Real Life of Sebastian

Collection includes eight studio albums, one compilation, one live album and one tribute album by indie pop band Belle & Sebastian.

Swedish soprano Miah Persson, on her first solo disc with orchestra, has collected a number of Mozartian gems (including Exsultate, jubilate – actually composed for Venanzio Rauzzini, the star castrato of the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan.) Purity, sweetness and impeccable grace are words that have been used by reviewers to describe Miah Persson’s voice, and with such qualities it is no wonder that her reputation as a Mozart singer is growing.

The style in which the Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund composes might be described as ‘magic realism’, combining elements of surrealism with factual narrative. Drawing upon the symphony orchestra’s full spectrum of colours, the music reflects not only the traditions of impressionism, modernism and post-minimalism but also reveals the composer’s acute ear for other genres, from cool jazz to ambient music. An earlier recording of orchestral works by Sebastian Fagerlund was described in BBC Music Magazine as displaying 'boundless technical resource at the service of a considerable imagination'. These qualities, and his receptivity towards different musical traditions Fagerlund shares with Pekka Kuusisto, to whom the violin concerto Darkness in Light is dedicated. The title of the work is a subtle reference to a quote from author Haruki Murakami’s novella Firefly: ‘Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it’. The disc closes with the orchestral work Ignite, composed for and performed here by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, under its chief conductor Hannu Lintu.

Many of us have and nurture our inner world, a state of mind where one can be in essence with oneself. Creatives would tend to take this further creating a dimension where their imagination and creativity can flow free from awareness, often resulting in a world more bearable than the real world. In essence “Save Me Not” focusses on the alternative reality I enter when I create and hypothetically presents how I wish to be lost in that world forever. This record is an introspective journey, a quest, where I converse with myself away from all awareness.