Chinese

This double cd pack is more than a simple anthology. It starts with a complete John Cale-overseen remaster of the long out-of-print 1982 album "Music for a new society", along with 3 exclusive new tracks. But the real meat of the work is M:Fans, a complete reworking of the entire original 1982 album, to which the remastered "Music for a new society" serves merely as preface. "John Cale re-contextualises the original songs into radical new forms to resonate with the digital age. Includes a new recording of 'Back To The End' - a previously lost track from the original session."

Tenor Karim Sulayman and guitarist Sean Shibe present Broken Branches, a conceptual album with music ranging from Dowland, Monteverdi, Britten, Rodrigo, Takemitsu, Harvey, and Chaker to traditional songs from the Middle East, scrutinizing the close cultural and musical ties between East and West. This musical exploration ties in with the artists’ personal experience of a dynamic, in-between identity, as they grew up in the West having ethnic roots in the East (Lebanon and Japan respectively). Broken Branches explores the wood of the guitar and its relatives, as well as the splintering of history known as diaspora.

Acclaimed Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang releases a new double-album - Sketches of China - featuring a unique collection of works ranging from the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) to the 21st Century, many of which are world premiere recordings. For this album, Xuefei has sought out and arranged poignantly beautiful traditional melodies, commissioned new works from leading Chinese composers and collaborated with colleagues who are the musical superstars in her native land.