Currently, Laurence Osborn is moving house, from Notting Hill (West London) to Notting Hill (West London). We meet for coffee on Gloucester Road (West London) in an hour squeezed between cardboard boxes.
As someone whose magpie-like tendencies have steadily transitioned from shiny sounds to juicy words, I remember being struck by the title of Osborn’s 2021 piece “Essential Relaxing Classical Hits,” and how its subversion sat alongside the large number of storied institutions and ensembles listed in his ever-growing biography. This is one of many animating tensions in his practice. One is between his academic compositional trajectory—Oxford, Guildhall, King’s College, London—and his musical first loves—rock, hip-hop, a jazz-klezmer band called The Kippers. Another is being taught a particular version of compositional history, and second-guessing himself about the marks this has left on his music today. By navigating those foundational anxieties, he creates music that is conceptual, precise, emotional, and, unsurprisingly, anxious.
Ahead of Laurence Osborn Day—three concerts featuring his music, given by the Solem Quartet, the Marian Consort and the Britten Sinfonia at the Wigmore Hall on November 25—we spoke about subjectivity, hip-hop, the bastardization of musical forms, the internet, and, before all of that, parenthood.
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