Garrett Sholdice attends a La Monte Young performance at Berlin's MaerzMusik, and reflects on past experiences with Young's magical sustained tones.

Counterpoint in music – as much a concept as a technique – has been with us for centuries, from the twelfth-century vocal music of Léonin to the playlists on our iPods. But what is really at the heart of the idea?

Performances at the 2011 Sligo New Music Festival were about total immersion and intense focus, hinging on the listeners' willingness to share in a slow, smouldering process.

Born in Dublin in 1976, Judith Ring is a composer for whom the physical experience of a sound will shape everything.

Garrett Sholdice discovers an opera that finally feels like the best cinema.

Ives Ensemble, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam, 19 December 2009

Evenset, Diatribe (DIACD008)

Maria de Alvear (voice), Songs of an Old Female Hippopotamus, Zwielicht, A trans Pavilion, Berlin, 25 July 2009

Harry Beckett (trumpet), Ian Smith (flugelhorn) Robert Jarvis, Alan Tomlinson (trombones), Andrew Robinson (recorders), Neil Metcalfe (flute), Terry Day (reed pipes & recorder), Lol Coxhill, Adrian Northover, Evan Parker (soprano saxes)

The Theory of Impossible MelodyNew World Records (80684-2)A scholar in medieval literature was talking to me recently about the Anglo-Saxon word for poet: scop (pronounced ‘shop’). It’s derived from the Anglo-Saxon verb scieppan – ‘to...

Kevin Volans (piano); Jennifer Walshe (vocals); Crash Ensemble: Emily Thyne (violin), Lisa Grosman (viola), Kate Ellis (cello), Malachy Robinson (double bass), John Godfrey (piano), Deirdre O’Leary (clarinet), Andrew Crowley (trumpet), Owen

Silenced VoicesMode Records, Mode 198The Barton Workshop; Elisabeth Smalt (viola); Frank Denyer and James Fulkerson (musical directors) Silenced Voices is the second Mode Records disc devoted to the work of English composer Frank Denyer.

Quatuor Bozzini; Rick Sacks (percussion), Eve Egoyan (piano), Miriam Shalinsky (double bass), local instrumentalistsHuddersfield, Yorkshire24–26 November 2008Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival’s James Tenney retrospective was the larg

Gavin Bryars (double bass), Iarla Ó Lionáird (voice), Leo Abrahams (guitar), Lisa Grosman (viola), Cian Ó Dúill (viola), Kate Ellis (cello)Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin14 November 2008Anáil Dé is an evening-length...

Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, York, England7 May 2008Folk From Here is a programme of music composed for the specially-formed ensemble of Kuljit Bhamra (tabla/percussion) and Jonathan Mayer (sitar), both eminent performers of Indian classica