5 mins read

A violinist walks into a bank: 50 bold and extravagant years of the Australian Chamber Orchestra | Australian Chamber Orchestra

More than a quarter of a century has passed since the day a young violinist with the reputation of wunderkind (or enfant terrible) strode into the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s executive offices in Martin Place and gave an impromptu display of his virtuosity with the opening bars of Paganini on a borrowed violin. “Will you […]

8 mins read

Jason Schwartzman: ‘I was the kid driving around all the record stores buying all the Oasis singles’ | Movies

Does Wes Anderson still make you audition? TopTrampThere have been times when he’s said: “Maybe you should try reading this part,” or: “Let me hear how it sounds if you read it,” and then said: “I think the character should be older.” I don’t think he’s necessarily auditioning you. He’s auditioning how the part fits. […]

1 min read

Share your reaction to the Oasis reunion | Oasis

Fifteen years since their split, Oasis have announced they will reunite for a 14-date tour of the UK and Ireland in 2025. The concerts will take place in July and August, at stadiums in Cardiff, London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin. Tickets go on sale at 9am on 31 August, with prices to be revealed on […]

2 mins read

how a big band jazz piece is composed

Listen & Subscribe Choose your preferred player: For questions about subscriptions or your Slate Plus feed, check our FAQ. Please enable javascript to get your Slate Plus feeds. Get Your Slate Plus Podcast If you can’t access your feeds, please contact customer support. Thanks! Check your phone for a link to finish setting up your […]

5 mins read

‘You should be partying when you write party music’: pop hedonists Confidence Man on their super-sweaty new album | Pop and rock

It’s 9am in San Francisco and Confidence Man are having some creative differences. “Sugar wants to do a pantomime horse but there’s no way to do that in a hot way,” says frontwoman Janet Planet, talking through her bandmate’s plans to add more chaos to their already furiously fun live shows. She speaks a-mile-a-minute, hair […]

1 min read

Vinyl Records at 1000x Magnification

Ever wonder what a vinyl record looks like under an electron microscope? Okay, probably not. Luckily, there’s people who do, including Chris Supranowitz, who created a number of electron microscope images for a course at the University of Rochester. Here’s a photograph of the record grooves captured by Supranowitz at 500x magnification. Those dark chunks you see […]

9 mins read

AJR is turning concertgoers into climate activists : NPR

AJR fans at Denver’s Ball Arena perform the wave on June 20, 2024. Chloe Veltman/NPR hide caption toggle caption Chloe Veltman/NPR At Ball Arena in Denver, thousands of fans of the multi-platinum-selling indie pop group AJR do the wave. The vast, coordinated ripple as the concertgoers throw their arms up instantly unites the room. It’s […]

1 min read

Ross Lorraine: More from the Heart review – refreshing summer jazz songs | Jazz

Although he started writing songs as a teenager, Ross Lorraine has spent most of his life doing other things. A classically trained composer, he became a music therapist before working alongside Harrison Birtwistle, exploring improvisational idioms, writing music for theatre, playing jazz piano and scoring modern tangos. More recently he remembered he’s been a songwriter […]

13 mins read

An eye towards heaven: Manfred Honeck on Bruckner

Few conductors tackling the music of Anton Bruckner have benefited from an induction that involved a decade playing in the Vienna Philharmonic under such giants as Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Carlo Maria Giulini and Zubin Mehta, learning the music from the inside. Manfred Honeck played viola in the orchestra [his younger brother, Rainer, is […]

6 mins read

Has pop music got less melodic? I’ve immersed myself in 70 years of hits – this is what I’ve found | Tom Breihan

Pop music is simple. That’s the idea, anyway. Since the advent of recorded music, the most widely heard music in the world tends to be sharp, catchy and direct. Typically, pop songs are three-minute bursts of heartbreak or excitement or bravado, and they’re ferociously obvious enough to get stuck in your head for hours at […]