Recollection Attrition

The peerless András Schiff in his first recital recording of Janacek's piano music. The 'story-telling ' piano pieces chosen by Schiff can be closely related to Bartók's 'Mikrokosmos' and have a similarly timeless appeal. As writer Rob Cowan notes, 'No matter how many times you listen to these gems, the sum effect of emotional engagement, wonderment and love of life is as lasting as one's admiration for the music's miniaturist construction. They are truly 'the world in a grain of sand'.

Casey Crescenzo is the mastermind behind experimental indie rock group The Dear Hunter. An incredibly talented musician and prolific songwriter, Crescenzo wanted to push himself further as a composer by crafting an original symphony. The completed work - Amour And Attrition: A Symphony In Four Movements - was performed by the Brno Orchestra in the Czech Republic for this recording issued by Equal Vision.

AirSculpture are a UK based electronic music group. Its members - Adrian Beasley, John Christian and Peter Ruczynski - established it in the mid-1990s as a reaction to a music scene that no longer reflected their tastes. The energy and edge of '70s EM had become diluted into a melange of clinical digital sounds played over safe pre-recorded backing. Most of AirSculpture's music is created live on stage, improvised with little or no pre-planning. Over time it has evolved to a unique sound melding driving Berlin School rhythms with engaging, flowing melodies; or sometimes moving into darker ambient realms; or shifting gear with danceable beats. "Attrition System" derived from three sessions during late '95/early '96, here we are presented with AirSculpture in their "raw" form…

When the Cowboy Junkies released their first album in 1986, Whites Off Earth Now!!, eight of the nine songs were covers, and their second, the 1988 breakthrough hit The Trinity Session, introduced them to a larger audience with their interpretations of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" and Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight." Recording other people's songs and giving them a sound of their own is deeply ingrained in the Cowboy Junkies' working method, so it's no great surprise that they've chosen to release an album devoted entirely to covers. 2022's Songs of the Recollection features five new recordings of tunes from artists they admire, along with four previously released tracks that appeared on EPs (Vic Chesnutt's "Marathon" and the Cure's "Seventeen Seconds") or tribute albums (Gram Parsons' "Ooh Las Vegas" and Gordon Lightfoot's "The Way I Feel").

Long admired for the carefully chosen cover versions of songs that have been part of their repertoire from the very beginning, Cowboy Junkies release Songs of the Recollection, consisting of nine covers both newly recorded and curated from previous album projects. Michael Timmins recalls, "Long before we were musicians, we were music fans. We didn't grow up sitting around the kitchen table playing instruments and harmonising. We grew up sitting around the record player listening to each other's record collections and having our minds blown. This was the passion that we shared. Our goal has always been to create music that took hold of the listener the way that this music took hold of us. These are some of the songs and some of the artists that found their way into our lives and eventually into our repertoire over the past fifty years." This inspired, and inspiring, collection features tracks from David Bowie, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Vic Chesnutt and The Cure.