Mats Bergstrom – Psalmer utan ord (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:55 minutes | 816 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Mats Bergström, guitar, Georg Riedel, double bass, and André Ferrari, percussion. Eighteen melodies from the 1986 Swedish Book of Hymns. Naxos 8.574494, distr. Naxos. Recorded by Janne Hansson at Atlantis Studio, mix by Lars Nilsson at Nilento Studio. Release 31 March 2023.
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Martin Fröst, Swedish Chamber Orchestra – Mozart: Ecstasy & Abyss [PRAGUE, 1791] (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:39 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Musical maverick Martin Fröst’s most ambitious Sony Classical release yet sees him as both clarinetist and conductor, joining soloists Lucas Debargue (piano), Ann Hallenberg (Mezzo-Soprano) and Elin Rombo (Soprano) and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, of which he is chief conductor, in a double-album of masterpieces capturing the paradox of Mozart’s fragile existence and extraordinary creativity. The album called “Mozart: Ecstasy and Abyss” is now available in CD format. Each of the release’s two albums focuses on a moment in Mozart’s life when the composer appeared to teeter on a knife-edge between triumph and disaster, joy and depression, life and death. It was these moments that brought the music of the most extraordinary beauty and intensity from the composer. Included are Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto, his simmering Piano Concerto No 25 (soloist Lucas Debargue), his joyous Prague and Jupiter symphonies and sparkling arias from the opera’s La clemenza di Tito (with Ann Hallenberg) and Idomeneo (with Elin Rombo). The first album takes its inspiration from a concert Mozart gave in Leipzig in May 1789, a difficult moment in his life marked out by personal, financial and creative pressures. The second album focuses on the composer’s triumphant visit to Prague in August 1791, an ostensibly far happier period. Both albums capture the combination of playfulness and profundity, light and shade, brilliance and tragedy that characterized so many moments in Mozart’s life and career – the dichotomy that sets his best music apart. This release marks Fröst’s recorded debut as a conductor, while he directs the orchestra in his third recording of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto from the Basset Clarinet, the variant instrument for which it was written. Martin Fröst is chief conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and frequently appears with the world’s most distinguished orchestras. In 2014, he became the first clarinetist to win the prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize.
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Martin Fröst, Lucas Debargue – Mozart: Ecstasy & Abyss [LEIPZIG, 1789] (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:17 minutes | 1,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
The new double album by Martin Fröst is dedicated to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For the first time he can be heard here as a conductor – with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, of which he is the musical director. The program includes Mozart’s late works, which were created at particularly precarious moments for the composer personally – and which, apparently, are of selected intensity and beauty regardless. The subtitle “Ecstasy and Abyss” – “Ecstasy and Abyssalness” – takes this unusual temporal coincidence into account. Martin Fröst can be heard with his third recording of the clarinet Concerto in A major K. 622, which he plays on the basset clarinet, as composed by Mozart. Martin Fröst also conducts the “Prague” Symphony in D major K. 504 and Mozart’s last symphony, the “Jupiter” Symphony in C major K. 551. The French pianist Lucas Debargue is the soloist at the piano concerto in C major K. 503, soprano Elin Rombo sings the concert aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te? – Non temer, amato bene” KV 505 and mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg the aria of Sesto “Parto, ma tu, ben mio” from the late seria opera “La Clemenza di Tito” KV 621, again accompanied by Martin Fröst on basset clarinet.
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Markus Reuter, Tim Motzer & Kenny Grohowski – Shapeshifters (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:04:00 minutes | 768 MB | Genre: Experimental Rock, Art Rock, Fusion
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MoonJune Records
Speaking in general terms, “shapeshifting” refers to an act of rapid physical transformation, from one form to another by supernatural means. Whether its origins can be traced to a genetically inherited superhuman ability, incidences of the spirit world manifesting into the physical, shamanism, black magic, or something still completely unknown, has been the subject of much speculation for those who have dared question whether the concept is, indeed, a fictional one.
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Madelyn Ann – Nevez-Amzer (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:22 minutes | 464 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © AZTEC Musique
Make Breton sound like English. This is the successful bet of Madelyn Ann and her group. It must be said that their music takes its roots in the land of the Angles and the Saxons. Between Kate Bush and Blondie, their power pop does not leave anyone indifferent. The guitars often take precedence to give atmospheric rock tunes to the songs. A first disc – after a remarkable EP – which energizes a scene already well represented by the fairer sex. We think of Nolwenn Korbell, Gwenynn or Krismenn. The gregarious instinct of the group making the difference. English-style! However, this song in Breton was not obvious for the one who learned the language of our grandmothers in 2017 only because her companion spoke it himself with his parents. The result is up to this desire with a truly rock record for this resident of the Crozon peninsula who started in folk or Celtic formations. Like what, everything is possible.
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Lukas Huisman – Takahashi & Nishimura: Piano Music (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:06 minutes | 740 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Piano Classics
Two major contemporary Japanese composers, writing for the piano with vivid imagery and brightly piercing harmony.
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Lucy Humphris, Harry Rylance – Obscurus (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 58:37 minutes | 1,68 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON
Obscurus is an exploration of the obscured, in a programme which showcases some of the most incredible trumpet writing of the 20th and 21st century, as well as several reimaginings of older, more mainstream works for other instruments, arranged for trumpet by Lucy Humphris.
In the Mists, written by Janáček is a four-movement piano cycle: an almost impressionist, Debussy-like exploration of the ‘misty’ keys of several flats. At times rhapsodic, and always very evocative, I reimagined it for trumpet.
The incredible Litany for a Ruined Chapel between Sheep and Shore is Peter Maxwell Davies’ homage to a ruined chapel in the Orkney islands and is, one of the most stunning and vocal works for trumpet composed in the 20th century.
Messiaen’s Vocalise-Étude is a piece which works so well on so many instruments – It is such a wonderful, almost nostalgic piece, which feels as though it is trying to express something for which words are unnecessary.
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Lordi – Screem Writers Guild (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 55:12 minutes | 667 MB | Genre: Hard Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Atomic Fire Records
Screem Writers Guild is the eighteenth studio album by the Finnish rock band Lordi. It was released on 31 March 2023, and wis their first album under the label Atomic Fire Records. The album has been described as not a concept album, but contains a “cinematic horror movie” theme throughout.
It is the first studio album to feature guitarist Kone, following the departure of the band’s original guitarist Amen.
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London Symphony Orchestra – Classic Rock Renaissance (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 03:11:53 minutes | 1,95 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd
Three CD set. 2023 release, the follow up to the incredible compilation album phenomenon Classic Rock, released in 1978. Originally conceived by producers Don Reedman and Jeff Jarratt, the original Classic Rock became a pioneering phenomenon with it’s groundbreaking mix of rock and pop songs rearranged in an orchestral style and went platinum in the UK. The album has become a forefather to all kinds of symphonic crossover projects, seen now everywhere amongst every genre from rave to dance to hip-hop. This release cements the legacy of the original in it’s truest spirit with it’s lush sound remastered, and the addition of 6 new tracks.
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London Brew – London Brew (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:28:19 minutes | 1,70 GB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Concord Jazz
London Brew is a reimagining of Miles Davis’ legendary album Bitches Brew. Produced by Martin Terefe and Downtown Music UK Limited, the record reflects an emotional journey of the times, having been recorded during the pandemic after many months of isolation and the inability to collaborate in person. Recorded in December 2020 at Church Studios in London, the recording session brings together UK jazz artists, Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, Theon Cross, Dave Okumu, Benji B, Tom Skinner and more. Producer Martin Terefe describes, “Sometimes the music is uncomfortable, other times it’s familiar and joyous and other times it’s like deep meditation.” This album will be a 2-LP set.
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LOLITA CARABINE – Lolita Carabine (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 44:36 minutes | 580 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rock’n’Hall
Il débarque à Paris à 17 ans et connaît rapidement le succès grâce à sa virtuosité de guitariste. Il joue sous le nom de Lolita Carabine, devenu Lol au sein de groupes comme Bulldozer en 1977 puis Extraballe en 1978, deux formations avant gardistes qui ont influencé la scène française post punk.
Les années passent et Lol est choisi par Alain Chabat en 1990 pour fonder et animer l’orchestre de « Les Nuls l’Émission » à la manière de Saturday Night Live, émission culte aux USA.
Canal+ lui laisse libre cours pour inaugurer au quotidien une formule originale dans l’émission animée par Philippe Gildas et Antoine De Caunes « Nulle Part Ailleurs »
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Laurent Wagschal & Ensemble le Déluge – Louis vierne (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:55 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Calliope
Although he naturally composed a great deal for the organ, Vierne was also a great symphonist, an outstanding colourist and melodist. A complete musician, he composed about ten works of chamber music, refined and inherited from his romantic masters (Wagner, Widor and Franck mainly). Also an accomplished pianist, he loves to accompany singers and instrumentalists and knows how to subtly marry timbres, as this recording shows.
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Larry Sparks – It’s Just Me (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 27:10 minutes | 488 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rebel Records Llc
With It’s Just Me, his 18th release for long-time label Rebel Records, Bluegrass Hall of Famer Larry Sparks makes the bold decision to step away from a full band sound and let’s his guitar and voice be the sole (or perhaps “soul”) focus. He has curated an intimate, thoughtful collection of songs that deal with cherished loved ones, love denied, the power of faith, and a simpler, less encumbered way of life. The album features a healthy mix of country classics and contemporary bluegrass songs: Sparks revives warhorses from the repertoires of Lefty Frizzell, George Jones, and Hank Williams, complementing them with material from present-day writers including Wyatt McCubbin and Daniel Crabtree. For some years, fans of the Bluegrass icon have requested that he do a project of this nature. At long last, that wait is over. Listeners get pure Larry Sparks. Recorded at his newly-built home studio, it’s just him, his signature 1954 D-28 and his son Larry “D” Sparks providing subtle backing rhythm on bass. The warmth and intimacy of this album affords his admirers the opportunity to pull up a chair, relax, and listen to a true bluegrass master do what he does best – playing and singing from his heart to theirs.
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Ken Peplowski Quartet – When You Wish Upon A Star (2007) [Japan 2015]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 66:13 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 2,69 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,28 GB
Ken Peplowski has become a household name in Japan, where Venus Records has released no less than three of his albums in recent years. On this release, the arrangements are varied, so the album doesn’t feel monotonous. There are two versions of this album. One where Ken Peplowski plays the songs on tenor saxophone and another where he plays the songs on clarinet. This is the release where he plays clarinet. Peplowski’s clarinet sounds are warm, attractive, and eloquent, while still rooted in the jazz tradition. His playing is so expressive that it’s possible to almost hear the lyrics of each song when he plays the melody.
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Ken Peplowski Quartet – Petite Fleur (2019) [Japan]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 65:04 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 2,62 GB
or FLAC Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,46 GB
The Ken Peplowski quartet, consisting of Olel Kock Hansen, Hans Backenroth and Kristian Leth, perform eight jazz tunes including “Blue Bossa”, “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing”, and “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life”.
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