Sam Byers
@sambyers.bsky.social
Author of Idiopathy, Perfidious Albion, and Come Join Our Disease
Seems to me it’s going to be important for people to apply to the written word the same obsession with authenticity and the artisanal that they apply to eg clothes, ale, cheese, bric a brac for the home etc. A great number of people demand “hand made” produce. You should want hand made prose too.
February 8, 2026 at 3:45 PM
Seems to me it’s going to be important for people to apply to the written word the same obsession with authenticity and the artisanal that they apply to eg clothes, ale, cheese, bric a brac for the home etc. A great number of people demand “hand made” produce. You should want hand made prose too.
Well that’s pretty comprehensive. Was there a meeting about this at which everyone agreed the new consensus.
February 7, 2026 at 6:05 PM
Well that’s pretty comprehensive. Was there a meeting about this at which everyone agreed the new consensus.
Co-working arrangements.
February 2, 2026 at 12:51 PM
Co-working arrangements.
This is absolutely fascinating: BBC radio documentary about Ewan MacColl’s extraordinary effort, through the formation of the “critic’s group” to bring experimental movement, stanislavskian method acting techniques, and Marxist critique to the art of folk song.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
How Folk Songs Should Be Sung - BBC Sounds
Folk singer Martin Carthy examines the rise and fall of Ewan MacColl's Critics Group.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 1, 2026 at 6:24 PM
This is absolutely fascinating: BBC radio documentary about Ewan MacColl’s extraordinary effort, through the formation of the “critic’s group” to bring experimental movement, stanislavskian method acting techniques, and Marxist critique to the art of folk song.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
If not Gould then it has to be this, in my view.
January 27, 2026 at 3:36 PM
If not Gould then it has to be this, in my view.
Couple of (I would say) essential releases you can grab on Bandcamp right now. Firstly, a new recording of Einstein on the Beach, in glorious sound, with Suzanne Vega as the narrator. It’s a lean, taught version where the intricacy really comes through.
music.ictus.be/album/einste...
music.ictus.be/album/einste...
Einstein on the Beach, by Ictus, Suzanne Vega, Collegium Vocale Gent
12 track album
music.ictus.be
January 22, 2026 at 9:33 AM
Couple of (I would say) essential releases you can grab on Bandcamp right now. Firstly, a new recording of Einstein on the Beach, in glorious sound, with Suzanne Vega as the narrator. It’s a lean, taught version where the intricacy really comes through.
music.ictus.be/album/einste...
music.ictus.be/album/einste...
Wonderful. I’m in.
Robert Potts, former editor of Poetry Review and a critic who inspired me when I was starting out, has started a Substack about John Berryman’s 77 Dream Songs, after learning them all by heart. I just bought an old copy on eBay to keep to hand as I read along every week substack.com/home/post/p-...
'Dream awhile'
In which the project is introduced, and we consider our resources
substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Wonderful. I’m in.
Enjoying this a lot more than when I saw it performed - a staging I found infuriatingly distracting and often muddled - but still the pleasures of Zender’s fussy, overly literal interpretation ultimately elude me. Winterreise doesn’t need sound effects. Nor passages barked through a megaphone.
January 19, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Enjoying this a lot more than when I saw it performed - a staging I found infuriatingly distracting and often muddled - but still the pleasures of Zender’s fussy, overly literal interpretation ultimately elude me. Winterreise doesn’t need sound effects. Nor passages barked through a megaphone.
Huge, visionary, cosmic, quaint, quotidian, at times almost completely static, filled with moments of dazzling radiance that come bursting forth from passages of heavy dullness that test the patience. Feel very strongly that Celibidache’s Bruckner contains all life within it.
January 10, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Huge, visionary, cosmic, quaint, quotidian, at times almost completely static, filled with moments of dazzling radiance that come bursting forth from passages of heavy dullness that test the patience. Feel very strongly that Celibidache’s Bruckner contains all life within it.
Very excited to hear that this is coming in March from @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social
store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/cos...
store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/cos...
Cosmic Music
Musician, wife, mother, daughter, sister, grandmother, collaborator, guru, iconoclast: Alice Coltrane is one of the most forward-looking yet misunderstood artists of the last fifty years.For most of h...
store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk
January 6, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Very excited to hear that this is coming in March from @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social
store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/cos...
store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/cos...
Reposted by Sam Byers
Béla Tarr, 1955-2026 🤍
January 6, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Béla Tarr, 1955-2026 🤍
Lovely stuff, this.
January 5, 2026 at 10:39 AM
Lovely stuff, this.
Finally watched The Color of Pomegranates - now haunted and obsessed by its remarkable, singular imagery and dreamlike rhythm.
December 23, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Finally watched The Color of Pomegranates - now haunted and obsessed by its remarkable, singular imagery and dreamlike rhythm.
Was made aware of this album via the quietus yearly roundup and I’ve had it on heavy repeat since - extraordinary singing.
'Saienko’s traditional Ukrainian singing delivers Hildegard von Bingen’s prayers in full voice. It contains loss, fear, but it plants its feet, has something to say of humanity in 2025.'
Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko - Гільдеґарда (Hildegard) - Rum Music: The Best of 2025
buff.ly/RekOkQL
Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko - Гільдеґарда (Hildegard) - Rum Music: The Best of 2025
buff.ly/RekOkQL
December 21, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Was made aware of this album via the quietus yearly roundup and I’ve had it on heavy repeat since - extraordinary singing.
Radiant day for a run. Sun is shining, dung is steaming.
December 20, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Radiant day for a run. Sun is shining, dung is steaming.
“Birds don’t sing songs of glory”
Following my interest in Sean Nós singing, @seventydys.bsky.social prompted me to watch the mesmerising Song of Granite - a gorgeous film on every level, and a fascinating, sideways take on the often clumsy biopic form. Will be rewatching just for the singing.
Following my interest in Sean Nós singing, @seventydys.bsky.social prompted me to watch the mesmerising Song of Granite - a gorgeous film on every level, and a fascinating, sideways take on the often clumsy biopic form. Will be rewatching just for the singing.
December 16, 2025 at 9:08 AM
“Birds don’t sing songs of glory”
Following my interest in Sean Nós singing, @seventydys.bsky.social prompted me to watch the mesmerising Song of Granite - a gorgeous film on every level, and a fascinating, sideways take on the often clumsy biopic form. Will be rewatching just for the singing.
Following my interest in Sean Nós singing, @seventydys.bsky.social prompted me to watch the mesmerising Song of Granite - a gorgeous film on every level, and a fascinating, sideways take on the often clumsy biopic form. Will be rewatching just for the singing.
Another absolute belter of a performance here.
This is one of the most powerful collective performances I've ever seen - thrilling, frightening, and moving to an elemental degree
Lisa O'Neill - Along The North Strand
YouTube video by Lisa O'Neill
www.youtube.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Another absolute belter of a performance here.
Obsessed with the voice of Lisa O’Neill, whose work I only discovered this week. The first song she plays here - Old Note - is just absolutely extraordinary.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hMx...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hMx...
Lisa O'Neill: Tiny Desk Concert
YouTube video by NPR Music
www.youtube.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Obsessed with the voice of Lisa O’Neill, whose work I only discovered this week. The first song she plays here - Old Note - is just absolutely extraordinary.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hMx...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hMx...
LD Deutsch, quoting Marie-Louise Von Franz, notes that whenever we encounter the unknown, we fill it with the archetypal, the best example being old sailors’ maps, on which unexplored stretches of water are illustrated with mermaids and sea monsters.
December 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM
LD Deutsch, quoting Marie-Louise Von Franz, notes that whenever we encounter the unknown, we fill it with the archetypal, the best example being old sailors’ maps, on which unexplored stretches of water are illustrated with mermaids and sea monsters.
Beginning to feel like the minute by minute tannoy announcements on the train telling me to remember I need a valid ticket and to watch my step when getting off the carriage and to be careful if the platform is wet say something deep and quite troubling about our present condition.
December 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Beginning to feel like the minute by minute tannoy announcements on the train telling me to remember I need a valid ticket and to watch my step when getting off the carriage and to be careful if the platform is wet say something deep and quite troubling about our present condition.
If you only read think pieces about contemporary British literary fiction and didn’t actually read any contemporary British literary fiction you’d likely conclude that Sally Rooney is the only person to have published any novels in the last decade.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on the Booker prize winner: putting masculinity back at the centre of literary fiction | Editorial
Editorial: David Szalay’s Flesh breaks from a decade of female-centred interiors and reopens a genre many thought closed to men
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:08 AM
If you only read think pieces about contemporary British literary fiction and didn’t actually read any contemporary British literary fiction you’d likely conclude that Sally Rooney is the only person to have published any novels in the last decade.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Hidden behind a piano, only actually visible for fleeting moments when he stood up to assure everyone he was there, but sounding wonderful, playing a beautiful, bluesy set ending with Every Grain of Sand. Fantastic.
November 14, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Hidden behind a piano, only actually visible for fleeting moments when he stood up to assure everyone he was there, but sounding wonderful, playing a beautiful, bluesy set ending with Every Grain of Sand. Fantastic.
For The Guardian, I reviewed The Silver Book, the latest novel by Olivia Laing.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
The Silver Book by Olivia Laing review – a thin line of beauty
The world of 1970s Italian cinema is the glossy backdrop for an elegantly wrought but shallow novel
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:55 AM
For The Guardian, I reviewed The Silver Book, the latest novel by Olivia Laing.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
This is so unspeakably grim and depressing. Immensely sad to think of the long shadow this era of grand scale cultural and empathetic failure will cast.
My daughter, 11, came home from school shaken after a gang of unidentified boys of about 13 started insulting her and two friends, culminating with a chant of 'Fuck the genders, fuck the Jews'.
I think it's fair to say that we have a problem.
I think it's fair to say that we have a problem.
November 12, 2025 at 5:46 PM
This is so unspeakably grim and depressing. Immensely sad to think of the long shadow this era of grand scale cultural and empathetic failure will cast.