Sylvie Vartan – Gift Wrapped from Paris (1965/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 28:20 minutes | 577 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA – Legacy
Sylvie Vartan is a French pop institution, as popular today as when she first took the yé-yé scene by storm in 1962. The vivacious and always stylish Sylvie was also a pioneer amongst the new breed of French female artists, crossing the Atlantic several times in the early 60s to record. She proved remarkably adept at tackling material in English, which resulted in many superb recordings chanted in a husky, compelling accent. Her main foreign release in that era was the US-only album “Gift Wrapped From Paris”. It combined tracks from the 1963 “Sylvie à Nashville” LP along with new sessions cut in New York in late 1964 with a crack session crew plus Ellie Greenwich and friends on backing vocals, all directed by Sylvie’s brother Eddie Vartan. Later on Sylvie recorded in England and utilised the talents of her British in-house writers, Tommy Brown and Micky Jones, the latter later to become famous in the band Foreigner.
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Sylvie Nicephor – Debussy: 24 préludes (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:26:46 minutes | 694 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Calliope
Composed between 1909 and 1912, these 24 Preludes can be considered as a «pianistic sum» in the work of Claude Debussy, but also more generally in the literature for the instrument. They are part of a tradition which, since the 24 Preludes and fugues of the «well-tempered clavier» of Johann Sebastian Bach continued with Frédéric Chopin, then Serguei Rachmaninov, Alexander Scriabin, Olivier Messiaen.
Written in the period of maturity of the composer, they succeed to “Les Estampes”, “Les Images”, “L’Ile Joyeuse”, and precede the studies (somehow prefigured by “Les Tierces Alternées”, 2nd notebook). They are also contemporary of “Les Images” for orchestra, Claude Debussy who at the time already composed his large symphonic scores.
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S. Carey & John Raymond – Shadowlands (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:42 minutes | 397 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Folk Rock, Modern Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Libellule Editions
Multi-instrumentalist / vocalist S. Carey (a core member of Bon Iver) collaborates with the sublime trumpeter John Raymond. Shadowlands intertwines songwriting and improvisation, the best of the indie world and jazz. In addition, Shadowlands features the Australian singer Gordi (recently also featured with Bon Iver) and Aaron Parks, one of the leading improvisers of his generation.
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Sylvie Courvoisier – Searching for the Disappeared Hour (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:25 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Pyroclastic Records
Even though they’re often neighbors in the rhythm section, piano and guitar are not typically a good fit for jazz duets. Some of that has to do with the difference between an electrically amplified instrument and a percussive acoustic one, and some with the fact that the close voicings pianists favor are difficult on guitar, while the open voicings guitarists love don’t easily translate to piano.
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Sylvia Vrethammar – Vortex (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:31 minutes | 954 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © VEAC
2019, celebrating 50 years on stage and in showbusiness, Sylvia releases a new album called “Vortex”. Using no band and no arrangements, Sylvia met in 3 different studio-sessions 6 of her favorite jazz musicians. Each time in sets of two and each time recording 4 songs. The pairs were Magnus Lindgren & Joel Lyssarides – Jan Lundgren & Hans Backenroth – Ulf Wakenius & Frank Chastenier. This was a totally new experience for Sylvia and she is very proud of the results. In September 2019 she celebrates her 50 years on stage with a big concert in Stockholms Konserthuset, where she performs the songs from “Vortex” live for the first time.
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Sylvia Vrethammar – The Girl from Uddevalla (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 45:43 minutes | 538 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © VEAC
Since more than 40 years, Sylvia Vrethammar sings all around the world. She lives in Europe but in her heart is in Brazil. With this album, the Sweden star presents an own personal homage to this land and its music.
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Sylvan Esso – Free Love (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 29:14 minutes | 347 MB | Genre: Pop, Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Loma Vista Recordings
What started out in LA with Jon Hill and was finished back in North Carolina at Sylvan Esso’s home studio, Free Love asks major questions about self-image, self-righteousness, friendship, romance, and environmental calamity with enough warmth, playfulness, and magnetism to make you consider an alternate reality. These are Sylvan Esso’s most nuanced and undeniable songs—bold enough to say how they feel, big enough to make you join in that feeling.
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SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart & Marcus Creed – France (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:10:07 minutes | 656 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SWR Classic
French intellectuals, especially musicians and writers, were enchanted by the magic of Richard Wagner’s music, but they earnestly wanted to pursue new ideas for what might follow. They believed that music and art should be free from ‘German elements’ and they consequently wanted to establish a decidedly contrasting, French style of music. It was for this reason that Gabriel Fauré and Camille Saint-Saëns set up the Societé Nationale de Musique in 1871, tasking it with supporting new French compositions. Successive composers were fascinated by new developments in the great French music tradition and experimented with modal alternatives and aspects of counterpoint. Compositional clarity was expected to express the simple but poetic relationship between music and text, drawing on graceful melodic lines and a Renaissance-like serenity of expression.
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Svetlin Roussev, L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève & Arie van Beek – Frank Martin: Concerto pour violon / Esquisse (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 46:02 minutes | 892 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Claves Records
A recording dedicated to Frank Martin, an important figure of 20th century music, faithful to the tonal tradition, while experimenting with forms and instrumentation; he was also one of the first “classical” composers to have written for the electric guitar!
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Swing Shift Big Band – One More, Twice (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:18:21 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Independent
Considered one of Canada’s premiere big bands, Jim John’s Swing Shift Big Band preserves the sounds and quality of the big band era, faithfully performed by 17 talented musicians. On this album of standards and old favourites, the ensemble is joined by vocal group the Trio Bella and singers Larisa Renee and Dave Statham.
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Suzanne Shulman & Erica Goodman – Serenades & Sonatas for Flute and Harp (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:22 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
This programme has been nurtured from a selection of pieces inspired by English gardens, including Vaughan Williams’ lovely ‘Fantasia on Greensleeves,’ spreading out towards French and Italian repertoire that evokes pastoral settings of birdsong, fountains and springs, and topped with a light-hearted musical picnic dessert. Along the way we are treated to the exquisite melody of Elgar’s Chanson de matin and the nostalgic atmosphere of William Alwyn’s ‘Naiades.’ Nino Rota’s film music credits include The Godfather, and his sublime and festive Sonata adds a celebratory touch to the personal joy of these performers’ many years of musical friendship. The combination of flute and harp always creates an atmosphere of beauty, with contrasting but complementary sonorities that have been exploited by a multitude of composers over the years. The pastoral theme of this program has been carefully chosen to include music from the Baroque and Romantic eras right up to the contemporary.
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Suzanne Ciani – Improvisation On Four Sequences At Festival Antigel (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:42 minutes | 338 MB | Genre: Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Atmospheric
Live Buchla Quadraphonic Performance in Geneva, Switzerland at Festival Antigel January 25, 2020.
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Suzana Bartal – Années de pèlerinage (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:48:40 minutes | 2,62 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique
Suzana Bartal establishes herself as one of the exciting talents of her generation. Winner of the New York Concert Artists Concerto Competition in 2013, her playing has been hailed as “brilliant, full of shades and virtuosic” by the Bonner Anzeiger. Recent performances have taken her to prestigious venues such as the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Salle Pleyel and Radio France in Paris, Merkin Hall in New York as well as Milton Court in London and she has made recordings on France Musique, the WDR (West Deutscher Rundfunk) and the Danish Radio.
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Suuns – Felt (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 46:04 minutes | 493 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Psychedelic, Experimental
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Secretly Canadian
A one-way ticket to the darkest and most somber corners of the human souls. This is usually what every album from Suuns sounds like. With Hold/Still released in 2016, the Canadian band dived a little bit more into this protean rock ‘n’ rock that can’t decide between sick psychedelia and experimental deflagrations, whether carried by saturated guitars or elegantly Stakhanoviste electronic beats. As often with Suuns, you hear krautrock in the style of Can or of the Neu!, shoegaze stolen from My Bloody Valentine, post-punk in the style of The Fall, electro in the style of Warp, and many other things more or less avant-garde… As worrisome as it is fascinating, this fourth album is quieter than the previous ones. Suuns somewhat lets loose and gives birth to a less clinical recording, more organic and handcrafted, but that does not mean it is less oppressive. Once again: it is not for the faint hearted.
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Philharmonia Zürich, Camila Provenzale & Simone Menezes – Amazônia. Villa-Lobos – Glass (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:11 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Two Brazilian artists pay tribute to Villa-Lobos and the Amazon rainforest… Sebastião Salgado is a world-renowned photographer who has been working since the 1990s to protect and restore the Atlantic forest and water resources of the Rio Doce valley in Brazil. The Italian-Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes is passionate about the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and his symphonic poem Floresta do Amazonas, for which she created a suite for large orchestra and soprano. Together they travel the world to present an exhibition of Salgado’s photographs, combined with concerts conducted by Simone in which the photographs are projected, the photographer having associated each musical phrase with one of his images… The music of this monumental project has been recorded with the Philharmonia Zürich and soprano Camila Provenzale. Ten photos by Salgado, each more striking than the last, are included in the booklet that accompanies this recording, which is completed by another tribute to Amazonian nature, by Philip Glass, with an extract from his Aguas da Amazonia.
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