![King Crimson - Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (40th Anniversary Edition) (1973/2023) [High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray Disc]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2024/05/12/138741_front.md.jpg)
Rohan de Saram, Druvi de Saram, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra & Anatole Fistoulari – Prokofiev: Works (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:06 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © First Hand Records
All recordings featured on this album are live studio recordings made in 1971 and 1972 for radio broadcast in Holland. Written for the great cellist Rostropovich and considered one of the most difficult cello concertos, Prokofiev’s Cello Concerto, Op. 58 is not often recorded and thus this FHR album is a welcome issue.
Read more
Rohan De Saram – Bax, Ligeti, Dallapiccola & Cassadó: Works for Solo Cello (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:10 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © First Hand Records
The present album features four works which have come to the forefront of repertoire for solo cello from the modern era. Arnold Bax’s Rhapsodic Ballad is his only solo piece for this instrument. It is dramatic, inventive and full of atmosphere. Likely the most often performed of his earlier works, Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello has for over a decade been used as a test piece for the Rostropovich Competition in Paris. Dallapiccola’s composition was written for the Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassadó. It is a substantial, powerful work, and an early serial composition of the composer, full of colourful effects and humour.
Read more
Florian Boesch, Malcolm Martineau – Schumann: Dichterliebe & Kerner Lieder (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:03:26 minutes | 2,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Fourteen years ago, the baritone Florian Boesch released a disc devoted to Schumann’s settings of the poet Heinrich Heine. It included the nine songs of the Op 24 Liederkreis, but omitted the best known of all Schumann’s cycles, the 16 songs to Heine texts that make up his Dichterliebe. Partnered as before by the ever meticulous Malcolm Martineau, Boesch has now remedied that omission with a new recording of that pinnacle of the German lied tradition.
It’s a typically considered performance, in which Boesch’s stealthy, velvety tone and unfailing attention to words are used to superb effect. Whether darkening his timbre for the seventh number, Ich Grolle Nicht, or hollowing it out for the funereal lament of the 13th, Ich Hab’ im Traum Geweinet, he finds the perfect sound world to match up the expressive weight of each song.
Just occasionally he overdoes things, whether by choosing a tempo that seems fractionally too slow for the meaning of the music or the text, or by modulating his tone a bit too intensely, so that the song acquires a kind of gothic creepiness. By and large, though, this is as fine a recorded performance of Dichterliebe as any released in recent years.
Read more
Fatrin Krajka – The Space In Between (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:45 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Tikkun Records
Fatrin Krajka is an Albanian born award-winning composer, and pianist based in NYC
Praised for his ability to combine the classical ethos with modern minimalism, Fatrin’s work spans across a multitude of genres. From chamber music to film and multidisciplinary artistic collaborations, his musical imprint touches the innermost sensitive to enter a journey of self-exploration, intimacy and stillness.
Read more
Duke Ellington – Ellington In Order, Volume 1 (1927-28) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:11:38 minutes | 983 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Legacy Recordings
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (* April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C.; † May 24, 1974 in New York City) was one of the most influential American jazz musicians. As a pianist, he was one of the most important innovators of the Stride piano. As a composer, he composed almost 2000 compositions (songs and suites), a hundred of which soon became jazz standards. As a bandleader, he contributed to the development of swing as a big band style.
Read more
Dudok Quartet Amsterdam – What Remains (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:11 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON
The title What Remains of String Quartet No. 4 (2019) by Joey Roukens can be understood in various ways. On a poetic level, the words correspond to the character of the music, which often seems to hark back to ‘something remaining’ from a previous era – ruins, ghosts, scraps or memories. This interpretation, both of the words and of the music itself, marked the beginning of the associative exploration that led to this album of the same title. A fascinatingly curated programme from the Dudok, drawing on music from the 13th, 14th and 16th centuries, with 20th century works by Messiaen and Reich, and into the 21st century with the work that provides the album’s title, the 4th String Quartet by Roukens, commissioned by the Dudok Quartet. Both Reich and Roukens’ music was influenced by Gregorian chant, and the early organum and polyphonic music that followed. Time, travel, locomotion – journeys through time and the memories of these journeys all come together on this thrilling new album from the Dudok Quartet, Amsterdam.
Read more
Damian Lewis – Mission Creep (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:26 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Blues Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca (UMO)
Damian Lewis shares his debut album, entitled ‘Mission Creep’. ‘Mission Creep’ is a thoughtful collection of rootsy, rock and jazz-tinged songs that reveals a deep love of music, and a deep need to communicate.
Read more
Carmen McRae – Blue Moon (1956/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:31 minutes | 395 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © J. Joes J. Edizioni Musicali
Blue Moon is an album by jazz singer Carmen McRae, released on Decca Records in 1956.
Allmusic critic Scott Yanow gave the album four out of five stars, stating:
Much of the music on this excellent (but obscure) Carmen McRae LP has not been reissued, and certainly not in complete form. Accompanied by an orchestra arranged and conducted by either Tadd Dameron or Jimmy Mundy, McRae performs both standards and obscurities, ballads and medium-tempo tunes. The big band is pretty anonymous but fine in ensemble work; the main focus is on the singer’s voice anyway. Highlights include “Blue Moon”, “My Foolish Heart”, “I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket” and Mundell Lowe’s “All This Could Lead to Love”.
Read more
Sara Övinge, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Edward Gardner – Patientia (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:11:58 minutes | 2,78 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Lawo Classics
This release marks a musical homecoming for Sara Övinge, since she has chosen a slightly more convoluted career path than most violinists. Sara has sought out and immersed herself in contemporary music, Iranian music, composition, improvisation, and art-pop amongst several other musical pursuits. Her entire M.O. points to a strong and intrinsic need to be a co-creatingmusician, one who leaves her mark on the musical expression in a more comprehensive way than simply playing the notes on the stand. This record is no exception, being a result of her commissioning, her curating, and a substantial dose of willpower. Meeting with Kjetil Bjerkestrand in 2019, Sara found something she was looking for. He is the epitome of the symbiotic musician, drawing on experience and inspirations from a wide range of musical styles, from rock, pop through to contemporary. He describes the composition process as one part search for fixation points in a series of possible events, and one part exploration of friction caused by the union of the elastic and the mechanical. A theme that Sara aimed to pursue in the project was the juxtaposition of the electronic and the organic. Philip Glass’s 2nd Piano Concerto is arranged for synthesizer and strings, a kind of updated version of Vivaldi’s string orchestra with continuo. But where previous recordings have gone for an electronic sound resembling the baroque harpsichord, Sara wanted to create a more electro-acoustic soundscape, thus achieving a common thread between the two works.
Read more
M-Opus – At The Mercy of Manannán (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 41:31 minutes | 526 MB | Genre: Progressive Rock, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rude Chord Records
At The Mercy Of Manannán” is the third album from Irish progressive rock group, M-Opus, and their finest, most incisive yet. As with all their albums, this hypothetically ‘comes from’ a year in rock history, 1972, with the sound and production that implies. From lush, symphonic rock, to blazing, virtuosic instrumentals and lavish melodic tracks, the album aims to be nothing less than a ‘new classic’. Composed by Film/TV composer Jonathan Casey (David Cross Band) and a new member of the band, guitar virtuoso PJ O’Connell.
Read more
Luis Giraldo – Ready, Willing & Able (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 36:45 minutes | 815 MB | Genre: Vocal Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cellar Live
Luis Giraldo – Ready, Willing, And Able / Luis Giraldo reworks compositions by some of the worlds most beloved songwriters on this Doris Day tribute album. Recorded @ Van Gelder Studios in NJ. Canadian born, Columbian raised, pianist and vocalist Luis Giraldo delivers his first album for Cellar Music. ‘Ready, Willing & Able’ is a Doris Day tribute album, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in NJ, with a stellar line up of musicians including Ben Paterson, Ed Cherry and Ed Tiemann. The project reworks compositions by some of the worlds most beloved songwriters.
Read more
Girl Ray – Prestige (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:38 minutes | 469 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © moshi moshi records
Arriving in early August, the third album from Girl Ray is a perfect summertime feel-good record. The North London trio takes a new spin on the dance floor, following up the R&B cool of 2019’s Girl with a disco-inflected celebration of love, even the weird things it makes you feel. “True Love” is a sequin-glimmer bop, front loaded with spiky Bananarama bounce. “Everybody’s Saying That” is breezy and modern, with a bridge formulated for throwing shapes and an infectious rushed chorus: “Everybody’s saying that you could’ve done better/ But I really wanna end up with you.” And “Up” cruises along on a disco-funk beat—courtesy of Sophie Moss’ hip-swaying bass and slick guitar from singer Poppy Hankin, who sings of giddy new love undercut with self-doubt. It’s a brooding mood that haunts the album’s shimmering sound: “It feels unreal/ That you’d choose me as your one and only/ Tell me baby/ Safe in your arms/ Am I worthy of your charms?” “Love Is Enough,” about missing a lover while away from home, channels summer-in-the-city heat and Luscious Jackson cool. “Begging You Now” chills out with icy synth squiggles, while “Wanna Dance”—leaning into the wah-wah—takes its sweet time. “Tell Me” boasts an oil-slick groove and sweeping diva-drama chorus, ready made for a roller disco afternoon. And “Hold Tight” gets incredibly romantic: “Your light is as warm as the sunshine/ Blazing down on the twist of our grapevine/ Talking shit in the grass would be just fine, my baby.” It’s a New Wave island kiss with a thudding ATL hip-hop drum beat that wouldn’t be out of place on a Haim record; in fact, Hankin has said the song’s production takes inspiration from that trio’s Women in Music Pt. III. You can hear a little Haim, too, on the almost-ballad “Space Song,” which could easily be used to track an emotional-climax movie scene: offering a sonic clue that the main character has learned their lesson and is resolved to make a course correction. Maybe about love? – Shelly Ridenour
Read more
Elizabeth Atherton, Peter Rose, Jess Dandy, BBC Philharmonic & John Storgårds – Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14, Six Verses of Marina Tsvetayeva (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:47 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic continue their survey of Shostakovich’s late symphonies with this recoding of the 14th, with Elizabeth Atherton and Peter Rose as soloists. Completed in the spring of 1969, and premiered later that year, the symphony is written for soprano, bass and small string orchestra with percussion, setting eleven linked setting of poems by four authors. Most of the poems deal with the theme of death, particularly that of unjust or early death, and indeed all four of the poets had died prematurely and / or in unnatural circumstances – Wilhelm Küchelbecker in Siberian exile for his part in the 1825 Decembrist uprising, Federico García Lorca assassinated during the Spanish Civil War, in 1936, Rainer Maria Rilke of blood poisoning following an accident in 1926 and Guillaume Apollinaire in 1918 during the Spanish influenza pandemic. The Six Verses of Marina Tsvetayeva were composed in 1973, originally for contralto and piano, and subsequently arranged for chamber orchestra (the version we hear here, with Jess Dandy as soloist). The recording was made at Media City in Salford, Manchester, in Surround Sound, and is available as a hybrid SACD and in Spatial Audio.
Read more
Chris Janson – The Outlaw Side Of Me (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:04 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMLG Records
Chris Janson – “The Outlaw Side Of Me” – Multiplatinum-selling artist Chris Janson is known for his unabashed and raucous style both as a songwriter and performer. His free-spirited approach has captivated country music’s newest generation and his latest album, The Outlaw Side of Me, is turning up the heat. Each track on the album was carefully selected to showcase who Janson is as a man and performer – from the reflective sentimental like “All I Need Is You” to the barn burner “Tap That,” this album is a tapestry of Chris Janson.
Read more
Ronn Mcfarlane – The Celtic Lute (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 56:10 minutes | 2,19 GB | Genre: World, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sono Luminus
There are Celtic Music specialty radio shows and on-demand audio channels. Celtic Music CDs are sold in health food and yoga stores. We know it when we hear it. Right? So, what is it? There’s a loose definition (or maybe tacit agreement) that Celtic Music is found in those European cultures where the Celtic tribes invaded. Aside from Ireland and Scotland, Wales qualifies, as does Brittany, the Galician part of Spain, the Isle of Man. If we focus just on the Gaelic language group and fine tune it to just Scotland and Ireland, we really know what we are hearing, right? Do we? While there is plentiful cross-pollination between these two nations and an ancient shared heritage, they are not the same place, and their music is not a single common recipe using slightly different ingredients. Irish stew is not haggis. There are differences grand and small, subtle and great. Distinct nations with different histories will evolve different artistic natures, and this is played out in a joyful noise in our Celtic lands. Ronn McFarlane’s heritage and lifelong interest in Scottish music allows us to walk first (as Neil Munro put it) “song-haunted over the Moors.”
Read more