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Lorenzo Feliciati – Elevator Man (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 58:34 minutes | 683 MB | Genre: Jazz Fusion, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RareNoiseRecords
As a follow-up to his most personal project to date – 2015’s “KOI” – in-demand Italian Jazz-Rock bassist Lorenzo Feliciati has upped the ante on “Elevator Man”, a powerhouse recording with echoes of King Crimson, Allan Holdsworth and other Progressive Rock icons. His new album features a rotating cast of stellar musicians, including King Crimson’s drummer Pat Mastelotto, former Holdsworth/Zappa’s drummer Chad Wackerman, Swedish guitar shredder Mattias IA Eklundh (of the Jonas Hellborg Trio and Art Metal), Italian Progressive metal Muitarist Marco Sfogli (currently of the legendary Italian Prog Rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, aka PFM), trumpeter Cuong Vu and his Naked Truth and Mumpbeak bandmate Roy Powell on distortion-laced clavinet. As well as composing and arranging all the material, Feliciati plays fretted and fretless basses, electric guitar and keyboards on his seventh and most potent recording as a leader to date.
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Lorenzo Cossi – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 4, 9, 10 & 26 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:18:08 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OnClassical
With the Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 7, published by Artaria “for harpsichord and piano” in 1797, Beethoven expands the scope of keyboard technique and structural proportions. Indeed, some of the passagework in the outer movements must have been prohibitive to most amateur pianists; and the length of the sonata, at the time, made it the longest work for piano ever published, and the second longest sonata Beethoven composed (the record goes to the Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 “Hammerklavier”). Metric displacements and violent dynamic contrasts inform the opening movement, while the prayer-like Adagio is possibly one of the most extraordinary achievements of Beethoven’s youth. The Allegro that follows, light and playful, is interrupted by a stormy “minore” section that was most likely the inspiration for the first of Schubert’s Klavierstücke, D 946. The melodious but challenging Rondo closes the sonata, unexpectedly, in a murmur.
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Lorenzo Coppola, Andreas Staier – Brahms: Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 120 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:13 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
The two sonatas for clarinet and piano, composed in 1894, were Brahms’s last chamber works. Knowing that he could count on the virtuosity of their dedicatee, the prodigious clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld (1856-1907), Brahms enthusiastically exploited all the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Under the fingers of Lorenzo Coppola, the clarinet prays, sobs, dreams or laughs, bringing astonishing conviction to all these varied emotions.
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Lorenzo Cominoli & Roberto Olzer – Timeline (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:11 minutes | 698 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Abeat
“Timeline” – as stated in its self-explanatory title – is a personal timeline, a chronological thread that unites significant events in our lives. Sometimes the lines of time intertwine, creating knots that leave a mark, trigger a change, lead to a turning point, until you get to another knot. You could condense in this sentence the manifesto of this album which stems from an ancient collaboration between the two artists who nevertheless had never crossed their paths discographically. Two different aesthetics those of Cominoli and Olzer; the first original in phrasing and melodic construction, intense and never taken for granted, the second consolidated pianist among the most interesting that appeared on the national scene in the recent period, with qualities not common also as composer and arranger . An elegant, refined album, with partly original pieces. A enjoyable and perfect sounding disc, even the most demanding audiophile palates.
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Lorenzo Cavasanti, Sergio Ciomei, Caroline Boersma – Telemann: Sonate à flauto solo (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 56:14 minutes | 587 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana
Following a critically acclaimed Vivaldi album (A366), recorder player Lorenzo Cavasanti and his partners – grouped under the name Tripla Concordia – turn their attention to Georg Philipp Telemann, with an original programme that goes beyond the usual canon of his recorder sonatas. Among Telemann’s hundreds of sonatas, his last publication of solos for melody instrument and basso continuo, the XII Solos à violin ou traversière (Hamburg, 1734), contains music of great expressive depth. These twelve works not only sum up the composer’s approach to the solo sonata over several decades, but also reveal his continuing exploration of the genre’s possibilities. Yet they have been unfairly overshadowed by several of his earlier sonata collections. This recording by Lorenzo Cavasanti and the members of Tripla Concordia offers a new perspective on the XII Solos by performing four of them with recorder in place of violin or flute. Such flexibility of instrumentation was characteristic of Telemann, who often sanctioned alternative scorings in his publications. Paired with these works is a sonata preserved in a Brussels manuscript and one from the well-known Essercizii musici. The music’s significance is explored in booklet notes by Telemann scholar Steven Zohn, author of Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann’s Instrumental Works (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
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Lorenzo Carrano – Modern Noir (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 31:06 minutes | 322 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sonoton Music
Lorenzo Carrano is a Los Angeles Based composer and orchestrator. Recent projects include The Croods: A New Age, Superintelligence, Frozen II, Connected, and Half Brothers among others. Other credits include work for Ingrid Michaelson, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and the National Theater of Iceland. Lorenzo’s music has also been featured on many advertising campaigns and TV programs, both in the US and abroad.
He is among the winners of the 2015 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. In 2019 Lorenzo was selected to join of NEXT, a mentoring program by the Recording Academy.
Lorenzo holds a BM in Jazz Composition from Berklee College of Music, and a MM in Studio Writing from University of Miami – Frost School of Music.
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Lorene Mann – A Mann Named Lorene (1969/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 28:29 minutes | 637 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA – Legacy
An irreverent songwriter, Lorene Mann achieved minor success as a Nashville-based country artist in the mid-‘60s. Her first success came as a duet partner with Justin Tubb and Archie Campbell, but when she struck out on her own she provided country fans with an oft not heard take on dating and love. Her “Don’t Put Your Hands on Me” was a call to arms for any woman ever hit on in a bar by a drunken slob. Even more controversial was her song “Hide My Sin,” in which she tells the sad tale of a woman who decides to terminate her pregnancy while backup singers chime in by spelling out ABORTION. After those minor hits, though, Mann soon faded from the scene. Perhaps her songs were just too far ahead of their time. In fact, they’re still ahead of their time in conservative Nashville.
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Lorenda Ramou – From Berlin to Athens: Piano Works by Nikos Skalkottas (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:27:43 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
The choice of works on this amply filled album, as well as the performances are the result of Lorenda Ramou’s research into the artistic environment of Nikos Skalkottas, in Berlin (1921–33) and in Athens (1933–49). The programme is organized as a triptych, focusing on three distinctive compositional styles. First, all surviving Berlin works for piano solo are presented in chronological order, showing how the young composer was reacting to the new and exciting jazz/dance music, but also to the people around him and to events in the musical world of Berlin in the 1920s. This is followed by Suites Nos 2, 3 and 4, a group of mature works composed at the beginning of World War II (1940–41). Closing the release, finally, is the dance suite The Gnomes, probably composed in 1939 and one of a group of piano scores for ballets with Greek subjects. Lorenda Ramou has previously released ‘The Land and the Sea of Greece’ – an album of precisely such scores by Skalkottas – which earned her praise from the reviewer in Gramophone: ‘Her playing is full of verve and alive to the delicacy of Skalkottas’s writing.’
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Lorelei Ensemble – Impermanence (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 48:25 minutes | 1,51 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sono Luminus
Migration of peoples across borders has shaped the human experience for millennia. While securing permanent shelter—a home—has become a goal for the majority of individuals in our world, migration remains one of our main strategies for survival. Today, tens of millions of individuals live a nomadic lifestyle as hunter gatherers or pastoralists. Pilgrims seek moral or spiritual significance through extended physical journeys. Immigrants and refugees seek freedom, stability, and safety in a new community or country. Whether physical or metaphysical, humanity survives by way of continuous movement—our culture, beliefs, and histories are marked by impermanence.
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Loreena McKennitt – To Drive the Cold Winter Away (1987/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:35 minutes | 927 MB | Genre: Folk, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Quinlan Road
Loreena’s second, self-produced recording presents seasonal music with a fresh and serendipitous approach. This collection of traditional and lesser-known winter and Christmas carols was recorded in 1987 on location at The Church Of Our Lady in Guelph, Ontario, and, in Ireland, a Benedictine monastery and The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig.
“As a child, my most vivid impression of music for the winter season came from songs and carols recorded in churches or great halls, rich with their own unique ambience and tradition. In that spirit, I have ventured into several similar locations that I have come to cherish in my travels … The arrangements are sparse, but somehow I felt that reflected the dynamics of the fall and winter seasons, and that there can be much beauty in such simplicity. As it is recorded on location, you may occasionally hear sounds of life continuing on around us. We hope these are not distracting, but rather are embraced like flecks of straw in the wool sweater your grandmother might have knitted to keep the cold winter away.”
– Loreena McKennitt
Loreena McKennitt – The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2010/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 45:12 minutes | 850 MB | Genre: Folk, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Quinlan Road
The Wind That Shakes the Barley is the ninth studio album by the Canadian singer, songwriter, accordionist, harpist, and pianist Loreena McKennitt, which was released on November 12, 2010.
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Loreena McKennitt – The Visit (1991/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:36 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Folk, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Quinlan Road
Loreena McKennitt’s fourth release, and first for a major label, is a quietly majestic tapestry of worldbeat and Celtic pop that effortlessly weaves together traditional and contemporary songs into lush showcases for her fluid voice and harp. The multi-talented Canadian utilizes all of her strengths here, resulting in her most rewarding batch of tunes to date. With larger production values and more ambitious arrangements than the sparse Elemental and Parallel Dreams, her flair for the dramatic and the theatrical runs rampant throughout. Whether she’s toasting the souls of the departed with Pagan glee on the delicious “All Souls Night,” or reinterpreting King Henry VIII’s “Greensleeves” through Tom Waits, it’s never without both feet in the water. Often when artists attempt to blend modern instruments (keyboards, guitars, etc.) into the traditional folk idiom, the results are instantly dated and horribly overwrought. McKennitt, however, never allows the two to compete, and it’s a testament to her belief in the songs themselves that they don’t devolve into garish new age drivel. Her adaptation of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” which utilizes an opening melody lifted — probably unknowingly — from the bagpipe solo at the end of AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll),” is The Visit’s most powerful moment. Clocking in at 11 minutes, the poet’s lovelorn tale of Camelot’s most famous peasant maiden is rendered brief by McKennitt’s breathless delivery and atmospheric and austere presentation. The Visit is Loreena McKennitt at her most comfortable, creative, and soulful. – James Christopher Monger
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Loreena McKennitt – The Mask and Mirror (1994/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:55 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Folk, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Quinlan Road
Press play and enter the world of Loreena McKennitt, where walls dissolve into thick, billowing mists as the ground beneath your feet turns to compacted earth and the sky above opens up to reveal a black cloak dotted with shimmering stars draped beneath silk-like clouds. Were McKennitt’s composing and songwriting abilities lacking of any luster (as they most certainly are not), her voice would still possess the strength to hold her fifth album, The Mask and Mirror, up on its own. But the combination of this talented woman’s vocal prowess and songwriting ability makes her all the more similar to her work — ethereal and almost unbelievable in its level of quality. A mythical menagerie, The Mask and Mirror contains songs that lift the veil to reveal the soul of McKennitt’s work in eight dreamlike, Celtic-inspired tracks. The opening track, “The Mystic’s Dream” (featured on the TNT movie The Mists of Avalon, based on the novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley), is a haunting tune that features McKennitt at her most heavenly peak as a vocalist, evoking the spirits of the instruments and Gregorian chant-like background vocals that accompany her on the track. The album excels at conjuring up mythical visions in the listener’s imagination, as with the gypsy-like tune “Marrakesh Night Market,” which echos of the picturesque scene the title invokes. The soul-searching “Full Circle” best exhibits McKennitt’s ability to transpose the true meaning of the lyrics into her songs. Even after the song ends, the somber mood lingers softly in the air. The balalaika (a three-stringed triangular-shaped instrument), the bouzouki (an eight-stringed instrument), and the hurdy-gurdy (a stringed instrument that also has keyboard and percussion parts) are among the rare, strange instruments introduced on many of the songs, including the lighthearted, uplifting “Ce He Mise Le Ulaingt? (The Two Trees),” on which these instruments demonstrate their incredible quality and prowess. The lyrics of this track are none other than the words of the poem of the same name by William Butler Yeats. McKennitt’s unique use of the lyrical words of William Shakespeare, combined with her skillful adaptation of the words to the heavenly, undulating music, make the final track, “Prospero’s Speech,” an inspiration in itself. – Kerry L. Smith
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Loreena McKennitt – The Journey so Far – The Best of Loreena McKennitt (Deluxe Edition) (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:53:34 minutes | 2,28 GB | Genre: Folk, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Quinlan Road
Loreena McKennitt’s music captures a unique space in modern times. Her Celtic-infused mystical folk music addresses both the deep history that comes with centuries-old ballads and a forward-thinking musical ambience. McKennitt has sold more than 14 million records in a career that has spanned 30 years, eight studio albums, two GRAMMY nominations, and two Juno Awards, and she’s garnered a devoted audience who greatly respect her craft. The album’s deluxe edition features the 12 favorites that also appear on the non-deluxe edition, but with nearly an hour of bonus live material recorded during her 2012 A Midsummer Night’s Tour of Europe in Mainz, Germany. Both editions include the single version of her Top 10 hit “The Mummers’ Dance” and edited versions of “Lady of Shalott” and “The Bonny Swans.” But the deluxe edition adds nine songs, including a gorgeous rendition of “The Star of the County Down,” among other favorites.
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Loreena McKennitt – The Book of Secrets (1997/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 53:03 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Folk, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Quinlan Road
The Book of Secrets, the follow-up to 1994’s The Mask and Mirror – there was a Christmas EP, A Winter Garden, released in 1995) – finds Loreena McKennitt in the same musical vein, mixing Celtic, Spanish, Italian, and new age to create her own distinct sound. The only problem is that she did not seem to progress much during the time between releases. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since she still knows how to write incredible melodies and layer instruments to produce peaceful images. “Night Ride Across the Caucasus” and “Dante’s Prayer” are just two prime examples of this. And she continues her practice of setting classic poetry to music (Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman”). Expertly recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios, this CD serves as a travelog of sorts for McKennitt, musically detailing her travels during 1995 and 1996. She provides the musical and lyrical inspirations from each location she visited, utilizing the instruments and sounds she encountered on her travels. Although she may be referred to as the Canadian Enya, McKennitt is definitely her own person, producing music of beauty and warmth.
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