A few words on the year about to end. Highlight of the year: my book on Peter Hammill was published to good reviews.

Old music: it was a great year for archival box sets – Xenakis’ Electroacoustic Works, :zoviet*france:’s Châsse 3, Albert Ayler’s Revelations, The Beatles’ Revolver. I also loved the reissue of Savage Republic’s Tragic Figures and the ultra-limited handmade packages from Finders Keepers Records – Graeme Miller’s Comet In Moominland, Bruno Spoerri’s Der Würger vom Tower.

New music: Shearwater’s The Great Awakening was comfortably my album of the year. Other fine releases: Beth Orton’s Weather Alive, Richard Dawson’s The Ruby Cord, Will Sheff’s Nothing Special, Breathless’ See Those Colours Fly.

Concerts: this was the year live music took off again. Highlights: Van der Graaf Generator in London and Paris. The Young Gods, Kraftwerk, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, Buttercup Metal Polish and Kollaps in Geneva. Tindersticks in Lille. Einstürzende Neubauten in Lausanne. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in Montreux.

Reading: Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads. Paul Morley’s A Sound Mind. Markus Müller’s monumental FMP: The Living Music. Rob Young’s The Magic Box. Andy Beckett’s When The Lights Went Out. Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman.

TV: another great year for drama. For All Mankind, The White Lotus, My Brilliant Friend, We Own This City, Severance, Sherwood, Bad Sisters, A Friend of the Family. I watched folk horror classics Children of the Stones and The Owl Service with my daughter, but I enjoyed them a lot more than she did.

Deaths: I mourn the passing of Hermann Nitsch, Bill Bryden, Norma Waterson, Albin Julius, Mimi Parker and Harrison Birtwistle.

Another year of failing to keep up with this blog. Here are the ten concerts I enjoyed most this year:

1. Einstürzende Neubauten, Alhambra, Geneva
2. Glen Hansard, Alhambra, Geneva
3. Roger Waters, Stadthalle, Vienna
4. Nurse With Wound, Cave 12, Geneva
5. Philip Glass: Satyagraha, Coliseum, London
6. Fire! Orchestra, AMR, Geneva
7. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Montreux Jazz Festival
8. Anna von Hausswolff, Montreux Jazz Festival
9. Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love, AMR, Geneva
10. Sir Richard Bishop, Room Art Space, Cairo

This blog is in hibernation, but I’m making a quick return just to note the eight (why eight?) concerts I enjoyed most this year:

1. Peter Hammill, Café Oto, London (actually three concerts, but impossible to pick one)

2. Richard Youngs, Cave 12, Geneva

3. This Is Not This Heat, Cave 12, Geneva

4. Einstürzende Neubauten, Donaufestival, Krems

5. Michael Nyman Band, Schauspielhaus, Zurich

6. Schlippenbach Trio, AMR, Geneva

7. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Arena, Geneva

8. Felix Kubin, Cave 12, Geneva

Once again, time and other commitments have defeated me and I am way behind with this blog. The last concert I reviewed here took place in October; I’ve seen quite a few more since then, but haven’t had the time to write reviews of them, much to my regret. I’d still really like to fill in the gaps, but who knows if or when I’ll get around to it. Anyway, here’s some kind of list of the ten best concerts I saw in 2014, of which only a few currently have links to reviews:

1. Shearwater, Vienna Szene
2. Pharmakon, Vienna Arena
3. Oliver Welter, Vienna Floridsdorf
4. Michael Nyman Band: Battleship Potemkin, Vienna Konzerthaus
5. Kraftwerk: The Man Machine, Vienna Burgtheater
6. Fire! Orchestra, Vienna Porgy & Bess
7. Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilssen-Love, Vienna Blue Tomato
8. William Basinski, Warsaw Pardon To Tu
9. Peter Brötzmann/Jason Adasiewicz/Steve Noble, Warsaw Pardon To Tu
10. Christian Fennesz/Peter Rehberg, Vienna Grelle Forelle

I’m still not much of a consumer of new recorded music, although my new part-time job as a reviewer for The Quietus has given me some very welcome exposure to 2014 albums.   With that in mind, here are five new releases I enjoyed this year:

1. Peter Hammill, …all that might have been…
2. Fennesz, Bécs
3. Neil Cowley Trio, Touch and Flee
4. Pharmakon, Bestial Burden
5. Fire! Orchestra, Enter

See you in 2015!

A year ago I made some kind of wish list of artists I was hoping to see play live in 2012. Unsurprisingly, my hit rate was very low, with only two of my 12 wishes (Peter Hammill and Tindersticks) being fulfilled. I can’t really complain, though, since I did see a slew of great shows this year (see Concerts of 2012).

Ever the optimist, here are 15 artists I would like to see in 2013. Once again, these are all artists who tour on a regular basis and whom I have not seen for a good long time (in a few cases, never). Most of them are repeated from the previous list, and there are some new names as well. Dead Can Dance have dropped off the list because, even though I didn’t see them this year, they are coming to Vienna in 2013.

1. Okkervil River

2. Gillian Welch

3. Kathleen Edwards

4. The Hold Steady

5. Home Service

6. The Dirty Three

7. Einstürzende Neubauten seen, 27 June 2015

8. Spiritualized

9. Cowboy Junkies

10. Richard Youngs seen, 12 February 2017

11. Lucinda Williams

12. Van der Graaf Generator seen, 16 June 2013

13. Richard Thompson

14. Six Organs of Admittance

15. Low seen, 15 February 2019