Grigoryan Brothers – Bach Concertos (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:19 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ABC Classic
The Grigoryan Brothers return with an album of J.S. Bachs best-loved concertos, newly arranged for two guitars and orchestra. The two great forces in J.S. Bach’s life were music and family – somewhat inevitably, for a man who had twenty children. Bach first wrote the concertos on this disc as a young composer finding his place in the world, seeking to establish both his musical and personal identity. But they stayed with him throughout his life: he adapted them for different instruments, performed them with his sons, and used them to pass down his musical and life experiences. So it is entirely fitting that two brothers, Slava and Leonard Grigoryan, have come together to play these works. The parallels are even more poignant considering their father, Edward, created the arrangements on this disc, and that early rehearsals of this material involved their parents (Edward on violin, Irina on viola) and Slava’s wife Sharon (on cello). The intimacy and eternity of Bach’s music could hardly be better illustrated. This album follows on from the brilliant success of Slava’s two recent albums of Bach cello suites arranged for solo guitar: albums that broke records for the longest time spent atop the ARIA Classical charts, and which both won the ARIA for Best Classical Album (2017 + 2018). It also continues the family tradition of their most recent album as a duo, 2017’s Songs Without Words, which featured beloved classical works arranged for guitar duo by their father Edward. Slava and Leonard are counted amongst the finest musicians of their generation, and between them have been awarded four ARIA awards and received an incredible further 24 nominations, confirming their status as Australia’s favourite guitarists.
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Greg Chako – A Place for Bass – Chamber Jazz Duets (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 58:26 minutes | 500 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mint 400 Records
Greg Chako is a very skilled jazz guitarist and composer who performs music in his own individual voice with consistent creativity. But because he has spent long periods living overseas, he is not as well-known as his talents deserve. The release of his latest album, A Place For Bass – Chamber Jazz Duets should help improve the situation. The collaborations with bassist Mason Daugherty, which feature the duo operating as equals, is the latest accomplishment in his very productive career.
Read moreGrand Orchestre du Tricot – Tribute to Lucienne Boyer (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]
Grand Orchestre du Tricot – Tribute to Lucienne Boyer (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:03:05 minutes | 735 MB | Genre: Jazz, Chanson
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © B Records
On “Tribute To Lucienne Boyer”, the formation is dedicated to the pieces of French singer Lucienne Boyer, who was discovered as a singer in 1916 at the age of 13 years and in the first 30 years of the 20th century in cabarets, including the Théâtre de L ‘Athénée, Concordia, L’Eldorado and even sang on Broadway in New York. The Broadway attitude is also omnipresent on the upcoming tribute album. Flahault breathes, scratches and sings passionately through the eight tracks, cello, piano, trombone and clarinet support her powerfully and lively.
The idea germinates in drummer Florian Satche’s head, charmed by the obsolete lyrics of the “Lady in Blue”. He draws in the repertoire and gives the arrangements of some pieces to his friends Theo Ceccaldi, Valentin Ceccaldi and Roberto Negro. To embody Lucienne Boyer, he uses the singer Angela Flahault, which is sometimes moving, sometimes naughty. The result is a rogue operetta with controlled skids, a (re) creative jazz with rock ‘n’ roll lurches.
A tribute from which we come out delighted and smug!
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Grand Orchestre du Tricot – Atomic Spoutnik (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 52:04 minutes | 582 MB | Genre: Jazz, Chanson
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Tricollection
What is the use of limiting one’s imagination to what one already knows? This question, posed by the character incarnated by Robin Mercier, is central to the artistic approach of Valentin Ceccaldi and the Grand Orchester du Tricot. Atomic Sputnik is like a kid’s dream put into music, a dreamlike journey in which one follows, in parallel, the odyssey in the space of a child and the spatial fantasy of an adult having visibly refused the constraints of the world. Quite a bit of narration strictly speaking, but the interventions of Robin Mercier and André Robillard suggest this duality within this ambitious fresco where clash the naive melodies and the contemporary bursts.
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Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band – The Phat Pack (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:15:11 minutes | 879 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Music Content
The Phat Pack is the third studio album by the jazz ensemble Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. Goodwin received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement for the song “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”.
The title is a parody of the Rat Pack, a group of friends and performers during the 1960s which included Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Goodwin arranged cover versions of two songs that were associated with the Rat Pack, “Too Close for Comfort” and “It Was a Very Good Year”, and a hit from the 1970s, “Play That Funky Music”.
Soloists include Wayne Bergeron, Eddie Daniels, Eric Marienthal, Andy Martin, David Sanborn, Bob Summers, and the vocal group Take 6.
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Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band – Six Feet Away (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:19:22 minutes | 932 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Music Content
4-Time Grammy Winner Gordon Goodwin Returns With New 5-Song Ep: Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band release a special edition EP of singles “Six Feet Away” and “The Reset”, originally featured on new EP The Reset. This edition features several of the band’s stunning soloists blowing over the solo sections of each track!
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Golden Feather – Welcome\Release (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 58:05 minutes | 619 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sonic Unyon Records
Hamilton’s Golden Feather is a project started by Steve Kiely and Brad Germain, inspired by their love of the Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, and other bands that like to jam and take the listeners on a musical journey. The group was set to play its first show in March 2020 when the global pandemic hit, suddenly ending all hopes of live performance. Brad and Steve, along with bassist Ronson and guitarist Chris Wheeler, worked on songs remotely and recorded their debut album, Light On Water. Not long after that album’s November 2020 release, Gareth Inkster joined the group on keys to complete the definitive lineup that makes up the band today.
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Gloryhammer – Return to the Kingdom of Fife (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 48:16 minutes | 643 MB | Genre: Metal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Napalm Records
In the not-so-distant Kingdom of Fife, there lies a band like no other. GLORYHAMMER embodies the very essence of power metal and epic fantasy, with a sound so majestic and grandiose that it could only be the work of the gods themselves. Led by the manifestation of extreme trumpet-chaos in battle-mode, GLORYHAMMER has been waging a never-ending fight against the forces of Zargothrax since their formation in 2010. With their soaring hyper-melodies, multitudinous orchestra-explosions and thunderous nano-guitar riffs, they have become the undisputed champions of the power metal scene, drawing in legions of fans from across the galaxy with their epic tales of intergalactic warfare, cosmic sorcery, and heroic deeds. It has been four years since the band’s last release, but the wait is finally over for another massive onslaught of power metal greatness. Set to be released via Napalm Records on June 2, 2023, Return to the Kingdom of Fife is to be the warriors’ best output yet!
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Giovanni Mazzocchin – D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 2 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:05:42 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OnClassical
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) is one of the most original italian composers of the first half of the eighteenth century.
Born in Naples the same year as two other icons, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, Scarlatti’s enormous output includes 555 surviving keyboard sonatas, and can be considered an encyclopedia of literature of all time for its vastness, invention, and variety of writing.
Only a fraction of Scarlatti’s compositions were published during his lifetime: in 1738, Scarlatti oversaw the publication of 30 of his works, which he titled “Essercizi” (Exercises).
Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and some in early sonata form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes (only four for organ). Some of them display great audacity in the way dissonances and unconventional modulations to remote keys are used.
This album is part of a recording series, a growing project, created by our label and involving fifteen young pianists from all over the world.
The versatile pianist Giovanni Mazzocchin does not hesitate to entertain with rapid tempo and a brilliant touch. Nevertheless, the slower moments are treated with a serious, poetic, and never sentimental approach.
The recording was made using a couple of Sennheiser microphones (8000 series) and Prism Sound pres/converters.
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Giorgio Benati & Fausto Caporali – Langlais: Organ Music, Vol. 1 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 06:37:05 minutes | 6,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Brilliant Classics
Blind from the age of two, a prodigiously gifted student, Jean Langlais (1907-91) produced an immense quantity of music. His organ works alone exceed in number those of of JS Bach. Many have hardly ever been performed. Perhaps not more than half a dozen works are regularly played or recorded today, which is what makes this new complete survey of his organ music – the first ever attempted on record – both unique and invaluable, as the authoritative document of a high point in the distinguished lineage of the French organ heritage.
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Gianandrea Noseda, London Symphony Orchestra – Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 6 & 15 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:16:48 minutes | 2,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Following the success of his Fifth Symphony, all eyes were on Shostakovich to create a work that would measure up to its predecessor. The Sixth was originally intended as an immense musical monument to Lenin, to be woven with heroic melodies and folk songs. Instead his audiences were surprised to hear a quite different result—a contemplative, restrained first movement that morphs puzzlingly into a ferocious ending.
The Fifteenth is another of Shostakovich’s musical enigmas, with inexplicable quotes from music by Rossini, Glinka and Wagner dotted throughout, alongside references to his own music from his younger years. Written in 1970–71 when the composer’s health was declining, this final symphony is one of fond reflection.
Together these unconventional works showcase Shostakovich’s range as a composer—from wild exuberance to quiet introspection.
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Gerald Cleaver – 22 / 23 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:49:41 minutes | 1,64 GB | Genre: Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Positive Elevation – 577 Records
Gerald Cleaver’s newest album, 22/23, journeys through genre, exploring the future and recalling history, in his most place-based album yet. Born and raised in Detroit, Cleaver is a product of the Motor City’s rich musical history. Long the manufacturing capital of America, Detroit citizens have never been afraid of imagination: technological innovation, a strong labor movement, techno-utopianism or afrofuturism. This spirit of innovation is felt on Cleaver’s newest album, particularly on songs like ‘31 Julys’ which builds on dynamic house beats, or ‘Cake’ which employs saxophone to compose a careening jazz track. This marks Cleaver’s third record with 577 Records (and its sub-label Positive Elevation, dedicated to electronic experimentation and avant soul), following 2020’s ‘Signs,’ and his second album, ‘Griots.’ Here, Cleaver deftly combines his talent for electronic composition with a curious ear for the unpredictable, occasionally accompanied by singer Jean Carla Rodea. Cleaver has performed and recorded as a jazz drummer with a wide variety of artists, including Tommy Flanagan, Daniel Carter, Bill Frisell and more, contributing as a musician for nearly 20 years before exploring his own electronic-forward projects. His new album, 22/23, will be available on LP/CD/Digital in May 2023.
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Gaétan Jarry, Ensemble Marguerite Louise, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Caroline Arnaud – David & Jonathas (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:58:17 minutes | 2,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Château de Versailles Spectacles
A true Baroque dream: a performance of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s masterpiece David et Jonathas, one of the wonders of French Baroque opera, can be experienced here in the Palace Chapel of Versailles, and as a CD recording and DVD production! in 1688, this dramatic version of the fateful love between David and Jonathan was first heard at the Jesuit school Louis-le-Grand. The intense emotions of the piece can be experienced even more intensely on the DVD through the staging, the stage design and the costumes under the rousing direction of Gaétan Jarry.
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Fritz Reiner – Fritz Reiner conducts Dances (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:47 minutes | 801 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Archipel
Fritz Reiner, who came from an assimilated Jewish family in Pest, studied law at the University of Budapest for a few years at his father’s insistence before attending the Franz Liszt Academy of Music to study piano with István Thomán and composition with Hans Koessler. A répétiteur at the Budapest Opera since 1909, he made his conducting debut there in 1910 when he stood in for a colleague who had fallen ill and successfully took over a performance of Carmen. He was then appointed first conductor at the Ljubljana Opera. From 1911 to 1914 he was a member of the Budapest People’s Opera, where he conducted, among other works, Parsifal.
He probably received his most important imprint in Dresden, where he served as court conductor from 1914 to 1921. He learned his musical craft in evening opera and concert conductorships at the Dresden Opera. In those years he worked a lot with Richard Strauss. Among other things, Reiner conducted the German premiere of Die Frau ohne Schatten here. He conducted the Sächsische Staatskapelle and had guest engagements in Rome and Barcelona.
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Freiburger Barockorchester & Pablo Heras-Casado – Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 “Unfinished” (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:26 minutes | 904 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
If the shadow of Mozart still haunts Schubert’s Symphony no.5, the Seventh (in no way ‘unfinished’ in the eyes of its creator) already looks far into the future. Pablo Heras-Casado and the musicians of the Freiburger Barockorchester lead us towards that Romantic élan. Their flexible approach, keen and swift in the earlier symphony, making room for shadows and mystery in its successor, meets the challenge of bringing out the contrast between these ‘two Schuberts’, here more audible than ever.
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