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The Wire 495. Cover by Clara Nebeling

Issue 495

May 2025

Subscribers: read this issue online.

Subscribe to the magazine. Buy issue 495.

Inside our brand new issue:

aya: New album hexed! explores sobriety and neurodiversity through radical tunings and transformed instruments. By Chal Ravens

Satch Hoyt: The one-time Burnt Sugar member’s Un-Muting project opens museum archives of stolen instruments. By Francis Gooding

Ailie Ormston: The Glasgow composer moves away from the conservatoire to conduct the sounds of the city. By Abi Bliss

Joke Lanz: At 60 years old the Swiss improvisor still takes a punk approach to the turntable. By Daniel Spicer

Bios Contrast: Kolkata musician Nilotpal Das cooks up the concept of brahmancore. By Misha Farrant

Laura Cocks: Chamber music is the site of connection for the flautist. By Stewart Smith

MIC: Grime provides the setting for sci-fi storytelling in the hands of the London MC. By Lucy Thraves

John King: The composer playing the blues for Palestine’s lost communities. By Kurt Gottschalk

Trân Uy Đúc: The Vietnamese multidisciplinary artist curates the self-scape. By Daryl Worthington

Invisible Jukebox: Alvin Curran: Will the Musica Elettronica Viva member read maritime rites over The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Julian Cowley

Unlimited Editions: Meticulous design and sonics dovetail in New York new music label Greyfade. By Philip Watson

The Inner Sleeve: Seymour Wright on Anne Gillis’s Lxgrin

Against The Grain: VAN magazine Editor Hugh Morris can’t stand that jazzy sensation

Epiphanies: Surgeon gets all cut up by William S Burroughs and Brion Gysin

Soundcheck: Actress, Ahmed Ag Kaedy & Will Guthrie, Annie A, Peter Baumann, Lea Bertucci & Olivia Block, Biollante, Daniel Blumberg, Pierre Borel, Brutal Shift, Brutal Shift/Solar Yolk, Florence Cats, CBZK, Circuit Des Yeux, Anla Courtis Ja Lehtisalo, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Holger Czukay, Bryn Davis, Dead Pioneers, Divide And Dissolve, Dromedaries x Alexoteric, Dushume, Eska, Bryan Ferry & Amelia Barratt, The Great Learning Orchestra, Hieroglyphic Being, History Dog, William Hooker, William Hooker with David S Ware & Alan Braufman, HxH, Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals, Chris Jonas, Fergus Jones, Kid Spatula, Kinski, Das Koolies, Ed Kuepper & Jim White, Laibach, The Steve Lehman Trio & Mark Turner, Mclusky, Me, Claudius, Roger Clark Miller, Hedvig Mollestad Trio, Nahja Mora, Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas, Neptunian Maximalism, The Orchestra Of Futurist Noise Intoners Directed by Luciano Chessa, Anthony Pateras, Lucy Railton, Lee Ranaldo & Michael Vallera, Gryphon Rue, Laila Sakini, Kim Salmon & Masami Kawaguchi, Klaus Schulze, Slow Reading Club & Charlie Usher, Ches Smith, Sumac & Moor Mother, Neil Tennant/Mark Springer/Sacconi String Quartet, Throwing Muses, Penelope Trappes, William Tyler, Use Knife, Whatever The Weather, Various Soon I’ll Run Out Of Air

The Columns: Avant Rock by Antonio Poscic; Critical Beats by Joe Muggs; Dub & Reggae by Steve Barker; Electronics by Leah Kardos; Global by Francis Gooding; Hiphop & R&B by Tim Fish; Jazz & Improv by Phil Freeman; Noise, Industrial & Beyond by Emily Pothast; Size Matters by Byron Coley

The Boomerang: Paul Bley, Paul Bley Trio, Stanley Cowell, The Creation, Q Lazzarus, Kali Malone, Pentangle, Steve Reich, Charlie Rouse, Royal Trux, Pharoah Sanders, Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc, Various Strata-East: The Legacy Begins

Print Run: Hating Jazz: A History Of Its Disparagement, Mockery, And Other Forms Of Abuse by Andrew S Berish; Mood Machine: The Rise Of Spotify And The Cost Of The Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly; Black Mystery School Pianists And Other Writings by Matthew Shipp; Erik Satie Three Piece Suite by Ian Penman; Small Town Joy: From Glam Rock To Hyperpop: How Queer Music Changed The Sound Of Scotland by Carrie Marshall; Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal edited by Erin Christoval; The Sound Of Utopia: Musicians In The Time Of Stalin by Michel Krielaars (translated by Jonathan Reeder); Dmitry Shostakovich And Music For Stalinist Cinema (1936–1953) by Joan Titus; Blank Forms 10: Alien Roots: Éliane Radigue edited by Lawrence Kumpf & Charles Curtis

On Screen: Dietmar Post Mona Mur In Conversation; Jean-Cosme Delaloye Desire: The Carl Craig Story; Marie Losier Peaches Goes Bananas

On Location: Jules Reidy + Nina Garcia + Adam Soper, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Hekla + Dave Welder, London, UK; Sachiko M & Annette Krebs + Chris Pitsiokos & Axel Dörner, Berlin, Germany; Mamboat, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Come Back, London, UK; Borealis, Bergen, Norway; Ghais Guevara, London, UK; Sonics 25, Hastings, UK; 160 Unity: RP Boo + DJ Spinn + Kode9 + Big Dope P, London, UK; Experiments in Opera, New York, US; CTM, Berlin, Germany

On Site: Joy Boy, A Tribute To Julius Eastman, Aalst, Belgium; Leigh Bowery!, London, UK; Outlaws: Fashion Renegades Of 80s London, London, UK