Yojo Christen – VIVUM – Yojo Christen plays Gershwin, Hummel & Schubert (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:09:41 minutes | 576 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EuroArts Music International
When Yojo Christen plays the piano, his eyes light up and you realise that for him there is nothing more beautiful, nothing more significant in this world.
The love story between the pianist and music started early because as soon as Yojo could walk, he was drawn to the fascinating black grand piano in his family’s living room. Yojo was taught early on by his stepfather, the successful concert pianist and composer Franz Hummel. In his youth, Hummel himself was a student of the famous Mozarteum piano professor Hans Ehlers, who in turn was a grand disciple of Franz Liszt through his studies with Moriz Rosenthal and placed great value on teaching his students all of Liszt’s secrets and playing techniques.
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Wynton Marsalis – The Jungle (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:13:17 minutes | 829 MB | Genre: Jazz, Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Engine Records
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988 and spends over a third of the year on tour across the world. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S. and around the globe; in concert halls; dance venues; jazz clubs; public parks; and with symphony orchestras; ballet troupes; local students; and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and current and former Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Ted Nash, Victor Goines, Sherman Irby, Chris Crenshaw, and Carlos Henriquez.
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Wolfgang Kogert – Organo/Logics (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:50 minutes | 841 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © col legno
The album contains the complete organ works of Karlheinz Essl, composed between 1986 and 2021 and recorded by Wolfgang Kogert on the Kuhn organ of the Hofburg Chapel in Vienna. It is the result of a long-standing friendship and collaboration, but above all it is a collaborative work fully dedicated to the fascination for this instrument. While Karlheinz Essl draws on well-known lids in his compositions and draws inspiration from elements of early music to the avant-garde, Wolfgang Kogert realizes the pieces sensitively and with particular virtuosity. The guest musician is mezzo-soprano Anna Clare Hauf. The title “ORGANO/LOGICS” suggests to treat the album as an art study, opening new approaches to the “Queen of Instruments” on a compositional and playing level.
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WITCH – Zango (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:26 minutes | 473 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Desert Daze Sound
One way or another, 2023 is turning into one heck of a year, as far as new music is concerned. My list of potential candidates for my Album of the Year is already a mighty long one but, this afternoon, a few candidates had to step aside, because Zango, the new album from WITCH, originators of Zamrock and now back to serve up a stunning second helping of that very commodity, is a stunner.
Back in the early and mid-70s, Zambia was the place to be to hear the Western rock, soul and funk styles being given a distinctly African twist. The sounds of Hendrix, The Stones, Cream, Sly, James Brown and British heavy rockers like Deep Purple and Trapeze were causing quite a stir with the local youth; added to that, the rich copper deposits in newly-independent Zambia were attracting migrant workers from all over southern Africa – all with their own cultures and musical traditions to feed into the burgeoning music scene. The result was a distinctive brand of no-holds-barred rock, infused with percussive and resonant African rhythms, all fueled by an attitude that dictated “anything goes.”
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Wendy McNeill – First There Were Feathers (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:19 minutes | 1,06 GB | Genre: Jazz, Folk, Experimental, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Roots and Ramblers Music
Wendy McNeill’s new album First There Were Feathers(coming May 26/2023) follows her process from when a forest fire destroyed the area around her home, through the questions and answers that this loss triggered. Using the analogy of ‘the canary in a coal mine’ McNeill chose to use birds as the main messenger in the album as she contemplated the uncomfortable truth that wild fires and extreme weather events are the new normal in our time.
Drawing from scientific studies, personal experience, classic literature and myth, the album explores the beauty, mystery and resilience of birds and how their fate is intimately connected with ours.
A blend of myth and memoir, First There Were Feathers is an exciting album in which Wendy McNeill’s folk noir roots and passion for storytelling have grown to include elements of Jazz and World music as well as echoes of Beatles, early Bjork and Radiohead.
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Weird Nightmare – Weird Nightmare (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 34:38 minutes | 411 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sub Pop Records
Debut album by new, guitar-driven rock / power-pop project of Metz guitarist / singer Alex Edkins. Features performances by Loel Campbell (Wintersleep, Holy Fuck), Chad VanGaalen, Alicia Bognanno (Bully).
If you’re looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further than Weird Nightmare. The debut album from Metz guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins contains all of his main band’s bite with an unexpected, yet totally satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the bombast of Copper Blue- era Sugar—just tons of red-line distortion cut with the type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears.
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WDR Big Band – Ariabesques – WDR Big Band Plays Bach (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:34:14 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazzline
With “Ariabesques,” Bill Dobbins and the WDR Big Band have brought Johann Sebastian Bach”s “Goldberg Variations” to life once again. Originally composed for the two-manual harpsichord, Dobbins has managed to create an impressive version for big band by swapping repetitive notes with short rests. By fusing the original melodies and the most important notes of the bass lines with impressive solos, the Bachian characteristics form a stringent basis that creates original sound impressions with funky jazz elements.
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Water From Your Eyes – Everyone’s Crushed (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:25 minutes | 604 MB | Genre: Indie Pop, Art Pop, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Matador
Life is horribly dark right now. And yet, it is not unfunny. That’s the sentiment that animates Water From Your Eyes on their new album, and first for Matador, ‘Everyone’s Crushed,’ out May 26. On the follow-up to the Brooklyn duo’s 2021 breakthrough, ‘Structure,’Rachel Brown (they/them) and Nate Amos (he/him) find silliness and fatalism dancing in a frantic lockstep, using heart palpitating rhythms and absurdist, deadpan lyrics to convey stories of personal and societal unease. Described by Brown as Water From Your Eyes’ most collaborative record ever, it’s a swollen contusion of an album: experimental pop music that’s pretty and violent, raw and indelible.
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Vox Clamantis, Jaan-Eik Tulve – Music by Henrik Ødegaard (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:52 minutes | 1,00 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM New Series
On this newest endeavour, the Vox Clamantis choir, under the direction of Jaan-Eik Tulve, turns its attention towards Norwegian composer Henrik Odegaard with a fine-drawn programme of liturgical choral music.
In a subtle sleight of hand, Odegaard’s compositions interweave Gregorian chant with Norwegian folk song. The composer employs Gregorian and paschal hymns as source material, from which he then draws his own polyphonic layers and extensions. The main work here is the eight-part Meditations over St. Mary Magdalene’s Feast in Nidaros, based on antiphons found in a 13th-century manuscript from medieval Scandinavia. Odegaard’s compositional process transfigures these antiphons, sensitively brought to light by Vox Clamantis.
On past ECM recordings, the choir has addressed works of Arvo Part, Erkki-Sven Tuur and most recently Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek – an acclaimed recording, which BBC described as “magic of another sphere”.
The album was recorded at the St. Nicholas Dome in Haapsalu, Estonia in March 2021.
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Vladimir Curiel – José F. Vásquez: The Complete Impresiones for Piano (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:04:10 minutes | 503 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Toccata Classics
José F. Vásquez (1896‒1961) – composer, pianist, conductor and educationalist – was one of the leading figures in Mexican classical music from the 1910s to the 1950s, but since many of his scores were lost after his death, his star soon sank from the sky. Four decades of research by his son, the writer José Jesús Vásquez Torres, have recovered much of the missing music, allowing a re-assessment of his father’s standing. These five books of Impresiones for piano (from c. 1922‒27) – fifteen predominantly slow, introspective miniatures – reveal a debt to French Impressionism, Debussy in particular, with occasional nods to Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, and some harmonies that suggest Wagner. Vásquez was a fine pianist himself, but the textures here have a surprising simplicity, throwing the emphasis on tonal colour.
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Viviane Chassot – Viviane Chassot: Folk Flow (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:02 minutes | 1,30 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Prospero Classical
After the great success of «Pure Bach», accordionist Viviane Chassot now widens the «strict frame» and combines classical music with jazz and free improvisation on «Folk Flow». She juxtaposes the beauty of simple traditional folk music from Brittany with a waltz by Frédéric Chopin or the Gnossiennes by Erik Satie. French charm in a lyrical-poetic sound with an at times meditative character. In addition, there are pieces by Valentin Silvestrov or Yann Tiersen. A fascinating musical journey that one can look forward to. Available from early summer 2023.
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Virginie Thomas – Nymphes (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:09:40 minutes | 778 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © L’Encelade
Nymphs is not just an invitation to embark on a journey into the wonderful world of the supernatural characters who populate French Baroque opera, it is also a trip through the history of the genre from around 1670 to 1750, in other words from the culmination of the Grand Siècle of Louis XIV to the full flowering of the Enlightenment under Louis XV. The stylistic permanence of French music up until the 1760 s – a style which the “Sun King” intended to be “national”, and which was fiercely upheld by the following generations up to and during the famous Querelle des Bouffons (War of the Comic Actors – 1752-1754) which saw French and Italian music fighting it out on the Parisian scene – means that we are able to compare and contrast pieces composed almost a century apart. Although we can see the instrumental colours changing, vocal virtuosity breaking free of its chains and old dances gradually giving way to gavottes and contredanses, the declamation style hardly changes at all – it still has the same energy, eloquence and theatricality.
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Michael Hedges – Aerial Boundaries (1984) [Audio Fidelity 2015]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 38:01 minutes | Scans included | 1,53 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Full Scans included | 781 MB
Mastered by Kevin Gray | Audio Fidelity # AFZ-218 | Genre: New Age
Michael Alden Hedges was an American composer, acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter. Hedges’ first two recordings for Windham Hill – Breakfast in the Field and Aerial Boundaries – were milestones for the acoustic guitar. Presented here – Aerial Boundaries was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Engineered Recording.
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Michael Erxleben – Frank Martin: Concertos (2004)
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 64:00 minutes | Scans NOT included | 3,32 GB
or DSD64 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Front, Scans NOT included | 2,52 GB
or FLAC 2.0 (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/44,1 kHz | Front, Scans NOT incl. | 562 MB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound | Label: MDG # 901-1280-6
Frank Martin’s Violin Concerto must be counted one of the finest 20th century works in the genre. It’s a very beautiful, lyrical work. The opening orchestral tutti alone instantly establishes an unforgettable, magical atmosphere, an amalgam of impressionism, jazz, modal harmony, and a touch of 12-tone technique. There was an old Decca recording with Wolfgang Schneiderhan (recently reissued on DG), which was quite good, but this version is in another league. Not only does Michael Erxleben essay the solo part with a wholly winning combination of shapely phrasing and rhythmic suppleness (Schneiderhan was a touch foursquare), but the Winterthur orchestra under Jac van Steen plays Martin’s austere but evocative score with real character. The balance between solo and ensemble also is perfectly judged, allowing a vivid interplay between the two and support for the soloist that, however gentle, never lacks for color and impact.
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Michael Denhoff – Credo (2004)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,91 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 995 MB | Full Artwork | 3% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Cybele # SACD 860.301 | Country/Year: Germany 2004
Genre: Classical, Sacred | Style: Choral, Vocal, 21st Century
Michael Denhoff (born 25 April 1955 in Ahaus) is a German composer and cellist.
Denhoff has lived and worked in Bonn since 1982. He studied at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, where his teachers included Günter Bialas and Hans Werner Henze (composition), Siegfried Palm and Erling Blöndal Bengtsson (cello) and the Amadeus Quartet (chamber music). As a composer and chamber musician, he occupied various teaching posts, including a lectureship in composition at the University of Mainz (1984-85) and a guest professorship at the National Conservatory of Hanoi (1997-99). From 1985 to 1992 he also conducted the Akademische Orchester Bonn, which he founded. As a cellist, he formed the Denhoff Piano Trio with his brother Johannes (violin) and the pianist Richard Braun. Since 1992, he has been a member of the Ludwig Quartet of Bonn, and he also works closely with the pianist Birgitta Wollenweber. As a composer, he has won several prizes and distinctions, including the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Prize (1986) and the Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Prize (1989).
Denhoff’s music shows the influence of poetry and the visual arts. Several of his orchestral and chamber works have been inspired by lyrics and paintings. Thus, there are instrumental works and cycles based on pictures by Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Albrecht Dürer and especially Fransisco Goya (El sueño de la razon produce monstruos, 1982; Desastres de la guerra, 1983; Los disparates, 1988). The literary figures who have most left their mark on his music are Ranier Maria Rilke, Paul Celan, Samuel Beckett and Stéphane Mallarmé. Other works characteristic of his compositional thought include cycles in the form of ‘musical diaries’ (Klangtagebuch, 1984; Hebdomadaire, 1990). The most significant of these works is the piano quintet Hauptweg und Nebenwege (1998), which lasts nearly three hours. This piece gathers together the essential aspects of his music, their relationship to musical tradition, and also the influences of literature and the visual arts.
Denhoff’s compositional vocabulary shows evidence of a sensitive feeling for harmony and form, whose roots are to be found in composers such as Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Olivier Messiaen, Morton Feldman and György Kurtág.
CDs featuring Denhoff’s works are available on the WERGO, Col Legno and Cybele labels. wikipedia
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