28th July 2014: Featured article in Listen Music Magazine for John O’Gallagher and his latest ‘The Anton Webern Project’

We’ve recently received an insightful and praising review from Listen Music Magazine for John O’Gallagher’s The Anton Webern Project. The album has already received multiple glowing reviews including 5 stars from Nordwestschweiz and 4 stars from The Guardian, The JazzMann, The Financial Times, Marlbank and O’s Place Magazine, with JazzWax announcing it as “courageous stuff and easily the most innovative album of the year.”

The recent review, spanning two full pages of the magazine, describes the album as “a musical roller coaster” and states that “for non-classical listeners, The Anton Webern Project might be something of a gateway into the world of modernist concert music, but for contemporary-music aficionados, the album would be an ideal entry into modern jazz. “

The review also contains an interview with John, in which he says “I’ve been captivated by Webern’s music ever since I first heard it as a student at the Berklee College of Music in the late eighties… his music is so individual – the melodies unique, the harmonies so beautiful; then there’s the transparency of the orchestrations, his use of space. In transporting Webern pieces into a modern jazz context, I wanted to bring out that lyricism I hear in his music, to highlight the song forms – not underscoring how ‘out’ or avant these pieces are but the beauty of them, the song in them. I also wanted to help show the kinship between what modernist classical composers were doing and some of what’s happening in jazz today. Ultimately, though, no one has to know a thing about Webern or the Second Viennese School to dig what we’re doing.”

Also in the review, contemporary composer Ian Wilson praises the project concept and execution.“I could hear the links to the Webern pieces clearly… John managed to absorb those ‘quotes’ into a strikingly personal approach, so that everything sounds organic. The playing – and singing – is terrific, and the instrumentation locks in the distinctive personality of the music. There’s a sense of freshness to it all, and I like the notion of using these fragments from a hundred years ago as launching points for new ideas and ways of expression”

You can read the full page spread by clicking on the thumbnails below:

To purchase the album please check out the album page, and featured below we have the promo vid that accompanies the release.