On their new album “Closer to Paradise” Spark, the Classical Band, form a unique partnership with the internationally acclaimed countertenor Valer Sabadus to produce, in musical form, a feeling of longing, that wonderful, painful yet bitter-sweet emotional state ’twixt melancholy and happiness. The spectrum of works ranges from the classical masters such as Antonio Vivaldi, Robert Schumann, Gabriel Fauré, Erik Satie and Kurt Weill through to French chansonnier Leo Ferré, Italian cantautore Lucio Dalla, American singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, British synth-rock-group Depeche Mode and the German cult band Rammstein. Rounded off with some compositions by the Spark musicians themselves, the pieces blend into an aural study of emotions, the fruit of an exciting musical collaboration and a consistently thrilling recording project.