Flux - New Music, New Dance

The Guardian 80

Rambert Orchestra/Hoskins/Fidelio Trio/Onyx Brass/Thom/Zaccardelli/Quinta
(NMC)

The days of new ballet scores transferring quickly to the concert hall are long gone, but Rambert has been so good at selecting the recipients of its annual music fellowship that perhaps this will change. This disc showcases five dance works by recent fellows, whose inspirations range from unintentionally comic 70s public-information videos on what to do in the event of nuclear Armageddon – the seed of Gavin Higgins’s tragi-comic ensemble piece Atomic Café – to a slip of smartphone autocorrect, which gave the composer Quinta the idea for Thermistocles is Captured, three short movements of haunting electronica. Mark Bowden’s Airs No Oceans Keep is an ambitiously expansive piano trio. Kate Whitley’s Duo for Violin and Viola builds momentum from restlessly ripping lines. But I bet the one you will most want to see danced is Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s The Madness Industry, a succinct piece played by Onyx Brass with perfectly balanced wit and melancholy.