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Sinfonia Of London, John Wilson, Adam Walker – Kenneth Fuchs: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:16 minutes | 947 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
The Grammy-Award-winning Kenneth Fuchs (born 1956) is without doubt one of American music’s leading orchestral composers. His orchestral output has grown and developed to encompass a wide range of genres, from overtures and tone poems to suites and concertos (ten to date, including ones for string quartet, electric guitar, and piano, the last entitled Spiritualist), inspired by a diverse range of subjects, testimony to his wide sympathies and fields of knowledge. His output includes chamber music (including five string quartets), solos and duos, vocal and choral music, and four chamber musicals. Cloud Slant is a virtuoso orchestral concerto based on three canvasses by Helen Frankenthaler: Blue Fall (1966), Flood (1967), and Cloud Slant (1968) – not just musical depictions of them but also the composer’s reactions to their artistic sweep and power. The flute was Fuchs’ first instrument, so it was inevitable that he would compose a flute concerto. However, it was not until 2019 that he set about the task – for the flautist Peg Luke, to whom the concerto is dedicated. As is customary of compositions by this composer, the concerto carries a descriptive title, Solitary the Thrush, a reference to lines from Whitman’s elegy for Abraham Lincoln, ‘When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d’. Commissioned by the Californian Musique Sur La Mer Orchestras, Pacific Visions is scored for string orchestra, and is a single, dynamic movement sub-divided into five sections. Quiet in the Land, a Poem for Orchestra, is a revision of a chamber work which Fuchs composed in 2003, inspired by the rolling prairie of the Midwestern United States and the ‘immense arching sky’ under which it sits, cast against the impact of the Second Gulf War which had then recently broken out. The orchestral version heard here was composed in 2017 for the Phoenix Symphony.
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Randy Newman – Toy Story 4 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:48 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Walt Disney Records
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (OST) from the film Toy Story 4 (2019). The music composed by Randy Newman (The Meyerowitz Stories, Cars 3). Toy Story 4 is a 2019 American 3D computer-animated comedy film, the fourth film in the Toy Story series. The film is written by Stephany Folsom, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, directed by Josh Cooley, stars Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Joan Cusack.
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Ramin Djawadi – The Queen’s Corgi (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:06:33 minutes | 725 MB | Genre: Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 22D Music
A multi-talented producer of music for films, television, and video games, Iranian-German composer Ramin Djawadi honed his considerable talents alongside contemporaries like Klaus Badelt, John Debney, Harry Gregson-Williams, and Steve Jablonsky while working for veteran composer Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions film score company. He worked as an assistant to Badelt before venturing out on his own with the RZA-assisted score for director David Goyer’s Blade: Trinity (2004). He continued to work with Goyer, providing music for both film (The Unborn) and television (FlashForward), earning an Emmy nomination for the latter. In 2008 Djawadi, a longtime fan of the Marvel characters, provided the guitar-heavy score for director Jon Favreau’s big-screen rendering of Iron Man, and in 2011, he provided the memorable (and oft-covered) theme and incidental music for HBO’s massively popular fantasy series Game of Thrones. Subsequent film scores have included Clash of the Titans, Red Dawn, Pacific Rim, Warcraft, and The Great Wall, while his work in television expanded to vampire horror show The Strain, sci-fi techno thriller Person of Interest, and HBO’s sci-fi/western hybrid Westworld.
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R.E.M. – Monster (1994/2001)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:17 minutes | 1017 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Concord Records
R.E.M’s 9th studio album, released in 1994, including the single “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”. Debuted at #1 in the US.
After putting Athens, GA, on the musical map in the early ’80s, R.E.M. went on to become one of the world’s biggest bands. Their 9th album Monster, debuted at #1 and yielded one of the band’s biggest singles: “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” The record features the band at its most rocking and aggressive, with guitarist Peter Buck delivering some of his most memorable riffs and fills over some of the band’s most enduring songs.
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R.E.M. – Green (25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (1988/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:23:48 minutes | 5,35 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Concord Records
R.E.M’s 6th studio album, released in 1988. The album continued the band’s political/social theme and went on to become 2x platinum in the US. The 25th anniversary deluxe edition includes 26 tracks from their 1988 concert in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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R.E.M. – Fables Of The Reconstruction (1985/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 39:46 minutes | 1,72 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records
Fables of the Reconstruction is R.E.M.’s third studio album and was released on June 10, 1985. It was recorded in February – March 1985 at Livingston Studios in London, UK and was produced by Joe Boyd. The album marked a distinct stylistic departure from the band’s previous two records, with producer Joe Boyd being best known for his work with modern English folk musicians such as Fairport Convention and Nick Drake. Fables of the Reconstruction explores the mythology and landscape of the American South, and the album can be considered a concept record by R.E.M. standards.
Fables of the Reconstruction peaked at #28 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and #35 on the UK Albums Chart in 1985, and the album was certified Gold by the RIAA on June 24, 1991.
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Tyshawn Sorey – Continuing (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:35 minutes | 1,00 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Pi Recordings
Composer, drummer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey’s musical output is vast. He’s written post-minimalist pieces, played with avant-garde giants such as Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton, and created hard-to-categorize experimental works, but he also continues to explore older jazz traditions. 2022’s Mesmerism found Sorey’s standard trio covering pieces by Duke Ellington, Muhal Richard Abrams, Horace Silver, and others. The group, which includes pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer, brought a distinctive touch to each track. It’s an outstanding album, and the 2023 follow-up, Continuing, also does not disappoint. Here the band stretches out; all four tracks run between ten and sixteen minutes.
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Sweeping Promises – Good Living Is Coming for You (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 30:19 minutes | 286 MB | Genre: Post-Punk, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sub Pop Records
Sweeping Promises release their second, latest and greatest album, Good Living Is Coming For You, on Feel It Records in North America and Sub Pop for the rest of the world.
Sweeping Promises’ members Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug say lead single “Eraser” is “a malevolent creep – an overly ambitious, shadowy force who bears an uncanny resemblance to you. She watches your every move, mirrors your motions, and ultimately uses your voice against you without you ever noticing what she’s done. She’s unchecked ambition, a paranoid girl Friday, an overriding impulse to reflect rather than project. She must be stopped at all costs.”
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Raveena – Asha’s Awakening (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:03:42 minutes | 673 MB | Genre: R&B, Soul, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Records
On her sophomore LP, the Queens-based vocalist delivers a sun-soaked wanderlust framed under airy R&B, lush South Asian grooves and futurist pop…
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PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:38 minutes | 745 MB | Genre: Pop Rock, Indie Pop, Baroque Pop, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Partisan Records
PJ Harvey’s tenth studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying marks her first release in seven years, following UK number 1 album The Hope Six Demolition Project. On this album, which was recorded with long-time creative collaborators John Parish and Flood, PJ Harvey builds a sonic universe somehow located in a space between life’s opposites, and between recent history and the ancient past. Scattered with biblical imagery and references to Shakespeare, all of these distinctions ultimately dissolve into something profoundly uplifting and redemptive. I Inside the Old Year Dying is released on Partisan Records.
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LYR – The Ultraviolet Age (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 43:25 minutes | 513 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Art Pop, Spoken Word
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EMI North – Clue Records
LYR thrive on the unexpected. As a genre-splicing supergroup of sorts, comprised of author and current British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, musician Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Pearson, the band is a nexus of diverse creative disciplines, and one of the most thrilling musical prospects around. Following their acclaimed debut, 2020’s Call In The Crash Team, LYR’s second album is The Ultraviolet Age. This is a more accessible album, pitched somewhere between the enigmatic brood of late period Talk Talk, the lo-fi expanse of Low and their British sprechgesang contemporaries including Dry Cleaning, Yard Act and Black Country, New Road.
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Lil Uzi Vert – Pink Tape (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:27:03 minutes | 1016 MB | Genre: Rap, Hip-Hop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Generation Now – Atlantic
Philly rapper Lil Uzi Vert was never stylistically timid, experimenting with genre boundaries as early as their 2017 emo/rap-dabbling effort Luv Is Rage 2. Even with their adventurous background, Uzi has never taken things quite to the extremes found on third studio album The Pink Tape, which flits from sinister trap bangers like the Travis Scott-assisted “Aye” to pop-friendly moments like “Endless Fashion” featuring Nicki Minaj to chugging groove metal and rap synthesis on “Suicide Doors,” and even on to straight-up metalcore with help from Bring Me the Horizon on “Werewolf.” Plenty of rappers have expanded their sound by bringing in unexpected elements of metal and hardcore, but few have covered System of a Down as Uzi faithfully does on “CS” (shorthand for one of their biggest songs, “Chop Suey!”). Among the more extreme metal moments, The Pink Tape also gets into frantic and bubbly electronic beats on “x2” and moody, vaporous atmospheric trap on “Patience,” which is bolstered by Don Toliver’s contributions. At close to an hour-and-a-half running time and more than 25 songs, The Pink Tape sounds inspired as often as it drags. Some of Uzi’s experiments are fun and exploratory while others flop, and the entire album is a lot to digest in one go. There are still plenty of solid tracks regardless of what style Lil Uzi Vert is trying on, but more fastidious editing might have delivered a more enjoyable, less meandering overall listening experience. – TiVo Staff
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Girl Ray – Prestige (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:38 minutes | 469 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © moshi moshi records
Arriving in early August, the third album from Girl Ray is a perfect summertime feel-good record. The North London trio takes a new spin on the dance floor, following up the R&B cool of 2019’s Girl with a disco-inflected celebration of love, even the weird things it makes you feel. “True Love” is a sequin-glimmer bop, front loaded with spiky Bananarama bounce. “Everybody’s Saying That” is breezy and modern, with a bridge formulated for throwing shapes and an infectious rushed chorus: “Everybody’s saying that you could’ve done better/ But I really wanna end up with you.” And “Up” cruises along on a disco-funk beat—courtesy of Sophie Moss’ hip-swaying bass and slick guitar from singer Poppy Hankin, who sings of giddy new love undercut with self-doubt. It’s a brooding mood that haunts the album’s shimmering sound: “It feels unreal/ That you’d choose me as your one and only/ Tell me baby/ Safe in your arms/ Am I worthy of your charms?” “Love Is Enough,” about missing a lover while away from home, channels summer-in-the-city heat and Luscious Jackson cool. “Begging You Now” chills out with icy synth squiggles, while “Wanna Dance”—leaning into the wah-wah—takes its sweet time. “Tell Me” boasts an oil-slick groove and sweeping diva-drama chorus, ready made for a roller disco afternoon. And “Hold Tight” gets incredibly romantic: “Your light is as warm as the sunshine/ Blazing down on the twist of our grapevine/ Talking shit in the grass would be just fine, my baby.” It’s a New Wave island kiss with a thudding ATL hip-hop drum beat that wouldn’t be out of place on a Haim record; in fact, Hankin has said the song’s production takes inspiration from that trio’s Women in Music Pt. III. You can hear a little Haim, too, on the almost-ballad “Space Song,” which could easily be used to track an emotional-climax movie scene: offering a sonic clue that the main character has learned their lesson and is resolved to make a course correction. Maybe about love? – Shelly Ridenour
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Denny Zeitlin – Crazy Rhythm: Exploring George Gershwin (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:41 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sunnyside
For nearly a decade, the endlessly exploring pianist / composer / improviser Denny Zeitlin has focused on an individual composer for his annual solo concert at Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company. Zeitlin brings his full creative force to these efforts to transform these well-known pieces into remarkable musical journeys. In 2018, Zeitlin decided to focus on the great American composer, George Gershwin, for his concert and recorded the proceedings, released now as Crazy Rhythm: Exploring George Gershwin.
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Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy – Robert Schumann: Piano Works (2007)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,69 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,03 GB | Full Artwork | 3% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Brilliant Classics # 93136 | Country/Year: Canada Germany 2007
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Piano
My first encounter with Schmitt-Leonardy was his rather respectable account of the Brahms Handel Variations. But frankly I bought this disc because it was was cheap and it reduced my shipping fees in an order from Japan. As it turns out, it was the most exciting disc of the purchase (although I rather enjoyed the Boehm Mozart Requiem too)!
From the first notes of the Abegg Variations it is clear we are dealing with a player who understands Schumann. In the first place, he doesn’t rush. He has a clear sense of the Romantic view of time. I’ve long been a believer that if you want to experience the German Romantics to their fullest extent you have to be willing to suspend your current modern view of time and place and accept their sense of priorities. This is especially clear in Schubert and Bruckner. But if you remember, it was Schumann who commented on Schubert’s “heavenly lengths” in the 9th Symphony, and I think it was exactly this element he was referring to. These Variations have always seemed to me to be a precurser to the Carnaval or the Faschingsschwank, but somehow not completely formed. It may well be that the ABEGG theme itself is not really a completely formed theme per se. But Schmitt-Leonardy convinces me completely. He breathes, he sighes, he sparkles! I remember the British critics going crazy over Shura Cherkassky, speaking in glowing terms about his style and I always imagined I would hear something like the sparkle Schmitt-Leonardy achieves in the 3rd variation, but alas, Shura never delivered! Maybe my expectations were out of line!
The Intermezzi are something of a rarity. I can only recall encountering them previously in Karl Engel’s complete traversal. At the time they did not impress me. They still will not be something I come back to often–they don’t have any themes wih the memorability of his most famous works. But Schmitt-Leonardy makes as strong a case as I think is possible for them. The second presto Intermezzo in particular caught my fancy.
The real meat of the disc is the Symphonic Etudes. This is a work that has had two fine portrayals on Super Audio–by Mikhail Pletnev and especially Vladimir Tropp. And while sonically the Schmitt-Leonardy is not in Tropp’s league, his is a very moving performance. Again, the first thing I notice is the sense of time and space. Schmitt-Leonardy is at great pains to let every phrase register, to let chords fully decay, and when the spirit calls to rush impetuously forward. This is true Romanitc playing.
I listened in 5.1. The disc doesn’t give any specifications, and frankly I couldn’t tell if it was a “.1” or for that matter, even a surround; but suffice it to say, the sound was rich and rwalistic, so I think the rear channels were doing their job!
This is a disc I would encourage you to try if you like Romantic piano playing. Arthur @ sa-cd.net
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