Tim Phillips Principe

This recording presents three traditional ways of celebrating Christmas in music – medieval carols, Renaissance motets praising the Virgin Mary, and German chorales. The medieval pieces are sung in their original forms, without modern ‘arrangement’. All those performed here are of English provenance, and culminate in three versions of the Coventry Carol, which include Byrd’s famous Lullaby.

With his unusually large output, Fayrfax bridges the gap between the Eton Choirbook and Tallis. No one before him had achieved the kind of expressive power he managed in these four antiphons, which every student of English music should study as being trailblazing and quite exceptional.

Following the success of Jonathan Phillips’ debut release, Bach: Tranquillity, Divine Art brings you his carefully curated selection of Chopin’s finest ballades and nocturnes. This selection naturally follows Phillips’ debut as Chopin himself was known to be strongly influenced by Bach.

Coming 40 years after he first started performing in bands in his native North West of England, Butterfly Mind is the most surprising release yet from Tim Bowness. From the short, sharp shocks of Always The Stranger and Only A Fool to the long-form ambition of the sensuous Dark Nevada Dream, the cinematic Electro-Ballroom of Glitter Fades and the dystopian paranoia of Say Your Goodbyes Parts 1 and 2, Butterfly Mind delivers a thrilling fusion of Art Rock invention, Post-Punk energy and epic soulful ballads. Tim’s seventh solo album features the stellar rhythm section of Richard Jupp (in his first major session since leaving Elbow) and Nick Beggs alongside a spectacular guest list including Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Dave Formula (Magazine), Peter Hammill (Van Der Graaf Generator), Martha Goddard (The Hushtones), Gregory Spawton (Big Big Train), Mark Tranmer (The Montgolfier Brothers / GNAC), Saro Cosentino (Franco Battiato), Italian Jazz musician Nicola Alesini, US singer Devon Dunaway (Ganga), Stephen W Tayler (Kate Bush) and, marking his first studio work with Tim for nearly three decades, former No-Man violinist Ben Coleman. Produced by Tim Bowness and Brian Hulse (Plenty), the album was mixed and mastered by Steven Wilson.

This anthology covers Tim Story's work between 1979 and 1986, serving up 18 pieces. Because there is no attempt to provide the pieces in chronological order (though the notes do indicate which album each piece comes from), there is no sense of Story's development as a composer - a later piece focusing on piano may well be followed by a more electronic piece. "Abridged" is a collection of small, floating still-life pieces, absorbing by dint of their lack of drama. Story's work draws the listener in, somehow capturing the attention by refusing to demand it - it's as easy to let the music fall into the background as to concentrate on it as a foreground element.