Lamomali Bel Ami

1100 Bel Air Place was designed as Julio Iglesias' breakthrough to the American audience, finding the Latin superstar recording with producer Richard Perry – the architect behind blockbusters by Barbra Streisand, Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson – and duetting with such established American superstars as Diana Ross, Stan Getz, the Beach Boys and Willie Nelson…

With her new album Simone Kermes presents her dedication to bel canto. Despite the title the Baroque soprano hasn’t suddenly switched from one voice type to another but is simply following her own interpretation of this term, arguing that bel canto is “inconceivable without reference to the Baroque tradition”. The album centres around famous arias of the belcanto soprano repertoire: “Casta Diva“ from Bellini’s Norma, “O luce di quest’ anima“ from Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix and “Dolce pensiero“ from Rossini’s Semiramide.

With her new album Simone Kermes presents her dedication to bel canto. Despite the title the Baroque soprano hasn’t suddenly switched from one voice type to another but is simply following her own interpretation of this term, arguing that bel canto is “inconceivable without reference to the Baroque tradition”.
The album centres around famous arias of the belcanto soprano repertoire: “Casta Diva“ from Bellini’s Norma, “O luce di quest’ anima“ from Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix and “Dolce pensiero“ from Rossini’s Semiramide.
The programme also features a number of rarely performed works: Airas of Mercadantes “Virginia“, Rossini’s “Maometto Secondo“, Donizetti’s “Betly“ or Bellini’s “Adelson e Salvini“. As a connecting link between baroque and bel canto Kermes added the two arias of the Queen of Night from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Simone Kermes is accompanied by Concerto Cöln, performing on period instruments.

A signal moment in the arrival of Italian music on Spanish soil came in the summer of 1708 when Antonio Caldara, finding his opportunities for providing dramatic works for the opera-loving Duke of Mantua limited by the War of the Spanish Succession, headed off to Barcelona to take on acommission for putting on an operatic work from Archduke Charles (“Carlos III”), who was preparing his own wedding festivities at the court he had established in order to contend for the Spanish throne.

The collection includes piano works composed over the past 30 years from "Piano Media" (1972) to "Piano Poem" (2003), selected by composer Toshi Ichiyanagi himself, a master pianist who has earned the composer's great trust. Ami Fujiwara performs with deep understanding and empathy various types of music, from difficult pieces that push the pianist to his or her technical limits to pieces that focus on issues of expression, such as poetry readings. Please listen to these contemporary masterpieces by a virtuoso pianist who has earned the composer's great trust.

This record is a previously unheard masterpiece of Israeli multimedia artist Ami Shavit. As a professor of both philosophy and art and established kinetic artist in the 1970s Shavit was fascinated with new and interactive technologies. While mostly focusing on visual art and mixed-media installations, a trip to New York in 1972 introduced him to synthesizers and triggered his curiosity to do some explorations into the world of music or "sound" as he preferred to call it. Ami's research was focused on the concept of meditative music that would help people to relax and create a cosy mood associated to the alpha brain waves and biofeedback…