Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly – Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly – Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 46:29 minutes | 902 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music is nine songs written by Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) and Nico Muhly plus three gamelan transcriptions by ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee, which inspired the new songs. Bartlett and Muhly play pianos and keyboards on the album, and Bartlett sings, joined by other musicians on strings and metallic pitched percussion. McPhee recorded a suite of Balinese ceremonial music with Benjamin Britten in 1941. Muhly says: “The project is named after Peter Pears, who was Britten’s partner and also an observer and collaborator of a larger community of musicians, writers, and thinkers.”

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Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, James McAlister – Planetarium (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, James McAlister - Planetarium (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, James McAlister – Planetarium (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:16:06 minutes | 803 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD

In 2013, Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner of The National, Nico Muhly and drummer James McAlister took to the stage with a string quartet to perform a project inspired by the solar system. A pretext as good as any other for discovering, once again, the gifts of the talented melodist Sufjan Stevens. Four years later, this adventure, entitled Planetarium has been committed to vinyl. The good news is that the cosmos conjured up by the indy supergroup never falls into the trap of sounding like a chin-stroking new age soundtrack. No, each composition can be enjoyed independently, like a little planet unto itself. And indeed the tracks on the album take their names from the planets of the solar system (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto…) moving from pop to prog rock, from electro to neo-classical, with true grace. An original and inspiring record.
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Nico Muhly & Teitur – Confessions (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Nico Muhly & Teitur – Confessions (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 47:36 minutes | 508 MB | Genre: Modern Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

‘Confessions’ is a collaboration between the acclaimed American composer Nico Muhly and the Faroese singer/songwriter Teitur. The two musicians began work on the project when Muhly was composer-in-residence at Muziekgebouw Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The songs’ lyrics were inspired by or culled from video and commentary the pair found on YouTube. Muhly and Teitur will perform songs from the album with New York Baroque Incorporated at New York’s (le) Poisson Rouge on Friday, October 21, and with British Sinfonietta at Cadogan Hall in London on Saturday, October 29.

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Angela Chun, Jennifer Chun, Nico Muhly – Glass: In the summer house (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Angela Chun, Jennifer Chun, Nico Muhly – Glass: In the summer house (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 56:57 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

This recital of music, especially written or arranged for violinists Angela and Jennifer Chun, highlights the personal and professional connections between Philip Glass and Nico Muhly, a longtime colleague and admirer of Glass s work. Nico Muhly first listened to Philip Glass ‘Music in Twelve Parts’ in his freshman year of college, while riding the subway in New York. Within a year of that subway encounter, Muhly found himself working at Glass studio as a copyist, editor, and sequencer for film scores. Here Glass is presented not as the author of mammoth pieces like ‘Music in Twelve Parts’, but as a miniaturist; a role shared with Muhly, who rarely composes in epic mode. The making of this recording has been an inspiring journey for the Chung Duo: a 2009 meeting with the Dalai Lama affected the sisters deeply and led them to the music of Philip Glass, whose ‘Mad Rush’ (here transcribed by Alexandra du Bois for two violins) had been composed for His Holiness first visit to North America in 1981.

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Angela & Jennifer Chun – Glass: In the Summer House & Mad Rush – Muhly: 4 Studies & Honest Music (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Angela & Jennifer Chun – Glass: In the Summer House & Mad Rush – Muhly: 4 Studies & Honest Music (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 56:57 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

The music on this recital was specifically written or arranged for duo violinists Angela and Jennifer Chun. It highlights the personal and professional connections between Philip Glass and Nico Muhly, a longtime colleague and admirer of Glass’s work. Glass’s miniaturist works, Mad Rush and In the Summer House, create a maximum effect when paired with Muhly’s minimalist Four Studies and Honest Music.

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