tue 19/03/2024

Interviews with leading figures from the arts

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Karl Wallinger

Graeme Thomson

In February 2001 a brain aneurysm nearly killed Karl Wallinger. It didn’t do World Party many favours either. The aftermath of devastating illness resulted in a five year hiatus for his band, followed by a gradual, tentative return. Since 2006 there have been shows in Australia and America, but no new music and no gigs on this side of the pond. Until now.

theartsdesk Q&A: Wim Wenders on 'Perfect Days'

Graham Fuller

Wim Wenders’ latest narrative film Perfect Days might seem an uncommonly mellow work by the maker of Alice in the Cities (1974), The American Friend (1977), Paris, Texas (1984), and Wings of Desire (1987), but it still finds the 78-year-old German director in existentially questing mode.

10 Questions for 'The Settlers' film...

Graham Fuller

Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s Chilean Western The Settlers traces the roles played in the genocide of the country’s indigenous Selk’nam people by the...

Scala!!! interview with documentary co-directors...

Saskia Baron

There’s no shortage of documentaries about movie stars, film directors and production studios in their heydays, but very little attention has been...

theartsdesk Q&A: Steven Wilson on Porcupine...

Graham Fuller

This September Steven Wilson issued The Harmony Codex, his seventh solo record in 16 years. Though rooted in mortal concerns and alert to real-...

32 Sounds: Interview with innovative documentarian Sam Green about his audio and visual feast

Saskia Baron

Rare chance to catch a unique documentary that explores the listening world

10 Questions for the avant-pop icons Stereolab

Cheri Amour

Laetitia and Tim on Nineties tribes, new-age technology and their lifelong affinity with music

'The people behind the postcards': an interview with Priya Hein, author of 'Riambel'

Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou

The writer discusses her prize-winning debut novel, the power of fragments, and the motivations that drive her work

Warhol, Velázquez, and leaving things out: an interview with Lynne Tillman

Alice Brewer

Allongside its British re-release, the author of Motion Sickness discusses the state of fiction and her ways of writing

'We wanted to make a record we really love': The Rolling Stones at Hackney Empire

Tim Cumming

Mick, Keith and Ronnie at their Hackney Diamonds press conference on Wednesday

Composer and conductor Carl Davis, 1936-2023

Graham Rickson

theartsdesk Q&A from 2021 with the silent film specialist on shot lists, bass drums and projection speeds

Isabelle Huppert and director Jean-Paul Salomé: 'Cinema is about a little trade, a little business'

Nick Hasted

La Syndicaliste's star and director discuss misogyny, ambiguity and the quest for perfection

theartsdesk Q&A: musician Susanne Sundfør - ‘Blómi is a message of hope for whoever might need it’

Kieron Tyler

Interviewed about her new album, the Norwegian singer-songwriter reveals its inspirations - family, flowers and much more

Filmmaker Tarik Saleh: ‘A director is at heart an immigrant’

Nick Hasted

Cairo Conspiracy's director talks power, Egypt, Islam and Le Carré

'I let it emerge': an interview with Fiona Benson on the cusp of the TS Eliot Prize announcement

Jack Barron

The poet discusses her new book, mayflies, motherhood, and memory

'Corsage' director Marie Kreutzer: 'Being beautiful is her only currency'

Nick Hasted

The Austrian director on Vicky Krieps, a rotting empire's rebel royal and corsetry as control

theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Mike Hodges

David Thompson

The British writer-director reflects on the making and meaning of his thriller 'Black Rainbow'

10 Questions for writer and translator Saskia Vogel

Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou

Translation as inhabiting in a book with a witchy love of things

10 Questions for comedian Alex Edelman

Veronica Lee

US comic talks about bringing 'Just For Us' to the Menier Chocolate Factory

10 Questions for Bruce Lindsay, biographer of Ivor Cutler

Sebastian Scotney

How the teacher-poet became like a Zelig figure across so many swathes of UK culture

Directors the Dardenne brothers: 'To be living means to be fragile'

Nick Hasted

The Belgian masters discuss 'Tori and Lokita', and finding humanity on film

Wilko Johnson (1947-2022): The Bard of Canvey Island

Nick Hasted

Snug-bar confessions in an epic Canvey Island encounter with the late Essex great

Q&A: Bianca Stigter, director of 'Three Minutes: A Lengthening'

Graham Fuller

The historian and filmmaker discusses her haunting documentary about a Polish shtetl filmed on the brink of the abyss in 1938

Leslie Phillips: 'I can be recognised by my voice alone'

Jasper Rees

Saying goodbye to the actor famous for saying hello

‘Stripping naked the process of making theatre’: Martin Crimp talks about his latest play

Aleks Sierz

The playwright talks about 'Not One of These People', which he is performing himself, digital creativity and constraints on authorship

'The first thing I do when I wake up is write.' Hilary Mantel, 1952-2022

Jasper Rees

An interview with the novelist the morning after she won the Man Booker Prize for the first time

theartsdesk Q&A: Abel Selaocoe

Tim Cumming

The South African cellist and rising star of World and Classical on the music, life and history embedded in his debut album 'Where Is Home'

theartsdesk Q&A: Horn player Sarah Willis on returning to Cuba

Graham Rickson

Guaguancós, cha-cha-chas and crickets as the horn player commissions a new work in Havana

theartsdesk Q&A: bass-baritone Christopher Purves on communicating everything from Handel to George Benjamin

David Nice

The great singing actor on his best experiences - including Zurich Opera's new Ring

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It began with the tolling of a lone bell and ended in a transcendent blaze of golden light. The UK premiere of James MacMillan’s Fiat Lux...

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“Based on the play by Oscar Wilde,” declared publicity on Dublin buses and buildings, reminding opera-cautious citizens that the poet whose text...

Album: Elbow - Audio Vertigo

On this, their 10th album, the melodious...

First Person: conductor Peter Whelan on coming full circle w...

There's something undeniable about the way music can weave itself into the fabric of our lives, shaping our passions and leaving an indelible...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Mystic Tide - Frustration

Crashing chords are followed by a spindly, untrammelled solo guitar. After this subsides, the singer lays out the issue: “I try, I cry, I just can...

Hughes, SCO, Kuusisto, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh review - Clyn...

Most concert promoters will tell you that contemporary music tends to be, to put it politely, a tricky sell, which is one of the reasons why it’s...

The New Boy review - a mystical take on Australia's tre...

This is writer-director Warwick Thornton’s third...

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