he 162

Pierre Boulez - Notations & Piano Sonatas - Pi-hsien Chen (2005) {hat[now]ART 162}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 236 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 180 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 15 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2005 HAT HUT Records | hat[now]ART 162
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Post Modern / Piano Solo

Chen's survey of Boulez's piano music (bar the little competition piece Incises) invites comparisons with Paavali Jumppanen's accounts of the three sonatas released by Deutsche Grammophon earlier in the year. Both are first rate; Chen's tempi are marginally slower, but her approach is more dramatic - some of the early Notations are positively explosive - while Jumppanen explores Boulez's command of keyboard sonority more fastidiously. Both convey the energy of the young Boulez's piano writing. It's hard to believe the Notations were composed 60 years ago, and the First Sonata, with its strange, intensely French flavour, followed a year later; this music still sounds astonishingly fresh.

Kurt Rosenwinkel - The Next Step (2000) {Verve 314 549 162-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 376 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 144 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 24 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2000 Verve / Universal Music | 314 549 162-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Straight-Ahead Jazz / Guitar

Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel takes The Next Step in his creative evolution on eight songs that exude several degrees of great jazz. He succeeds in topping the musical tastes presented on his debut release for the Verve label, The Enemies of Energy. Rosenwinkel is one of many young jazz musicians forging ahead into the new millennium with bold musical steps, and the compositions, all of which he wrote, represent the culmination of many life phases for him. First formed as a guitar-bass-drums trio in 1992, Rosenwinkel's band is now a quartet including Mark Turner on tenor saxophone, Ben Street on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums, all excellent artists in their own right. All four musicians can be heard on The Enemies of Energy, and The Next Step is additional documentation of their relationship as a band.