Alessandra Hazard Straight Boy

Order Straight No Chaser’s new album One Shot, featuring a mashup of two of Straight No Chaser’s favorites “MotownPhilly/This Is How We Do It”, "Homeward Bound", and "When A Man Loves A Woman"! Straight No Chaser (SNC) is a professional a cappella group which originated in 1996 at Indiana University. In 2007, a 1998 video of "The 12 Days of Christmas", went viral with over 8 million views and subsequently led to a five-album record deal with Atlantic Records in 2008. In 2009, Atlantic Records SNC won the CARA award for Best Holiday Album (Holiday Spirits) and was nominated for Best Holiday Song ("Carol Of The Bells" on Holiday Spirits).

Although the name may not be familiar to many, Big Boy Pete (aka Pete Miller) has been flogging around the music scene for nearly five decades. He first played in a rock & roll band called the Offbeats, who recorded an EP in 1958, and in 1961, he joined the beat group Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers. With the Jaywalkers, he recorded a number of singles, which were produced by Joe Meek, from whom Pete learned many new and innovative recording techniques. In 1965, he quit the band to concentrate on recording solo projects, and turned to session work to support his recording career. During this period, he became a part-time member of the legendary underground freakbeat band the News, while continuing to write songs for Britain's major publishing houses…

In Above the Sky non ci sono mezzi termini, è forse il mio album più “estremo”, nel quale la mia passione per il vuoto non concede spazio ad alcun compromesso; pur mantenendo, come nei miei precedenti lavori, l’elemento melodico, il mio interesse va diritto all’essenza del suono, alla musica intesa come colore puro e sperimentazione timbrica.

Alessandro Grandi - born in Venice in 1590 - was an extremely precocious talent. Appointed deputy of Monteverdi in 1627 in Saint Mark’s Basilica, he is regarded by scholars as “the greatest motet composer of his time”. After the highly praised Grandi’s motets album “Celesti fiori” (A464), Accademia d’Arcadia now presents Lætatus sum: a selection from the three extant Psalms collections. Grandi ventured in the field of Psalms with large-scale writing only at the end of his life, his collections of Psalms were undoubtedly intended for grand occasions: the relationship between soloists, tutti, and instruments is very modern, as successive portions of the text are set in sharply contrasting textures and styles. Recorded in the sumptuous Palladian church of San Francesco della Vigna in Venice, this recording features magnificent and compelling masterpieces by an author considered by his contemporaries as equal to Monteverdi in the field of sacred music.