Premiere
2 July 2025 • Debut Sounds: Memory Palace • Queen Elizabeth Hall • Southbank Centre (EN) by Conductor Juya Shin and London Philharmonic Orchestra
Instrumentation
Chamber Orchestra and Film
[2.2.2.2./2.2.2.1./2./Harp/Piano/Film/3.2.2.2.2.]
Duration
ca. 6’06”
Review
“★★★★★ SOHO with the LPO is a dazzling portrait of urban memory. (…) I had no idea I was about to be immersed in one of the most original and electrifying musical experiences I’ve had all year. (…) Dr. Jorge Ramos’ new orchestral work, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Juya Shin, felt less like a concert and more like being dropped inside someone’s dream of London. (…) SOHO is as conceptually bold as it is sonically rich. It doesn’t simply describe Soho—it becomes it. (...) You could almost smell the steam rising from a noodle bar, hear jazz bleeding out of a club, or feel the hush of an empty church between neon lights. (…) The music is a wild yet coherent hybrid: AI-generated harmonies, urban field recordings, and ghost-like textures that blur the boundary between the acoustic and the imagined. William Wyld’s amplified voice floated in and out like a narrator caught in the static of a half-remembered radio play. (…) What impressed me most was how Dr. Ramos shaped these abstract ideas into something emotionally resonant. There were moments of jittery tension, cinematic nostalgia, and flashes of humour. The orchestra navigated this terrain with confidence and colour, (...), whose energy brought a raw edge to the more experimental passages. (…) As the final sounds faded I sat in silence, not quite ready to return to the real world. SOHO is a rare thing: a piece that challenges how we listen, while making us feel something immediate and human. (…) The season may be ending, but for Dr. Jorge Ramos, this feels like the start of something exciting. I can’t wait to hear where he takes us next." — Antonia Constantin, A Young(ish) Perspective
Programme notes
SOHO is an exploration of perception, time, and place, crafted through a collision of eras. Drawing inspiration from the eclectic energy of London’s vibrant SOHO district, the piece incorporates AI-generated harmonic progressions, computer-assisted orchestrations derived from live concert samples, and an interdisciplinary hybrid aesthetic that juxtaposes these advanced methods with vintage textures, noir atmospheres, and artistic influences drawn from both past and present. With influences from locations like St Mary’s Church, Leicester Square Station, C&R Cafe Restaurant, Tonkotsu, Prince Charles Cinema, The Clachan, and Ronnie Scott’s, SOHO immerses listeners in a hybrid sonic world that evokes sensory overstimulation, mirroring the confabulated memories and chaotic beauty of urban life.
Written for the London Philharmonic Orchestra Young Composers Programme 2024/25, between 20 December 2024, Braga, Portugal, and 12 May 2025, London, England.
© PRS/MCPS/SPA ISWC T-333.681.452-5 • ISMN 979-0-707724-33-0
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[Parts Available for Hire]
Premiere
2 July 2025 • Debut Sounds: Memory Palace • Queen Elizabeth Hall • Southbank Centre (EN) by Conductor Juya Shin and London Philharmonic Orchestra
Instrumentation
Chamber Orchestra and Film
[2.2.2.2./2.2.2.1./2./Harp/Piano/Film/3.2.2.2.2.]
Duration
ca. 6’06”
Review
“★★★★★ SOHO with the LPO is a dazzling portrait of urban memory. (…) I had no idea I was about to be immersed in one of the most original and electrifying musical experiences I’ve had all year. (…) Dr. Jorge Ramos’ new orchestral work, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Juya Shin, felt less like a concert and more like being dropped inside someone’s dream of London. (…) SOHO is as conceptually bold as it is sonically rich. It doesn’t simply describe Soho—it becomes it. (...) You could almost smell the steam rising from a noodle bar, hear jazz bleeding out of a club, or feel the hush of an empty church between neon lights. (…) The music is a wild yet coherent hybrid: AI-generated harmonies, urban field recordings, and ghost-like textures that blur the boundary between the acoustic and the imagined. William Wyld’s amplified voice floated in and out like a narrator caught in the static of a half-remembered radio play. (…) What impressed me most was how Dr. Ramos shaped these abstract ideas into something emotionally resonant. There were moments of jittery tension, cinematic nostalgia, and flashes of humour. The orchestra navigated this terrain with confidence and colour, (...), whose energy brought a raw edge to the more experimental passages. (…) As the final sounds faded I sat in silence, not quite ready to return to the real world. SOHO is a rare thing: a piece that challenges how we listen, while making us feel something immediate and human. (…) The season may be ending, but for Dr. Jorge Ramos, this feels like the start of something exciting. I can’t wait to hear where he takes us next." — Antonia Constantin, A Young(ish) Perspective
Programme notes
SOHO is an exploration of perception, time, and place, crafted through a collision of eras. Drawing inspiration from the eclectic energy of London’s vibrant SOHO district, the piece incorporates AI-generated harmonic progressions, computer-assisted orchestrations derived from live concert samples, and an interdisciplinary hybrid aesthetic that juxtaposes these advanced methods with vintage textures, noir atmospheres, and artistic influences drawn from both past and present. With influences from locations like St Mary’s Church, Leicester Square Station, C&R Cafe Restaurant, Tonkotsu, Prince Charles Cinema, The Clachan, and Ronnie Scott’s, SOHO immerses listeners in a hybrid sonic world that evokes sensory overstimulation, mirroring the confabulated memories and chaotic beauty of urban life.
Written for the London Philharmonic Orchestra Young Composers Programme 2024/25, between 20 December 2024, Braga, Portugal, and 12 May 2025, London, England.
© PRS/MCPS/SPA ISWC T-333.681.452-5 • ISMN 979-0-707724-33-0
Are you performing this work? Submit your performance details to be featured in the upcoming events!
Scroll down for recording ↓
[Parts Available for Hire]
