Steen Rasmussen & Josefine Cronholm – Milton På Svenska (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:01 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Vocal Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Stunt Records
This album is an extraordinary example of how music from two continents can merge into a noble work where concepts of cross-continental understanding make sense to everyone on both sides. MILTON IN SWEDISH is a breathtakingly beautiful cross-cultural love child.
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Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy (1973/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:48 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Soft Rock, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen
Mastered by Bernie Grundman from original analogue tapes. Personally overseen by Donald Fagen.
The album features the singles ‘Show Biz Kids’ and ‘My Old School’ although neither could repeat the commercial success of ‘Do It Again’ or ‘Reelin’ in the Years’ which respectively reached the top 10 and top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Countdown to Ecstasy saw Donald Fagen take over all lead vocal duties after David Palmer, who’d sung a few tracks on 1972’s Can’t Buy A Thrill, left the band.
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Staatskapelle Weimar & Hansjörg Albrecht – Tristan & Isolde: An orchestral Passion (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:00 minutes | 928 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Oehms Classics
This new recording from the Staatskapelle Weimar under Hansjorg Albrecht presents a rarely heard compilation of Richard Wagner’s themes from Tristan und Isolde, arranged for orchestra by Henk de Vlieger (b. 1953). This is Hansjorg Albrecht’s follow-up Wagner recording to his album Der Ring Ohne Worte (OC1872). The Staatkapelle Weimar dates back to 1491, making it one of the oldest orchestras in the world, and one that is more than familiar with the works of Richard Wagner.
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Spyro Gyra – Vinyl Tap (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:47 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Amherst Records, Inc.
Spyro Gyra’s new release Vinyl Tap, their first album of new material in six years, is sure to excite their worldwide fan base as well as to bring new listeners into the fold. Never content to rest on their prodigious work of the past, they have once again challenged themselves to apply their iconic sound to an idea that makes this release stand out from all of it’s predecessors.
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Special Consensus – Great Blue North (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:26 minutes | 789 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Compass Records
Chicago-based bluegrass outfit Special Consensus has covered a lot of musical territory in the nearly half a century since banjoist Greg Cahill founded the band in 1975. Two-time GRAMMY nominees and six-time International Bluegrass Music Association winners, the group has amassed an expansive discography of over 20 releases including 2020’s CHICAGO BARN DANCE which highlighted the important role the Windy City played in the early development of bluegrass music.
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Sparks – The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 47:42 minutes | 611 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal-Island Records Ltd.
‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’ marks Sparks’ first release on the venerable Island Records label in close to five decades, following such classics as 1974’s landmark Kimono ‘My House’, highlighted of course by the indelible hit single ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us’. The album includes such instantly intriguing new musical vignettes as ‘Mona Lisa’s Packing, Leaving Late Tonight’ and ‘Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is’, songs which once again display Sparks’ seemingly ceaseless ability to craft complete, intricately detailed stories within perfect three-and-a-half minute pop masterpieces. Both characteristically timeless and unequivocally modern, ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’ once again affirms that, after more than a half century making such masterpieces, Sparks remain inimitable, ingenious and, as ever, utterly one of a kind.
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Souren Baronian – The Middle Eastern Soul Of Carlee Records (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:03:35 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: World
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sundazed Music – Modern Harmonic
The Middle Eastern Soul of Carlee Records collects the early works of Baronian who’s probably best known as a key contributor on John Berberian’s Middle Eastern Rock. This set includes his early 50s work with the Nor-Ikes, and his early 70s albums Hye Inspiration and Middle Eastern Soul. This monster is a barrage of middle eastern clarinet, oud, dumbek, kanun, sax, tambourine, wild percussion, and kaval, along with finger cymbals and the occasional vocal from some of his favorite belly dancers. Still performing at 91 with his group Taksim, Souren Baronian is a living legend and he was nice enough to let us raid his tape archive!
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Solveig Steinthorsdottir – Solo Violin Sonatas 1-6 Op. 27 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:41 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
In summer of 1923, Eugene Ysaÿe heard his friend Joseph Szigeti perform one of J.S. Bach’s Solo Violin Sonatas. Afterwards, on his way to a sojourn at the beach in Le Zoute, Ysaÿe couldn’t stop thinking about the performance: “When one hears an artist like Szigeti, who is able to accommodate his playing to the rectangular lines of the great classics as easily as he can to the expressive melodies of the romantics, one feels how absorbing it would be to compose a work for the violin whilst keeping ever before one the style of one particular violinist.” On arrival at the resort, Ysaÿe disappeared into his room for a couple of days and emerged with sketches of Six Violin Sonatas (Op. 27), each imagined with the sound and style of a specific artist ringing in his ears.
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Soft Cell – Non Stop Erotic Cabaret … And Other Stories (Live) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:58:16 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Synth-pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LiveHereNow
Recorded live at London’s Hammersmith Apollo in November 2021 to celebrate its 40th anniversary; the iconic album ‘Non Stop Erotic Cabaret in its entirety plus hits, rarities and new tracks.
“Still-irresistible hymns for hedonistic outsiders” The Telegraph
“Musically and visually it’s a tour de force” Louder Than War
“A celebratory evening from one of British music’s true greats.” Clash Magazine
“Almond has them eating out of the palm of his hand, Ball the keyboard emperor” Yorkshire Post
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Sleep Token – Take Me Back To Eden (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:03:30 minutes | 691 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Art Rock, Pop Rock, Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Spinefarm
With fan worship more intense than ever, and worldwide interest and intrigue growing at runaway speed, Sleep Token are set to reach bold new heights with studio album No. 3, Take Me Back To Eden, set for release on May 19.
Take Me Back To Eden — an hour-plus of music across 12 distinctive tracks — is Part 3 of a trilogy, a spectacular chapter-closer in the ongoing Sleep Token saga — a saga that kicked off in earnest with debut album Sundowning (2019).
…Eden features probably the heaviest moments thus far recorded by Sleep Token (i.e. “Vore” + “The Summoning”), along with some of the most immediate and certainly the most emotional (i.e. “Aqua Regia” + “DYWTYLM”), with a slew of other tones, textures, and tangents touched on in-between.
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Sirenia – 1977 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 49:01 minutes | 656 MB | Genre: Metal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Napalm Records
Exploring a new style like never before – symphonic metal icons SIRENIA revolutionize their melodic darkness on the brand new studio album, 1977, out May 26, 2023 via Napalm Records. Transporting the listener to a retro auditory arcade harking back to when groovy synthwave melodies dominated the world of music, the international band merges late 70’s and 80’s pop rock stylings with synthwave elements and their remarkable, hard-hitting symphonic melodies – shaking the listener to the core. Once again, Norwegian mastermind, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter Morten Veland produced the 11th record, while HK at Vamacara Studio, France, took care of the mixing. It marks another prove that, after more than twenty years of existence, SIRENIA still rank at the very top of the genre.
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Sir Chloe – I Am The Dog (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:57 minutes | 419 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Atlantic Records
On the album, Sir Chloe says: ‘I Am the Dog’ is an investigation of control: the agency we have and forfeit throughout our lives, and the way that transforms us. The dog is one thing to the shepherd and another to the sheep. The less you know, the better’.
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Simply Red – Time (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:07 minutes | 463 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino
Simply Red are back! Four years since the triumphant Blue Eyed Soul, one of the UK’s most treasured bands return with brand new studio album Time. The record’s debut offering comes in the form of the sensational pop masterclass ‘Better With’ You’ Over 12 vivid, heartfelt, life-giving tracks that mix soul, funk, R&B and blues, Time demonstrates an unerring ear for, feel for and passion for songs that move the emotion and the imagination.
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Simon Bürki – Reminiscence (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:02 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Born in 2000, Simon Bürki has won many international competitions. Currently studying at the Juilliard School, New York, with Sergei Babayan. His début recording features works by Rachmaninov – 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth – and Scriabin, Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Schumann. The programme confirms Simon Bürki’s affinities, with some of Rachmaninov’s sombre Études-Tableaux and Préludes, together with two Études by Scriabin, and a selection of transcriptions and short pieces. In these (post-)Romantic miniatures, the young pianist demonstrates his outstanding virtuosity and sober elegance, as well as the exciting flamboyancy and intensity of his playing.
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Signum Quartett – Schubert: Lebensmuth (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:50 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
Lebensmuth is the final episode of Signum Quartett’s acclaimed Schubert trilogy, in which early and late string quartets are combined with song arrangements created by the group’s violist Xandi van Dijk. Schubert’s First String Quartet in G Minor, written when he was 13, already reveals his inclination to bold and unexpected moves. His last String Quartet in G major, D. 887 veers between a profound examination of personal trauma and a blazing triumph over adversity, and it is this resilience of spirit which is further highlighted by songs such as ‘An die Musik’ and ‘Lebensmuth’, pieces that courageously embrace life and all the beauty it offers.
The Signum Quartett is frequently hailed as one of the most adventurous and outstanding ensembles of today. The quartet’s first Pentatone recording Aus der Ferne (2018) won an Opus Klassik 2019 award, as well as a diapason d’or, and was followed by Ins stille Land (2020).
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