Luke Bedford received a composer’s award from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in June 2012. As part of the foundation’s commitment to young composers, a portrait CD will be released by col legno. Markus Böggemann took this opportunity to look closer at some of Bedford’s works.

What are a composer’s tools? If we take the question literally, the answer is still “pencil and paper,” although obviously we now have the computer, which is playing the role the piano had in the 19th century.” However, looking at the question in a broader, metaphorical way as one addressing the individual peculiarities of musical thinking and the ways of realising it, it becomes clear [...]

Luke Bedford's pieces Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale, By the Screen in the Sun at the Hill on the Gold, Chiaroscuro, Man Shoots Strangers from Skyscraper and Or Voit Tout en Aventure have been released on a new CD on col-legno. The critic Andrew Clements writes: “Compiled from concert recordings, it makes a valuable introduction to his luminous soundworld, and goes a long way to explaining why he is so highly rated among the younger generation of British composers.“

Read the full review.

The one vocal work included is particularly appealing. Or Voit Tout en Aventure – meaning something like ‘everything is out of control’ – sets ancient texts about music that [...]