Steve Courtney

Alarm Will Sound's recording of Steve Reich's monumental orchestral/choral works The Desert Music and Tehillim, released on the Cantaloupe label in 2002, greatly benefits from the group's close connections with the composer: the ensemble's conductor, Alan Pierson, and several of the performers studied at the Eastman School with Brad Lubman, a conductor frequently enlisted by Reich. Also, Pierson's arrangements, which reconcile the chamber and orchestral versions that exist for both works, were prepared in close consultation with the composer; thus, this may well be the definitive recording of these pieces. Brilliantly sonorous in their climaxes – the burst of light near the end of Desert Music, the "Alleluias" that close Tehillim – the players also articulate Reich's intricate canonic textures with nimble precision.

EMI Recorded Music Australia announces the re-release of the seminal Kev Carmody tribute album Cannot Buy My Soul. The 2020 edition comes with new recordings of Carmody's songs and is ageless contribution to the BLM movement celebrating Indigenous song writing and featuring new recordings from artists such as Courtney Barnett, Kasey Chambers & Jimmy Barnes, Mo'Ju & Birdz (produced by Trials), Kate Miller-Heidke, Alice Skye and Electric Fields.