We would like to thank everyone who joined us at hcmf// 2021 for your amazing support! It was wonderful to be back in person, experiencing staggering new music from composers and improvisers alike, all in familiar Huddersfield settings.
We’ve assembled some highlights of the five days to share with you, including chance moments from performances and installations that took place at the festival. We’re also very happy to share some of the fantastic press reviews for a myriad of concerts – awarded 4 stars across the board in a fitting testament to the inspirational composers, artists, performers and audiences that made this a very special hcmf//.
We may be reflecting back on November, but we’re already planning hcmf// 2022 and looking forward to seeing you next year.
With our very best wishes for the festive season from all of us at hcmf//.
Graham McKenzie
Artistic Director
‘The UK’s best known showcase for cutting-edge music has been reduced from 10 days to five this year, thanks to practical difficulties following the pandemic. But it’s full of creative energy, and the venues have been hearteningly full’
– The Daily Telegraph
A snapshot of The cold black rain shall be your coat, a collaborative work curated by Claye Bowler at Yonder Gallery.
Chaya Czernowin receives a round of applause for The Fabrication of Light, performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik and conductor Enno Poppe.
“Restricted to a virtual festival last year, the Huddersfield contemporary music festival has returned in-person to present their trademark boundary-pushing programme.”
– The Guardian
Ensemble Musikfabrik in the throes of Enno Poppe’s new work Prozesssion.
‘Poppe’s Prozession is a remarkable work, surging with volcanic energy. ‘This performance will be loud’, warned a sign in St Paul’s Hall. It was. The percussionists, placed at corners of Ensemble Musikfabrik, were the lifeblood. Poppe’s Prozession had to be experienced to be believed.’
– The Times
Explore Ensemble premiering Systema Naturae, a song cycle written by Maura Lanza and Andrea Valle.
‘A thicket of blue wires sprouted, from numerous everyday(ish) objects in the Bates Mill Blending Shed — these were modified, mechanised and connected to computers to form a household orchestra, duetting with the ensemble’s acoustic line-up… there was something fascinating about its detailed snapshots of beeping, tapping, clicking, whirring and whooshing.’
– The Times
Sam Wilson performing as part of the Riot Ensemble’s mammoth hcmf// 2021 concert.
Timothy Cape brandishing drumsticks as part of his collaborative performance with violinist Mayah Kadish.
George Barton of GBSR Duo performing new work by organist Eva-Maria Houben.
‘Featuring Houben on organ, with GBSR Duo’s George Barton on percussion and Siwan Rhys on piano, the piece was a sublime example of music-making as an act of journeying, without a specific destination in mind.’
– 5 against 4
Eva Reiter’s ‘sound symposium’ Eupepsia/Dyspepsia in action via Ictus Ensemble.
‘hcmf// always has its fair share of unconventional, genre-defying performances, and this year was no exception. Among the more unusual was Eupepsia/Dyspepsia devised by Austrian composer Eva Reiter.’
– 5 against 4
Pat Thomas working electronics through John Butcher’s Fluid Fixations.
‘Further thrills came from an hour-long composition Fluid Fixations by John Butcher, for an all-star cast of improvisers. It confirmed that free improv is at its best when it isn’t that free: each performer limiting their palette, combining their instruments sparingly and subtly’
– The Spectator
Louise McMonagle giving the first live performance of Hannah Kendall’s Zeitgeist Commission Tuxedo: Hot Summer No Water
Zubin Kanga experimenting with a piano on hcmf// shorts day.
‘It was impossible not to be gripped and fascinated by Zubin Kanga’s Steel on Bone, featuring the adventurous composer-pianist all wired up with electronics, poking around in his piano’s innards wearing expensive multi-sensor gloves that transfer hand movements into sound. Henry Cowell, the pioneering American piano basher famous for his cluster chords played with the forearms, would surely have loved the bravura and madness of Steel on Bone. I know I did.’
– The Times
Double bassist Otto Willberg peeking out of Cath Roberts’ wall-hanging score for And then the next thing you know.
Luke Nickel and Juliet Fraser performing the rollercoaster simulation piece Steel becomes silk, gravity recast.
Nwando Ebizie performing her piece Solve et Coagula, created as part of the Sound Pioneers programme.
Shirani Brook dancing to hcmf// Young Curator Bethany Holloway’s music in their collaborative work DJ.