Stereolab – Pulse Of The Early Brain [Switched On Volume 5] (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:27:19 minutes | 1,82 GB | Genre: Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Duophonic UHF Disks – Warp Records
Whereas earlier editions cleanly wrapped up singles, EP tracks, compilations appearances, and other non-album effluvia of a specific era, Pulse of the Early Brain, the fifth installment of Stereolab’s odds-and-sods series spans almost the entirety of the band’s original, pre-2019 reunion existence, making for a notably less sonically cohesive collection. And, as if to forewarn casual listeners that this edition of Switched On is not for the faint of heart, the first 30-plus minutes are just two tracks, both of which are motorik jams recontextualized by/with Nurse With Wound. Despite their length and unapologetic weirdness, though, “Simple Headphone Mind” and “Trippin’ With The Birds” are some of the bravest and most rewarding chunks of space-rock you’ll ever hear. Though Pulse of the Early Brain seems to be a final clearinghouse effort to collect random remains into a relatively tidy package some of the material is nonetheless just as refreshing as that of the first four volumes, whether due to rarity or revelation. After the first half-hour, you’ll remember why these compilations have been so essential for Stereolab fans, as the set bounces around from late-era space-pop (2008’s “Spool of Collusion”), grinding paleo-psychedelia (a 1996 cover of “ABC,” from the Godz’ third album), a previously unreleased live track (“Cybele’s Reverie,” recorded at the Hollywood Bowl in 2004, when the band opened for Air), and a mixed bag of buried rarities (“Robot Riot” is part of the second collaboration the group did with sculptor Charles Long) and true castaways (a minute-long split-single track called “Yes Sir! I Can Moogie” which is a truncated and stripped-back version of “Moogie Wonderland”).
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Stéphanie Moraly, Orchestre de la garde Républicaine, Romain David, Sébastien Billard – Tomasi: Complete Violin Works (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:48 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
2022 opened with the broadcast of two new documentary films directed by Paul Rognoni for FR3-Corse-Via Stella. One, Requiem pour un oubli, A Requiem to forget, is a biographical overview based on interviews with the composer, whose voice and musical extracts alone form the soundtrack; the second is an audio-visual recording of the Requiem for Peace in concert at the Sorbonne’s Grand Amphitheatre on 30 November, performed by the Sorbonne University Choir and Orchestra (COSU), directed by Nicolas Agullo. These films extend the tributes paid to Henri Tomasi in 2021 for the fiftieth anniversary of his death and the 120th anniversary of his birth. A second international colloquium was also held at the Sorbonne with the help of the IREMUS (program et talks).
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Step By Step – I Always Wanted to Be in the Band (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:27 minutes | 432 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Crimson
Groovy little funky band from Milwaukee, with a brassy sound that’s a bit like the T.S.U. Tornadoes, but with more vocals. The title cut’s a nice goofy track that starts with some guy havin’ a fight with his old lady about being in a band, and there’s a lot of other nice groovers with this sort of uptempo, upbeat funky style. Other cuts include ‘Cash Money’, ‘I Am A Lonely Man’, and ‘Cool Days Are Out Of Style’.
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Stella Donnelly – Flood (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:54 minutes | 748 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Folk, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Secretly Canadian
Like the many Banded Stilts that spread across the cover of her newest album Flood, Stella Donnelly is wading into uncharted territory. Here, she finds herself discovering who she is as an artist among the flock, and how abundant one individual can be. Flood is Donnelly’s record of this rediscovery: the product of months of risky experimentation, hard moments of introspection, and a lot of moving around.
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Stein Urheim – Utopian Tales (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:16 minutes | 404 MB | Genre: Jazz, Experimental
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hubro
‘Utopian Tales’ offers strange yet beautiful soundscapes inspired by microtonality – the little gaps between the notes. Just as the rigid divisions of the well-tempered scale in Western music mirrored hierarchical structures in society at large, so microtonal music, which uses intervals smaller than a semi-tone, can be reflective of a freer and more fluid social order. Urheim´s ‘Utopian Tales’ takes this overlap between music and society as its subject, creating a richly imaginative riverine meander through multiple ideas and associations, drawing on references from speculative science fiction and countercultural communities to alternative art, architecture and philosophy. Musically, the journey covers an equally ambitious expanse of territory, touching on aspects of acoustic Americana through Urheim’s expert slide guitar playing, together with ambient electronic soundscapes and various diversions into contrasting musical cultures, with everything grounded by the unifying aesthetic of state-of-the-art contemporary jazz from a specially formed ensemble, The Cosmolodic Orchestra.
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Stein Urheim – Stein Urheim (2014/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 40:17 minutes | 417 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hubro
Things are looking up for Bergen-based Stein Urheim, a musician who, on the basis of Stein Urheim—his second release on Hubro after the vinyl/download-only Kosmolodi (2012) and third as a leader following his 2009 debut, Three Sets of Music—seems interested in just about anything with strings…and a few without. Beyond his own career, which includes work with Gabriel Fliflet´s Åresong and a guest appearance on The Last Hurrah!’s 2011 Rune Grammofon debut, Spiritual Non- Believers, his Stein and Mari collaboration with Mari Kvien Brunvoll—an electro- acoustic singer who, since enthralling a group of international guests at a church showcase, continues to garner significant attention— has been gaining ground of its own, the duo’s sophomore record, Daydream Twin (Jazzland, 2013), narrowly missing out on a Spellemannprisen (Norwegian Grammy) ultimately awarded to singer Susanna Wallumrod’s admittedly stellar collaboration with Ensemble neoN, The Forester (Susanna Sonata, 2013).
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Stefano Bollani – El Chakracanta (Live in Buenos Aires) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:19 minutes | 655 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Legacy Recordings
El Chakracanta, Stefano Bollani’s new dynamic live album with two original works of his for piano and orchestra and two tangos by Ástor Piazzolla and Horacio Salgán.
Bollani’s “Concerto Azzurro” (2017) and “Concerto Verde” (2019), each classically structured in four movements of distinct character of melody and rhythm, are informed by Bollani’s jazz genius, favouring moments that disobey the rules that demand that a pianist shall stick to the rigorously immutable score. “Concerto Azzurro” [Azure Concerto] was commissioned by Kristjan Järvi and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. Azure is the colour of the fifth chakra, associated with self-expression and communication. “Concerto Verde” [Green Concerto] refers to the colour of the fourth chakra, associated with love. Both concertos were recorded live in Buenos Aires: “Azzurro” at Centro Cultural Kirchner on 17th June 2018; and “Verde”, next to Piazzolla’s “Libertango” and Salgán’s “Don Agustin Bardi”, at Teatro Coliseo on 19th June 2019. With Bollani (piano) and the Orquesta Sin Fin, directed by Exequiel Mantega.
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Stefan Askenase – Stefan Askenase Plays the Most Beautiful Nocturnes (Remastered 2022) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:36 minutes | 829 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Archipel
Stefan Askenase (* 10. Juli 1896 in Lemberg, Galizien, Österreich-Ungarn, heute Ukraine; † 18. Oktober 1985 in Bonn) war ein belgisch-polnischer Pianist.
Askenase wurde in Lwiw (Lemberg) in eine jüdische Familie geboren. Nach erstem Klavierunterricht durch seine Mutter (eine Studentin des Chopin-Schülers Karol von Mikuli) und durch Theodor Pollak war Stefan Askenase 1914/15 Schüler des Liszt-Schülers Emil von Sauer am Konservatorium Wien, später lehrte ihn Joseph Marx. Von 1916 bis 1918 nahm er am Ersten Weltkrieg teil, danach leitete er das Opernhaus von Lemberg. 1919 debütierte er in Wien, 1922 übernahm er eine Professur am Konservatorium in Kairo. Ab 1925 lebte er in Brüssel und widmete sich seiner 60 Jahre dauernden weltweiten Konzerttätigkeit. Von 1937 bis 1939 lehrte er am Konservatorium Rotterdam, von 1957 bis 1961 am Brüsseler Konservatorium. 1966 siedelte er nach Bonn über.
Berühmt für seine Interpretationen der Werke Chopins, hatte er ebenfalls besonderen Bezug zu Bach, Mozart und Haydn. In den 1950er Jahren nahm er zahlreiche Werke Chopins für die Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft auf.
Zu seinen Schülern gehörten u. a. Martha Argerich, László Gyimesi, John McKay, Sontraud Speidel, André Tchaikowsky und Mitsuko Uchida.
Read moreStatus Quo – Quo’ing in – The Best of the Noughties (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]
Status Quo – Quo’ing in – The Best of the Noughties (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:21:49 minutes | 2,82 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © earMUSIC
There are many compilations covering the productions by Status Quo in the 70s and 80s, the period when the big classics by the band were recorded. In the last 20 years, Status Quo continued to release chart albums, and pushed themselves to play in front of bigger and bigger audiences. To do this era justice, Quo’ing In – The Best of the Noughties is released as a 2CD Jewelcase, as well as a Limited Edition 3CD Deluxe Digipak featuring a bonus live-concert.
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Starcrawler – She Said (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:58 minutes | 672 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Big Machine Records
The band’s first album for a major label will come out on September 16 via Big Machine, and follows the release of new single ‘Roadkill’ last month.
The LA-based five-piece – comprising frontwoman Arrow De Wilde, guitarists Henri Cash and Bill Cash, drummer Seth Carolina and bassist Tim Franco – released their self-titled debut album in 2018, following it up the next year with ‘Devour You’.
Speaking about the new song in a statement, De Wilde said: “’She Said’ was one of the first songs written for this album. It was at the beginning of the pandemic and Henri came to my window and played me the demo, and we wrote the lyrics together like Romeo and Juliet.
“It’s what really kicked off the writing process of this album, and it was such a powerful moment that we wanted to name the record after that song.”
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St. Paul Peterson – Break on Free (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 54:55 minutes | 660 MB | Genre: Soul, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Leopard
Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and producer Paul Peterson, a former keyboardist of The Time, leader of The Family and fDeluxe and protege of Prince, serves up a greasy slice of The Minneapolis Sound on ‘Break on Free’, his fifth album as a leader and debut for Leopard Records.
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Squalls – Live From The 40 Watt (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:50 minutes | 1,46 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Strolling Bones Records
Squalls were a band who came from the same rich Athens, GA scene as The B-52’s, Pylon, R.E.M., and Love Tractor, but played their own brand of quirky pop with their own unique sound. Equal parts Lovin’ Spoonful, Grateful Dead and Talking Heads, they got many a person up on the dance floor. From 1981 to 1989, Squalls rocked Athens and made several tours of the South, the Midwest, and East coast cities including several shows at New York City clubs CBGB, Danceteria, and Peppermint Lounge. They released 4 recordings and were included in the 1986 movie Athens, GA: Inside/Out. The band also played at the legendary Athens 40 Watt Club 64 times during their heyday.
Squalls Live from the 40 Watt is a collection of 24 tracks recorded by 40 Watt Club soundman, T. Patton Biddle, and selected from five early 1980s shows.
Live from the 40 Watt is set for release on August 19, 2022 via Strolling Bones Records.
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Spiritato & Kinga Ujszászi – 17th-Century Sonatas from the Düben Collection (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:28 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2022 Delphian Records Ltd.
Between 1640 and 1720 the immigrant German Düben family produced three generations of Capellmeisters at Sweden’s wealthy and fashionable Royal Court, where they amassed a huge collection of printed music and manuscripts.The meticulous cataloguing of this collection at Uppsala University has allowed Spiritato’s Kinga Ujszászi to fulfil the ensemble’s avowed aim of exploring a vast and little-known repertory. Of particular interest to the group was music that appears to show the first collaborations of the royal Capelle with the separate trumpet corps, bringing trumpets into the context of courtly music and allowing the players to push the boundaries of their instruments and skills.
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Spencer Zweifel Bobby Wiens Seth Lewis – Let’s Call This (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:45 minutes | 918 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ZWL Productions
Spencer Zweifel began playing piano at a young age, and started to really pursue it after being inspired by his musical family. Growing up in Fort Collins, CO, Spencer had the opportunity to become part of the area music scene early in life, and started his first jazz group at the age of 16. In 2020 Spencer formed his own quintet and recorded ‘Backwoods Fancy,’ which was released in early 2021.
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Soul Bossa Trio – Dancing in the Street (1995/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:56 minutes | 508 MB | Genre: Latin Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 99 Records
Soul Bossa Trio formed by Tokyo acid jazz maven Gonzalez Suzuki, Soul Bossa Trio recorded several albums of refreshing, exploratory jazz with a debt to fusion and Brazilian jazz but a sparkling sense of interplay often lacking in their club-centered contemporaries. Suzuki was originally a member of Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys, Japanese jazz-pop favorites during the ’80s.
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