New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records release The Blue Hour, a song cycle written collaboratively by the female composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider; this unique joint vision among a female collective is available October 14, 2022. The cycle was commissioned by, and is performed with, the Boston–based chamber orchestra A Far Cry. (Nova also is featured as vocal soloist.) Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. Exploring memories of childhood, of war, of love, and of loss, The Blue Hour amplifies the beauty, pain, and fragility of human life from a collective female perspective.
Coupling powerful interpretations with path-breaking scholarship, the choir Contrapunctus presents music by the best-known composers as well as unfamiliar masterpieces. Directed by Owen Rees, a specialist in music of the 16th and 17 centuries, the group presents imaginative programmes revealing previously undiscovered musical treasures and throwing new light on familiar works.
Rare studio sessions from a short-lived side project by long time Dokken bassist, and current member of Foreigner, Jeff Pilson! This package includes the previously unreleased song Heaven Knows as well as a personal remembrance written by Pilson himself specifically for this collection!
Fabio Orsi is an electronic musician from Taranto (Southern Italy) specialising in atmospheric drone. He is a young and talented composer recently revealed in a series of publications received by an enthusiastic chorus of critical approval. In his compositions the languages of popular tradition meet the avantgarde approach, creating an original and charm mix…
Falling Edge (2013). An excellent debut record by this symphonic prog rock quartet out of Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada known as Falling Edge. Guitarist and vocalist Chris Rupert had put out a few solo records of acoustic and classical instrumental guitar pieces in the `80s and `90s. This is his foray into the progressive rock genre and the results are very impressive. Primarily symphonic in the writing department, one can also detect some space rock a la Eloy…
Space Debris hail from the Odenwald region in Germany. The members' main concern is to play improvised music reminiscent to 70s krautrock and psychedelic bands. The group started as a trio comprised of Tommy Gorny (guitar), Tom Kunkel (Hammond organ) and Christian Jäger (drums). Supported by many friends having guest appearances they already could produce seven albums starting with the year 2002. Their first one was the self-released double LP 'Krautrocksessions 1994-2001' consisting of early impressions mainly deriving from 1998/99 recordings. The Hammond is the main reason for a wide range of styles given within their explorations, also including bluesy and jazzy themes as well as heavy prog. Another double LP named 'Kraut Lok' followed in 2005…
The best jazz groups are made up of kindred spirits, but the rare family band has something more – an intuitive feel for each other that goes beyond words and gestures to a kind of bred-in-the-bone telepathy. The 3 Cohens are that sort of uncommon collective, a trio of siblings – tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Anat Cohen, trumpeter Avishai Cohen and soprano saxophonist Yuval Cohen – whose sense of improvisational interplay is both uncannily fluent and wonderfully, infectiously warm. In Tightrope the group digs deep to explore this connection in an unaccompanied setting. Stellar guests Fred Hersch, Christian McBride and Jonathan Blake individually add their voices to the conversation.