Carpe Diem

Syrinx presents Road Trip Music - 25 tracks from such composers as Antonio Vivaldi, Camille Saint-Saëns, Richard Wagner, Philip Glass, Edvard Grieg, Arvo Pärt, Franz Schubert, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart etc.

The present release is the second solo album of the young German guitarist Elise Neumann. She chose to combine two seemingly different composers on this album: J.S. Bach and Mario Castelnuevo-Tedesco. While at first one might have difficulty drawing a connection between the two composers, they are alike in their compositional forms. Like J.S. Bach, Castelnuevo-Tedesco wrote music in the form of the suite, but his musical ideas are completely different. Elise Neumann plays with her acclaimed warm and soulful tone on a rare instrument built by the luthier Daniel Friederich in 1969. On this recording, instrument and player form a perfect team, establishing a most natural, effortless and deeply musical interpretation of these well-known works.

Escape Music has the pleasure to announce the re-release of much-loved vocalist Bob Catley (Magnum/Avantasia) "Legends" album with the new artwork by the legendary artist Rodney Matthews and three bonus tracks from Bob's set at The Gods in 1999. Like The Tower, Legends was written by Ten frontman Gary Hughes and may be thought of perhaps as a Ten album with Bob singing instead of Gary as, again like The Tower, we have the always excellent Vinny Burns riffing and shredding away and Steve McKenna on bass. Each of the ten songs on Legends is based on a character either real, from historical literature or mythology. For example Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Dracula, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Wuthering Heights to name a few. Musically, arguably not surprising given some of the subject matter, Legends is darker and heavier than The Tower with some gothic and symphonic and progressive themes throughout.

Mémoriance is a unique sounding French symphonic progressive band from the 1970s who released 2 studio albums. Their debut album, "Et Après…", is a fine blend of styles, ranging from fellow French symphonic bands like Ange, Atoll and Carpe Diem, but also with a blend of Steve Hackett style guitar playing, as well as a hint of "Wish You Were Here", era Pink Floyd. Overall, they're never over-the-top or heavy, but they always manage to stay interesting, due to their songs having several movements.

Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Gérard Poulet and Veda Reynolds. He was awarded first prize for chamber music in 1992 and first prize for violin with a special distinction from the jury in 1993. In 1995 he won the Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts. Then he studied with Thomas Brandis in Berlin, and later with Isaac Stern. Invited by Claudio Abbado in 1997, he continued his musical experiences as konzertmeister of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester during three summers with Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Moest and of course Claudio Abbado. In 2000 he was nominated “Rising Star” and “New talent of the Year” (French Victoires de la Musique), in 2005 “Soliste instrumental de l’année”, also by the French Victoires de la Musique, and in 2006 “Prix Georges Enesco” (Sacem).