With a penchant for drama and a wicked sense of humour, Laurence Osborn is one of the most original composers currently working in the UK. He thinks in terms many would consider alien: he wonders what pop music can do for composition, or how quickly he can destroy the formalities found in his industry. He’s called his style ‘extreme’, before, but it’s not chaotic. It uses sounds and subtext to shift the conversation, far beyond what we’ve come to accept.

(Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival)

Laurence Osborn (1989, UK) constructs Essential Relaxing Classical Hits from fragments of existing pieces, from Pachelbel’s Canon to Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Written for soprano Agata Zubel and Ensemble Klang, Osborn’s slippery musical textures ooze through his own urgent text, exploring the destruction of the self in the twenty-first century. The work was commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK) and November Music Festival (NL)

1. Essential Relaxing Classical Hits: Volume 1 15:03

2. Essential Relaxing Classical Hits: Volume 2 21:08

3. Essential Relaxing Classical Hits: Volume 3 08:38

Agata Zubel, solo soprano
Erik-Jan de With, saxophones
Michiel van Dijk, saxophones
Anton van Houten, trombones
Joey Marijs, percussion
Saskia Lankhoorn, piano and keyboards
Pete Harden, electric guitar
Arne Bock, sound