Rafael Kibelik

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its Music Director Rafael Payare make their Pentatone debut with Mahler’s 5th Symphony. The album is also the first recording under Payare’s tenure, and the beginning of a longer recording relationship with the label. For Payare, the Fifth is the last symphony that shows Mahler still looking forward to what the future might bring, unlike his subsequent, much darker and existential works. Despite that optimism, there is enough tragedy and struggle along the way, resonating with Mahler’s life at the time of creation. Payare’s proficiency in late-Romantic repertoire coupled with the matured, distinctive sound of the Montréal players make this a collaboration to look out for.

The first release on Jim O'Rourke's legendary Moikai imprint in over two decades, 'Spectral Evolution' is a defining statement from Portuguese vanguard Rafael Toral, an album of subtly orchestral, jazz-inspired guitar music that's been slowed to a vertiginous crawl. Using his arsenal of hand-made synths to sing like birds around stretched, steel-wound drones, he evokes Bach, Loren Connors, Gavin Bryars and Rhys Chatham on a longform piece full of conventional chord progressions and alchemical sleights of hand that will have you reeling, and no mistake.