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Michael Ball & Alfie Boe – Back Together (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 4, 2023 · Comments off

They’re back. The world’s ultimate musical duo, Michael Ball and Alfie Boe. ‘Back Together’ follows the phenomenal success of the duo’s previous two duet albums; ‘Together’ their debut, which became the UK’s best-selling album of 2016 and the follow-up ‘Together Again’ which brought the pair yet another No.1 album in 2017. After decorated careers in theatre and opera, they have now sold over 1 million albums in the UK, received two Classic Brit Awards and sold out two headline arena tours. As The Independent stated, “Their double act has enraptured crowds with warm, low-key charisma and deft stagecraft”.

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Michael Ball – We Are More Than One (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 4, 2023 · Comments off

After a Number 1 selling solo album in 2019, Michael Ball returns for a brand new solo album for 2021.

Entitled We Are More Than One, the album sees Michael exploring song-writing further after months in national lockdown forced him to wonder why he was waiting to pursue something he enjoyed so much. Teaming up with Amy Wadge (Ed Sheeran, Kylie Minogue, Camilla Cabello) & Liz Rose (Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood) the album sees Michael looking within himself for an album even more personal than the last. After learning how to write and record remotely, every track on this record has a story to tell.

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Michael Ball – Coming Home To You (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 4, 2023 · Comments off

Coming Home to You sees the first solo album from British stage and television star Michael Ball in some four years, after the release of two successful albums with fellow vocalist Alfie Boe. Featuring a number of standards, the album also includes material written by Ball himself. The up-tempo single “Home to You” is included. ~ Rich Wilson

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Mica Paris – Gospel (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 4, 2023 · Comments off

Mica Paris is back with Gospel, returning to her roots with an album inspired by legends of the genre and the experiences of her life. Featuring classic Gospel hits such as “Oh Happy Day” and “Something Inside (So Strong)”, combined with more recent songs such as Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s “Human”, interpreted with a soulful flair, the album portrays a message of hopefulness throughout. The album also features original tracks “Mama Said” and “The Struggle” which are an emotional insight into Paris’ experiences, re-enforcing the message of hope and power in self-belief present throughout the album.

Raised in the world of Gospel by her grandparents, Mica Paris has been a powerhouse of the genre from a young age. Having been brought up surrounded by music, and after regular appearances at her local church, Paris began to establish herself as an artist, appearing as a backing vocalist on Hollywood Beyond’s 1985 album, If. At the age of 19, Paris released her debut solo album in 1988, entitled So Good, which has since gone to achieve Platinum certification.

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Micki Free – Turquoise Blue (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Micki Free - Turquoise Blue (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Heralded by Carlos Santana and Billy Gibbons, among many others, Grammy-winning blues-rock guitarist Micki Free announces a February 4, 2022, release date for his new album, “Turquoise Blue“, on the Dark Idol Music label, distributed by Burnside Distribution / The Orchard / Sony. Free’s mastery of tone is showcased on the new albums 13 originals, plus a scintillating cover of Jimi Hendrix’s classic “All Along the Watchtower.” The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Ken Riley at Rio Grande Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Michel Petrucciani – Trio in Tokyo (Live) (1999/2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Michel Petrucciani - Trio in Tokyo (Live) (1999/2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download

This 1997 recording features the late French pianist Michel Petrucciani and his trio of drummer Steve Gadd and bassist Anthony Jackson in performance at the Blue Note in Tokyo. The musicians might seem an unlikely team, as Petrucciani (who died in January 1999) was an unabashed romantic in the lyrical piano tradition that extends from Duke Ellington through Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, while Gadd and Jackson are best known as masters of the contemporary studio groove. Yet they achieve an organic sense of swing, even if Jackson’s bass guitar lacks the rich wooden timbre of an acoustic instrument. From the Spanish-tinted “September Second” to the Evans-like “Home” to the closing cover of Miles Davis’s “So What,” Petrucciani’s playing is characterized by melodic clarity, percussive touch, and rhapsodic ecstasy in the pure act of improvisation. The term “happy jazz” is sometimes used pejoratively for facile, formulaic music. Trio in Tokyo proves you don’t have to be shallow to know the joy.
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Michele Mercure – Pictures of Echoes (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Michele Mercure - Pictures of Echoes (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Pictures of Echoes is an intimate answer to Beside Herself, the 2018 anthology of music from Michele Mercure’s self-produced and distributed cassettes. Pictures of Echoes picks up where Beside Herself left off, collecting key moments from Mercure’s solo releases and collaborative, cross-disciplinary work, and restoring the recordings for a new digital age while employing the medium which originally transported these sounds.
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Michael Wilmering, Daan Boertien – Schubert: Winterreise (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Michael Wilmering, Daan Boertien - Schubert: Winterreise (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Of all the classical song cycles, Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’ is perhaps the most beloved. Baritone Michael Wilmering and pianist Daan Boertien give a new, deeply emotional charge to the music, which, in these uncertain times, seems to be a compass for a future whose contours are not yet entirely clear. Adversities are there to be overcome and in this new TRPTK release, we hear two young talents give a contemporary vision of this timeless music. A refreshing interpretation that, perhaps more than many others, directly touches the listener and takes him or her by surprise.
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Michael Bardon – The Gift of Silence (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Michael Bardon - The Gift of Silence (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

An extraordinarily rich and atmospheric collection of solo music recorded during the first lockdown in July 2020. Michael is a Northern Irish bassist/cellist/composer/improviser born in 1986 and based in Leeds. He first came to Leeds in 2007 to study Jazz at Leeds College of Music and since graduating has worked with a variety of musicians from different disciplines and backgrounds including Shatner’s Bassoon, Keeley Forsyth, Matthew Bourne, Dave Kane, Tipping Point, James Mainwaring, Sean Noonan’s Pavees Dance, Hiby/ Bardon/ Hession trio, Jaktar, Hassan Erraji, Craig Scott’s Lobotomy and Nat Birchall Quintet.
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MIB Wind Ensemble – Beethoven: Rondino & Wind Octet – Mozart: Serenade (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

MIB Wind Ensemble - Beethoven: Rondino & Wind Octet - Mozart: Serenade (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

MIB Wind Ensemble – Beethoven: Rondino & Wind Octet – Mozart: Serenade (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 51:15 minutes | 1,50 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Channel Classics Records

This is the first recording on Channel Classics with the Italian based MIB Ensemble. Compromising the best players from the top orchestras of Italy, the ensemble felt the need to create their own ensemble to fill the gap in repertoire and concert possibilities for wind instruments. The two major early composers having written for winds would indeed be Mozart and Beethoven so there is no better fitting pieces than two octets combined with the RondinoSerenade’s first movement is anything but street music – no friendly and polite little piece of entertainment, but a serious, sometimes threatening eight-part wind music full of chromaticism, dramatic leaps and definitely unfestive dissonances. The Octet of Beethoven also has the classical four-movement structure but wrote the piece as an official concert piece.
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Miklos Rozsa, RCA Italiana Orchestra – Rozsa Conducts Rozsa (1965) [Reissue 2017] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Vocalion issues a classic LP on their popular series. The RCA release, with the RCA Italiana Orchestra, recorded in the ‘sixties is a welcome addition for many as this was a true highlight of early collection buying, with great recorded sound and excellent performances of four of the composer’s finest concert works.

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Mikhail Pletnev – Pletnev Plays Schumann (2004) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Mikhail Pletnev gives polished, serious performances of these Schumann works. It is not that they are cold or uninviting, but more that normal people are to admire, but not touch them. Pletnev is always in control, making sure throughout the Symphonic Etudes that the melody is obvious and on top of whatever else may be going on. Each variation and etude is technically perfect, and even though there is a wide range of emotion, it is always sober. The less weighty ones, such as Etude No. 3, and Variations No. 4 and No. 5 have no sunshine in them. The brief Etude No. 9, marked Presto possible, is like a gnawing interpretation of Mendelssohn’s fairy music. The Fantasie also seems to exist on a higher plane than that of mere mortals. The second movement is a bit more engaging in its energy, but the otherworldly remoteness returns in the final movement. The Albumblätter and Arabeske receive a similar treatment. Yes, Schumann had a hard, depressing life, and yes, he was a genius composer, but surely, there is room in this music for some brightness, some sense of his humanity. Wonderful as Pletnev’s playing is, he has made other recordings where he invites the listener into the music more than he does with these Schumann pieces.

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Mike Stern – These Times (2004) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Combine the innovative guitar energy of legendary fusion master Mike Stern with old friends (bassist Richard Bona, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta) and new (saxman Kenny Garrett), and anything is bound to happen. But fans expecting raucous swinging and jamming the whole time may be surprised at the subtle lyricism and exotic explorations that define these times for their hero. Yes, his electric is crackling on the hypnotic opener, “Chatter,” but it’s in the crazy, exotic context of a Middle Eastern vibe inspired by Pakistani great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (look out, Eddie Vedder!). Jim Beard’s jumpy piano, Colaiuta’s wild, New Orleans groove, and Garrett’s swirling lines provide great support. Once Stern and company have the listener’s attention, they can become seductive with more intimate affairs like the Joe Zawinul-influenced “Silver Lining,” which features an exotic falsetto vocal by Bona, a former Zawinul Syndicate member who also propels the tune with his increasingly muscular basslines. Bona adds the same touch in a gentler way to the lush romance of “I Know You,” featuring a soft-spoken harmony line by guest star banjo great Béla Fleck. This sequence of tunes sets the tone of the rest of the disc, which mixes more Khan-flavored gems (the colorful singalong “Mirage,” featuring vocals by Elisabeth Kontomanou), soft ballads, and a sexy midtempo funk number that (gasp!) might translate to the smooth jazz format. Another highlight is the punchy bebop number “Remember,” dedicated to Stern’s longtime collaborator the late Bob Berg. Perhaps the only drawback is having Garrett on hand but only featuring him on three numbers.

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Mike Marshall – Gator Strut (1987) [MFSL 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Mike Marshall is much like Mark O’Connor, a virtuoso on several string instruments, an innovative composer and arranger who refuses to be pigeonholed stylistically, and also an alum of David Grisman’s band. Numerous Grisman alumni turn up on this 1984 release, including violinist Darol Anger, bassists Todd Phillips and Rob Wasserman, guitarist Tony Rice, and even Grisman himself, along with dobro player Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck on banjo, violinist David Balikrishan (who would later co-found the Turtle Island String Quartet with Anger), and pianist Barbara Higbie. Marshall sticks primarily to mandolin on this mostly progressive bluegrass date, though he’s also heard on mandola, mandocello, violin, and guitar. Highlights include the funky original “Gator Strut,” “Ravel” (a solo effort featuring the leader overdubbed on several instruments while adapting a theme by the French Impressionist composer), a joint arrangement with Anger of John Coltrane’s infrequently performed “Giant Hornpipe,” and a brilliant interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s “‘Round Midnight”.

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Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (1973) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2011] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · July 3, 2023 · Comments off

Uses the 2011 DSD master based on UK original analog tape. Reissue features the high-fidelity SHM-SACD format (fully compatible with standard SACD player, but it does not play on standard CD players). DSD Transferred by Richard Whittaker.

Mike Oldfield’s groundbreaking album Tubular Bells is arguably the finest conglomeration of off-centered instruments concerted together to form a single unique piece. A variety of instruments are combined to create an excitable multitude of rhythms, tones, pitches, and harmonies that all fuse neatly into each other, resulting in an astounding plethora of music. Oldfield plays all the instruments himself, including such oddities as the Farfisa organ, the Lowrey organ, and the flageolet. The familiar eerie opening, made famous by its use in The Exorcist, starts the album off slowly, as each instrument acoustically wriggles its way into the current noise that is heard, until there is a grand unison of eccentric sounds that wildly excites the ears. Throughout the album, the tempos range from soft to intense to utterly surprising, making for some excellent musical culminations. Mandolins and Spanish guitars are joined by grinding organs and keyboards, while oddball bells and cranking noises resound in the distance. In the middle of the album, guest Vivian Stanshall announces each instrument seconds before it is heard, ending with the ominous sounding tubular bells, a truly powerful and dominating instrument. The most interesting and overwhelming aspect of this album is the fact that so many sounds are conjured up yet none go unnoticed, allowing the listener a gradual submergence into each unique portion of the music. Tubular Bells is a divine excursion into the realm of new age music.

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