Stefan Henneken Solid

Gambian kora virtuoso Dawda Jobarteh and Danish master drummer Stefan Pasborg join forces to release their exhilarating live album, ‘Live In Turku’. A captivating fusion of traditional West African sounds and contemporary improvisation, the record is set to release on April Records on May 17th.

Stefan Pasborg is one of his generation’s most brilliant, inspiring and visionary musicians, and has within the last 20 years established himself as one of the most successful Danish instrumentalists.

Another Koek is the first CD of the duo Knuijt and Dellebeke, mother Cora Dellebeke and son Stefan Knuijt. From their home village Nieuw- en Sint Joosland in the Dutch province of Zeeland they succeeded in building a career as meritorious musicians both within Zeeland and nationally. At the time they continued looking for challenges to play together and make uncommon presentations. “A different piece of cake,” one could say. The uniqueness of the musical collaboration lies in the combination of instruments they’re specialized in. Cora Dellebeke (1967) is percussionist with het Zeeuws Orkest (the provincial symphony orchestra) and Stefan Knuijt (1992) is composer, pianist and tuba player in de Marinierskapel der Koninklijke Marine, Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy. They play together in a natural fashion, they don’t need many words to explain their intentions and they picked a repertoire which enables them to explore variation, interplay and virtuosity.

Gambian kora virtuoso Dawda Jobarteh and Danish master drummer Stefan Pasborg join forces to release their exhilarating live album, ‘Live In Turku’. A captivating fusion of traditional West African sounds and contemporary improvisation, the record is set to release on April Records on May 17th.

The Thomaskantor position in Leipzig was one of the most important jobs for musicians in Germany in the 18th century; several important musicians applied to succeed Johann Kuhnau after his death in 1722. In the recruitment process, the Leipzig city council was able to choose from the most famous personalities of the time. The first choice was Georg Philipp Telemann, who declined however, after he had obtained a decent salary increase at his Hamburg post.

Alberto Ginastera left his massive orchestral piece Popol Vuh, which had been commissioned by Eugene Ormandy, unfinished at his death in 1983, and it was only after it was discovered by pianist Barbara Nissman that it had its premiere in 1989, with Leonard Slatkin and Saint Louis Symphony. A musical reimagining of Mayan creation mythology, it's a monumental piece that viscerally evokes a primitive world using both folk elements and sophisticated modernist techniques. The composer wrote that he was aiming for a "reconstitution of the transcendental aspect of the ancient pre-Columbian world," and the piece is fully successful at capturing that vision with music that is powerfully primal, strange, and darkly beautiful.