Ascension

UK band Nth Ascension was formed in 2009, originally using the moniker Nth Degree, and solidified as a band unit in 2010. An initial demo was released in 2011, and in 2014 they signed to UK label Sonic Vista for the release of their official debut album "Ascension of Kings". In 2016 they left their former label to sign up for US label Melodic Revolution Records, who released their sophomore production "In Fine Initium". Nth Ascension is very much an English band, exploring landscapes and sounds that were invented and developed on the British Isles. Melodic, powerful progressive rock is the name of the game here, and then by and large explored inside a neo progressive general context. Their take on the genre is one that relies heavily on alternating, contrasting arrangements and a striking lead vocalist further enhancing the dramatic aspects of the compositions.

This band hails from the UK and produces the kind of Neo-Prog that made the country proud back in the 1980s and 90s. The guys cite different references, with the likes of Marillion, Genesis, Yes, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Rush, Dream Theater and Pink Floyd being mentioned, but they have taken all those elements and then built them into something which is very much of their own design. Musically this is highly arranged Neo-Prog which also straddles at times into melodic hard rock and symphonic prog, by a band who are determined people are not going to forget the "rock" side of the terminology.

“Songs of Ascension” is a major new recording from composer Meredith Monk and her vocal ensemble. Written in 2008, it is conceived as a continuous composition, a departure from Monk’s earlier collaged or episodic extended works. In recent years Meredith Monk’s been expanding into the worlds of orchestra and string quartet. On “Songs of Ascension” she teams up with a string quartet of New York players well versed in new music. With winds, percussion and two vocal groups added to her already extraordinary singers, this is one of Monk’s most musically ambitious ventures. Voices and instruments are paired and balanced against each other to an extent rare in her music.

The Ascension is the eighth studio album from singer, songwriter and composer Sufjan Stevens and is the long awaited follow-up to Stevens' Carrie abd Lowell. In the time between Carrie and Lowell and The Ascension, Stevens also released Oscar-nominated music for the Luca Guadagnino film Call Me By Your Name; a collaborative album entitled Planetarium with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner (The National) and James Mcalister; The Decalogue, a solo piano work performed by Timo Andres; and scored several works for ballet: Reflections (Houston Ballet) and Principia (NYCB). The Ascension is musically expansive and sweeping in thematic scope.

Inner Odyssey is a Canadian, Québec-based, quintet that continues the legacy that was paved by progressive metal bands like Dream Theater and Fates Warning. The band had its humble beginnings with Vincent Leboeuf Gadreau, in 2007, while he was still college. After just leaving a hardcore band, the guitarist desided to put his creative talent into the progressive genre due to his love for bands like Riverside, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Symphony X and many others. The result of this new project was the band Inner Odyssey which mixes the hard lines of modern metal music with the strong emotional feeling tones of old fashioned and modern progressive rock.

Dutch conductor Sigiswald Kuijken presents the two Ascension Oratorios by father and son Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach’s work was first performed in Leipzig on Ascension Day in 1735. The text mixes biblical and poetic material. Recorded live at the beautiful Church of St. Nikolai in Leipzig 2004, one of the venues in Leipzig for which J.S. Bach conceived many of his works, the DVD comes close to the atmosphere of the first performance, thus creating a feast of Baroque music surrounded by the beauty of a gothic cathedral.