Artist: Ola Gjeilo
Title: PIANO IMPROVISATIONS – Evocative, lyrical music for 1, 2 & 3 pianos
Genre: modern classical, instrumental, piano improvisations
Label: 2L (Lindberg Lyd)
Release date: May 2012
Recording date: August 2011
Location: Sofienberg Church, Norway
Quality: Blu-ray Audio
Original source: DXD (352.8kHz/24bit)
Duration: 01:09:02
Video: MPEG-4 AVC 3000 kbps / 1080i / 29,970 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio#1: DTS-HD MA 5.1 / 192 kHz / 11691 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio#2: LPCM 2.0 / 192 kHz / 9216 kbps / 24-bit
While my first piano album on the 2L record label, Stone Rose (2007), was all pre-composed or outlined, I wanted this 2012 sequel to be completely spontaneous.
Although many of the pieces on this album are free improvisations recorded in one take, the first three tracks are fantasies around three of my own choral works; Ubi Caritas, Tota Pulchra Es and Prelude. Recordings of the original choral versions can be found on Phoenix Chorale’s 2012 album, Northern Lights (Chandos Records).
Producer Morten Lindberg suggested recording a few tracks where I would play layers of two or three pianos, which I thought was a great way to really exploit the surround sound potential on a solo album. We moved the piano between each take, eventually constituting a triangle, and the listener is sitting in the middle in a surround system setup.
As a pianist, improvisation is where my heart is. With this recording I wanted to express and share my passion for that art form.
– Ola Gjeilo, 2012
Facebook PHOTO ALBUM from the recording sessions
Ola Gjeilo (pronounced Yay-lo) was born in Norway in 1978, and moved to America in 2001 to begin his composition studies at the Juilliard School in New York City. Presently a full-time composer and pianist based in the US, his published concert works are performed all over the world. Ola is also very interested in film, and his music draws a lot of inspiration from movies and cinematic music. (more…)
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Nico – Chelsea Girl (1967/2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 45:33 minutes | 1,83 GB | Genre: Rock
Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks.com | @ Polydor Records
Chelsea Girl is the debut solo recording by Nico, the singer on the first Velvet Underground album. The title is a reference to the Andy Warhol film that Nico starred in. The album is a breathtaking collection of orchestral pop and chamber folk highlighted by Nico’s inspired vocals. Chelsea Girlfinds Nico interpreting classics from Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Tim Hardin and more. The work is a stunning piece of art.
4 stars out of 5 – “…The mood remains dark, gothic and mysterious with barely more than flute, guitar, violin, cello and harmonium accompaniment.” – Rolling Stone (more…)
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Johnny Hodges And His Orchestra – Blues-A-Plenty (1958/2011/2014)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time – 42:38 minutes | 1,68 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 42:38 minutes | 795 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | @ Analogue Productions (Verve)
Cover art and liner notes included
Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the original master tapes to vinyl and PCM. The DSD was sourced from the PCM. George listened to all of the different A/D converters he had before he chose which to use, and he felt the George Massenburg GML 20 bit A/D produced the best and most synergistic sound for the project.
“I really think that the people who are willing to lay down their money for these reissues are going to get something really outstanding.” — George Marino, Sterling Sound engineer, commenting on Analogue Productions’ Verve 25-title reissue series.
One of the giants of the alto saxophone, Johnny Hodges was perhaps the most important soloist and sideman in Duke Ellington’s orchestra from 1928 up to Hodges’ death in 1970. The self-taught player made many solo forays during his long career – one of his ’50s outfits included a young John Coltrane – but history remembers Hodges for his virtuosic sidemanship, particularly his sensitive rendering of ballads.
Originally released in 1958. (more…)
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Harry James & His Big Band – The Harry James Sessions 1976 & 1979 (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 1:34:00 minutes | 1,75 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | @ Sheffield Lab
Sheffield Lab Recordings is pleased to present the reissue of a historic recording: The Harry James Sessions. Consisting of three albums originally recorded direct-to-disc by Sheffield in 1976 and 1979, and now spectacularly re-mastered by Seth Winner from analog disc originals, this program of music from the height of the swing era is a vital representation of one of the great big bands of the 20th century. To hear this music recorded by Sheffield from the perspective of a single stereo microphone, is to hear this magnificent band as dancers heard it in front of the bandstand, with the impact and energy that we don’t associate with historic recordings of another era. Pretty thrilling stuff! This amazing 2 disc set includes ALL the music from the Original LP albums: THE KING JAMES VERSION, COMIN’ FROM A GOOD PLACE and STILL HARRY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. (more…)
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ZOFO Duet – Zoforbit: A Space Odyssey (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192kHz | Time – 01:09:24 minutes | 1,89 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: Blu-Ray Audio Disc | @ Sono Luminus LLC DSL-92178
Recorded at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce Virginia, September 4-6, 2013
In this third album from GRAMMY® nominated ensemble ZOFO, the critically acclaimed piano duo takes the listener on a metaphorical exploration of the galaxy with mesmerizing, outer space-themed duet works by four noted composers of the 20th and 21st centuries – Gustav Holst, George Crumb, David Lang and Urmas Sisask preformed on one piano – four hands.
Since joining forces as a professional duo in 2009, Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi – ZOFO – have electrified audiences from Carnegie Hall to Osaka, Japan with their dazzling artistry and outside-the-box thematic programming for piano-four-hands. This prize winning Steinway Artist ensemble – one of only a handful of duos worldwide devoted exclusively to piano duets – is blazing a bold new path for piano-four-hands groups by focusing on 20th and 21st century repertoire and by commissioning new works from noted composers each year.
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Yaron Herman – Everyday (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48kHz | Time – 45:23 minutes | 485 MB | Genre: Jazz
Official Digital Download – Source: Unknown | @ Blue Note Records/Decca
Everyday marquera assurément une étape dans la carrière du musicien. Septième album de sa discographie, il représente à la fois l’aboutissement d’un imposant parcours et le début d’une nouvelle direction. Yaron Herman frappe d’autant plus fort avec Everyday, qu’il l’a entièrement conçu en cheville avec son nouvel exceptionnel, le batteur Ziv Ravitz.
Everyday marque l’avènement d’un pianiste que l’on savait audacieux et puissant. Il concrétise avec brio et inventivité un monde de musique fait de surprises et d’aventures. La plus inattendue de toutes est peut-être la sublime chanson Volcano réalisée avec Valgeir Sigurdsson (producteur de Björk) autour de la voix troublante de l’Islandais Helgi Jonsson qui révèle un nouvel aspect du talent de Yaron Herman.
Capable de dégager une énergie furieuse comme de laisser s’exprimer une sensibilité d’une infinie délicatesse, ce dernier déploie un éventail stylistique dans lequel on pourrait bien voir un exemple décoiffant de ce qu’est le jazz au XXIe siècle : « S’il y a une chose que je tiens à préserver, conclut-il, c’est l’essence de cette musique, qui repose avant tout sur la spontanéité, la liberté, la possibilité de prendre des risques et d’essayer. Il ne faut jamais oublier la joie que nous avons de faire une telle musique… » Ni celle que nous avons à l’écouter !
Vintage Trouble – 1 Hopeful Rd. (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2kHz | Time – 42:52 minutes | 881 MB | Genre: Blues Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | @ Blue Note Records
Produced by GRAMMY®-winning producer Don Was, who is President of Blue Note Records, the album also includes the deep soul ballad “Another Man’s Words” and “Angel City, California,” a joyous ode to Vintage Trouble’s hometown of Los Angeles.
Over the past few years, Vintage Trouble have wowed audiences across the globe by opening for The Rolling Stones in London’s Hyde Park, touring with legends like The Who and AC/DC, and playing sold-out headline shows worldwide. Now, on their first album for Blue Note Records, the Los Angeles-based foursome – singer Ty Taylor, guitarist Nalle Colt, bassist Rick Barrio Dill, and drummer Richard Danielson channel the vitality and passion of their live show into a fresh and urgent take on guitar-powered rhythm & blues. Produced by Blue Note president and three-time Grammy Award-winner Don Was, 1 Hopeful Rd. finds Vintage Trouble building off the groove-fueled sound that Yahoo! once painted as „James Brown singing lead for Led Zeppelin“ and blending blues, soul, and riff-heavy rock & roll with joyfully gritty abandon. As heard on lead single „Run Like the River,“ 1 Hopeful Rd. matches Vintage Trouble’s emotional intensity with a raw yet sophisticated musicianship that’s prompted the New York Times to name the band modern-day answer to Otis Redding and BBC Radio 6 to anoint them „the heirs of rhythm and blues.“
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Tania Giannouli Ensemble – transcendence (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:29 minutes | 990 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: rattlerecords.net | @ Rattle Records
Greek pianist and composer Tania Giannouli follows her Rattle debut, Forest Stories (2012), with a very different recording from the newly formed Tania Giannouli Ensemble. With influences as diverse as Greek folk music, contemporary classical, modern jazz, world music and European avant-garde, Transcendence is an intoxicating, musically literate tour-de-force. These richly textured, beautifully balanced compositions are performed with great rigour, lyricism and passion, but above all they are strikingly honest and direct.
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Sylvain Rifflet – Mechanics (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 00:47:01 minutes | 495 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: highresaudio.com | @ Jazz Village
French saxophonist and composer Sylvain Rifflet has his finger firmly set on the pulse of modern times. Working with his group Alphabet, he has masterminded an innovative and spell-binding brand of music in which the modernity of his jazz sound combines with the world of New York minimalism. Poets and writers of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century often described the then-nascent ”industrial world” and its machines as ”enemies of art.” However some did not see progress as dehumanizing. Science fiction imagined a futuristic world, which inspired artists and writers such as Jules Verne and HG Wells. Rifflet’s album Mechanics, with a cover illustration by Belgian comic book artist Francois Schuiten, journeys through forward looking and fantastical worlds.
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Serge Adam, Benoit Delbecq, Philippe Foch – Les amants de Juliette s’electrolysent (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 00:37:26 minutes | 450 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Qobuz | @ Quoi de neuf docteur
Depuis l’automne 1993, LES AMANTS DE JULIETTE pratiquent une musique dont l’essence est née du désir de tourner les oreilles vers les cultures traditionnelles lointaines. La trompette, omniprésente dans l’histoire du Jazz, tient seule ici le rôle du chant. Les tablas évoquent l’Inde et ses traditions musicales millénaires. Les percussions n’ont plus d’âge. Le piano préparé avec des résonateurs évoque la richesse des mélodies de timbres de l’Indonésie, mais aussi la polyrythmie propre au continent africain. LES AMANTS DE JULIETTE ont choisi d’entreprendre un voyage musical hors du commun. Aujourd’hui, les outils numériques rendent possible une proposition de matière nouvelle, traitée en temps réel, qui va nourrir le jeu collectif. Ici, pas de boucles ni de séquences préenregistrées, chaque musicien développe sa propre syntaxe au sein de l’improvisation collective. Guidés par la recherche des confrontations de timbres, modes de jeu, phrasés, par les rapports et traitements possibles des sources acoustiques et électroniques, ils créent sur la trame de l’oeuvre écrite un temps singulier, une proposition d’un nouvel univers et une invitation à la transe. Après une première expérimentation à la Parenthèse et à l’Alizé à Avignon en 2006 et 2008, nouvelle création le 30 Août 2014 au Festival Jazz Métis à Montreuil.
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Franz Schubert – Nachtviolen-Schubert Lieder – Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:16:41 minutes | 650 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Qobuz | @ Sony Classical
Nachtviolen is the title of a text by Schubert’s frequent collaborator Johann Mayrhofer, here translated with the flowers’ usual English name, Dame’s Violets. They might also be called night violets, which gives an idea of the gentle yet often somewhat dark and mysterious mood of most of the songs programmed here by German baritone Christian Gerhaher. The songs are by and large not very common ones, and Sony deserves credit for not insisting on the inclusion of one of the big Goethe hits. But what Gerhaher gets instead is unusual continuity, both within the often very complex songs he has chosen and over the course of the entire program. The partnership between Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber is very close in examining the ways Schubert emancipated the piano from an accompanimental role and often had it mold songs into entirely new shapes. Gerhaher’s voice is deceptively smooth; listeners won’t realize how deeply they’ve been drawn into the drama of a song and how it spills over the neat quatrains of the poetry. The entire program will haunt the mind long after hearing it, but for those who have to have highlights, check out the quietly bittersweet conclusion of Abschied, D. 475 (track 4), and the wild harmonic experimentation of Totengräber-Weise, D. 869 (Gravedigger’s Song, track 15). A triumphant release from a singer who has emerged at the top of the considerable heap of baritone Schubert specialists.
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Title: Ben L’Oncle Soul – Live Paris
Release Date: 2011
Genre: R&B, Soul, Jazz
Artist: Ben L’Oncle Soul & Band feat. Beat Assaillant, Opé Smith, Ulrich Kwasi, 20Syl
Production/Label: Motown | Universal Music France
Duration: 01:59:25
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: AVC
Audio codec: DTS, PCM
Video: MPEG-4 AVC 35000 kbps 1920*1080i / 29,970 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio#1: French DTS-HD MA 5.1 / 48 kHz / 4821 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio#2: French LPCM 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles: English
Size: 40.97 GB
Ben, alternatively known by the full name ‘Ben L’Oncle Soul’ is an extraordinary success story in France. A chart topping album on the Motown France label, now approaching half a million sales. Ben L’Oncle Soul is a hugely energetic and entertaining modern take on the Soul Revue band – Strong overtones of Motown and The Blues Bros meets Dexys in the 21st Century. A voice with echoes of Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Stevie Wonder. 300 tour dates over the last eighteen months has seen Ben L’Oncle Soul perform for nearly 1 million spectators – including no less than 10 sold-out dates at Zenith in Paris. Ben L’Oncle Soul is the breakthrough French artist of 2011. Ben first gained prominence in his home country with the Soul Wash mini-album (2009), which featured six covers of songs by Gnarls Barkley, Spice Girls, Katy Perry and, most notably, The White Stripes (Seven Nation Army). That mini-album is included in this package alongside the ‘Live Paris’ audio CD and DVD elements. This package is more than just a live classic, it’s an unbelievable spectacle that reprises the greatest successes of his full length debut album and pays homage to the greatest artists of Soul music (Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield etc) all delivered with extraordinary energy. Guest artists key to the French market include Beat Assailant, 20syl, Hoccus Pocus… (more…)
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Nickel Creek – A Dotted Line (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:58 minutes | 845 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | @ Nonesuch
“If O Brother, Where Art Thou? cracked open the door to bluegrass’ past for a new generation, Nickel Creek are bent on giving it a future.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Nickel Creek has an intuition for showing how different genres are more related than most people think…The group makes music with the songcraft and emotional frequencies of alternative rock.” —New York Times
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Concertos KV 207, 211, 218 – Salvatore Accardo, Prague Chamber Orchestra (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:16:45 minutes | 1,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: HDTracks | @ Fonè Records
Salvatore Accardo is a renowned Italian violin master, most recognized for his interpretation of works by Niccolo Paganini. On this cherished recording by audiophile label Fone Records, Accardo leads the Prague Chamber Orchestra through three concertos and rondeau for violin and orchestra. The works are some of Mozart’s finest and most inspired melodies.
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Minoru Nojima – Nojima Plays Franz Liszt (1987/2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 61:51 minutes | 988 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: ProStudioMasters | @ Reference Recordings
Reclusive pianist virtuoso Minoru Nojima, one of Japan’s most internationally respected musicians, recorded this classic album in 1986. When first released in 1988, Nojima Plays Liszt became a reference work and established Minoru’s reputation as a fine interpreter of the music of Liszt. The album had been hard to find for many years until this reissue became available. Nojima, a “pianist’s pianist,” is not very well known in North America as he records and performs live very infrequently, but has been compared to some of the piano greats, was a silver prize winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1969 and has performed with orchestras around the world.
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