Detail 2018

Exit North - Book Of Romance And Dust (2018) {EN 01} (ft. Steve Jansen}
FLAC (tracks) - Official Digital Download (bandcamp.com) -> 341 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 112 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2018 Exit North | EN 01
Experimental / Art Rock / Ambient / Atmospheric / Melancholic

An uncompromising debut album that explores the collective psyches and diverse influences of its renowned members. The focus is on songcraft that seamlessly combines genres and lyrical perspectives that shift between shadows and light.

The only other Seven Reizh album I've heard is 2001's Strinkadenn Ys–one of my five favorite albums from that year. As the band and its composers did so well on that album, there is an attempt to merge and blend the musical traditions of different cultures and ethnicities–here more toward West-East, Celtic and Arabic…

Mario Venzago’s recordings of Bruckner symphonies with the Tapiola Sinfonietta and other chamber orchestras raised eyebrows and furrowed brows. I doubt his Brahms will provoke much if any controversy. It’s now more than two decades since the release of Charles Mackerras’s pioneering set with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – discs that were clearly labelled ‘in the style of the original Meiningen performances’, presumably to assure buyers that there was historical precedence behind the notion of a smallish orchestra playing the canonical Brahms four.

Roscoe Mitchell Orchestra - Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College, March 19-20, 2018 (2019) {Wide Hive Records WH345CD}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 212 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 101 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2019 Wide Hive Records | WH 345CD
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modern Creative

Each of the four pieces on the album is a product of the Roscoe's tireless efforts to devise systems to articulate and capitalize on the tensions between composition and improvisation in both his own work and music as a practice at-large. Three of the four works ('Rub', 'Wha-Wha', and 'Frenzy House') are part of the 'Conversations for Orchestra' series, the history of which is described in detail in the liner notes for Mitchell's 2017 album Discussions (Wide Hive Records WH-0339). In brief, the 'Conversations' series consists of compositions which trace their genesis back to a suite of improvisations recorded by Mitchell, pianist Craig Taborn, and drummer Kikanju Baku in 2014 (which can be heard on the Wide Hive releases Conversations I and Conversations II).

This recording presents a reconstruction of the Easter Celebration at St. Mark’s, Venice, around 1600. The Proprium Mass (the part of the mass which is related to the liturgical year) is from the beautiful Gradulae Giunta (Venice, 1572), the Missa Ordinarium (the standard Mass which is always the same) is by Monteverdi, from his Selva Morale e Spirituale.

“Stealth” is the aptly-titled debut album from Tokyo-based composer/producer Takao. Gliding in under the radar with thirteen slyly sweet and subtle miniatures, these pieces are refreshing light-explosions of gentle harmony and modestly grand melodies. Fans of New Age and tonal minimalism will enjoy this music, but its brevity reveals a pop-influenced aesthetic as well, and the level of care and detail in the arrangements and recording evinces a nuanced, surprisingly mature sensibility. There’s a blossoming brightness and elegant simplicity that even calls to mind gentle ghosts of Satie and Debussy. Available as digital download, CD and vinyl LP.

Pan welcomes back Objekt for Cocoon Crush, his first LP since 2014’s Flatland. Over the past four years Objekt has continued to challenge conventions with his club output (the Objekt #4 single release and the Kern Vol. 3 mix CD for Tresor), while maintaining his reputation as a DJ who deploys impeccable technical finesse in crafting elaborate narratives from a diverse and challenging palette of electronic music. Written between 2014 and 2018 in Berlin and on the road, Cocoon Crush once again sees the producer jettisoning the functional requirements of the dancefloor. Marking a further evolution from the youthful exuberance of Flatland, Cocoon Crush explores a more introspective side, with themes of human interaction resonating throughout the record as it ruminates on a spectrum of complex moods rooted in 4 years of sometimes turbulent personal experience…

Nikolai Lugansky's 2018 release on Harmonia Mundi of Rachmaninov's 24 Preludes consists of the two sets of the Preludes, Op. 23 and the Preludes, Op. 32, but opens with the most famous (or infamous) of all of his solo keyboard pieces, the Prelude in C sharp minor. Originally published in Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3, the Prelude in C sharp minor has always seemed to exist independently from the others in the series, and early on became a greatest hit for Rachmaninov; yet because he was always obligated to play it as an encore at his concerts, he came to resent its extraordinary popularity and considered it an albatross.