Andy Malt

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Bigo & Twigetti 2024 roundup

Andy Malt

I wrote this round up of classical record label Bigo & Twigetti’s year to go out to the company’s mailing list…

As we reach the end of 2024, we’re reflecting on the year just gone. For Bigo & Twigetti, it has been a great year and we’re immensely proud of all the music we’ve put out this year, spanning neoclassical, ambient and folk. We also staged a live showcase in London, which was a magical night and something we hope to repeat in the near future. 

Thank you so much for all of your support this year, whether you streamed our music, bought something on Bandcamp, or attended the live show. We love sharing great music with you, and it’s a real joy that so many out there want to hear it. 

Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Label night at Crypt on the Green

On the 22nd of February this year, the Curve Ensemble took to the stage at Crypt on the Green in Clerkenwell, London to perform a selection of music by composers on the Bigo & Twigetti roster. 

Composers including Anna de Bruin, Tony Woollard, Jim Perkins, Angus MacRae, Dan Hewson, Leah Kardos, Laure Chan and Rael Jones were also in the room to briefly explain the inspirations and themes of their pieces.

It was a very special evening, and really brought alive the music we’re so used to hearing as recordings. 

Curve Ensemble’s artistic director Anna de Bruin says of the show, “After a hugely successful label night in 2023, [Bigo & Twigetti founder] Jim Perkins and I decided to co-organise another evening with Curve ensemble, a group of 12 incredible string players from London’s freelance scene making another appearance.

“We chatted about who would like to be involved and had a great response from a fantastic mix of composers from across the label and the ensemble. Jim and I thought that the informal introductions to the music from the composers really worked so we asked them to come along and say a few words. The audience loved it and many of them mentioned how this really made this night stand out from other classical music nights.

“Everyone wrote such different music but all of it was wonderful to play. We had music that was calming, exciting, serene, music to drift off to and music that had people’s heads nodding. It all worked so well together and there was a happy vibe in the room when we finished up. Instead of rushing home, everyone stayed for a few drinks from the brilliant pop up bar that had been organised for the night.”

Highlights from 2024

We’ve put out a lot of great music this year, which we hope you’ve enjoyed listening to as much as we have. Here are a few highlights.

Ben Crosland - Stargazer

Our first EP release of 2024, Stargazer came out in February, setting us up perfectly for the year ahead. This collection of four solo piano pieces shows Ben’s immense talent as a composer, always finding emotive and uplifting melodies that make him such a popular artist on our roster. 

Jim Perkins single series

Towards the end of this year, Jim began releasing a series of monthly singles, allowing him to bring out new music while it was still fresh. Having taken a very structured approach to writing his fourth album Imprints, which came out in 2023, Jim wanted his next project to be more freeing, working on one composition at a time without a wider concept in mind. So far, we have released Between the Sea and the Sky, Lullaby for Mathilda, and Last Letters. 

Compilations

One of the things we really enjoy putting together are our themed compilations, bringing together newly commissioned music from artists across our roster. This year we have released three. Released in April, Perceptions Vol. 5 is the fifth instalment of our compilation series exploring different approaches to creating music for piano. Introducing Vol. 2 - which arrived in August - shares new music from new and established artists on the B&T roster. And finally, Winter Vol. 2 features new music inspired by winter, and comes ten years after our original Winter compilation. That will be released in full later this month.

“2024 was another great year for collaborations which is at the heart of everything we do,” says label owner Jim Perkins. “Lots of brilliant artists, both existing and new to the label created some beautiful music for our compilations and single series.”

Coming up in 2025

Next year is already shaping up to be another busy one, with lots of releases already in the works. Here are a few highlights of what to expect.

Wilson Trouvé - One Life

Wilson Trouvé will release his latest album on the 10th of January. One Life was conceived as a hypothetical soundtrack for a film about human life and existence. The pieces on it feature a variety of arrangements, from strings to brass, wind ensembles and solo piano. Listen to the single Through the Window.

“Each track evokes a moment, a place, a particular emotion, and dialogues with the other tracks on the album in a coherent sequence that takes the listener on a special journey: one life,’ says Wilson.

Blurstem & Elijah Bisbee - Mirage

Blurstem - aka composer Chris Bartels - and Elijah Bisnee’s latest collaboration is Mirage, which we are releasing as four EPs. These 18 songs were composed at Bisbee’s home in Cleveland, Ohio in 2023, before finessing them remotely. Sampled instruments and field recordings captured around Cleveland form the centre of the project. The first EP is out now, with the second set to follow on the 13th of December. Volumes three and four will be out in January and March, with the full collection available as an album on the 28th of March. 

Various Artists - Scale Vol. 2

Our original Scale compilation was released in 2019, exploring the theme of scale within the context of music. Musicians involved were left to interpret this as they wish, with a range of ideas from literal musical scales to volume and more broad perspectives forming the collection of music. For our second release in this series, five more musicians have created new music on this theme. Look out for single releases in the new year.

Various Artists - Shorts

For this compilation, we asked B&T artists to come up with compositions less than a minute in length. Such a short duration places a huge constraint on the communication of a message, but the nine artists who will feature on this (very short!) release have more than delivered. We will be releasing individual tracks in the new year, with the full compilation out in March.

2024 releases

As we said, we’re immensely proud of all the music we released this year. Here is everything we added to our catalogue in 2024.

Albums

Compilations

EPs

Standalone singles