Luke Howard: The Composer of Oz

Nominated for the Australian Music Prize, and his music described as “absolutely heavenly” by Radio 6’s Mary Anne Hobbs (arguably the greatest champion of neoclassical artists such as Nils Frahm and A Winged Victory Of The Sullen), Melbourne’s Luke Howard is one of the solitary figures in Australia’s slowly-burgeoning contemporary classical music scene. But if the words above and his eight-albums deep discography are anything to go by, Howard could be a key figure in transferring the immense popularity of this genre in Europe to his own country.

Indeed, his Icelandic peer Ólafur Arnalds very recently sold out the several-thousand seater Sydney Opera House, which shows that the hunger is most certainly there.

Chatting to Howard, I ask if he does consider himself part of this musical group, knowing full well that artists don’t always appreciate such attempts at being pigeon-holed.

“I was thinking about this today,” he says. “It’s certainly convenient to be part of a scene for framing your identity and describing what you do to friends and punters. But the danger is you can identify with it so much, that you want to fit that sound even more and start changing your own musical identity. I love listening to Max Richter and even Nico Muhly as well as Nils Frahm etc, and they are all undoubtedly different from each other.”

Having lived in both Germany (Berlin, of course) and Reykjavik, Iceland, (of course the former being the home of Frahm and many other neoclassical artists, the latter being the home of Arnalds), Howard not only discovered this new classical instruments-meets contemporary electronica sound, but came to appreciate how strong its roots in Europe have been, up until now.

“I certainly discovered it living in Europe around ten years ago,” he recalls. “I was trying to figure out what to do with my jazz chops — I’d spent a lot of time learning that discipline. So I was there in Berlin, not knowing anyone and not having any gigs, and then discovering the music of these artists we’re discussing. That was a launching pad to tame the excess of ideas from a university jazz education and simplify them into something that works in this kind of aesthetic.”

It’s been over a year since Howard released The Sand That Ate The Sea, his last album which also provides the soundtrack for the film of the same name. He got to work with London based choir, Shards, on the record.

“My friend stuck the album on last night over dinner,” he says. “It wasn’t my idea! [laughs] But it was nice to make an album where I was thinking more about the film than the music. But as the time’s passed, I can hear it more as an album now. It was made on a tight budget and we had to pull a lot of favours. But if I’d had more time and money, I probably would have completely overcooked it anyway.”

One of Howard’s most recent projects was a commission for British saxophonist Jess Gillam, who has frequented the BBC Proms and is the winner of a Classical Brit award. I mention to Howard that composers like Nils Frahm seem to have a rock and roll sensibility in the sense that their careers have such a strong focus on albums and touring. This project seems to hark more back to the days of Mozart being asked to write a clarinet concerto for a particular clarinetist.

“I guess those guys (Frahm etc) don’t do quite as much of the commission stuff,” Howard says.

“Not being in Europe, I don’t tour quite as much as they do. But that is something I’ve done a bunch of, writing music for other people. With my music, I kind of improvise it, finesse it and then turn it into dots on the page. But it’s always cool to hear someone else play your piano parts, as is the case on this piece!

"I often bring new improvisations into my tracks when I play them live, whereas a classical pianist would have a very different relationship to the music. It’s interesting how improvisation and classical music have become so divorced over the last few hundred years, when they weren’t historically. Jess did have a few questions and we ended up adding a few things — but I’m just aware if I’d recorded the piano part, I wouldn’t have stuck to the notes on the page quite so much.”

Knowing Howard also enjoys working as a computer programmer, I strongly suspect that he’ll have some studio gear worth chatting about.

“My speakers are ATCs which I’ve had for a good while,” he says. “In terms of sample libraries, Spitfire is definitely the 1000 pound gorilla in that market! No doubt because they are very good. On my records, I’ll occasionally use Spitfire underneath the real musicians to fatten the sound up a bit and make sure it all works in the mix. I’ll often use their pianos for making demos also.

“Some of the synth plugins I really like are Zebra and Uno. I don’t have too much outboard stuff besides my Prophet. In the audio world, I’m a big fan of FabFilter and Soundtoys — they’re probably the two best bundles you can get in terms of their breadth, ease of use and flexibility. I particularly love Echoboy and Decapitator from Soundtoys.

"Decapitator often lives on the master bus for my strings, even though it’s quite a rock and roll plugin! I just love what it does. I also love a lot of the Sonnox stuff. The Sonnox Inflator is ridiculous for making things sound larger than life. It’s almost like a free pass in that it’s almost too good! It can really make something average sound amazing.”

If you’re wondering how to help the Australian neoclassical scene on its ascendency, well that’s easy: go and download/stream the stunning music of Luke Howard, with its jazz subtleties that set it apart from the peers. For those long lockdown days, nothing could be better. Howard promises new music soon, so best to start exploring his back catalogue now.