Biennalle 2024 Venice

Venice, during the time of Vivaldi, Jommelli, and Porpora, was a city pulsating with musicality: everyone made music, lived from opera to opera, the baker delivered his bread singing, people spontaneously sang songs on the streets. In short, Venice was a bustling city, vibrating with the most beautiful tones and harmonies, produced by its residents and composers.

It's tempting to imagine that this is how the music might have sounded four centuries ago in the glorious surroundings of St Mark's. Certainly, any comparisons are unlikely to be to the disadvantage of these exceptional young singers: this is repertoire in which they excel.

One of the most revered, reviled and talked about records in all Australian music history (I'm) Stranded by The Saints finally gets the vinyl box set treatment. A joint collaboration between In The Red, Universal Music Australia and spearheaded by Feel Presents and Saints founder Ed Kuepper, the deluxe edition of (I'm) Stranded will feature four vinyl long players covering all the band's studio and live recordings from 1976 thru 1977 and includes: - The iconic debut album remastered for vinyl for the first time in over forty years. - A five-song live performance from Paddington Town Hall Sydney 3.4.1977 appearing on vinyl for the first time. - A full live performance from the Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival, London November 1977 appearing on vinyl for the first time. - All three tracks from the 1977 This Perfect Day 12-inch single and all four tracks from the 1977 1-2-3-4 double 7-inch single. - The previously unreleased 1976 demo mix of the full (I'm) Stranded album. - In addition to all that vinyl, (I'm) Stranded - Deluxe Box Set will also features a twenty-eight page 12" x 12" photo essay of the band covering their origins from 1973 through the end of of '77, an authorised band history, an 8" x 10" 1976 promo photo and a (I'm) Stranded sticker. "It's been an exhausting yet thrilling process being involved in the creation of this box set. It's been fifty-one years in the making and has possibly turned out even better than I anticipated. It's by far the most extensive appraisal of the band, both aurally and visually, that has ever been made available and hopefully reveals some things people may not have known about the band." -Ed Kuepper

The 20th anniversary re-issue of Fennesz's best-selling 'Venice', originally released in 2004, is now available as a deluxe version remastered by Denis Blackham, with new and extra tracks not on the previous CD or vinyl versions. Included in the DVD-format edition is a booklet with texts by Fennesz himself, Denis Blackham & Jon Wozencroft, with unseen photographs from the original 2004 sessions. The booklet also reproduces David Sylvian's original handwritten lyrics for 'Transit'. This "stunning collaboration with David Sylvian continues where their fantastic duo track on Sylvian's album Blemish left off. Situated directly in the middle of a mostly subdued listening experience, 'Transit' literally bursts out of the speakers accentuating the album's more pop-like characteristics as well as its more restrained moments."

One of the key German composers before Bach with more than 500 surviving individual pieces, Heinrich Schutz wrote mainly church music, and is credited with bringing the Italian style to Germany and continuing its evolution from the Renaissance into the early Baroque. Although he lived most of his long life in Germany, in his twenties Schutz made two visits to Venice.

'Venice', which showcases many sides of Anastasia Kobekina's artistry, draws listeners away from the lugubrious gondoliers and carnival masks that have provided our standard musical image of Venice. Instead, the album asks how much of what we've internalized about the iconic city is actually real. 'Venice feels not just a city but an idea, a character in itself,' says the cellist; 'or maybe it presents a different character to each of us. It asks questions of you, fires your imagination'.