Jeremy Pelt – Griot: This Is Important! (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 48:02 minutes | 588 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © HighNote Records
A companion piece to his 2021 interview book Griot: Examining the Lives of Jazz’s Great Storytellers, Griot: This Is Important! finds trumpeter Jeremy Pelt playing songs inspired by some of his most potent interviews. Here, we get intimate and thought-provoking insights from many of the artists featured in the book, including Paul West, JD Allen, Harold Mabern, Rene Marie, and others. Each conversation is accompanied by an original work from Pelt and his quintet with vibraphonist Chien Chien Lu, pianist Victor Gould, bassist Vicente Archer, and drummer Allan Mednard. Musically, these are some of the most lyrical and harmonically lush songs Pelt has recorded and work in unison with the spoken interview tracks. Some tracks, including Pelt’s own introduction to the album, as well as his conversation with pianist Bertha Hope, find him underscoring the words with music. Elsewhere, he presents the conversations on their own without musical accompaniment and then follows with an instrumental track. Many of these conversations delve into issues of racial and cultural identity, and Pelt’s music is fittingly nuanced. Often his songs reflect the subject matter of the interview, as on “Carry Christ Wherever You Are,” which follows his conversation with bassist Paul West discussing his Lutheran minister father. Similarly, Pelt’s “A Beautiful (F*cking) Lie” follows his interview with vocalist René Marie discussing her dissonant feelings surrounding her identity as a black American. While Pelt’s music certainly stands on its own, the interviews included on Griot: This Is Important! help to frame the deep sense of community and tradition that inspired it. – Matt Collar
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François-Frédéric Guy – En Pièces Music by Marc Monnet (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:35 minutes | 1,06 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Odradek Records
Marc Monnet’s extraordinary musical life has been auspicious from the start: he studied with Kagel and Stockhausen in Cologne, gained attention at the Darmstadt summer school and was awarded a residency at the Villa Medici. The first book of En pièces (2007) is dedicated to François-Frédéric Guy, who premiered the entire collection at the Strasbourg Musica Festival in 2012. A long artistic companionship and a real friendship bind these two artists. François-Frédéric Guy has praised Monnet’s dazzling ability “to push piano techniques to their extreme”, as well as his “freedom of tone”, and his “Schumannian” inspiration in music of “whimsical, even fantastic, and unclassifiable character”.
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Title: Mick Fleetwood And Friends – Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Classic Rock, Blues Rock
Production/Label: BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd
Duration: 02:24:51
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Audio codec: PCM, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD Audio
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 25078 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio #1: English / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Audio #2: English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 4301 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio #3: English / Dolby TrueHD Audio / 7.1 / 48 kHz / 6214 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Embedded: 5.1-EX / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Size: 43.95 GB
On 25th February 2020, legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood enlisted an all-star cast for a one-of-a-kind concert honouring the early years of Fleetwood Mac and its founder, Peter Green.
The bill included David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, John Mayall, Christine McVie, Bill Wyman, Noel Gallagher, Neil Finn, Kirk Hammett, Jeremy Spencer and more.
Glyn Johns acted as the executive sound producer and the house band featured Fleetwood himself along with Andy Fairweather Low, Dave Bronze, Rick Vito, Jonny Lang and Ricky Peterson.
Fleetwood, who curated the list of artists performing, said: “The concert is a celebration of those early blues days where we all began, and it’s important to recognize the profound impact Peter and the early Fleetwood Mac had on the world of music. Peter was my greatest mentor and it gives me such joy to pay tribute to his incredible talent. I am honoured to be sharing the stage with some of the many artists Peter has inspired over the years and who share my great respect for this remarkable musician. ‘Then Play On’…”
HD Blu-Ray in 2.0 stereo, 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos.
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Title: Transatlantic – The Absolute Universe
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Progressive Rock
Production:Inside Out Music – IOMLTDLP 573, Sony Music – 19439835011
Runtime: 01:37:40 + 01:02:28 (bonus)
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Audio codec: DTS,LPCM
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video 17924 kbps 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio#1: LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Audio#2: DTS-HD Master Audio English 4645 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 4645 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio#3: LPCM Audio English 6912 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 6912 kbps / 24-bit
Size: 31.35 GB
Transatlantic have never been a band to resist a challenge. So it should come as no surprise that for their fifth album ‘The Absolute Universe’, Neal Morse Roine Stolt Pete Trewavas and Mike Portnoy have really gone out to do something a little unusual. “We have actually come up with something unprecedented,” says Portnoy proudly. “We’ve got two versions of this album. There’s a two CD presentation (‘Forevermore’), which is 90 minutes long, and a single one (‘The Breath Of Life’) – that’s 60 minutes. The single CD is NOT an edited version of the double CD. They’re new recordings. What we have done are different approaches to the songs for this! We wrote fresh lyrics and have different people singing on the single CD version tracks as compared to those on the double CD. We revamped the songs to make the two versions different.” For this record, the band have also returned to the concept album format: “What we have is essentially one giant composition, split into chapters. The storyline is about the struggles facing everyone in society today” comments Portnoy. “We didn’t start out with the idea of this being conceptual,” admits Stolt. “The way things work with us is that we have a load of ideas, and these are developed spontaneously when we meet up. Everything happens in the moment.” For Trewavas, ‘The Absolute Universe’ is a momentous project. “I think it is right up there with the very finest albums we’ve done.” ‘The Absolute Universe: The Breath of Life’ is available as a Limited CD Digipak, Gatefold 2LP + CD & as Digital Album. ‘The Absolute Universe: Forevermore’ is available as a Limited 2CD Digipak, 3LP+2CD Boxset & as Digital Album (2CD). ‘The Absolute Universe: The Ultimate Edition’ collects both versions together as a Limited Deluxe Clear 5LP + 3CD + Blu-ray box-set, featuring expanded 16page LP-booklet, 5.1 surround sound mix with visuals, making-of documentary, 60x60cm poster – contained within a lift-off box finished with silver foil.
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Christian Grøvlen – Eventyr (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:25:01 minutes | 2,06 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © 2L
This album is entitled EVENTYR — a Norwegian word that conjures up fairy tales, stories of adventure and stories of fantasy. The tales and stories on this album are wild, beautiful, full of sorrow and of joy, and full of magic and love. Adventure stories inspire us and allow us to escape into the world of fantasy — and they bring us together.
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Antoinette Perry – Beethoven Bookends (Live) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:17:20 minutes | 646 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Navona
Navona Live and pianist Antoinette Perry are proud to present BEETHOVEN BOOKENDS. The album takes listeners from Opus 7—Beethoven’s personal favorite of his early sonatas—through the Bagatelles of Opus 119, and culminates with the composer’s final sonata, Opus 111. BEETHOVEN BOOKENDS is rich with the passion and dynamic range for which Beethoven is renowned; Perry applies what Le Dauphine Libéré has called her “irreproachable technique” to these legendary compositions. Her performances reveal a profound appreciation for Beethoven’s genius, as well as his iconoclasm. With careful attention to nuance, Perry exhibits both Beethoven’s mastery of classical forms and his desire to rebel against them. BEETHOVEN BOOKENDS, recorded at the Aspen Music Festival, puts listeners in the concert hall with one of the great living performers of Beethoven’s music.
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Stevie Wonder – The Christmas Collection: The Best Of Stevie Wonder (2004/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 42:36 minutes | 1,78 GB | Gerne: R&B
Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks.com | Front Cover | © Universal Motown
This assortment of seasonal cheer features Stevie Wonder applying his inimitable vocal technique to familiar and unusual Yuletide songs, with predictably successful results. In “Someday at Christmas” he yearns for a Christmas when “Men won’t be boys/playing with bombs like kids play with toys”–this album was recorded during the Vietnam War–striking a plaintive tone not often found on Christmas albums. Other high points include his joyous reading of “Little Drummer Boy,” with its steadily building martial beat, and chestnuts like “Silver Bells” and “The Christmas Song,” which Wonder delivers with total assurance, as well as a palpable sense of fun. He even brings a measure of soul to more sentimental numbers like “One Little Christmas Tree” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me,” while “What Christmas Means to Me” invokes the bubbling bass line of the Capitols’ “Cool Jerk,” and features a blissful harp solo. (more…)
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Solar Fields – Ourdom (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:38:40 minutes | 1,78 GB | Genre: Electronic, Psychill, Downtempo, Ambient
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sidereal
It all started at the seaside in South Africa where i recently spent a lot of time visiting my girlfriend and escaping the cold European winter months in 2016/17. The majestic nature and surroundings there had a huge impact on me, and most definitely played a large part in inspiring this album.
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Solar Fields – Movements (2009/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:56:13 minutes | 1,96 GB | Genre: Electronic, Psychill, Downtempo, Ambient
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sidereal
Originally released in 2009, but out of print since a few years, Movements was the sixth full-length studio album by Magnus Birgersson as Solar Fields.
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Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sol Gabetta & Camerata Bern – Plaisirs illuminés (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:17 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Bookelt, Front Cover | © Alpha
This recording presents the double concerto for violin, cello and orchestra of the Spanish composer Francisco Coll, born in 1985. Les Plaisirs illuminés, a title inspired by Dalí’s painting of the same name, is rooted in Spanish traditions, including flamenco, yet is resolutely modern: ‘Its music is very lively rhythmically, it dances and sings – but at the same time it is very abrupt, always in search of extremes’, says Patricia Kopatchinskaja.,For this world premiere conducted by the composer, she is reunited with a longstanding partner who pursues an equally brilliant international career, the cellist Sol Gabetta.
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Nat King Cole – The Nat King Cole Story (2014/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/192 kHz | Time – 55:34 minutes | 1,81 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EMI Music Special Markets
This CD finds Cole revisiting his earlier hits with new versions. The 20 selections mostly focus on his pop successes of the 1950s, although there are a few wistful looks back at his trio days. Not as essential as the original renditions of these popular recordings, the remakes nevertheless find Cole in peak form and comprise a highly enjoyable retrospective of his vocal career.
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Title: Monterverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner – Handel: Semele
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Baroque oratorio
Production/Label: EuroArts
Duration: 02:48:37
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: H.264
Audio codec: DTS, PCM
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 28929 kbps / 1080i / 29.970 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio #1: LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Audio #2: DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 4301 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: English, German, Japanese, Korean
Size: 44.4 GB
In Spring 2019, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, led by John Eliot Gardiner, presented a critically-acclaimed European tour of Handel’s opera ‘Semele’, including Alexandra Palace Theatre in London, where this live recording took place. Semele had not been performed by John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi ensembles since they originally recorded it in the 1980s and this recording gives listeners the chance to hear a fuller version of the work.
A glamorous team of young soloists joins the Monteverdi ensembles to bring the story of Semele to life, including celebrated English soprano Louise Alder, who takes on the title role, with the young tenor Hugo Hymas portraying the amorous Jupiter.
– “A better interpretation can hardly be found”. – (El Punt Avui)
– “The greatest pleasure of the evening was generated by the wonderfully clear and rhythmically alert singing of the Monteverdi Choir” – (Rupert Chistiansen, – ???? The Telegraph)
– “The Monteverdi Choir was in scintillating form and captivating in its ability to give meaning to every word, every syllable” – (Laurent Bury – Forum Opera)
– “The show is a revelation” – (Biagio Scuderi – Amadeus)
– “Under the precise direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the sound of the English Baroque soloists is lush, round and sharp” – (Frédérique Epin – Olyrix)
– “Semele’s score is a glorious mix of irresistible solo arias – some virtuosic, some lyrical, sensual and evocative, ensembles, duets, accompanied recitatives and (unlike his operas) imposing choruses. Even more so than when I first heard it nearly forty years ago, I feel that Semele’s time has finally come.” – (John Eliot Gardiner)
“The greatest joy of the evening was generated by the wonderfully crisp and rhythmically alert singing of the Monteverdi Choir” Rupert Chistiansen – ★★★★ The Telegraph
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Cigarettes After Sex – Cry (2019/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 40:24 minutes | 485 MB | Genre: Alternative, Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Partisan Records
Cry is the second studio album by American ambient pop band Cigarettes After Sex, released through Partisan Records on October 25, 2019. It was preceded by the single “Heavenly”.
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Title: Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) – The Four Seasons
Year: 2011
Genre: Classical, Baroque
Artists: Cho-Liang Lin – violin; Anthony Newman – harpsichord, organ & string ensemble Sejong
Released: NAXOS
Duration: 0:55:07
Quality: Blu-ray Audio
Container: BDMV
Video codec: MPEG-2
Audio Codec: DTS, PCM
Video: MPEG-2 5404 kbps 1920 * 1080i / 29,970 fps / 16:9
Audio # 1: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 / 96 kHz / 6798 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio # 2: English LPCM 2.0 / 96 kHz / 4608 kbps / 24-bit
• Praised by Gramophone magazine as ‘an invigorating account of the Seasons’ when first released on Naxos CD 8.557920, Vivaldi’s universally popular Four Seasons, with their virtuoso part for solo violinist, depict the changing seasons in a pastoral landscape with dazzling variety. Vivaldi evokes not only the changing atmospheric conditions, but bird calls and animal cries, swaying grass, bubbling brooks, and even comical drunkards and a man walking on ice. Violinist Cho-Liang Lin, who has been compared with Gidon Kremer, Nigel Kennedy and Kyung-Wha Chung, and the virtuoso ensemble Sejong give ‘a durable and unmannered, yet bracing and continuously interesting version’ (Fanfare) of these immortal classics.
• Recorded in 88.2kHz/24-bit surround and presented here in a choice of 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio or stereo PCM, this is a sparkling addition to the Naxos catalogue of audio-only Blu-ray releases.