Very Interesting 2021

Pianist Frank Dupree, whose name looks American, is actually a German pianist who was initially trained as a jazz percussionist. That is more important than you might realize because this CD features the music of Nikolai Kapustin, the late Russian composer whose compositions are fully saturated with jazz feeling and swing. Interestingly, Dupree has also made a recording of music by avant-garde composer Peter Eötvös for the Genuin label, so his interest in modern classical music seems to be fairly wide.

All credit to DEVIN TOWNSEND – the general disarray of the pandemic has done nothing to hamper his high levels of productivity, both releasing new material online and hosting a number of livestreams throughout the last year. As the second official release in his Devolution Series (itself a catalogue of both quarantine activities and material from the vaults), Galactic Quarantine documents one of those aforementioned livestream concerts. Making up for the understandable cancellation of the Empath Vol. 2 tour – one intended to focus on the heavier side of Townsend material – Galactic Quarantine sees ‘Hevy Devy‘ accompanied by a fierce trio of metal musicians to deliver a semi-live performance of metal that skirts mostly between prog and extreme…

Music is used for many things, to hype you up, lift you up, fit your mood, or simply be a distraction from normal life. Or it can be used to help you relax, and sit back, and that is the category that I find Tuesday The Sky, and the new album ‘The Blurred Horizon.’ This is the second release from the band that is a solo project by guitarist Jim Matheos of Fates Warning fame and settles neatly in the ambient/light post-rock genre…

"On his debut solo album the Russian pianist Alexey Pudinov (*1988) plays a very diverse program, which can only escape the impression of a hodgepodge if the interpretations are continuously exciting. In the interpretation of the second Brahms sonata Pudinov shows immediately the outstanding level of his performing. His highly musical and very spontaneous performance is never dominated by sound masses, but remains clear and transparent even in massive passages, even somehow light and flexible."

Bent Knee are not a band for convention. In fact, since forming in 2009, the Boston-based six-piece have been on a constant journey of musical exploration that thoroughly disregards it. The result is five records that completely defy categorization and transcend genre. In other words, the band don’t just break the rules, they make up their own. That’s ensured they exist exclusively on their own terms. Frosting, the band’s sixth full-length, pushes those boundaries even further. It’s the most Bent Knee-esque Bent Knee record to date, which means that, simultaneously, it’s also the album of theirs that sounds the least like Bent Knee.