Sven Helbig is a young German composer equally drawn to classical, pop and hip-hop modes, probably most famous for his orchestrations on Pet Shop Boys' Battleship Potemkin and The Most Incredible Thing. That populist spirit informs this debut release, with emotionally expansive pieces restricted to pop-song length.

An internationally renowned artist from Cornwall who was found guilty of a string of sex charges against children has avoided prison.

Things are looking up – the first Chagall UK show in 15 years

In the second of his series The Sound and the Fury: a Century of Music, Ian MacMillan addressed what he described as "one of the most ruthlessly experimental periods in the whole history of music." The adverb was intriguing. From whom was pity being withheld exactly? The audience, which explicitly became an irritating inconvenience to some composers? Or the composers themselves, who emerged from the horrors of totalitarianism to find themselves wrapped in a kind of elective cultural tyranny?

Kurt Schwitters, the German one-man avant-garde, was neglected in his adopted Britain but did the spadework for generations of artists

Over-familiarity with the Surrealist has bred contempt, but beyond the showmanship there was a true talent for invention

The 26-year-old man who defaced a Rothko painting hanging at London's Tate Modern gallery has been jailed for two years.

From the smart and discreet to the more eye-catching, with one of these organisers you’ll never miss an appointment again

Collection Mony Vibescu

Anti-regime forces made major advances in Syria's largest city yesterday, claiming to have seized new areas in fighting on the eve of an internationally mandated ceasefire that will theoretically run until Monday.

Global Outlook The Tbilisi bar owner preferred to remain nameless. Given what he was about tell The Independent about his predictions for Georgia under its newly elected prime minister, you can understand why.

A 1909 oil painting by Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky is poised to sell for as much as $30 million (£18.9 million) when it hits the auction block at Christie's this autumn, the auction house said today.

The foul-mouthed, dysfunctional Mrs Brown is hoping to change all that with her new BBC celebrity quiz show