2011 – my year in listening

This is my ninth annual look at my past year’s listening. It’s felt as rich a year as ever for the joy, thrill, comfort and stimulation that music gives me. My gratitude is immense. I’ve yet to feel any intimation of the loss of interest or drift towards conservatism that I see in others. I hope I never do. That’s not to say that I’m trying to stay up to date, I’m well aware that there are whole continents of music that don’t interest me at all. The vast majority of the music listed in the end of year polls published by the likes of The Guardian, The Liminal, The Quietus and The Wire intrigues me not a jot. I’m fine with that, but I read through them and there are a number of albums I’ve discovered as a result: James Ferraro’s Far Side Virtual and SBTRKT’s eponymous debut. I continue to divide my listening and exploring to new music and to music in the recent past. New albums by favoured artists cause me to return to their other work and with luck I discover afresh the wonder of their creativity, the connections to related works and their own quality of distinctiveness. Examples of this include Kate Bush’s 50 Words For Snow, Vladislav Delay’s Vantaa, Junior Boys’ It’s All True, Tindersticks’ Claire Denis Soundtracks and Marilyn Mazur’s Celestial Circle.