ash.smyth
latest in today
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts…
An opening sequence set in the Andalusian city of Ronda, with its spectacular bridge across the El Tajo gorge, seems to be setting us up…
The term “post-punk” is much overused to describe music, not least by we music writers. It usually covers anything with punk’s outsider…
Early 2026 was always going to trump late 2025 in one respect: total clarity in a much-anticipated concert performance of Janáček's teeming…
There’s a slight “Sympathy For the Devil” tone to the opening seconds of “Pendulum Swing”, the first track on the US country adjacent…
To the great Weill interpreters she summoned at the start of her First person for theartsdesk, from Cathy Berberian to Tom Waits, can now…
Lawlessness and lack of accountability seem, tragically, on the verge of becoming a new American norm, so what better time to re-consider…
Composer Zoë Martlew’s album (Album Z) launch in the surround-sound environment of Hall 2 at Kings Place thrived on a theatricality rare…
As one of the characters tells us: “There are two sides to every story… someone is always lying.” This telly-isation of Alice Feeney’s…
Maybe it was the cold weather. Maybe it was the disparate list of comics on the bill. Maybe it was a host (Fatiha El-Ghorri) who said that…