The improbable appearance of a saviour during a time of great need dates back to ancient Greek and Roman drama; ‘deus ex machina’ translating to ‘god from the machine’, referring both to the artificiality of the god’s ability to fix a situation, and the dramatic device itself in a theatrical setting. That idea of resolution – or, perhaps, in this instance, the unpicking of a purposefully-created compositional ‘problem’ – has always been part of music creating and interpretation. How do composers create their own dramatic crises, and how, in turn, do they choose to tackle it? Perhaps they don’t, leaving their work as an exploration of mounting drama. Alternatively, they may choose to create a piece that follows the usual storytelling formula – exposition, calamity, resolution. The thread amongst the works curated by Omega Ensemble in its national tour, Ex Machina, was the complexity. Across six works, many several receiving their world premiere, that complication was treated differently, but the ambition at the heart of each work became the tangible fibre connecting each vastly different sound world.

Ex Machina, Omega Ensemble, 2022. Photo © Laura Manariti

In an intensely...