John Shand | Music & Other Spheres Posts

August 19, 2017 / Features - Archive

You can’t accuse Ellen Kirkwood of lacking ambition. She describes her new large-scale composition [A]part, to be premiered on Saturday, as being about “all the major issues in the world at the moment”. These include climate change and the refugee crisis, with the cryptic title reflecting our feeling of being…

August 17, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Q Theatre, July 30 9/10 When Stu Hunter launched his third long-form jazz composition, The Migration, at the 2016 Sydney Festival it was bedevilled by such severe sound problems as thwarted a true evaluation. By contrast the exemplary sound at the Q Theatre allowed everyone in the 10-piece ensemble to…

August 15, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

LOW BLOWS (littleBIGMAN) 7.5/10 Her rise from Triple J’s 2014 Unearthed winner to US touring was meteoric, but were any confirmation needed that Meg Mac is the real deal this debut album is it. She has eschewed the surgical layering of sounds in favour of a live-in-the-studio rawness that suits…