Is it possible to love contemporary music?

Not so long ago, a group of visionary composers decided to revive an age-old concept: pleasure. Yes, that simple, timeless joy of listening to music that moves you. Thanks to their efforts, contemporary music has found its way back into our hearts—and our ears are all the happier for it.

But this renaissance didn’t happen overnight. After the Second World War, many prominent composers dove headfirst into the deep waters of intellectual and abstract systems. Movements like dodecaphonism and serialism were all about strict logic and rigid structures—sometimes forgetting that music is supposed to feel as well as think. As a result, audiences slowly slipped away, and contemporary music concerts started to feel more like exclusive club meetings than shared experiences. But music, like any language, thrives on evolution, not revolution.

For the composers of the New Consonant Music movement, debates about the “right” musical language are beside the point. What truly matters is that music resonates—both with the performer and the listener. That’s the heart of New Consonant Music: if you have something to say, just say it. No need to complicate things.

Who are these composers? You’ll probably recognize trailblazers like Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, Steve Reich, Michael Nyman, John Adams, and Philip Glass. But we’re here to introduce you to a broader world of sound, featuring voices like Frédéric Devreese, Dominique Dupraz, Piotr Lachert, Michel Lysight, Gilberto Mendes, and Georgs Pelecis, to name just a few.