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Norma Winstone – In Concert (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 58:43 minutes | 574 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sunnyside
The incredible relationship between legendary British musicians Norma Winstone and John Taylor has been admired for nearly five decades. The vocalist and pianist have been inextricably linked from their early avant-garde work from the late 1960s through their gorgeous work with Kenny Wheeler and Azymuth.
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Norma Winstone – Descansado – Songs For Films (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:35 minutes | 828 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
Norma Winstone has found a dream home with the ECM label, a house in her own image… As part of Azimuth, the trio that she formed between 1977 and 2000 with trumpet player Kenny Wheeler and pianist John Taylor, her husband; or alone, the British artist has always been a jazz singer apart. Here, Norma Winstone brings her unique timbre to the big screen. She covers the films of Scorsese (Taxi Driver), Godard (My Life to Live), Wenders (Lisbon Story), Jewison (The Thomas Crown Affair), Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliette), De Sica (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) and several others. With Descansadowhich she dedicated to her late colleagues John and Kenny, she has chosen a great repertoire of scores from composers such as Bernard Hermann, Michel Legrand, Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota and William Walton.
The stripped-down and original arrangements from German saxophonist and clarinettist Klaus Gesing and Italian pianist Glauco Venier give her room to assume complete ownership of this music, which we never imagined in a jazz or quasi-chamber music setting. Norwegian percussionist Helge Andreas Norbakken and Italian cellist Mario Brunello came to round off this team of discerning artists who give this music an utterly fascinating, velvet light.
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Norma Jenkins – Patience is a Virtue (1976/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 33:29 minutes | 375 MB | Genre: R&B, Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Desert Moon Records
The only album ever cut by Norma Jenkins – a New Jersey singer with a surprisingly great ear for a deep soul groove! Norma’s got a sound that’s richer than most of her east coast contemporaries – a really robust approach that’s almost more like some of the best southern soul singers of the period, and captured beautifully here, in ways that make us wonder why she never recorded more albums after this. The set’s put together by producer George Kerr, right in the middle of a rich run of work for other artists in the 70s – and arrangements are by Bert Keyes and Andrew Smith – balancing equally between midtempo groovers, and some mellow tracks that are especially great. Titles include “Reachin’ Out In Darkness”, “Love Jones”, “I Did It For Real”, “Can You Imagine That”, “I Fooled You”, “It’s All Over Now”, and “You’ve Been Here Since Then”.
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Norma Jean – Love’s a Woman’s Job (1968/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 28:44 minutes | 656 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA – Legacy
“Pretty Miss Norma Jean” may be best remembered as Porter Wagoner’s stage partner before he was paired with Dolly Parton, but she was also well known for an often hard-edged group of songs that spoke of poverty, hard work, and the instability of romantic relationships. Although she didn’t have the songwriting creativity of Loretta Lynn or Dolly Parton, she was comparable to those stars in her general outlook. Norma Jean Beasler was no stranger to poverty herself, born into a hard-working farm family near Wellston, OK. As a child, she wanted to be a country star like Kitty Wells, whom she tried to emulate. She made her professional debut singing “If Teardrops Were Pennies” at age 12 on the radio in Oklahoma City. In high school, she toured with a few Western swing bands, including those of Billy Gray and Merle Lindsay.
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Noriko Ogawa, Musikkollegium Winterthur & Thomas Zehetmair – Richard Dubugnon: Klavieriana, Op. 70 & Chamber Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:05 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Born in 1968, the Swiss composer Richard Dubugnon writes music that has been described as “driven by a playful modern sensibility” (The New York Times). His work list includes all genres, from solo pieces to large orchestral works, such as the Helvetia Symphony, scored for the same forces as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. He has also written for smaller orchestra, however, and this recording is bookended by his two chamber symphonies. Chamber Symphony No. 1 was composed in 2013, and in his liner notes the composer admits to influences from Arnold Schönberg and Franz Schreker, as well as Olivier Messiaen: “if passionate gestures evoke the decadent Vienna of the turn of the 20th century, the overall harmonic colour remains quite “French”… Switzerland is, after all, half way between Vienna and Paris”’.
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Noriko Ogawa – Satie: Piano Music, Vol. 4 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:58 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
For the fourth instalment in her acclaimed Satie cycle, Noriko Ogawa has gathered music written for the stage – from the pantomime Jack in the Box (1899) to the ballet Relâche (1924) – one of Satie’s last works. Several of the pieces exist in different scorings, but the piano versions heard here are all Satie’s own. Throughout the programme, what comes across strongly is the influence of music hall and cabaret; composed in 1900, Prélude de « La mort de Monsieur Mouche » even offers a hint of the ragtime, one of the first appearances of the genre in European music.
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Noriko Ogawa – Satie: Piano Music, Vol. 3 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:32 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Of all the enigmas that surround Erik Satie and his music, Vexations is probably the most enigmatic. A ‘theme’ in the bass, with two different harmonisations, to be played – according to an ambiguous note on the composer’s autograph – 840 times. That is at least how it has been interpreted since the first public performance, which lasted more than 18 hours and was organized by the composer John Cage in 1963. The precise time at which Satie wrote Vexations is uncertain, and although it is usually assumed to be intended for a keyboard instrument, that is also impossible to confirm. There are no known performances of it in the composer’s lifetime, and the single-page manuscript was only discovered after Satie’s death.
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Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie – Franck & R. Strauss: Orchestral Works (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:26 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Profil
Strauss’ Burleske contains, despite the classical sonata form, many original elements, such as the opening timpani solo that al ready embodies within it the thematic substance of the piece. The work is a very “”exotic”” waltz full of contrasts, exuberance, humour and charm. Franck’s Symphonic Variations are on the contrary, very formal. You immediately sense the piousness of the person who composed this music, because it is sincere, honest and s ubstantively profound. Yet although Franck remained true to the classical format he still managed to create something new here in as much as he fused three traditions together: solo concerto, symphony and a series of variations. Alongside the two works for solo piano the two symphonic poems by Franck and Strauss are a magnificent addition to the concept of this album. Both works feature a lively musical approach to the s ubject. It’s worth noting too that all the compositions on this recording come from a relatively short period of time: the Burleske and the Variations were both written in 1885, and there are only six years between Le chasseur maudit written in 1883 and Tod und Verklarung in 1889. Despite this short time span the works are stylistically very different, somewhat like the fates of the two composers whose paths never actually crossed .”
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Nordic String Quartet – Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:02:25 minutes | 1,84 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dacapo
Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (1932–2016) wrote string quartets all his life. Fourteen in all; the first three dating from 1959, the last ones from 2013. Launching its complete cycle of Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s string quartets, the Nordic String Quartet here presents the first six quartets: Honesty meets schoolboy pranks, obstinacy meets doubt, yes meets no – Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s string quartets are full of such clashes. We start at one point and end at a totally different one. Never fusty, often entertaining, always adamant.
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Nordic Jazz Quintet – Nordjazz (1975/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:00 minutes | 818 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Storyville Records
The Nordic Jazz Quintet was formed in 1974 with one musicians selected from each of the Nordic countries. This release features the Nordjazz Suite, by Ole Kock Hansen, as well as two more originals from the transnational group.
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Nordic Affect – H e (a) r (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:00:25 minutes | 2,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sono Luminus
Textura Raindamage is an album best appreciated on headphones, when youve got the time to really let it seep into your brain. Titled H e (a) r the album features 7 world premiere recordings, including a soundscape which lends its title to the album by the groups artistic director; composer and violinist Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir. The work H e (a) r connects to ecology, acoustics and embodiment; drawing on encounters and what happens in the connection. Many of the instrumental works are a continuation of Nordic Affects longstanding collaboration with some of the exciting talent to emerge out of Iceland in recent years, many of which were featured on the 2015, release Clockworking. The title track was chosen for NPR’s Songs We Love series and featured in various best-of-the-year lists, including Steve Smiths for Night After Night, The Chicago Reader, and The New Yorker. In addition to composing her own music, Ms. Markan Sigfúsdóttir has toured the world with indie band amiina and recorded and collaborated with a range of other bands and artists. Her compositions have been performed in Iceland, Australia, Europe and the US. A continuation of the solo work 2 Circles, found on the Clockworking album, is Point of Departure by composer, cello player, and singer Hildur Guðnadóttir. Hildur has been manifesting herself at the forefront of experimental pop and contemporary music. Her output has encompassed four solo albums, and numerous works for theatre, dance performances and films. H e (a) r also features Reflections and Impressions by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a recipient of Lincoln Centers 2018 Emerging Artist Award and 2018 Martin E. Segal Award. Anna Thorvaldsdottir frequently works with large sonic structures that tend to reveal the presence of a vast variety of sustained sound materials, reflecting her sense of imaginative listening to landscapes and nature. A new collaboration is presented through Warm life at the foot of the iceberg by the Estonian Mirjam Tally. Sound is central to the Estonian MirjamTallys creations. Her music is a flow of playful contrasts where a sense of humour and poetic use of sound are blended to mix. Her music has been performed in over 20 countries and earned her various accolades, including the 2018 Swedish Manifest prize.
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Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock & Marcus Bosch – Works by Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:21 minutes | 974 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Coviello Classics
The promise of fortune and the danger of doom are rarely as close as in gambling. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the fascination with challenging fate with cards, dice, or other gambling devices influenced by chance was particularly widespread. Russians were apparently particularly receptive to the dangerous charms: Alexander Pushkin’s story Queen of Spades or Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel The Gambler bear witness to this as literary traces; with Piotr I. Tchaikovsky and Sergei Prokofiev, two prominent compatriots were inspired to compose. Igor Stravinsky’s Jeu de cartes completes the playful compendium, which at the same time offers a fascinating view of the stylistic development from high romanticism to the special Russian style of modernism. Marcus Bosch and the Norddeutsche Philharmonie present all of this with sparkling brilliance – and, of course, with a great deal of joy in playing.
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Nora-Louise Müller, Bohlen-Pierce, Ákos Hoffmann – Beyond the Horizon (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:00:30 minutes | 530 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Genuin
This new Genuin release offers fascinating acoustic experiments with compositions based on the tonal system of the Bohlen-Pierce scale. This system uses a twelfth instead of an octave and is divided into thirteen tonal steps, taking the listener into magical-archaic tonal worlds that transcend all listening habits. Nora-Louise Müller and Ákos Hoffmann, two outstanding clarinetists, and their fellow musicians play their own compositions on instruments specially made for this scale system, as well as music by Georg Hajdu, Todd Harrop and others.
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Norbert Nagel – Lieblingslieder (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:02 minutes | 437 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Galileo Music Communication
Sting, Paul McCartney, Johann Sebastian Bach, Michel Legrand, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Astor Piazzolla, die Bee Gees und Glenn Miller…sie alle vereint der Saxofonist und Klarinettist Norbert Nagel auf seinem neuen Album “Lieblingslieder”. Und verbindet mit dieser persönlichen Auswahl seiner Lieblingsstücke überaus stimmig und in einem Atemzug ganze Musikuniversen. World, Jazz, Pop, Klassik. Schwerelos, intim, geheimnisvoll, voller kleiner Geschichten und Anekdoten, die es zu entdecken gibt, so klingen Norbert Nagels Bearbeitungen bekannter Klassiker wie “Fragile”, “Blackbird” oder “How Deep Is Your Love”.
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Norbert Möslang – Patterns (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:48 minutes | 953 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bocian Records
Soprano saxophone player Sascha Armbruster, oboe player Kelsey Maiorano, clarinetist Toshiko Sakakibara, trumpeter Jens Bracher, trombonist Stephen Menotti and tuba player Janne Jakobsen gather together and record the compositions written by Norbert Moslang. “Patterns” is a new record on “Bocian” label – this album is a mix of academic avant-garde, experimental music, free improvisation and avant-garde jazz. The musicians join together different kinds of motions, expressions, styles and passions to create a rich and original sound.
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