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opia Consort – as you like it. (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:58 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ars Produktion
As you like – jocular, sensual, dramatic. opia delves into the musical depths of this game – merging literature from the Renaissance to the early Baroque.
In this atmospheric programme, the musicians interpret sensual songs and lively dances with voice, recorders, viola da gamba, harpsichord and percussion instruments. In different instrumentations, they vary the sound colours from intimate to magnificent chamber music and their own quodlibets.
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Munich Radio Orchestra & Ivan Repušić – Giacomo Puccini: Orchestral Works (Crisantemi, Preludio sinfonico, Capriccio sinfonico) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 26:44 minutes | 468 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BR-Klassik
Puccini’s purely instrumental compositions, whether for orchestra or in the field of chamber music, were almost all written while he was still a student at the Milan Conservatory from 1880 to 1883. These works reflect the musical spirit of the time that shaped the young composer: the melodic influences of his teacher Amilcare Ponchielli and also the impressions left on him by the music of Richard Wagner. At the same time, however, these pieces already point ahead to Puccini the opera composer. It seems only logical, therefore, that many of the themes echoed in them subsequently reappeared in his stage works and became much more famous there than in their original form.
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Melody Moore, Stefan Pop, Lester Lynch, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Carlo Montanaro – Puccini: Tosca (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:49:26 minutes | 3,82 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and conductor Carlo Montanaro present a powerful interpretation of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, together with a cast of soloists including Melody Moore (Tosca), Ștefan Pop (Cavaradossi) and Lester Lynch (Scarpia). Tosca has been an audience favourite from the onset. Premiered in 1900, it marks the beginning of twentieth- century opera, in which sex, violence and the uncanny abysses of the human psyche would be explored, inspiring composers to expand the musical means of expression in all thinkable ways. Until today, Tosca has lost none of its expressive power, and Puccini’s intricate score deserves to be taken seriously. Its symphonic qualities are fully brought out by the inspired playing of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, led by the seasoned maestro Carlo Montanaro. Melody Moore, Ștefan Pop and Lester Lynch bring the passionate, electrifying score to life with performances of dazzling power. The splendid cast is completed by Kevin Short (Angelotti), Alexander Köpeczi (Un Sagrestano), Colin Judson (Spoletta), Georg Streuber (Sciarrone), Axel Scheidig (Un Carceriere), and Lean Miray Yüksel (Un Pastore). The members of Rundfunkchor Berlin and Kinderchor der Deutschen Oper Berlin add their marvelous choral sound to the recording, culminating in the famous Te Deum.
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Matt Berry – Simplicity (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 33:18 minutes | 398 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Acid Jazz UK
Following the recent release of the outstanding ‘Top Brass’ single, Matt Berry will release a further unique collaboration with esteemed Library Music label KPM: the full-length album ’Simplicity’, out 17 November 2023.
KPM is renowned for providing the musical bedrock for so many classics of British TV and international cinema, using the best British composers – such as Keith Mansfield, Alan Hawkshaw, John Cameron and Alan Moorhouse – to do so. ’Simplicity’ follows in the footsteps of these giants and is a worthy successor to them.
Alongside his formidable acting career, Matt Berry has released a series of acclaimed albums on the Acid Jazz label. Ranging from the folk stylings of Kill The Wolf, the ambient electronica of Music For Insomniacs, to the psych rock of Blue Elephant, these have marked Berry out as an impressive musician and recording artist in his own right.
Embodying the form of KPM’s original LPs geared towards film and television pitching, the album consists of 11 sharp and vibrant instrumentals, which will no doubt be heard in productions for many years to come.
Released in special collaboration with Acid Jazz, the album is presented in a beautiful graphic sleeve, with notes that allude to the original KPM releases, for something that is instantly hip and familiar, yet unmistakably new.
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Martèn LeGrand – Legends (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 28:49 minutes | 259 MB | Genre: Classical, Modern Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Piano and Classics
After Martèn completed his degree at the Rotterdam Conservatory as a Hammond organist and music performance major in 1983, he began his career as a record producer for well-known international artists and bands such as Samantha Fox and Susan Snyder. Best known for her role in the soap opera As The World Turns, Martèn produced Snyder’s solo singles, also used in the popular serial drama as background music. By the same token, Martèn produced the Socaboy’s hit song Follow The Leader, which became a number-one single in the Netherlands, topped the charts in the United States, South America and other European countries, and continues to be well played around the world today. Around this same period, Martèn also worked as a demonstrator and pioneer in the field of synthesizers at Roland Japan, based in Belgium.
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Kantata – It’s High Time Now (1986/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 32:16 minutes | 383 MB | Genre: Disco, Boogie, Highlife, Afrobeat
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BBE Africa
HIGHLIFE MAGIC: AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN??
A couple of years back, UK-based House DJ Jerry Frempong’s wife Katie was doing a spring clean at the family home. At the bottom of the garden, amongst a pile of rusty garden tools, she discovered a couple of mysterious bin-bags. She was about to assign them to the skip with everything else, but a sixth sense persuaded her to check the contents. It was a huge pile of rare soul, funk, disco, boogie and- yes – Ghana Highlife records. Katie brought this to the attention of Jerry, who immediately understood the significance of the treasure trove.
Jerry’s Father, Anthony Roberts Frempong, who had passed away in 2011, was the founder of one of the most significant Ghanaian record and music companies anywhere in the world: Asona Records. Asona was founded in the mid-80s, with little fanfare, in Peckham, South East London. It was a label with a firm mission: Burger Highlife. No, not a swanky fast-food chain, nor a 5-star German hotel chain, but a record label devoted to the new African dance music genre that was sweeping Europe, North America and West Africa at the time – Electric Highlife.
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Georgy Vasiliev, Julia Muzychenko-Greenhalgh, Enkelejda Shkoza, Alexey Tikhomirov, Andrei Popov, Frankfurt Opera Chorus, Frankfurter Opern- und Museum, Sebastian Weigle, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester – Rimsky-Korsakov: Christmas Eve (Live) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:26:50 minutes | 2,66 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve, based on a short story by Gogol, centres on the love of the blacksmith Vakula for the rich farmer’s daughter Oksana, who mockingly requires him to obtain for her the Tsarina’s shoes in order to win her hand in marriage. However, evil spirits are on the rampage imperilling their love – a witch on her broomstick gathers the stars and the devil steals the moon. Rimsky-Korsakov blends Christian and pagan elements, Ukrainian folk songs and carols, and atmospheric orchestral interludes in this vivacious and fantastical village romance. This is the disc version of the audiovisual release on 2.110738 and NBD0154V: ‘Sebastian Weigle leads the excellent Frankfurt orchestra and chorus in a spellbinding account of Rimsky-Korsakov’s score’, wrote MusicWeb International. It also won the German Record Critics Award for Quarterly Critics Choice and was a Musicweb International ‘Recommended’ release.
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Houston Person – Houston Express (Remastered) (1971/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:34 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Jazz, Soul Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Craft Recordings
Houston Express is the ninth album led by saxophonist Houston Person. Houston Person’s the main soloist in front of bigger backings – heard here in a style that’s a bit like some of the changes in funky jazz that were going on over at Kudu Records during the same time – a filling up of the background rhythms, but still with hip players overall – and plenty of room for the main soloist to do his thing! Horace Ott conducts the backings, and brings in a soulful undercurrent that almost gives a few of the sharper numbers a soundtrack feel. Titles include “The Houston Express”, “Young Gifted & Black”, “Give More Power To The People”, “Chains of Love”, and “Enjoy”.
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Ennio Morricone – Morricone Segreto Songbook (1962-1973) (1973/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:46 minutes | 781 MB | Genre: Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca – Sugar – CAM
Following the success of 2020’s ‘Morricone Segreto’, which received unprecedented acclaim from international press as well as support from admirers such as Hans Zimmer, CAM Sugar marks what would have been Morricone’s 95th birthday with a new collection of little-known gems: ‘Morricone Segreto Songbook’. This anthology was born out of a desire to delve into Morricone’s cinematic song production is complimentary to the 2020 release. We hear again the pop-psych, dark-cinematic and avant-garde sounds that characterized the original collection, as well as hints of the folk-rock of the day and poignant ballads and elegant chansons.
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Grails – Anches En Maat (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:04 minutes | 733 MB | Genre: Post-Rock, Progressive Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Temporary Residence Ltd.
Anches En Maat is the first new album from Grails in over a half-decade following the masterful Chalice Hymnal in 2017 and their first album recorded with all members in the studio together since Doomsdayer’s Holiday in 2008. With every Grails album released since Doomsdayer’s Holiday being a sprawling double-album endeavor, Anches En Maat was conceived as a return to the comparatively efficient single LP runtime. With that, Grails set out to craft the same sonically dense world that their longer albums showcased, while trading singular indulgences for live collaborative interplay.
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French TV – A Ghastly State of Affairs (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 56:15 minutes | 666 MB | Genre: Jazz Rock, Progressive Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cuneiform Records
French TV’s newest CD, A Ghastly State Of Affairs is their 15th in their long history. It is also their first album not to be self-released. Headed up by charter member bassist/composer Mike Sary, he is joined again by guitarist Kasumi Yoneda (also from the Japanese band TEE), keyboardist Patrick Strawser (best known for his work in the 90’s band Volare), and now by the original drummer from FTV’s first three abums, Fenner Castner. The new album displays their ingenious knack for tricky arrangements, blazing solos, surprising left-turns, and their ability to tell a well-crafted yarn musically without words. Blending elements of progressive rock, fusion, cartoon music, and Rock-in-Opposition, the music of his group can be simultaneously hilarious and highly challenging, making it one of the most original American prog rock outfits and also one of the longest lived, having created numerous albums, toured Europe and the US a few times, and played many festivals.
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Ensemble Diderot & Johannes Pramsohler – J.G. Goldberg & W.F. Bach: Trio Sonatas (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:20 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Audax Records
For the 15th anniversary of Ensemble Diderot, and after forays into concertos and chamber music using larger forces, Johannes Pramsohler and his colleagues go back to the roots with a recording of their core repertoire: trio sonatas. Highly inventive works by Bach pupils Johann Gottlieb Goldberg and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach make for a programme in which the Diderots show their art with their trademark stylish and agile playing.
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Emilie Adolfsson – Över bygden (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:08 minutes | 453 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Emilie Adolfsson
Pianist Emilie Adolfsson brings together a band consisting of Johanna Grüssner (vocal), Esko Grundström (double bass), Andreas Nyberg (violin) and Thomas Törnroos (drums) for Över bygden, a collection of Finnish-Swedish classics in new arrangements!
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Dominik Wagner – Double Bass Rhapsody (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:11:39 minutes | 754 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Berlin Classics
This album hums and growls, it whispers very delicately and causes a pleasant feeling again and again. It is the warm, deep and full tone of the double bass that has taken hold of the young Viennese soloist Dominik Wagner. This is already the fourth album he is releasing on the label Berlin Classics. As on the three previous albums, he has placed the double bass at the center, and yet everything is different on the new album “Double Bass Rhapsody”. Here, the double bass is heard exclusively as a solo instrument, in a quartet and even in a sextet. For this, Dominik Wagner has enlisted the best colleagues he can imagine: Christoph Wimmer and Herbert Mayr, both principal double bassists of the Vienna Philharmonic, who share with him an authentic connection to the Viennese style. And José Trigo, deputy principal double bass of the BR Symphony Orchestra, who, like Dominik Wagner, also studied with Professor Dorin Marc. “In order to bring out the special features of the double bass, there is no need for any other instrument” explains Dominik Wagner.
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David Holmes – Blind On A Galloping Horse (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:37 minutes | 883 MB | Genre: Electronic, Pop Rock, Alternative, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Heavenly Recordings
David Holmes has announced details of his first solo album since 2008’s The Holy Pictures. Blind On A Galloping Horse is due for release on Heavenly Recordings on 10th November 2023. Blind On A Galloping Horse was written , produced and arranged by David Holmes. The album features updated versions of the previously released singles Hope Is The Last Thing To Die and It’s Over If We Run Out Of Love and a recording of an unreleased song by Holmes’ late friend Andrew Weatherall (I Laugh Myself To Sleep).
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