Tessa Maye

Over the last year, Tessa Violet has released several standout singles - 'YES MOM', 'BREAKDOWN' and 'Kitchen Song', and created several of her own trends on TikTok, giving her the ability to test and create demand for new music before release. On the heels of her sold out "Rise of the Phoenix" tour, Tessa is gearing up to release her sophomore album this summer and bring her breathtaking live show around the world. Tessa continues to grow her fanbase with her unique approach to engaging with fans on TikTok and celebrating her wins with the world.

SOMM Recordings announces the launch of a major six-volume series of Franz Xaver Scharwenka’s transcriptions of Beethoven Symphonies featuring the label debut of the Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman Piano Duo. Formed in 2010, the Duo began their in-concert exploration of Scharwenka’s four-hand Beethoven transcriptions in 2015 and now bring that experience to disc for the first time. Volume 1 includes the premiere recording of Scharwenka’s piano duet transcription of Symphony No.3, the ever-popular Eroica, and Debussy’s two-piano arrangement of Robert Schumann’s Six Studies in Canonic Form.

During 2020 I noticed that I was gravitating - as a listener - to more intimate, human-sounding music. Nick Drake. Joni Mitchell. I wanted to hear skin on guitar string, or a voice that sounded as clear and close as if that person were sitting right next to me. Looking back, it makes sense that I was seeking out that human touch in a time that was so robbed of it. Just like everybody, it was a hard time for me. Christmas had been loving but distant, it was a bloody cold winter. In my head, so many conflicting thoughts were twisted around one another as I was trying to make sense of the situation. I needed to vent. And so, in January 2021 I started writing. Like therapy, pretty much. I wanted to make something warm, something soothing. A blanket I could throw around myself and snuggle into. And not only that: I wanted to share it. And so to help me finish this album, I called on many old friends who lent their musicianship to these songs which means that now (for me) this record is fuelled not by solitariness, but friendship instead.

Red Byrd is certainly among the most unusual ensembles before the public today: at its core are two singers, a tenor and bass, who typically engage the services of other vocalists or choral groups, and/or employ the accompaniment of various instrumentalists or instrumental ensembles. It has performed much early music repertory both in concert, including festival appearances, and on recordings.