Recorder31 Day 11 | Side-By-Side Interview: Otto Hashmi & Richard Lindesay

Welcome back to another Recorder31 interview. For the second of our Side-By-Side interviews, we have an interesting discussion between two people who are no strangers to representing the recorder in the online world. The interview includes discussions of creating engaging content, along with perceptions of the recorder in different contexts.

Otto Hashmi is a London-based musician and composer, whose work spans genres ranging from contemporary classical to electronic pop. He recently graduated with a Masters in recorder from the Guildhall School in London. Richard Lindesay is a comedian from Australia who is perhaps best known for an appearance on Britain's Got Talent earlier in 2024. His use of recorder to augment his routines and songs has built him a loyal fanbase.

As two musicians who largely (but not exclusively) operate outside of the classical realm, this interview is a very interesting chance to consider the extended reach of the instrument, and how its representation in different contexts can influence people's understanding and feelings towards it.

Listen to the interview in full here:

About the artists:

Otto Hashmi is a recorder player and solo artist from London. His most recent EP 'Music for the End Times' fuses sounds of the post-covid London club scene with recorder harmonies inspired by early music and was followed by UK and EU performances including supporting acclaimed jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings’ for his first solo set on indigenous flutes. Otto's work with the recorder makes frequent use of rare instruments such as the contrabass recorder and eCorder electronic recorder instrument. Otto uses social media to share short-form content bringing the recorder into new contexts, exposing wider audiences to this vastly underappreciated and misunderstood instrument. He received his masters in recorder performance from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and is a member of the early music ensemble Londinium Consort. www.ottohashmi.com

Richard Lindesay is a musical comedian whose act is a surprising and surreal mixture of the recorders and other woodwind instruments, layered upon clown-like physical comedy and sharp one-liner jokes. His performances are inclusive, inoffensive, and joyous. Richard has performed professionally in comedy clubs and festivals throughout the UK, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. He is well-known for an appearance on Britain's Got Talent in early 2024 where he won over the audience with a special version of his most popular track 'Recorder in the Corner'. www.richardrecorder.com

------------

The Sound of Recorder Music!

Today is your last chance to save in our Awesome Altos weekend, and we're hearing sounds from Takeyama's Alto in Boxwood at a442. Made in the Takeyama workshop in Japan, this recorder is extremely lightweight for a boxwood instrument; this model is also available at a415 Baroque pitch. Listen to the clips below or follow this link to find out more about this instrument.