Alex Day

"The greatest song cycle ever written." - Glenn Gould is very unequivocal in his judgement of Paul Hindemith's Das Marienleben, based on a collection of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. The notorious bourgeois terror, then only 27 years old, shows a very different, internalised side here. "There is something in these songs that forces and fascinates the listener beyond all habits of conventional song manner," wrote a reviewer in 1923, and to this day there is nothing to add. Yvonne Friedli and Constantin Alex make it palpable in their sensitive interpretation.

Every day, we're subject to countless man-made electromagnetic frequencies that can drain our energy and cloud our sense of well-being. With Earth, sonic pioneer Alex Theory spins the third disc in his "Full Spectrum Sound" healing series, giving you a powerful tool to help you relax, get deeply grounded, and re-align with the organic rhythms of our planet.

The Umbra Lucis Ensemble present an intriguing disc portraying the Anghiari Battle in works by Byrd, Dowland, Andreuccetti, Dufay, de Victoria, Hume and others. The relationship between music and war bears witness to the ethical dimension of music and its impact on the human. But warfare is also a metaphor and sign of the battles to which the existence is voted: amorous disputes, moral duels … In a word: the dialectic between shadow and light that which incessantly beats life. Shadow and light that has marked, according to the contemporary chronicle, also one of the symbolic events of the Italian Renaissance: he Battle of Anghiari.

"Last Day In Paradise" consists of seven original compositions along with three arrangements of hard rock 'standards,' (a concept upon which the trio has built a strong reputation as an instrumental group that appeals to straight-ahead jazz fans and rock fans alike). Feeling the inspiration of European jazz and other influences, the group has now gone beyond the limitations of the traditional guitar trio format on many of the songs, incorporating electronic loops ('Last Day In Paradise'), vocal melodies ('Mercury Retrograde') and slide guitar ('Western Sabbath Stomp'). There are also special effects, bowed bass tracks and other studio embellishments, resulting in their most original and cutting edge album to date.