2012Possessing one of the most recognisable sounds in jazz, US trio The Bad Plus don’t so much subvert genre as wrap it up in a little parcel and put an incendiary device under it. Jazz, rock, pop, country and classical all get thrown into their... Read more... |
Rothko/Sugimoto: Dark Paintings and Seascapes, Pace GalleryWednesday, 10 October 2012![]() Half-way through Death in Venice, Thomas Mann's tragic hero, Aschenbach, settles down on a beach to gaze out to the sea to "take shelter from the demanding diversity of phenomena in the bosom of boundless simplicity". Aschenbach is suddenly returned... Read more... |
CD: Dan Deacon – AmericaSaturday, 25 August 2012![]() America comes with an artist statement where Deacon says “I never felt American until I left the United States”. His third album digs into his “frustration, fear and anger towards the county and world I live in and am a part of”.The album ends with... Read more... |
CD: OM – Advaitic SongsThursday, 19 July 2012![]() The sacred word 'om' is spoken in different ways according to its context. Elongated, it can be stretched over multiple syllables. As a musical unit, OM work with building blocks that are similarly minimal, yet drawn out for maximum effect. And like... Read more... |
Art in Action, The Tanks, Tate ModernWednesday, 18 July 2012![]() You now have two choices when you roll down to the bottom of the Turbine Hall's slope. You can go left to the established Tate Modern collection of paintings and sculptures in white boxes, or right to a warren of performance and video art that fills... Read more... |
Edmund de Waal, Waddesdon ManorFriday, 11 May 2012![]() From Caro at Chatsworth and now de Waal at Waddesdon, the grandest of the stately homes are invigorating their historic collections with seasonings of the contemporary. Like Chatsworth, Waddesdon also has a growing permanent collection of... Read more... |
Einstein on the Beach, Barbican TheatreSaturday, 05 May 2012![]() Einstein on the Beach was meant to be one of the jewels in the crown for the Cultural Olympiad. The celebrated 1970s collaboration between Philip Glass, Robert Wilson and Lucinda Childs - which Susan Sontag claimed to be one of the greatest... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Ilan VolkovSaturday, 28 April 2012Relentlessly energetic, opinionated, and never less than passionate about music-making, Ilan Volkov is a close as you get to a prodigy in the world of conducting. Appointed as Young Conductor in association with the Northern Sinfonia at just 19, at... Read more... |
The Sinking of the Titanic, Gavin Bryars Ensemble, Philip Jeck, Barbican HallTuesday, 17 April 2012![]() I don't have many feelings about the Titanic (any more than I do about any tragedies of the distant past). I know few of the facts, I can remember nothing of the film and I have been left almost completely untouched by the centenary. Yet I am... Read more... |
Low, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 04 April 2012![]() Low don’t really look as though they’re given to ostentatious display. With their black shirts, polished footwear and sensible haircuts, they could be waiting staff in a formal restaurant. One with a lot of dark wood and banquettes. The Hendrix-like... Read more... |
The Arts Desk Radio ShowThursday, 29 March 2012![]() Welcome to theartsdesk's first radio show with Peter Culshaw and Joe Muggs, recorded with the extremely able help of Brendon Harding at Red Bull Studio London.In the course of this show, Peter and Joe take a look at the depth and breadth of music... Read more... |
