Petra – September 2017

Started in 2001 Sigiswald Kuijken cycle on Accent has made a very promising start. As one might expect these performances have a subtle sense of rhythmic hierarchy, with animated dance metres and well shaped continuo lines. The performances are highly convincing: the vocal soloists bring great energy to their lines, adding effective ornamentation in the choruses and projecting a distinctive character for each aria. These performances illuminate Bach’s cantatas with persuasive musicianship and also a critical appraisal of current performing styles. As a result, they are some of the finest examples of what historically informed performers can achieve.

This recording is an invitation to immerse ourselves in the musical inner circle of the Bach family. We are familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach as a composer of genius, but we know little about his family life, with the exception of the famous Clavierbüchlein (Little keyboard book) that the forty-year-old composer gave as a present in 1725 to his second wife Anna Magdalena, his junior by sixteen years. This manuscript is a unique document of the music the family played together. It provides us with a point of reference for the 'programmes' of these domestic concerts: it contains short keyboard pieces and songs alongside extended arias taken from the church cantatas, as well as chamber music. Bach and his two eldest sons were not only virtuoso harpsichordists but also excellent violinists, while the composer's son-in-law Bach, J. C. Altnickol, played the cello and was an outstanding double bass player. Anna Magdalena Bach and her oldest stepdaughter both contributed as singers. And the still young children of the second marriage participated by playing easy pieces on their father's various keyboard instruments. The musicians and singers on this recording, all eminent exponents of Bach and of Baroque music in general, have come together here to bring these exceptional moments back to life.

Buddha-Bar meets French Kitchen & Friends, a French recipe, prepared with love.
For the first time since its creation, George V Records has teamed up with another Parisian label. And not just any, as we are talking about French Kitchen, the creator of the famous "Cocobeach", "Aum" and "Story" parties. In this project, Sam Popat (resident DJ of the Buddha-Bar Paris) slums on a double album with Sucré Salé (Cocobeach), Animal & Me (Story) and Popof, a legend of Electronic music (Founder of the Heretik sound system). On the first CD, pour only remixes from the Buddha-Bar catalog, prepared by Popof and his associates. Added a second cd home made with unpublished titles and carefully selected by French Kitchen & Buddha-Bar…

Four Flies Records explores Piero Umiliani’s Sound Work Shop archives to select rare and unreleased tracks. First archive compilation of Piero Umiliani’s work for the Rome-based record label and the first one focussing on Piero Umiliani in recent years. Exotica, psychedelic jazz-funk, proto-trip hop: this selection is a cross-cutting portrait of Umiliani's activity during the golden years of his Sound Work Shop, the studio-laboratory where he has been playing, creating and experimenting with total freedom from 1969 to 1983.

Connie Converse was a remarkable composer who worked in the 1950s and 1960s. By 1974, depressed over her lack of recognition and success, she packed up her belongings and drove off never to be heard of again. Little known in her lifetime, she is now viewed as a pioneer of the modern singer/songwriter genre. This exciting compilation collects fifteen of her most unique and soulful songs performed by an all-star group of contemporary singer/songwriters. Featuring an informative essay by musician and Converse scholar David Garland, Vanity of Vanities is a heartfelt tribute to one of the unsung heroes of contemporary songwriting.