Label: Act Music

Hurts - Exile (2013) {Major Label-Sony Music 88765433522}
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© 2013 Major Label / Sony Music | 88765433522
Pop / Synth Pop / New Wave

Even before their debut album, Happiness, became one of the fastest-selling albums in the U.K. in 2010, Manchester duo Hurts already had a rabid online fan base, stoked by several arch, expertly art-directed videos that the group self-produced, which captured the eye while showcasing the band's mix of '80s synth pop melodicism, Krautrock angularity, and '90s Hi-NRG balladry. The videos expertly juxtaposed a Helmut Newton-esque black-and-white aesthetic with the group's musical love of dance-club dramatics, á la Depeche Mode, Erasure, and Pet Shop Boys, eventually attracting the attention of Euro-pop diva Kylie Minogue, who ended up singing on the track "Devotion."

Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label “in the Spirit of Jazz”.

"More than any other art form, music touches people directly," is ACT founder Siggi Loch's credo. For nearly 30 years, the core of what the label does has been to find and to promote the artists who can inspire the mind, reach the heart and touch the soul, and who do so in ways that have a lasting impact. Perhaps this has never been more important than now in the time of the pandemic, when culture has been silenced, when people have felt emotionally isolated and – far too often – the only “reality” has been virtual.

Joachim Kühn - Allegro Vivace: Piano Works I (2005). Just judged by its repertoire, this is certainly an impressive solo piano date. Joachim Kühn performs works by François Couperin (a mass from 1690), Bach, Mozart, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman in addition to three of his own originals. Although the mixture of classical and jazz pieces might seem illogical, Kühn's subtle improvising on the classical compositions and his ability to create melodies in his improvising on the jazz tunes give this date an evolution that somehow works. Kühn has always had impressive technique and a healthy musical curiosity. Both serve him well, along with his imagination, on this intriguing and successful outing…

It all began during a snowy Christmas in 1999: saxophonist Jonas Knutsson met up for the first time with guitarist Johan Norberg to do some spontaneous recording sessions at Norberg’s flat, and got carried away during several hours of playing. They reached such a level of mutual understanding that the recordings were passed between friends of the two Swedish musicians for the next few years. Then Knutsson and Norberg listened again to the recordings - and decided to go to a proper studio. The result is a CD which both moves between and merges jazz and Swedish folk elements: "Norrland". The nature of the deep understanding between two musicians: thus "Norrland" can be described. Knutsson and Norberg cultivate the fine shadings, and a sensitive dialogue. They create floating, but in some ways plausible, sounds: tender, but never harmless musical images of the landscape…