This release sounds fantastic. Thanks for highlighting it.Superb!
Thomas Dunford, Lea Desandre & Jupiter - Songs of Passion 2025
https://tidal.com/album/44525583
"With Songs of Passion, a collection of vocal and instrumental music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell – English composers born nearly a century apart – mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, lutenist Thomas Dunford and Ensemble Jupiter have created a companion to their previous Erato albums, Eternal Heaven, Idylle and Amazone. Making guest appearances on Songs of Passion are four further singers of the rising generation: baritone (and Erato artist) Huw Montague Rendall, contralto Jess Dandy, tenor Laurence Kilsby and bass Alex Rosen. Dowland is known for his intimate evocations of amorous melancholy in his writing for voice and for lute, while the music of Purcell – the greatest British-born composer of the Baroque era – encompasses a rich diversity of moods and emotions. To the fore on Songs of Passion are two of Purcell’s works for the stage: The Fairy Queen and Dido and Aeneas. Dido’s famous lament, ‘When I am laid in earth’, forms the climax of the album". ©
What is new in my music library? (recent purchases I enjoy)
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Jakob Bro and Midori Takada - あなたに出会うまで – Until I Met You (2025)
In a new duo collaboration that defies conventions and background, Midori Takada and Jakob Bro took up residence in Tokyo’s Avaco Studios to record their first album, あなたに出会うまで / Until I Met You.
The title, taken from a Midori Takada composition, refers to the spiritual bond that arises in every new friendship, whether in music or in life.
Until I Met You is pure acoustic music, a tapestry of dreamlike compositions with beautiful melodies that sees ambient music icon Midori Takada on grand piano, marimba and various percussion instruments and acclaimed Danish composer Jakob Bro on the acoustic guitar.
Although somewhat unexpected choices of instruments, Takada and Bro share the affinity of openness and exploring sound as source material. Taking a step deeper beyond musical training, cultural background and age difference (which also would be besides the point since Midori Takada is by Bro considered forever young at heart, and Bro himself is nearly fluent in Japanese language), Until I Met You is its own ecosystem, a gesture of unity and worldbuilding.
“I try to express myself with sound and have no ambition with my instrument other than to create moments of beauty with my fellow collaborators. I see Midori Takada as someone who can do exactly this. Turn a moment of nothing into something,” says Jakob Bro.
Midori Takada (b. 1951) is a percussionist, composer and performance artist, whose output over the past 50 years weaves through solo, group and theatrical practices. Considered a rebel in the classical world of music, she debuted as soloist in 1978 with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, but later abandoned her Western classical training to study drumming in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire and Gamelan music of Indonesia, and composing works that incorporate the structures of traditional music. She has also worked extensively with improvised music and appeared in numerous productions by the world-renowned director Tadashi Suzuki. As an environmental musician, she has created soundscapes for the Art Institute of Chicago and the Victoria & Albert Museum in the United Kingdom.
Her landmark album, Through The Looking Glass (1983) is considered an essential recording of minimalist music in chime with the peak period ambient and fourth world musics explored by Jon Hassell, Don Cherry and Brian Eno, but born of a distinctly Japanese ceremonial and meditative musical sensibility. The LP reissue sparked a series of sold out solo performances across Europe and the U.S., including the London Barbican, Paris Palais de Tokyo, Berlin Hebbel am Ufer, The Kitchen in New York, and the Getty Centre in Los Angeles.
Nearly 45 years after her first soloist performance with the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, almost as if by fate Takada began her collaboration with Jakob Bro with a 2022 commission by Pierre Boulez Saal, resulting in two improvised concerts in Berlin and Copenhagen. These encounters also led to meeting Nordic greats such as Palle Mikkelborg, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvær, Jesper Zeuthen, Anja Lechner, and a performance at the World Expo in Osaka.
Jakob Bro (b. 1978) is a guitarist and composer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has recorded more than 20 albums as a bandleader with artists such as Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian, Charles Lloyd and many others, and his various ensembles are depicted in the award-winning film “Music for Black Pigeons” (dir. by Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed), which premiered at the Venice Biennale and has been featured at film festivals around the world. Since 2020 Jakob Bro has had a yearly stint at New York’s Village Vanguard, and he frequently performs in Japan.
“Jakob Bro creates magical music, impossible to categorize or capture. His songs are best described as jewels revolving in mid-air, reflecting and refracting light,” writes Downbeat. “Based on an idea of the slow, simple melody and a nearly Buddhist ideal of relinquishing the ego, Jakob Bro has lifted jazz into a new future,” Danish newspaper Politiken adds. It is Bro’s conviction that “the music has to breathe. It’s important that a kind of organic conversation is taking place.”
The Bro–Takada collaboration began with a commission from Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. They have played World Expo in Osaka and are set to perform at festivals across Europe and Japan in the coming year."©
Midori Takada: Percussion, Piano & Marimba
Jakob Bro: Acoustic Guitar
The Divine Comedy - Rainy Sunday Afternoon 2025
FANTASTIC RELEASE!
"Recorded at Abbey Road in autumn of 2024, Rainy Sunday Afternoon' is The Divine Comedy's thirteenth album and their first studio album since 2019's Office Politics. The band's Neil Hannon most recently wrote the original songs for the Warner Bros blockbuster Wonka. Neil says: "My musical output is, for better or worse, a representation of my personality. A good chunk of that personality revels in the rumbumptious; celebrates the silly. And I made ample use of that for the Wonka songs. I have though, like everyone, a darker, more melancholy side. And for one reason or another it has been much in evidence of late. I needed to use this album as an outlet for those feelings. To work through some stuff. Mortality; memories; relationships; political and social upheaval. Everyone should get to make an orchestral pop album once in a while. It should be available on the NHS." One listen to Rainy Sunday Afternoon will certainly provide a tonic for these turbulent times. Two listens and you'll be addicted."©
I just want to remind everyone how great this album is. Worth refreshing the memory if you haven’t listened to in a while, imo.
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Chorus & Vasily Petrenko - Rachmaninoff: The Bells - Elgar: Falstaff
Excellent releease!
To inaugurate their collaboration with harmonia mundi, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have recorded a programme as subtle as it is unexpected, with two seldom-heard masterpieces of 1913. From the bitingly ironic Shakespearian portrait of an ageing knight (Falstaff), to an existential meditation inspired by Poe (The Bells), both these ‘literary’ scores dramatically prolong the enchantments of a dying romanticism.©
Zehetmair Quartett – Johannes Brahms: Streichquartette op. 51. New release on the ECM New Series!
A central fixture in the world of string quartets for the past thirty years, the Zehetmair Quartett’s ECM recordings of Schumann, Hindemith, Bartók and Hartmann have received luminous praise — Gramophone lauded their Schumann as “Record of the Year”, while The Sunday Times described their Hindemith and Bartók performances as “playing of huge finesse in both pieces,” calling them “a real benchmark”.
For this this newest entry to their New Series catalogue, the quartet turns to Johannes Brahms’s first two string quartets, Op. 51 Nos. 1 and 2 — works of mature reflection and dramatic urgency that reveal Brahms’s mastery of form. The composer had after all written over 20 quartets prior two these two, as he confided to a close friend. But Brahms torched them all, making these his first two of a total three published quartets.
Recorded with the Zehetmair Quartett’s characteristic intensity, from-memory freedom, and richly expressive depth, the performances promise fresh and deeply felt readings of these cornerstone chamber works. Regrettably, it is the last of the quartet’s recordings to feature cellist Christian Elliott (1984-2025). “It was a joy to work with him on the ever-changing character of the voices, to sense the meaning of every phrase and bring it to life. The void he leaves behind is painful – Christian, we miss you.” — ECM ©
For this this newest entry to their New Series catalogue, the quartet turns to Johannes Brahms’s first two string quartets, Op. 51 Nos. 1 and 2 — works of mature reflection and dramatic urgency that reveal Brahms’s mastery of form. The composer had after all written over 20 quartets prior two these two, as he confided to a close friend. But Brahms torched them all, making these his first two of a total three published quartets.
Recorded with the Zehetmair Quartett’s characteristic intensity, from-memory freedom, and richly expressive depth, the performances promise fresh and deeply felt readings of these cornerstone chamber works. Regrettably, it is the last of the quartet’s recordings to feature cellist Christian Elliott (1984-2025). “It was a joy to work with him on the ever-changing character of the voices, to sense the meaning of every phrase and bring it to life. The void he leaves behind is painful – Christian, we miss you.” — ECM ©
Meredith Monk – Cellular Songs (2025)
A legend returns! On the ECM New Series.
“Cooperation, interdependence and kindness” are the qualities that Meredith Monk emphasizes in Cellular Songs, “as an antidote to the values that are being propagated right now.” Of the work’s premiere performance the New York Times wrote, “Ms. Monk spun together divergent elements so fluidly that it created an unmistakable sense of hope. It’s much easier to conceive of bridging public divides — or even containing multitudes, as an individual — when you witness a synthesis like the one created in Cellular Songs.”
The second part of an interdisciplinary trilogy begun with On Behalf of Nature, Cellular Songs looks inward, at the fabric of life itself, and draws inspiration from cellular activity including replication and mutation, in the course of some of Meredith Monk’s most adventurous vocal music. The composer describes her process in spatial terms: “Earlier, my music had much more to do with layering. Now you can almost see or hear the piece rotating as if it were a sculpture in space.”
Recorded at New York’s Power Station in 2022 and 2024, Cellular Songs is Meredith Monk’s thirteenth album for ECM New Series. ECM©
A legend returns! On the ECM New Series.
The second part of an interdisciplinary trilogy begun with On Behalf of Nature, Cellular Songs looks inward, at the fabric of life itself, and draws inspiration from cellular activity including replication and mutation, in the course of some of Meredith Monk’s most adventurous vocal music. The composer describes her process in spatial terms: “Earlier, my music had much more to do with layering. Now you can almost see or hear the piece rotating as if it were a sculpture in space.”
Recorded at New York’s Power Station in 2022 and 2024, Cellular Songs is Meredith Monk’s thirteenth album for ECM New Series. ECM©
Guillaume Coppola - Satie amoureux Excellent album!
"We know Satie as a loner, but it is less well known that Satie had also been in love. He had a brief and stormy affair with the painter Suzanne Valadon. The portrait she made of him is on the cover of this album, as pianist Guillaume Coppola has conceived it as an intimate portrait of the composer, one masked by a veil of modesty or provocation and which lies between antique and oriental inspiration, mystical phases, humour and cabaret. The miniature Bonjour Biqui and the motif of the Vexations possess rare allusions to Valadon and become commas between these chapters, as does Désespoir agréable, whose title alone seems to sum up Satie's life and work.
This tribute is released to mark the centenary of Satie’s death; whilst the famous Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes feature on the programme, the album also presents rare and infrequently recorded discoveries that testify to the richness of the works that the whimsical Satie had created. "©
Guillaume Coppola - Musiques du silence
"Música Callada – The Music of Silence. Is this a provocation? A challenge? Or perhaps a stylistic exercise? For Mompou, none of all that was the case. He was simply reacting against his time, taking refuge from it, and he considered this solo piano cycle to be his most accomplished work. His universe is based on the mystical framework he constructs around one of the verses of the Spiritual Canticle of St John of the Cross: ‘Night stilled at the awakening of dawn, hushed music, echoing solitude...’ ‘With this fascinating world as the starting point,’ explains Guillaume Coppola, ‘I wanted to reflect it in the mirror of more “music of silence”: partly by choosing works by composers whose influence Mompou had personally acknowledged, partly by freely associating other pieces that seem to share this world and to respond to each other.’"©
Amihai Grosz, Le Concert de la Loge & Julien Chauvin - Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, Symphony No. 39 & Così Fan Tutte Overture
Another very good release from Alpha records. Recording quality is excellent as usual!
"The Simply Mozart adventure, dedicated to his last three symphonies, comes to an end with this third volume and the 39th symphony. The programme also includes the overture to Così fan tutte ("a statement of the opera in miniature", according to Julien Chauvin) and the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola. Composed one year after Mozart's second trip to Paris, the Sinfonia concertante was directly inspired by the Parisian practice of having several soloists enter into dialogue with the orchestra; this was very much in vogue at the end of the 18th century. "Mozart left his mark on us and on our hearts with its second movement, one of the most poignant that he was ever to write," says Julien Chauvin; here his violin dialogues happily with the viola of Amihai Grosz, who has already made two recordings for Alpha Classics."©
Sarah Kate Morgan & Leo Shannon - Featherbed
" Sarah Kate Morgan, a mountain dulcimer player, and fiddler Leo Shannon are traditional musicians who live and teach in Eastern Kentucky. Leo learned to play the fiddle in Seattle, while Sarah Kate has been playing the dulcimer, an instrument built by her grandfather, since she was seven, and writes songs about life in Southern Appalachia and her childhood in East Tennessee. Both musicians are actively involved in preserving and transmitting traditional music, as they co-run the Pick & Bow program in Eastern Kentucky, which offers free traditional music lessons to over 80 students. Their collection of recordings titled Featherbed includes both concert recordings from Virginia and Kentucky and tracks recorded in Leo's home. On two of the tracks, they are joined by David McKindley-Ward on bouzouki and harmony vocals."©
Lilia Boyadjieva - Around the Fugue
"Perhaps you've always hoped a keyboardist would mount a program like this, exploring the meaning of the fugue (or, more specifically, the prelude and fugue) as it has recurred throughout musical history since Bach's time. Even if Bulgarian-French pianist Lilia Boyadjieva doesn't address the issues exactly rigorously, it's still intriguing to hear the fugues roll by, shaped in their conceptions by their Romantic and then their modern surroundings. Boyadjieva is at her best when she's displaying sheer power; she seems to specialize in the post-Romantics and made her reputation with, of all people, Samuel Barber. In the Liszt Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H she is riveting, and even more compelling is a little-heard work that demands power in the extreme: Rodion Shchedrin's Prelude and Fugue in G minor for the left hand. She also overwhelms the fugue in Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903, dispelling what should have been a clean establishment of Bach as the reference point for all these composers. The subtleties of Franck's Prelude, Choral, and Fugue also elude Boyadjieva; the central chorale doesn't have its proper feeling of repose. Her Mendelssohn and Shostakovich prelude-and-fugue pairs are edgy, agile, and a little bitter -- certainly defensible in Shostakovich's case, and a reading that makes one want to hear more of his works from this artist. One can easily imagine other ways of executing Boyadjieva's idea here, but this is still an enjoyable recording that would make a fine gift for anyone (and everybody knows one) who "likes fugues."©
Gregory Corso - DIE ON ME
New release: spoken word, avant garde jazz, very special!
"The album 'DIE ON ME' is a historic collection, released for the first time on vinyl (originally on CD in 2002), which features the last voice recordings of the legendary Beat poet Gregory Corso (1930–2001), remastered and newly edited by Kramer. The recordings include archival material from 1959, as well as intimate conversations with Corso recorded by Hal Willner in January 2001, shortly before the poet's death on January 17th. In these raw recordings, Corso muses on his life, discussing and reciting his most beloved poems in conversation with friends, including Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Faithfull, and Studs Terkel. Marianne Faithfull also graces him with her own recitations of his poems.
Gregory Corso was the youngest and one of the most prominent members of the Beat generation, alongside Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who considered Corso to be a "far greater poet." Despite a traumatic childhood, he self-educated and developed a unique poetic style that combined classical and modern language. His first book, 'The Vestal Lady on Brattle,' was published in 1955. 'DIE ON ME' is positioned as a unique compendium of the works of this underappreciated master of American poetry. Producer Hal Willner noted that the record felt divinely guided and expressed pride in how it came together. Corso's ashes were laid to rest in Rome on May 5th, 2001, near the graves of Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats."©
Peter Gordon, David Cunningham - The Yellow Box
Essential for fans of avant rock, Krautrock, Holger Czukay & Can !
"The album The Yellow Box is a collaborative project by trans-Atlantic musicians David Cunningham and Peter Gordon, who initially connected in the late 1970s through a shared interest in postmodern deconstruction and poptimism, building on their earlier work on the Flying Lizards' fourth wall. Conceived as a structural repurposing of music as untethered puzzle pieces without predetermined outcomes, the album took nearly two years to complete (1981–1983) and featured drummer Anton Fier (The Feelies/Lounge Lizards) and bassist John Greaves (Henry Cow/Soft Heap). The recording remained a "lost treasure" until its eventual release on Cunningham’s Piano imprint in 1996. The cinematic and avant-garde album is filled with drifting drones, counter-melodies, eerie minimalism, Kraftwerkian synthesizers, looped voices, early sampling techniques, and prepared instruments. Compared to a sparser version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts or the experimental work of Can's Holger Czukay, the record stands as a conceptually complete work at the crossroads of time and technology, which has now been re-released over 40 years later."©
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Krzysztof Urbański - Górecki 3
"One of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s most renowned and deeply moving works has now received a remarkable new recording. In June this year, the National Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Krzysztof Urbański, together with three soloists – Michał Sławecki (countertenor), Edyta Krzemień (soprano), and Anna Federowicz (soprano) – recorded the Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs).
The album Górecki 3 has been released both on vinyl (LP) and compact disc (CD), marking a significant event on the musical and recording scene. Krzysztof Urbański’s interpretation brings a fresh perspective to this three-movement masterpiece written for soprano solo and orchestra: “Three songs. Three women. Three voices. (…) To emphasize the authenticity of each story, I took an unconventional step: instead of entrusting all three movements to a single soprano, I invited three different singers. (…) Their presence allows each movement of the symphony to speak as a distinct human voice – profound and sincere." “Conducting this work is an experience unlike any other (…) something greater, something mystical” the maestro admits. And he asks: “Let the music simply flow through you. Let this be a moment of contemplation, undisturbed by anything. Don’t just listen – feel.”©
Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings, David Blackadder - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2, 3 & 5 Live Recording
Aksak Maboul - Before Aksak Maboul (documents & experiments 1969-1977)
"Belgium’s avant-rock legends explore their prehistory in a special archival project. Retrieved from long-forgotten reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes, this collection of previously-unreleased tracks unveils some of the meanders which eventually led to the inception of Aksak Maboul in 1977. These 17 tracks and 80 minutes of music will take us for a stroll through moments of free rock, improv, quasi-kraut, modular & ambient electronics, and various experiments. Out on November 21 on digital, limited-edition vinyl & CD incl. booklets full of stories and old documents."©
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