Guest Playlist: Ben Nobuto

Meara O’Reilly: Hockets for Two Voices (2019) 

I discovered this album of hockets by Meara O’Reilly on Bandcamp a few years ago and keep coming back to listen. Hockets are a simple technique but I find them so satisfying, hearing two independent lines interlock in that precise way, like little musical puzzles. O’Reilly records both vocal parts herself and layers them together which adds to the hypnotic feeling of hearing someone duet with their doppelgänger. 

Andrew Hamilton: a (Joy - 2020)  

I have loved Andrew Hamilton’s music ever since I listened to ‘music for people who like art’ a few years ago. There’s a kind of unhinged joy I hear in his music that I relate to, desperate but so affirmative at the same time. ‘a’ is from an album of pieces for voice and violin called ‘Joy,’ played by Hamilton himself. 

Nakibembe Embaire Group: Omulangira Mpango 

In Kirsten Johnson’s 2016 ‘Cameraperson,’ an amazing sort of collage-documentary-memoir about her life as a filmmaker, there’s one scene in a village in Uganda where musicians are playing a giant xylophone called an embaire, alongside three dancers. The musicians are sat on either side of the embaire playing extremely fast, intricate, complex polyrhythms, like the sound of a million legs running. I paused the film and rewatched that scene so many times, mesmerised. 

Brìghde Chaimbeul: Bog an Lochan (Sunwise - 2025) 

Brìghde Chaimbeul is a Scottish piper. I saw her play the Scottish smallpipes with fiddle player Aidan O’Rourke at Kings Place last year, accompanied by Japanese noh musicians. Hearing those two traditions combine was so surreal, like two dreams colliding into each other. 

Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction (Martland - 2015) 

Colin Currie introduced me to Steve Martland two years ago and I was surprised I had never heard of him. So much energy and groove in his music. I think playing drums growing up, I’ve always gravitated to music that has a simple love for repetition and pulse. The joy of hearing patterns rotate round each other and the feeling of that in your body. 

Csso: Shobo (Sounds of Sisso - 2017) 

Super fast euphoric headrush music from Tanzania, like being trapped in a game arcade and you’ve eaten too many sweets. 

John McGuire: 48 Variations for Two Pianos (2012) 
 
John McGuire is a composer from California whose music combines elements of American minimalism with serialism (he studied with Stockhausen and Penderecki). ’48 Variations’ was written between 1976-1980 and has this intriguing blend of precise, angular rhythmic patterns that sound algorithmically generated and lush, static tonal harmony. I could listen to it all day. Reminds me of when I used to play Debussy on piano growing up. I would sometimes get bored and repeat little fragments of chords and phrases over and over again, turning them into a groove. 

N. Rajam, Zakir Hussain: Raga Nilambari - Gat in Vilambit Ektaal (Glittering Treasures, Vol. 2 - 2019) 

My friend Beatrice Ferreira put me onto this album recently and I’ve become a big fan. N. Rajam is an Indian violinist who performs Hindustani classical music. Her playing is so delicate and ornate, like liquid, and resembles the human voice in such an uncanny way. I read that her guru’s advice for playing was to ‘approach the musical notes with utmost tenderness, love and humility, caress them, cajole them.’ 

Masayoshi Fujita: Swan and Morning Dews (Stories - 2018) 

Masayoshi Fujita is a Japanese vibraphonist and composer. Listening to his music, I feel like I’m walking around a quiet village in early morning, lost, but happily passing by the same landmarks as I try to figure out where I am. 

Joyce: Ave Maria (Joyce - 1968) 
 
Joyce is maybe my favourite singer, so much warmth and life in her music. If we could only send one artist’s music into space I would choose Joyce’s - I think that would be a nice way for aliens to get to know us. 

Kronos Quartet, Huun-Huur-Tu: Uleg-Khem (Early Music - 1997) 

I’d been following Tuvan group Huun-Huur-Tu for ages but only found this piece with Kronos Quartet recently, from their album ‘Early Music’ from 1997. Interesting blend of string quartet with traditional Tuvan instruments and throat singing. 

Skrillex, Nai Barghouti: XENA (Quest for Fire - 2023) 

I felt embarrassed I’d never listened to Skrillex so I asked my friend Matthew Wilcock for a recommendation and he sent me this track - amazing collab with Palestinian singer-songwriter Nai Barghouti. 

Anne Briggs: Blackwater Side (A Collection - 2006) 
 
I love Anne Briggs’ voice, feels so pure and simple. I read that she had a huge influence on British folksingers in the 1960s, but only released about 30 songs in her life and then stopped singing at the age of 27 because she hated the sound of her recorded voice. 

Charmaine Lee, Ikue Mori: Royal Flush (Elevator Music - 2024) 
 
Charmaine Lee runs her amplified voice through different effects to create stream-of-consciousness noise music. It ranges from harsh noise to the faintest sound of breathing and little vocal ticks to fragments of words or melodies - all with a speed and fluidity like water. It’s visceral, direct and playful despite it being abstract and often pretty intense to listen to. This is a collaboration with Japanese electronic musician Ikue Mori. 

Taeko Onuki: Summer Connection (SUNSHOWER - 1977) 

I started listening to Taeko Onuki around ten years ago when J-pop was becoming really popular on Youtube for some reason. There’s an interesting thing of young, Western people in the comments section expressing nostalgia for 80s Japan, a time before they were born and a place most of them have never been to. Maybe because there’s something so utopian and glistening about the music, feels like the memory of a perfect summer.