IN a year of war and political upheaval, it’s a pity these tectonic shifts are not moving the musical dial in sufficient quantity.

The huge advances in immersive audio technology and the success of platforms such as Dolby Atmos should also be producing much more incisive movements. On the flip side, a strong year for contemporary spiritual and new ambient.

A notable release from ECM came in the form of a new recording of Arvo Part’s Tractus. Recorded by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the title refers to a series of theological writings by the English cardinal and saint John Henry Newman called Tracts for the Times (1843).

Part of the composer’s musical inspiration is the music of the Western Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He also uses a formula called the tintinnabuli technique, referencing a slow-tempo sparse, minimal approach emphasising a tonic triad or cluster set of three notes.

Anna Gourari is a German pianist who has recorded three solo albums for ECM. For her latest work Paul Hindemith Alfred Schnittke (ECM) she teamed up with the Lugano-based Orchestra Della Svizzera Italiana.

Under the leadership of conductor Markus Poschner they performed Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra and Paul Hindemith’s The Four Temperaments.

Schnittke was a 20th century Russian composer who wrote orchestral works on themes of morality and spiritualty, musically strongly influenced by Dimitri Shostakovich.

It was another strong year from Cold Blue Music, the Southern Californian label releasing contemporary classical and experimental electro-acoustic works. A highlight was John Luther Adams’ album Waves and Particles, a work for strings performed by the JACK Quartet. Set over six movements, it is inspired by quantum physics, fractal geometry and notions of sonic exploration, that the quartet are able realise to full force.

Jon Hopkins’ new work Ritual (Domino Recordings) is a work of masterful ambient leanings pointing in the direction of deep spiritual experiences and mind-altering substances.

The album stems from an installation Hopkins undertook. Dark and extra-terrestrial tones are the hallmark of The Veil. The rhythms start to pick up, influenced by tribal Aztec rhythms. Solar Goddess uses bursts of dramatic intensity. A sonic feast based on strong structures and ancient spiritual influences.  

Meemo Comma’s Decimation of I (Planet Mu Records) is the fifth album by the Brighton-based composer and producer is inspired by the Strugatsky brothers’ 1971 novel Roadside Picnic, which was adapted for the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky.

The story is based around a group of people exploring a land that has been transformed by alien visitors, where only artefacts have been left behind. As the composer says of one track, “I liked the idea that as the characters walked through the land there were Geiger counters going off around them almost like cicadas.”

Concert of the Year? No doubt, Pat Metheny at the Barbican in late November. His illustrious career and pioneering sonic vision has given him a unique perspective on how to push boundaries and innovate.

From his work playing in traditional formats such as solo, duets, trios, quartets, various large ensembles and the Pat Metheny Group, to writing and producing. He has even created his own mechanical instrument, the Orchestrion.

Opening with a medley of early works including Phase Dance from 1989 and a delicate interpretation of his Bowie collaboration single This is Not America, the climax came when a curtain parted to reveal the Orchestrion itself, a large mechanical instrument, developed over a number of years.