Mike Westbrook, Kate Westbrook – London Bridge Live in Zurich 1990 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:26:26 minutes | 1,54 GB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Westbrook Records
London Bridge is Broken Down is a two-and-a-half-hour composition for voice, jazz orchestra and chamber orchestra, some fifty performers.
A collaboration between composer Mike Westbrook and vocalist/librettist Kate Westbrook, the work was inspired by travelling and performing in the mid 1980’s through a Europe at that time divided by the Berlin Wall ‘our personal map of Europe’. It includes settings of poetry in French, German and English. Its five movements are entitled London Bridge, Wenceslas Square, Berlin Wall, Vienna and Picardie.
(more…)
Othmar Müller, Martin Kerschbaum, Catherine Klipfel, Niek de Groot, Eszter Haffner, Morgenstern Trio – Alfred Huber: Chamber Music (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:27 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © audite Musikproduktion
Chamber music expressing the most intimate – in Alfred Huber’s music the creative will of a subject pushes outwards, thoughts and feelings become music. The listener is left agitated and delighted by the power of sound.
(more…)
Madalina Paval – Roiesc (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:15 minutes | 435 MB | Genre: Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Asphalt Tango Records
Mădălina Pavăl grew up in the Bucovina region of Romania. Since early years she began collecting and singing traditional Romanian music. Throughout her many travels around the country she got to gather the old roots of local folklore – rural rituals, connection to nature, the solitude and celebration of love, old curses and spiritual healing – all and each vividly exposed in the art of singing. Mădălina became known in Romania for her extensive collaboration with the band Subcarpați and for her debut album “Oamenii se fac dor” (People miss each other), released in 2019 and album which combined Bucovina folklore with urban rhythms and modern vibes.
(more…)
Mathias Ruegg – The Blue Piano (The Advantage of Writing Music) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:05:08 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Lotus Records
Der Schweizer Pianist, Komponist und Arrangeur Mathias Rüegg wird 70 Jahre alt und beschenkt sich mit seinem voraussichtlich letzen musikalischen Werk: ein Doppelalbum zwischen Kammermusik und Jazz.
(more…)
Moon Duo – Live at Levitation (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:51 minutes | 514 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © The Reverberation Appreciation Society
San Francisco’s Moon Duo are a psychedelic band with chilly electronic underpinnings and drones inspired by Spacemen 3, Silver Apples, and Suicide. Made up of the duo of guitarist Ripley Johnson (of Wooden Shjips) and keyboardist Sanae Yamada, the template on their initial recordings pairs churning distorted guitars, shared vocals, and pulsing organ over machine-driven Motorik rhythms. It sounded honed to perfection early on with albums like their debut, Escape, and especially 2011’s Mazes, where they began writing songs with sharp hooks. They took liberties with their established sound at various points, adding a drummer (John Jeffrey), dense sonic textures, and rambling experimentalism (especially on 2017’s pair of albums titled Occult Architecture). The most drastic change came with 2019’s Stars Are the Light, which stripped back the guitars and added soft disco and shiny electronics to their sound. Their powerful performances have been documented by releases like 2022’s Live at Levitation. The duo of Johnson and Yamada started playing in 2009 and began issuing releases in short order, including the Love on the Sea 12″ on Sick Thirst, which they followed with the Killing Time EP on Sacred Bones. Moon Duo made the jump to Woodsist for 2010’s full-length Escape, which offered the most expansive and melodic take on their trippy sounds yet. After touring nearly incessantly following that release, Moon Duo moved their operation to the Souterrain Transmissions imprint in Berlin for Mazes later in the year, recording the set at home in San Francisco and mixing it in Germany. The album, released in the spring of 2011, followed widely acclaimed performances at SXSW; the band’s sound on that record focused more on tightly written (and brightly produced) songs with fixed drum machine-made Motorik rhythms. The set also got the remix treatment later in the year with participation from Psychic Ills, Purling Hiss, and Sonic Boom, to name a few. Moon Duo’s next full-length, Circles, appeared in the fall of 2012 on Sacred Bones and was accompanied by a remix album (Circles Remixed) the following year, with the album’s tracks reworked by artists like Eric Copeland and Umberto. The band’s release of stopgap material continued in 2014 with the live album Live in Ravenna, which featured drummer John Jeffrey. After moving their home base to Portland and with Jeffrey on board, the trio began recording their next album in a self-described dark basement. Mixed again in Germany by Jonas Verwijnen, 2015’s Shadow of the Sun was the group’s densest, most psychedelic record to date. At the end of the year, the band embarked on a lengthy European tour, then returned again in 2016 for more dates. Once they were back home in Portland, Moon Duo began work on their next album, both at home and at the Type Foundry. Occult Architecture, Vol. 1 was released in early 2017, then Occult Architecture, Vol. 2 followed soon after. The first volume was intended to represent yin and the second volume yang, in an effort to explore both light and darkness within their sound. Johnson and Yamada spent the next year working on outside projects. Johnson reunited with Wooden Shjips, who released V. in 2018, and Yamada started a solo project called Vive la Void and issued a self-titled record on Sacred Bones. When the duo (plus Jeffrey on drums again) reconvened, their sound had changed dramatically. The band added elements of slinky disco, shimmering Madchester, and electronic trippery while cutting back on the Motorik rhythms and guitar overload. They recorded an album at Jackpot! Recording Studio in Portland and at home, then had the results mixed by Sonic Boom for extra psychedelic credit. Stars Are the Light is the band’s seventh record; it was released by Sacred Bones in September of 2019. The duo’s cover of “Planet Caravan” appeared on Black Sabbath tribute compilation What Is This That Stands Before Me? in 2020. Live at Levitation was issued by Reverberation Appreciation Society in 2022.
– Heather Phares
(more…)
Trio Con Brio Copenhagen – The Passenger (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:01 minutes | 650 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Orchid Classics
This new album from one of today’s most popular and sought after piano trios delves into the emotive essence of two young composers–Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Franz Schubert–whose compositions offer an encounter with poignant reflections on life, mortality, and ethereal beauty.
Read moreSoft Machine – The Dew at Dawn / (Slightly) Slightly All the Time (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 09:27 minutes | 107 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © My Only Desire Records
Fabled jazz-rock group Soft Machine present this heartfelt tribute to one of the greats of British jazz – trumpeter Harry Beckett – covering his stunning “The Dew at Dawn” on this limited edition 7″ vinyl, with a cover of a classic Softs tune on the B side. This is the second 7″ in My Only Desire Records’ Brit Jazz 45s series, which sees some of their favourite contemporary jazz acts each making brand new studio recordings of two classic compositions from the golden era of ’60s and ’70s British jazz.
Read moreMondo Rock – Summer Of ’81 (Mondo Rock Live At The Pier) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:09:00 minutes | 959 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bloodlines
In the summer of 1981, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the US President, Dreamworld opened on the Gold Coast, and Trevor Chappell bowled his infamous underarm delivery against New Zealand. And Mondo Rock cemented their reputation as one of Australia’s finest bands, with the release of their album Chemistry. The album hit #3 on the Australian album chart, and saw the band win two awards at the Countdown Awards: Album Of The Year and Best Australia Songwriter (Eric McCusker).
(more…)