L’arrangement

It’s impossible to have a conversation about the power metal revival of the early millennial era without Freedom Call receiving at least a passing mention. They stood apart from the pack of German speed metal informed acts by taking the lighter elements of Helloween’s Keepers Of The Seven Keys sound to their logical conclusion, almost to the point of coming off as AOR with an occasional Gospel flavor played at a faster tempo. The magic that made their unique take on the style so auspicious laid mostly in guitarist/vocalist Chris Bay’s prowess as a studio engineer (he simultaneously gave Saxon’s 1999 smash album Metalhead an upgrade with his capability on the keyboards) and his uniquely light and airy voice, though the driving fury of Dan Zimmerman’s kit work and his then ongoing stints with Gamma Ray and Iron Savior definitely helped to promote the Freedom Call brand from the get go…

Sergi Sirvent & Octopussy Cats - Inferencies [2CD] (2012) {Fresh Sound New Talent}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 606 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 260 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 93 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Fresh Sound New Talent | FSNT 413
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Piano

Près de 10 ans après un remarquable «9 Muses» (FSNT, 2003) en onztet —suivi de diverses réalisations en petits groupes — le pianiste barcelonais Sergi Sirvent (bientôt 35 ans) revient au moyen format avec cet Octopussy Cats qui, comme son nom l’indique, réunit huit instrumentistes (peut-être par ailleurs amateurs de poulpes et de chats) de la nouvelle génération catalane. Hormis le «Iris» de Wayne Shorter, tous les titres sont du leader et il y fait montre d’une science de l’arrangement et de l’écriture qui, si elle doit quelque chose au saxophoniste américain, en a retenu la leçon d’une façon tout à fait personnelle.

Debussy’s song cycle Ariettes oubliées of 1888 set six poems from Paul Verlaine’s collection Romances sans paroles, beginning with C’est l’extase and Il pleure dans mon cœur – penetratingly poetic images of love’s ecstasy and rainlike tears of despair. The six Ariettes are the departure point for the arrangement realized in 2012 by British composer Robin Holloway in response to a request from the San Francisco Symphony. Holloway has altered their order while adding a further four Debussy songs, binding the whole work together with brief orchestral links and a feverish epilogue, ‘con moto agitato’. This world first recording is given by French soprano Vannina Santoni, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under the baton of Mikko Franck. The Finnish conductor, a great admirer of Debussy, here also presents the master’s bewitching masterpiece La mer , first heard in Paris in 1905.

This second instalment of our long-term project Poétiques de l’Instant (Poetry of the Moment) combines two masterly string quartets with a range of other instrumental colours, unpublished transcriptions and first performances. Alongside the famous Quartet by Ravel, the Voce Quartet have commissioned a new quartet from Bruno Mantovani – his fifth - which develops around a crucial note in Ravel’s Quartet. They have also drawn on the multiple talents of harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, who enhances the programme with a magical chamber transcription of Ravel’s famous Mother Goose suite. For this arrangement, as well as for Ravel’s equally superb Introduction and Allegro for septet, the Quatuor Voce are joined by three outstanding artists: flautist Juliette Hurel, clarinettist Rémi Delangle and harpist Emmanuel Ceysson.