Severin von Eckardstein – Vers la flamme: Works by Beethoven, Messiaen, Scriabin, Strauss (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:24:35 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
“The starting point was Beethoven’s Sonata op. 111, but this little piece ‘Vers la flamme’ by Scriabin exemplifies an idea, and the title is ideal for the whole album. The idea is a journey from the earthly to the light, it is about the question of how life and death are connected. Now you can say that it is generally a function of music that it catapults you into a new level of consciousness. But I think the four works on this album do that in a special way, they radiate a tremendous power. They reflect different personal worlds, were written at different times and spring from different genres and sound ideas, yet they all have a similar function.
Read moreSarah Defrise & Craig White – Joseph Jongen: Fêtes rouges (Intégrale des mélodies, Vol. 2) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:33:48 minutes | 1,53 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Musique en Wallonie
Joseph Jongen is universally considered one of the major Belgian composers of the 20th century. The 150th anniversary of his birth, celebrated in 2023, is the occasion for the rediscovery of an oeuvre that remains, for the most part, oddly underrated. Following on Entrevisions (Musique en Wallonie, MEW 1993, 2019), this CD of Fetes rouges now concludes the first complete recording of his melodies (art songs) for voice and piano. The melodie genre occupies a special place within the chamber music repertoire. Numerous composers contemporary with Jongen, both male and female, tried their hand at it, but few succeeded in raising it to emblematic status to stand comparison with Faure, Debussy or indeed Ravel. In his letters and notebooks Jongen mentions his vocal works only briefly. But listening to the complete corpus of these works, and the stylistic evolution that becomes evident, reveals the enjoyment and obvious care which Jongen brought to each of these miniatures. Carrying on from Entrevisions, the double album of Fetes rouges offers a musical overview of the composer’s various “periods”: French romanticism, post-Wagnerism and Debussy-ism, and a Jongenian synthesis. Each CD focuses on one of his three great song cycles: opus 25 (Entrevisions, MEW 1993, 2019), here we have opus 29 and opus 57.
Read moreMong Tong – Tao Fire 道火 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 43:42 minutes | 497 MB | Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Guruguru Brain
Mong Tong’s latest album, “Tao Fire 道火”, not only continues the idea behind their previous work, “Indies 印”, but also incorporates more local elements such as gamelan music, phin guitar, tabla drums, and Taiwan sisomi. While sampling more sounds from the street of Southeast Asia, including weddings, funerals, and traditional celebrations, Mong Tong again explores different folk sounds around Austronesia.
Read moreThe Orange Peels – Celebrate the Moments of Your Life (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:05 minutes | 741 MB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Minty Fresh
Celebrate the Moments of Your Life is the first double album by the band, and an adventure into uncharted waters. Featuring more than an hour of new music, the album was recorded from summer 2019 though fall of 2020 at the band’s former headquarters in the Santa Cruz Mountains, mixed by longtime collaborator Bryan Hanna in Minneapolis, and mastered by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic in Los Angeles.
Read moreThe Ocean Party – Beauty Point (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:50 minutes | 445 MB | Genre: Indie Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Emotional Response
Across six albums (over just as many years) Melbourne-via-Wagga sextet, the Ocean Party, have developed a unique sound of upbeat indie-pop that steers towards a frank and unsettling darker side. Seventh instalment, Beauty Point, further builds on this foundation as the often-disarmingly blunt, economical lyrics serve as stepping stones across a canvas of sprawling synths and a more stable underbelly of guitar-rock and punchy rhythmic urgency. The mostly-poignant one-liners leap to prominence sporadically, a similar random scatter followed by the occasional sax injection that pops up unannounced alongside more dramatic piano plods.
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