Stephen Farr – Byrd: Keyboard Works (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:06:04 minutes | 2,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Resonus Classics
Performing on the Taylor & Boody Organ of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, the critically acclaimed organist Stephen Farr presents a rare exploration of the keyboard works of William Byrd on the organ. This historically informed instrument is made in the early English style and makes a fitting tribute in this, the composer’s 400th anniversary year.
Read moreSir Richard Bishop – Oneiric Formulary (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 40:41 minutes | 406 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Drag City
The Sir Richard Bishop show is back in town, alive as ever with exotic action, plus a bit of everything but the kitchen sink. Oneiric Formulary is the sound of surprise – first Sir Rick being surprised, then us! Not simply by six-string acoustic rags ‘n ragas, but departures as well into electric guitar, keyboard tricks, avant atmosphere, and even a reedy eastern knees-up! The Bish like you’ve never heard him before.
Read moreSeverin 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.
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