Nova Wightman

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.

Balancing mainstream adult pop, grittier rock, and the poetic influence of childhood idols Patti Smith and Kate Bush, Bermuda native Heather Nova charted in the U.K. and the U.S. with her first worldwide release, 1994's Oyster.

While this cannot be a first-choice recording of the Bach Overtures (Suites), it's certainly a worthy addition to any collector's Bach shelf. Citing numerous examples of recent research, including conductor Siegbert Rampe's own, along with articles by Dirst, Rifkin, and Wolff, Rampe and his excellent period-instrument ensemble Nova Stravaganza strive to show what may have been the original forms of these four famous works. That means we get to hear suites Nos. 3 and 4 without trumpets and timpani; suite No. 2 played in A minor instead of the usual B minor–and with a solo violin rather than flute; and suite No. 1 as "a simple septet"–two oboes, two solo violins, solo viola, bassoon, and harpsichord (reinforced "in accordance with period practice" by 16' violone).

Ars Nova: This female keyboard trio started in the next line-up: Keiko Kumagai (keyboards), Kyoko Kanazawa (bass) and Akiko Takahashi (drums). In '92 ARS NOVA released their promising debut-album "Fear & Anxiety", a tribute to ELP with floods of powerful Hammond organ and flashing synthesizer solos, supported by a strong and adventurous rhythm-section. After several album and changes in the line-up, ARS NOVA is still going strong and end 2003 the trio released their new CD entitled "Biogenesis Project": it's loaded with spectacular instrumental prog rock in the vein of ELP, UK and TRACE. The current ARS NOVA includes Keiko Kumagai (keyboards), Akiko Takahashi (drums, voice) and Mika (vocal and chorus)…

This album ranges widely over Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan’s substantial output of sacred music and gathers together a few pieces that haven’t made it into the studio, such as the lovely St Anne’s Mass. Many of the pieces have personal significance, including works written for the weddings of family members and a Requiem Mass for his father. The largest here, The Culham Motets—written for the consecration of a chapel—is ambitious music, full of colour, and MacMillan strikes the perfect note. The smaller works are beautifully done and Cappella Nova’s singing, captured gloriously by producer/engineer Philip Hobbs, is breathtaking.

Two wonderful LPs presenting Zoot Sims playing bossa nova songs, as well as jazz standards in a bossa nova mood arranged by Manny Albam and Al Cohn: New Beat Bossa Nova (Colpix SCP435), and its sequel, New Beat Bossa Nova Vol. 2 (Colpix SCP437). Recorded in 1962, these were among the first albums to combine bossa nova and jazz…

The most comprehensive collection of organ music by a major forerunner to Monteverdi, recorded on a historically significant instrument by an organist with a distinguished catalogue of 17th-century repertoire.