With a festival packed with a heady mix of the most in-demand exponents of new music across Europe plus some of the most compelling emerging voices who will shape the sounds of tomorrow, it can be hard not to look back with regret at some concerts that didn’t make your shortlist and think ‘I should have been there’. Never fear, hcmf// Artistic Director Graham McKenzie is on hand to guide you through the less familiar and dig deep for those hidden gems!

Let’s start on the opening night with one of the most intoxicating instrumental voices in Europe right now: the Hamburg-based Estonian double bassist Kris Kuldkepp, whose music works across noise, improvisation, contemporary composition, and even veering into music-theatre – and all delivered at the highest level of sheer virtuosity! Kuldkepp’s work focuses on the perception, materiality, and behaviour of sound. For this solo concert – and only UK appearance this year – Kuldkepp will explore the resonant physical qualities of the industrial space that is Bates Mill Blending Shed as part of an explosive double bill with the Lithuanian turntable duo Opus 58.

It may seem strange to classify one of our greatest contemporary voices Rosie Middleton as a hidden gem, as any appearance on a stage by the heralded mezzo-soprano is a cause for celebration, but this new collaboration with the American composer, performer, and intermedia artist Kari Watson sees Middleton play a more integral role at the heart of the creative process as an equal, rather than simply as an interpreter of another’s work. In Watson – who values collective exploration and exchange and places it at the heart of their practice – Middleton has unearthed the perfect partner to further develop this growing aspect of her work.

A content warning referencing violence and themes related to mental health may not immediately draw you towards the Finnish chamber opera Myself/Myself/Myself, but those who do take the plunge will find themselves rewarded by a powerful, thought-provoking work from composer and librettist Heinz-Juhani Hofmann and a mesmerising performance by singer Annika Fuhrmann as Didi! Acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, this first part of an intended trilogy is firmly on route to being declared a ‘masterpiece’.

Oh…and adding a further contemporary edge, Didi’s thoughts and life can also be followed through her own social media account…

Music Traditions in a Contemporary Context has become an increasingly popular strand of the hcmf// programme in recent festival editions, drawing on music from folk traditions or utilising traditional instrumentation, but in a way that places it at the heart of cutting-edge experimentalism.

Leading the way in this are the tremendous Shovel Dance Collective, who return this year following their sensational performance at hcmf// two years ago. As part of an absolutely ace double bill, however, lies the ‘hidden gem’ here – a Huddersfield first for Radical Polish Ansambl!

Six violins and the dzaz – a traditional village drum kit. Described as the most important Polish musical project of recent years, Radical Polish Ansambl offer the oral tradition of village musicians alongside the boundary-breaking ‘out-there’ thinking of the avant-garde. There is nothing like it anywhere!

The best improv gig I have experienced in a long time was in 2025 at the Moers Festival in Germany, delivered by the intriguingly named The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters!

At the heart of the group is a familiar face to the hcmf// audience – turntableist Mariam Rezaei, alongside the sensational Mette Rasmussen on alto saxophone, Gabriele Mitelli on piccolo trumpet/electronics, and Lukas Kõnig on drums. Each brings a non-stop energy to a compulsive mix of noise and improvisation featuring Iranian vocoder melodies, doom guitar riffs, and a torrent of percussion. A startling architecture of pioneering artistry beyond category or convention!

If you are thinking of going along, then get there early to catch the Estonian duo Katariin Raska + Villem Jahu. Performing new and century-old music on the torupil (Estonian bagpipe) and self-built electronic instruments, the pair bounce around the sound waves, referencing electroacoustic experiments with oral traditions and free improvisation. This performance is guaranteed to be a standout at hcmf// 2026!

As I write this, I am beginning to realise that if there is an underlying theme running through this year’s festival, then it has at its heart artists drawing on and referencing the artists and music-makers who inspired them and created the early sounds that they now take forward into their own practice and reshape through new approaches and current thinking. This is certainly true in the case of the duo DEAR, DEAR, who reference a delicious treasure trove of some of their most important influences such as John Cage, Meredith Monk, Angelo Bandamalamenti and Ryuichi Sakamoto in the UK premiere of their latest work Dear, Dear. A beautiful, lush experience that draws us into an intimate conversation between two artists at the peak of their powers!