Judith Hamann & James Rushford - Midmeste

Judith Hamann & James Rushford present Midmeste, their first duo work, released via Black Truffle. The title—Middle English for ‘the middlemost point’—reflects a focus on the overlap between their distinct musical languages, shaped over two decades of collaboration.

Performed on cello and pipe organs, the piece unfolds as a spacious exploration of tuning, resonance and the physicality of sound. It begins with bare cello harmonics and delicate organ tones before opening into a slow, wandering form, dwelling on unstable harmonies and rich timbral detail.

A fragment of John Dunstaple’s ‘O rosa bella’ recurs throughout, stretched and reworked into shifting textures. Recordings made on the 15th-century organ at the Basilica of St Valère in Sion—complete with its creaks and manual bellows—anchor the music in place and body.

Across its forty-minute span, Midmeste moves between near-silence, dense low-end presence and moments of unexpected warmth, balancing formal rigour with a clear sense of beauty.