Iro Giati Fovasai

Ante Lucem, a powerful work for jazz quintet and symphony orchestra by Finnish composer and musician Iro Haarla, was commissioned by the Norrlands Opera Symphony Orchestra and its leader Marco Feklistoff and premiered in October 2012 with Haarla and his quintet joining the orchestra. The concert was recorded live and this album is drawn both from the premiere and from sessions recorded in the days following.

Claudio Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria is a love story pur sang. With this opera he narrates the long-awaited homecoming of Odysseus after his mythical travels in the aftermath of the Trojan War. After L’Orfeo - on the programme later this season - it was the second opera composed by the Italian master. Performing this masterpiece is I Gemelli, a young French ensemble founded by Chilean-Swiss tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro. The ensemble consists of a splendid cast including Fleur Barron, Emöke Barath and Zachary Wilder. Together, they will transform this tale of the union between Odysseus and his beloved Penelope into a breathtaking evening.

Claudio Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria is a love story pur sang. With this opera he narrates the long-awaited homecoming of Odysseus after his mythical travels in the aftermath of the Trojan War. After L’Orfeo - on the programme later this season - it was the second opera composed by the Italian master. Performing this masterpiece is I Gemelli, a young French ensemble founded by Chilean-Swiss tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro. The ensemble consists of a splendid cast including Fleur Barron, Emöke Barath and Zachary Wilder. Together, they will transform this tale of the union between Odysseus and his beloved Penelope into a breathtaking evening.

Dai Fujikura is a London-based composer that was born in Osaka, Japan in 1977. He moved to the UK at fifteen and studied under Sir George Benjamin.

Dai Fujikura is a London-based composer that was born in Osaka, Japan in 1977. He moved to the UK at fifteen and studied under Sir George Benjamin.

On their new album "Kammin Jaaretti," the renowned jazz trio Hot Heros craft mesmerizing forest jazz.

With its overt lyricism, strong themes and a sense of perpetual melodic invention, Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim’s new album quickly identifies itself as a classic-in-the-making. Themes of dedication run through Seim’s Helsinki Songs album, a set of tunes composed – for the most part – in the Finnish capital, and radiating tributes in many directions. Here are songs referencing Igor Stravinsky and Jimmy Webb, pieces dedicated to each of Seim’s gifted bandmates, and tunes that tip the hat, obliquely, to Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans. The quartet plays superbly throughout, with outstanding solos from leader Seim and pianist Kristjan Randalu. Helsinki Songs was recorded in Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in January 2018 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Eagerly awaited second ECM album by French-African drummer Manu Katché. Recorded in New York’s Avatar Studio in January 2007, “Playground” picks up where the best-selling “Neighbourhood” left off: in the interim the project has coalesced into a rip-roaring and fully-integrated band. Manu’s group, featuring a Polish/Norwegian confederacy of young players, is energized by his hard driving drums and by his compositions which invite spirited solos… Together, the quintet - whose strong new frontline features Mathias Eick and Trygve Seim - makes exciting, zestful music.

Mathias Eick's resumé includes work with musicians of many styles, from Chick Corea and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra to Norwegian psychedelic rock band Motorpsycho. A primary project in the last ten years has been the jazz/progressive rock ten-piece band Jaga Jazzist: Eick's multi-instrumentalism has been an important part of that group's sound and on The Door he is also heard on vibraphone and guitar as well as trumpet, as he puts it, whatever needs to be played.

Mathias Eick’s intensely melodic trumpet occupies the centre-stage in this album of self-penned tunes which will appeal to an audience beyond “Jazz”. Against the powerful backdrops offered by his sleek, modern band, driven by two drummers, he delivers richly lyrical soliloquies.