Vincent Peirani with Michael Wollny & Michel Benita – Thrill Box (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:06 minutes | 1005 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music
“Thrill Box” is the debut solo release from young French accordionist Vincent Peirani, named in reference to his instrument, the accordion. Peirani’s unique approach is full of surprises: he can make his accordion sound like an organ, a piano, a wind instrument or a human voice. He also sings in unison with the accordion, revealing an excellent voice. But “Thrill Box” is, above all, a trio album, and equal praise is deserved by pianist Michael Wollny and bassist Michel Benita. As well, guest soprano saxophonist Emile Parisien and Peirani’s old friend Michel Portal on bass clarinet and bandoneon appear on a couple of tracks each.
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Vincent Peirani – Living Being II (Night Walker) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 53:53 minutes | 898 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music
To say that Vincent Peirani shook the world of jazz accordion is an understatement… In 2015, his album Living Being further broke down the preconceptions of the instrument. “I wanted to start my own band, in which I needed to feel confident”, explained the accordionist. I wanted to feel like a “family”. That’s why I got in touch with four musicians who are good friends of mine”. Peirani teamed up with Emile Parisien, his partner from the duo Belle Epoque, as well as the bassist Julien Herné, the drummer Yoann Serra and the keyboardist Tony Paeleman… The compositions by Peirani and the covers of Michel Portal and Jeff Buckley make Living Being an incredibly holistic album. These young musicians succeed in closing the gap that sometimes exists between composition and improvisation. Vincent Peirani’s writing is touching and imaginative yet also surprising and elusive. The accordionist is from a generation that draws its inspiration from various musical sources, hence the albums’ richness. Three years later, with the same group members, Living Being II (Night Walker) is also wonderfully rich. Peirani also includes four covers alongside his eight compositions: Bang Bang by Sonny Bono, What Power Art Thou, an extract from King Arthurby Purcell and two hits by Led Zeppelin, Kashmir and Stairway To Heaven. His approach towards this atypical choice of covers is fascinating, as is the way in which his instrument adapts the score of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Living Being II (Night Walker) is principally the success of a group who are in perfect equilibrium. Osmosis at its best. – Max Dembo
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Vincent Peirani – Living Being (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:45 minutes | 1019 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music
Award-winning French accordionist Vincent Peirani redefines his instrument for the 21st century on Living Being. He frees the accordion from the shackles of stereotype, making it sound like a cornucopia of different instruments from across the musical spectrum. Part of a growing generation of young jazz musicians educated in classical music but listening to and playing rock, pop and electronica, Peirani has carved out a reputation as one of the most innovative and genre defying composer/players working today.
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Vincent Meissner Trio – Bewegtes Feld (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:37 minutes | 910 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music
It is hard to believe it as one listens to this album: pianist Vincent Meissner is just twenty years old. The drummer in the trio, incidentally, is even younger. Recognition for this major talent has started to grow, however, and the prizes are rolling in. Meißner has so far won six: the Bechstein Piano Competition, the Concert Prize of the Jazzopen Stuttgart, the Förderpreis of the German Jazz Union, the Jazzhaus Competition Freiburg and the Central German Jazz Prize. And he is also already showing quite some capacity to make smart decisions and follow them through. When he was chosen as to represent Saxony in the prestigious “Jugend jazzt” event in 2019, he opted to take a new approach to presenting his music. Rather than building pieces out of fragments or sketches, as he had done until then, he created a suite of connected pieces. This mature quality, the desire to present a coherent programme is also a hallmark of his debut album “Bewegtes Feld”.
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Vienna Boys Choir, Vienna Symphony, Hildegard Rössel-Majdan & Hermann Scherchen – Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor (Remastered) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:26:49 minutes | 853 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © JPK Musik
The now legendary, 60 year old Charles Adler studio recording with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra of the Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler, has once again been re-issued with broad distribution to the general market, with sound restorations done by A. Z. Snyder in 2010. This pioneering interpretation has always been highly respected and recognized as one of the best and most idiosyncratic versions ever recorded. It set the bar for all other conductors to follow. Only seven days prior to this recording, Adler had conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, alto Hildegard Rössl-Majdan, the Vienna Women’s Choir and the Vienna Boys Choir in a broadcast performance for Austrian Radio. Therefore with these forces completely rehearsed, he led this recording for SPA (a record label he co-founded), which was completed in one single day on April 27, 1952.
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Video Game Jazz Orchestra – Hang on to Your Hat (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:25 minutes | 554 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Materia Collective
Presenting the debut of the Video Game Jazz Orchestra, Hang on to Your Hat, featuring big band arrangements of music from Super Mario 64.
Brought to creative life by producer David Russell and a team of top-notch arrangers, the album highlights the timeless tunes from Nintendo’s classic by maestro Koji Kondo. The album was recorded in Nashville at Ocean Way Studios with some of the best players and production crew in the biz.
Each piece takes us through familiar levels while leaving space to expand and show off. Hear the music of Mario and his nemesis Bowser as you’ve never experienced it before!
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Victoria Soames Samek – Rob Keeley: Chamber Music (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:09:01 minutes | 618 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Rob Keeley considers chamber music to be the most direct and expressive medium for him as a composer.
The spirits of Haydn and Chopin can be heard in the Second Piano Trio, and there is a wink towards Mozart in the wonderful blend and agility to be found in the Clarinet Quartet. All of these works are the result of musical friendships, the faith and commitment of the players an integral part of each performance, with the remarkable sonorities of Distil as its still centre.
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Victoria de los Angeles – Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:30 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Dido and Aeneas (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest’s girls’ school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell’s foremost theatrical works.[6] It was also Purcell’s only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest known English operas, it owes much to John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, both in structure and in overall effect.
The influence of Cavalli’s opera Didone is also apparent. Both works use the prologue/three acts format and there are similarities between, for instance, Mercury’s solo in Didone and the solo “Come away fellow sailors” in Purcell’s work.
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Victoria Brawn, Diane Clarke, Orchestra of the Swan & Daniele Rosina – Labyrinths (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:15 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Following the success of their last album, “Timelapse”, this new album from Orchestra of the Swan is a collection of extraordinary works connected by ideas of pilgrimage, contemplation, exploration and enlightenment through the works of composers such as Richter, Respighi, Britten, Piazzolla, Brian Eno, Nico Muhly, Joy Division and more. As with “Timelapse”, the joy is to be found in discovering the surprising and delightful connections between culturally disparate and musically contrasting time periods.
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Nordic Voices – Victoria: Works for Six Voices (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 55:34 minutes | 1,72 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Six-person a cappella group Nordic Voices presents motets by Spanish composer Toms Luis de Victoria, following their critically praised recording of works by Gesualdo and Palestrina. Approaching the intricate and technically demanding polyphony of Victoria’s music with flair, the Norwegian ensemble’s voices soar in this entrancing recording from Chandos.
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Victor Wooten – A Show Of Hands 15 [15th Anniversary Remaster] (1996/2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:04:45 minutes | 628 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Vix Records
‘A Show Of Hands’ is Victor Wooten’s solo debut, was originally released in 1996 on Compass Records and stands as one of the most critically acclaimed debut solo albums of all time. The release was groundbreaking in that it was recorded with ‘two hands, four strings, and no overdubs’ establishing Wooten as the new major talent to watch on electric bass. 2011 marked the fifteenth anniversary of that album’s release and the album was re-matered and re-released to celebrate this milestone. The new version includes three previously unreleased bonus tracks making this version a must-have for all Wooten fans.
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Victor Wainwright & The Train – Memphis Loud (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:49 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ruf Records GmbH
If you want to travel America, climb aboard e Train. As a GRAMMY-nominated kingpin of American roots music, Victor Wainwright’s 2020 release is a snapshot of the nation’s great cities and genres, embodying a connection between exciting unseen places with a modern twist.
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Victor Wainwright – Victor Wainwright and the Train (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:45 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ruf Records GmbH
It had to be a train. The name of Victor Wainwright’s new band and the sleeve image of their debut album is also the most fitting of metaphors. In music folklore, the train might have associations with the freight-hopping bluesmen of yore, but with this restless boogie-woogie innovator stoking the furnace, this latest project is a charging locomotive – surging forward, crashing through boundaries of genre, sweeping up fresh sounds and clattering headlong past the doubters. As the man himself hollers in the ivory-pounding title track: “If you wanna boogie get aboard this train/Get yourself a ticket or get out of the way” At a sweet-spot in his career, where most established stars would rest on their laurels, Victor Wainwright & The Train instead rips up all that has gone before. These twelve tracks are originals in every sense, written by Wainwright, pricking up ears in a sterile music industry and stretching the concept of roots in bold directions. “I wanted to write this new music mostly on my own, as it was coming and speaking to me” explains this multiple BMA-winner and frequent infiltrator of the Billboard Top 10. “I believe that for roots music to grow, and reach out to new audiences, we have to push it forward.” The result is an album that walks a tightrope between scholarly respect and anarchic irreverence. You’ll hear Wainwright twist boogie-woogie tradition on barrelhouse thrillers like Healing and Boogie Depression, both driven by his visceral piano style. But you’ll also hear him fearlessly explore the gamut of genre, from the Latin flavours and New Orleans horns of Wiltshire Grave, to the mellow near-psychedelia of Sunshine. It’s a musical cocktail served up by Wainwright’s inimitable gravel-flecked vocal. His words can be hilarious, as on I’ll Start Tomorrow, on which he postpones his doctor’s clean-living advice. But they can also be heartfelt, on the gospel-tinged kiss-off of That’s Love To Me. “I’ve tried to write songs that remind us to love ourselves,” he considers. “It doesn’t matter who voted for who, what your religion is, who you love” On this white-knuckle ride, only The Train could keep the material on the tracks. “I ended up with a hit-squad of downright amazing musicians,” he reflects, “that shared my curiosity for all corners of the roots genre. We wanted to capture how we feel performing, right smack-dab on this record, and I believe we’ve done that. Now I just try to keep up”
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Victor Rosenbaum – Brahms – The Last Piano Pieces (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:15 minutes | 492 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bridge Records
For pianist Victor Rosenbaum’s fourth CD on Bridge Records; the artist turns to the last three piano compositions of Johannes Brahms. Rosenbaum’s Schubert disc was described as a “powerful and poignant record of human experience”, and much the same can be said of these profound readings of Brahms’s late masterpieces.
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Victor Mechanick – Love Is Free (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 15:45 minutes | 325 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMG Rights Mgmt France SARL
Victor Mechanick is not a beginner. Falling into music at a young age, this young Parisian integrates the conservatory at the age of 5, studying violin and trumpet, solfeggio and harmony. So the music, he knows and rather well. Later, the artist learns piano and guitar, creates his first bands and performs in France regularly. Victor Mechanick has been a part of Theo Lawrence & The Hearts.
Today, Victor vogue solo, inspired by artists such as Stevie Wonder, Donovan and J.J. Cale. On September 22, he released his first EP titled Love Is Free and unveiled five warm pop songs.
In a melancholic universe, Victor Mechanick, with his songs, talks about love with humor and fragility, tells episodes of his life, his dreams… and above all, he reveals playful titles, such as Conversations, a real heady piece and dancing, but also sweeter, as with We Could not Be Elsewhere or Too Sad To Weep. The set is beautiful, full of charm, and in five titles, Victor Mechanick realizes a varied EP, sounds tasty Anglo-Saxon, which foreshadows a sequel full of promise to his career.
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