Taga Jones Manipulé (version 2024)

With Iechyd Da - “good health” in Welsh as he comes from West Kirby, a small town nestled in the Wirral peninsula between Wales and Liverpool - Bill Ryder-Jones begins 2024 with grace. This fifth record follows the hazy shoegaze of Yawn, released 5 years earlier, and Yawny Yawn, his stripped-back piano version. The ex-guitarist of The Coral embarked on his solo journey in 2008 with a definitive departure from the rock quintet, whose glory had become as overwhelming as its stresses. These difficulties and his own melancholy have formed the basis, throughout his career, of the Englishman’s intimate music of languid, chamber-like folk ballads.

Todd Snider Véritable trublion de la scène folk américaine, Todd Snider, songwriter à l'humour décapant et à l'écriture acerbe et toujours intelligente, s'est hissé au rang de petite star avec un single, « Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues », et son premier album, Songs for the Daily Planet (1994), qui mirent la critique d'accord. L'Américain a ensuite livré une dizaine d'albums, souvent plébiscités par la critique, mais ne rencontrant qu'un public relativement limité. Artiste folk, rock et parfois country, Todd Snider a cependant acquis un vivier de fans solide depuis le milieu des années 90.

‘From a musical point of view, but especially with regard to the stageworthiness of the work, these cuts represent an absolute improvement’ Bartok wrote to his publisher when he had finished his definitive revision of his Wooden Prince – cutting out much of the music relating to specific stage action, but also generally tightening the symphonic structure, making its large-scale mirror form appear clearer. Normally performed and recorded in its non-revised full-length version, it has been a joy now to follow Bartok’s inspired last wish revision of this mystic, vital, otherworldly, and grotesque fantasy music. (Thomas Dausgaard)

Todd Snider is perhaps the quintessential postmodern troubadour, toiling away on the folk and Americana circuits year after year, never gaining a hit yet always growing his audience. For a while, it seemed as though he could ride the post-Nirvana alt-rock wave that brought contemporaries like Jill Sobule a single hit, but his 1994 debut LP, Songs for the Daily Planet, peaked at number 23 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, with its accompanying single "Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues" proving not to be a novelty fluke.

The Armed Man, composed by Sir Karl Jenkins, is one of the most popular classical pieces in the world. Until now there has been only one recording, made over 20 years ago of the full score version which requires a large orchestra. In order to make the work more affordable to choirs and others, there is an ensemble version for fewer players. This new recording is the first to have been made of the alternative, reduced version scored for a smaller orchestra.

Thin Lizzy presents a 4-track EP entitled The Acoustic Sessions, a companion to the recent 50th Anniversary Deluxe release of Vagabonds of the Western World!

“Collaborating with a composer who is iconic was something else,” marvels Paul Leonard-Morgan of working with Phillip Glass on Amazon’s “Tales From the Loop.” The two composers tinkered around with musical ideas while Leonard-Morgan visited Glass in New York and “it was just an organic place from there.” The music for the series set in Mercer, Ohio, where residents live above “the loop” (which when unlocked, explores the secrets of the universe), soundtracks the town’s increasingly strange events, its sonic palette deftly avoiding sci-fi tropes.

Everything ends. Eventually. The good and the bad, the pain and the pleasure. This is a pillar of our very existence: mortality defines us, fulfils us, makes us feel, think, and be.