Faith Hahn

An enlightened being sees their agony without diminishing its reality. In other words, it doesn’t just turn away from it—but, on the other hand, simultaneously sees everything, including that agony [and] including hell, actually, as bubbles of bliss in an ocean of bliss. That’s the kind of cognitive dissonance that the ordinary mind cannot get... See more

In this context, Kaija Saariaho’s very last musical work, a concerto for trumpet and orchestra under the title of HUSH (2022-23), stands apart as something knowingly conceived as finale – both in personal and professional terms – winding up (as far as such action is humanely conceivable) a cycle of solo concerti, an œuvre, a life.

Concerns about the commercial data that comes through all these distribution, royalty and other essential services are also growing. Not only does it allow you to snaffle up a rising star, it would be one of the most sophisticated and complete webs of price tracking your rivals imaginable in the music market. And no regulator wants to rely on... See more

One thing I’ve also noticed is the gradual loss of the understanding of “imagination” as a category; it can sound a little Reading Rainbow to talk about, but wouldn’t you know imagination is actually an essential part of the human condition. In so far as the words “spirit” or “spirituality” mean anything beyond woo-woo or cliché they must include... See more

Major music rights holders and tech companies are now expected to generate profits for a dizzying array of stakeholders sitting outside of industry borders, including banks, private equity firms, big-tech conglomerates, and sovereign wealth funds — not to mention public retail investors.

There has been no central resource tracking these macro shifts... See more

It’s tired at this point to say that the weightlessness of postmodern meaning, its confused identifications, ultimately flattens towards fascism. But still, having a viewpoint is perhaps underrated.

And “indie,” in the current day, doesn’t necessarily mean “small”: the big-tent Beggars Group (4AD, Matador, Rough Trade, XL, and Young Turks) is inarguably a major business. North Carolina’s Merge Records has had multiple Billboard top tens, and is distributed by a NASDAQ-listed public company that counts among other clients Walmart, Target,... See more