Fantasy: Oppens Plays Kaminsky is the culmination of a decades-long personal and musical friendship between Ursula and composer Laura Kaminsky. Listen to learn more about this intriguing new collection of contemporary piano works through the esteemed pianist’s personal insight.
With her latest album, Viola Borealis, violist Marina Thibeault explores the musical links between several northern cultures. From the 2016 concerto by Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks to solo works by Anishinaabe composer Melody McKiver to the very first viola concerto—composed around 1716 by Telemann—the elections on this album showcase the spellbinding talent of Thibeault, who is joined by Orchestre de l’Agora under Nicolas Ellis.
Asaf Avidan is a singer-songwriter and musician from Israel. His vocal - sounding very much like the legendary Janis Joplin - is unmatched; and he sings primarily in English.
In 2006, he recorded his debut EP, Now That You're Leaving, a six-track record dealing with his breakup with his long-term girlfriend. To promote the self-released EP, Avidan put together a backing group (featuring bassist Ran Nir, drummer Yoni Sheleg, guitarist Roi Peled, and cellist Hadas Kleinman) and went on to perform as Asaf Avidan & the Mojos. Avidan's first full-length album, The Reckoning, followed in 2008, followed by Poor Boy/Lucky Man in 2009. A licensing deal with Sony/Columbia resulted in official European re-releases of both albums in 2010 and 2011, respectively…
Kevin Stephen Welch is an American country music artist. He has charted five singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and released eight studio albums. He is also one of the cofounders of the Dead Reckoning Records label, which he founded with fellow musicians Kieran Kane, Tammy Rogers, Mike Henderson, and Harry Stinson. Americana singer/songwriter Kevin Welch left his Oklahoma home at age 17 to pursue a life in music, settling in Nashville in 1978 after years of traveling. He soon signed on as a staff writer at Sony/Tree, over the decade to follow authoring songs for artists including Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, Trisha Yearwood, Ricky Skaggs, and the Highwaymen; Welch's self-titled solo debut finally appeared on Reprise in 1990, followed two years later by the acclaimed Western Beat.
Beyond Description (1973-1989) is a companion set to 2001's 12-disc box The Golden Road (1965-1973), which collected all of the Grateful Dead's albums for Warner Bros, adding bonus tracks to each album, along with a double-disc collection of early pre-Warner recordings called "Birth of the Dead" for good measure. Beyond Description picks up the story after the Dead started their own label with 1973's Wake of the Flood and runs all the way to 1989, when they released their last studio album, Built to Last. Like The Golden Road, each album here is enhanced with bonus tracks, running the gamut from as little as three (on Built to Last) to has many as 16 (a full-length bonus disc added to 1980's live acoustic Reckoning), but there's nothing quite as enticing as "Birth of the Dead." Indeed, "enticing" is not a word that's frequently associated with the albums in this collection.
Resist is the seventh studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation. It was scheduled to be released on December 14, 2018, but later postponed to February 1, 2019 due to production problems. The album contains guest appearances by singer Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach), Anders Fridén (In Flames) and Jasper Steverlinck (Arid)…
Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud spent more than twenty years as a member of the experimental and always innovative Kronos Quartet. She left the group in 1999, and has since created an adventurous and captivating body work, including four previous CD releases, including the Grammy-nominated Strange Toys ( Talking House Records, 2008) and 2010's Pop-Pop (Deconet Records), in collaboration with percussionist/multi-instrumentalist PC Munoz.