"wolfgang Paul"

A thrilling return to the Techno-Pop sound that he helped to define with electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk between 1974's 'Autobahn' and 1986's 'Electric Café'An all new electronic album, 'Magazine 1', that has been crafted by Wolfgang Flür alongside some of the most famous names of synth-pop and electronic dance, past and present. Featuring Midge Ure (Ultravox), Peter Hook (New Order) and Claudia Brücken (Propaganda), alongside the legendary Techno DJ's Juan Atkins and Carl Cox and Electro-Pop titans U96, plus appearances by celebrated alternative electronic artists and composers Ramón Amezcua (AKA Bostich), MAPS and Anushka, adding just a frisson of deft contemporary nuance to the proceedings!Wolfgang Flür is the only surviving member of that classic Kraftwerk line-up who is currently making and releasing new music! No-one currently making Techno-pop records has Wolfgang Flür's career longevity and revered stature and, perhaps, no-one has ever made electronic records with such a warm and radical lyrical humanism. Songs that musically draw on a readily identifiable retro-electro palate, but which lyrically speak to us of our times, of our shared 'here and now' with a campaigning humanism that reflects on the challenges, disorientations and uncertainties of this unprecedented time of change.

An international summit meeting, “Travel Guide” features US guitarist Ralph Towner, Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Kazakhstan-born and Australia-raised guitarist Slava Grigoryan. Towner has been a key ECM recording artist for more than 40 years, while Muthspiel and Grigoryan make label debuts here. Grigoryan is well known as the preeminent Australian classical guitarist of his generation, and Muthspiel’s been an important figure on the transatlantic jazz scene for two decades, with his own bands and as a contributor to groups of Gary Burton, Paul Motian and many others. What all three guitarists share is a strong feeling for structure, a sense for lyrical improvisation and a feeling for space, harnessing instrumental technique to very graceful musical ends. Repertoire features five compositions by Towner, and five by Muthspiel.

A Czech maestro in his element: the complete Philips and Deutsche Grammophon albums of Karel Ancerl collected as a single edition to mark the 50th anniversary of his death (3 July 1973).

A time there was when concert programmes comprised a merry medley of music high and low, the short and sweet alongside the longer and the lofty. That changed in the second half of the 19th century, when Richard Wagner and others introduced the concept of the “symphony concert”, usually in three weighty parts, namely an overture, a solo concerto and a symphony. With today’s emphasis on “music communication”, things seem to have gone full circle.

Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel makes his ECM leader debut with Driftwood, a trio album of subtlety and depth featuring renowned US jazz players Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade. The group creates a ravishing sound, captured with fidelity at Rainbow Studio in Oslo. Lyrical, grooving and atmospheric by turns, the guitarist's compositions on this highly attractive recording include tributes to his heroes Joe Zawinul and Michael Brecker.

It scarcely feels necessary to mention the pre-eminent status of all four of these artists, because that is evident from hearing the music. When Nils Landgren brings such feeling to his own melody “Le chat sur le toit”, or when Michael Wollny dazzles with the blues-infused piano solo in “Lady Madonna”; when “Polygon” opens with a bass intro from Lars Danielsson, or when Wolfgang Haffner sets up the power groove to propel “4WD”, then it’s clear what’s happening: four leading figures in European jazz who know each other well and who have appreciated each other’s work for many years have now got together. True, their paths have crossed many times before, and in all kinds of configurations.

Drummer Wolfgang Haffner is one of Germany's most respected and experienced jazz musicians: his 30 year career features recordings with Al Cohn, Joe Pass and Till Bronner as well as numerous albums as leader. On Kind Of Cool he's joined by an excellent line-up of European jazzers, including pianist Jan Lundgren and trombonist Nils Landgren: their mix of classics and Haffner originals is a delight from first note to last.

James Dean and Marlon Brando were the glamorous heroes of the silver screen in the 50s. Character actors, sex symbols, blasé eccentrics with a penchant for extravagance. Role models for the rebellious youth: the embodiment of cool. A new attitude towards life was spreading around the USA. 'The Birth of the Cool' also happened at the same time in the field of jazz, leading it to become the soundtrack of a generation. Miles Davis, John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet, Dave Brubeck and Chet Baker (the 'James Dean of jazz') gave jazz a whole new direction: the search for a special 'cool' atmosphere based on tone and space in jazz, on substantial melodies with a laid-back approach designed for the collective. But this music was never cold-cool, it was merely played and conceived with what one might call a cool head.