Jonathan Rigby Commentary

US singer-songwriter legend Amy Rigby will release her new album 'Hang In There With Me' through Tapete Records on August 30, 2024. Eleven up to the minute songs written by Amy and recorded by Wreckless Eric at the couples home in upstate NY, Hang In There With Me is a bracing look at life inside the vortex of the last few years. Mortality, aging and youthful missteps refracted through Amy's insightful lyricism emerge not wistful but resolute even triumphant. Rigby's distinctive voice bluntly traverses love, loss and DIY projects gone wrong over guitars cranked or shimmering, indelible bass lines, a raft of synthesisers, keyboards, beat boxes and the occasional drummer allowed into Amy & Erics rustic mid-century echo chamber.

Before the world even had a chance to hear the Modern Lovers, Jonathan Richman had already moved on. Richman founded the group in 1970 with bandmates who would go on to acts like the Cars and the Talking Heads, and in the early '70s, they recorded some truly electric demos that would help define a sound later understood as punk. These recordings wouldn't see wide-scale release until long after the first iteration of the band broke up, and by the time of Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, Richman had dropped the angst and anxiety of his proto-punk beginnings in favor of a far friendlier, quieter, and more innocent style. Ironically, the 1976 debut album of Richman's revamped, gentler Modern Lovers arrived just one month before the proper release of the earlier version of the band's recordings, emphasizing how drastic of a change had occurred. While the raw excitement of the early pre-punk Modern Lovers was groundbreaking, there's an equally revelatory quality in the softness and vulnerability of what followed.

On the positively baked Gentle Spirit, from 2011, Jonathan Wilson offered a stellar update of the early-'70s Laurel Canyon sound. For Fanfare, he is obviously inspired by the production techniques of that decade on both sides of the Atlantic. This is one of the most delightfully ornamented recordings to come down the pipe in quite some time. Its sound is so warm and inviting, it almost proves a distraction from the songs. Wilson's guest list is impressive: David Crosby, Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, Benmont Tench, Mike Campbell, and others contribute…

Artists are liminal figures — they cross thresholds and collapse boundaries between past, present, and future. In THE NEW EPOCH, three musicians from the Boston Artists Ensemble interpret works by French composers Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, and Lili Boulanger, infusing these pieces with unprecedented freshness and clarity. Each celebrated in their own right, cellist Jonathan Miller, violinist Lucia Lin, and pianist Diane Walsh join forces in every duo setting possible from this assortment of instruments. Exploring works written at the threshold of the First World War — with the world crossing into the violent twentieth century and composers reacting with music that looked both nostalgically back and innovatively forward — they underline the commonalities between each composer’s unique voice and reinterpret this music for our turbulent present. Each celebrated in their own right, cellist Jonathan Miller, violinist Lucia Lin, and pianist Diane Walsh join forces in every duo setting possible from this assortment of instruments. Exploring works written at the threshold of the First World War –– with the world crossing into the violent twentieth century and composers reacting with music that looked both nostalgically back and innovatively forward –– they underline the commonalities between each composer’s unique voice and reinterpret this music for our turbulent present.

The pianist Jonathan Fournel, recent prizewinner of the prestigious 2021 Queen Elisabeth Competition (where he won not only the Queen Elisabeth Grand Prix, but also the Queen Mathilde Prize, the Musiq3 Audience Prize and the Canvas-Klara Award) has joined the Alpha label for several recordings, starting with a Brahms programme recorded in the superb acoustic of the music room at La Chaux-de-Fonds just before the Competition: ‘Over the years, for me Brahms has become a figure I admire so tremendously, a composer I can never tire of. It was fairly obvious to me that I had to make my first recording with these two works that I love so much (…) The rich quality of this music conjures up the profundity and grandeur of a symphony for the piano – and in such an astonishing way.’ The 28-year-old French pianist has been gathering many plaudits for his concerts – in particular for a sensational recital at La Roque d’Anthéron – and shows all the signs of developing a great career and a highly individual artistic path.

This new OSR recording presents the two most ambitious musical responses to Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1893 epoch-making play Pelléas et Mélisande.

Of the major works of Sergei Prokofiev, none (apart perhaps from Peter and the Wolf) have become so well loved by a wide audience as the ballets Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. From the stage productions, to the orchestral suites, to the piano versions, many of these pieces are universally recognised.