Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

Conceptualised (2010-2013), composed and produced (2014-2017) by Carl Michael von Hausswolff in Palma (Majorca) and Stockholm. This musical piece consists only of sounds emitted and extracted from physical matter using emission spectroscopy as the sole basic technology. Acknowledgements to Linköping University (IFM), Sweden.

'Still Life - Requiem' consists of one piece with the same title and is divided up into two to fit the LP format. The piece is, as the title suggests, a requiem and it's contents are solely composed by sounds captured from a specific physical solid state material. The composer has used a technique called 'emission spectroscopy' whereby the frequencies generated from the material was analysed and transferred into, for humans, a listenable pitch (between 15 and 14000Hz). This captured organic sound material has been stretched, looped, equalised and composed to produce the recording.

A requiem is a piece of music dedicated to certain sole or several restless souls that wander our worlds looking for a place to call home. A requiem radiates calm, peace and perhaps comfort for tormented spiritual beings - it's a piece dedicated to promote and insert tranquility and transcendence.

This requiem also provides the listener with a certain feeling of connection - perhaps a connection with the unknown and with the energy field clusters and mental abilities of post-mortem life forms that would be the incorporeal essence of a living being.

CMvH (born 1956 in Linköping , Sweden) has a long history within the communities of contemporary music and visual art. His first records was released in early 80s while the most recent saw the light just a few years ago ('Squared' (CD - Auf Abwegen, 2015)). In recent years he has been collaborating with Leslie Winer ('1' (LP - Monotype 2016)) and Hans-Joachim Roedelius ('Nordlicht' (LP - Curious Music, 2017)).

He has also instigated and curated the collective sound-installation 'freq_out' during 2003 - 2017, which includes artists such as Jana Winderen, JG Thirlwell, Finnbogi Petursson, Christine Ödlund and others.

Marc Codsi has been a defining player on the Lebanese music scene for years. Tirelessly experiemental, he released 5 albums with his post-rock noise group Scrambled Eggs. His collaborations have born some of the music exciting acts to grace the scene, from electro duo Lumi to film soundtracks with Zeid Hamdan.

His second full length album, Works & Coincidences, deviates from the world of noise and experimentation that he has been known for. It is the first release of Free Hand Records, sister label of Parisian publishing company Free Hand Publishing. Set in the contemporary classical genre, with enchanting melodies hidden in rich soundscapes to solo piano pieces of disarming simplicity and beauty, this is an album for fans of Glenn Gould to Brian Eno.

The music of Robert Schumann and the artistry of Sviatoslav Richter are a natural match. Schumann was loathe to use flashy, purely virtuosic elements in his compositions, a fact brilliantly illustrated in the vast majority of his works for solo piano. Rather, Schumann was much more likely to tell a story, paint a picture, or read a poem through his music, although his works were not overtly programmatic. Richter possessed a technique virtually unrivaled during his career and was able to definitively toss off even the most technically demanding works. At his heart, however, Richter was a poet and an artist with profound musical insights and introspections. This album, featuring recordings made in the late '50s, is one of Richter's surviving albums in which poor sound quality does not distract listeners from this artistry. His performances of the C major Fantasy, the Op. 82 Waldszenen, and the Op. 12 Fantasiestucke are magnificently refined, unhurried, and unsullied by some pianists' need to make the works flashier then they need to be.

* 180 gram audiophile vinyl
* Trifold Sleeve
* High quality PVC Protective Sleeve
* 4 page booklet with liner notes and photos
* Carefully curated selection of chansons, including "Jezebel", "She", "Comme Ils Disent", "For Me Formidable", "La Bohéme" and many more
* Duets with Frank Sinatra, Johnny Hallyday and his English versions
* Limited first pressing of 1.500 individually numbered copies on "French Flag" blue, white and red vinyl

by Charles Aznavour is a wonderful collection of hits and classic by the French artist that touches your soul at every moment.It's an overview of his work during the sixties, seventies and duets with Johnny Hallyday on "Il Faut Savoir" and with Frank Sinatra "Young At Heart". Also his English versions of "How Sad Venice Can Be", "The Old Fashioned Way", "She" and four more English songs are included on this deluxe Trifold 3LP album.

Francis Macdonald has plays drums with Teenage Fanclub and makes music for filmmakers/TV. Other artists he has worked with include BMX Bandits, Alex Chilton, Belle & Sebastian, The Pastels, Camera Obscura and The Vaselines. His album Music For String, Quartet, Piano & Celeste' (2015) was described as Sublime, minimalist classical music' by Classic FM in the UK.

Harry Pye is a London-based artist, once described by The Guardian newspaper as "the master of lo fi British art". He won first prize in a competition to paint a portrait of Tony Blair, judged by Gilbert & George. He edits The Rebel art webzine and has had exhibitions of his work in London, Denmark, Australia and Brazil. Collaborations with filmmaker Gordon Beswick have been screened at Tate Modern and Tate Britain in London.

Harry and Francis began collaborating when Harry asked Francis to write about his favourite Elvis song for a fanzine. Then Harry invited Francis to add percussion to a song he was recording with Neil Innes - a version of Micke Nesmith's Rio, in the run up to The 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Harry then began sending Francis song lyrics and Francis would write music.

The Piano Guys have become a YouTube sensation with their clever and inspiring takes on popular music and creative videos that accompany them. From Beethoven to Adele, their eclectic mix of Classical, film score, Rock and Pop favorites resonate with audiences across generations and from all walks of life. Their 2012 debut album The Piano Guys (MOVCL020) reached No. 1 on the Billboard New Age Albums and Classical Albums charts.

Several of the group's YouTube videos have over 20 million views. As of October 2016 The Piano Guys' YouTube channel had more than a billion total video views and over five million subscribers. In June 2011, The Piano Guys won the Most Up-and-Coming Channel' award in the YouTube On the Rise' contest with Michael Meets Mozart' with Schmidt and Nelson.

The latest album by the trio Uncharted includes the classical versions of Hello (Adéle)', The Jungle Book', Indiana Jones And The Arabian Night' as well as the never heard before tracks Pirates Of The Caribbean', Holding On' and Okay'.

In 1958 the BBC Radiophonic Workshop opened with the aim to enhance the main drama output on the Third Programme (now Radio 3) following the development of new electronic music techniques emanating from Europe. Their work expanded across the BBC to take in TV drama (especially sci-fi), schools programmes and themes. The latter being their most celebrated and well known work: Delia Derbyshire's treatment of Ron Grainer's theme for Doctor Who.

This collection was originally released on vinyl by BBC Records in 1979 to celebrate 21 years of the workshop's creative output. From The Goons (Bloodnock's Stomach), to the Interval Signal, to Doctor Who and Great Zoos of the World, this is a fascinating chronicle of some of the most innovative music ever made. These ground-breaking compositions have provided a major influence on music from The Beatles and Pink Floyd and onwards into the contemporary world of Aphex Twin, Orbital and The Chemical Brothers.

Nils Frahm reveals new 'Solo' album and the 'Klavins 450' piano project on the world's first Piano Day! Berlin-based composer ...

A collection of nine reworks crafted by fans and selected by Nils himself form the 'Screws Reworked' re-issue, also featuring his original 'Screws'. The 2012 album 'Screws' by Nils Frahm, was the result of inspiration from his fans and friends while he recovered from an unfortunate accident, which saw him fall from his bunk bed located directly above his studio, which resulted in a broken thumb.

These nine intimate recordings were offered to fans to download for free and in return fans thanked Nils by sending him their audio and visual reinterpretations. Fascinated by the results, Nils then publicly asked his fans to submit their reworks or any form of art that was inspired by the release and all these submissions have been collected since on a dedicated website: It gave birth to the 'Screws Reworked' project from which Nils selected nine reworks to feature on a special edition re-issue which also includes his original 'Screws'.

'Whenever you have to decide between two things, you end up favouring one over the other. In the case of this record, I had to choose nine out of hundreds of songs - but I didn't want to follow this logic, I didn't want the songs to compete against each other. I never liked music competitions, neither when I was a kid playing classical music contests nor today when the best album of 2015 is awarded.

Having been in the situation to pick my own tracks for my own records, I knew that the only way to manage this tough job is to concentrate on the cohesiveness of listening to the songs all together. Screws Reworked should sound like a record, not like a random collection of tracks.

The motivation to make such a record came with the release of Screws in 2012 as a gift to my listeners. I thought about it as a starting point for people to make their own interpretations of the songs. The feedback was overwhelming. A couple of months later, we counted over 300 contributions. Without going through a selection process, they were all available only online until now.

It seemed essential to make it a real record as I imagined how happy it must make those who would find their names - in most cases for the first time - on a real record.

Now is the time to thank you all for your numerous and beautiful contributions. In case you don't find your track here, please don't think it stands behind the others. This record means, in fact, that some of the most beautiful songs couldn't be included as they simply weren't 'good neighbours' and because there is only one rework for each of my original compositions.

However all of you opened your hearts and minds and shared your uniqueness with us and I feel incredibly blessed by each and every single rework of Screws. Thank you!' - Nils Frahm.

Color Vinyl

'This is the story of a man, marked by an image from his
childhood.' Thus begins, with deceptive simplicity, Chris
Marker's La Jetée (1962). The film, by far Marker's bestknown
work, synthesizes many of the elusive filmmaker's
central preoccupations - time and memory, power and resistance,
the ephemerality and resilience of love - yet it also
undermines the very idea of film. Composed almost entirely
of still photographs, La Jetée quite literally pieces together
the tale of an unnamed, forsaken protagonist, drafted into a
series of time travel experiments in post-apocalyptic Paris.
While Marker creates some of the most hauntingly beautiful
imagery in cinema, what animates La Jetée's frozen
pictures is its sparse and unsettling soundscape. Whispers,
breaths and heartbeats offer an unnerving reminder of
bodily rhythms that, inside the film and out, will inevitably
cease. Fragments of symphonic music at once capture a
love affair and underscore the tragedy awaiting it. The poetic
momentum of the narrator's voice, our only guide: 'On
the tenth day, images begin to ooze, like confessions.'
Superior Viaduct is honored to present the first-time release
of the soundtrack from La Jetée. This vinyl album
features both French and English voiceover narrations,
along with organic textures and Trevor Duncan's impressionistic
score. More than half a century has passed since
La Jetée's theatrical release - now is the time to travel back
to the 'sudden roar' of this masterpiece in a completely
different light.

Classic/ Experimental.. Skeylja"" An invented word combining the Frisian word for Terschelling, ""Skylge"", and the Icelandic word for island,"Eyjan" Skeylja is an international multimedia project, based around the ideas of improvisational music and the coming together of musicians from different countries and musical backgrounds to create a spontaneous sonic landscape. The project started when The Alvaret Ensemble (Greg Haines, Jan & Romke Kleefstra, and Sytze Pruiksma), who you may know from their eponymous debut on Denovali in 2012, travelled to Iceland to try to find a shared music language with the Icelandic musicians Ingi Garðar Erlendsson, Kira Kira, Borgar Magnason and Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson . They were joined by the 33 1/3 Collective, a group of visual artists from the Netherlands, who began to collect footage that would later be used as source material for the visual side of the performance. Some months later, after a successful week of traveling to beautiful locations and playing music together, the group met again, this time during the Oerol festival on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands, for a series of nine sold-out shows in an old church, all of which were being recorded. Each artist ""curated"" a rough plan for one evening, which could be anything from hand-drawn images to be interpreted musically to more precise plans of structures and combinations of musicians to be explored. Never were the notes, or the content of the music itself, discussed - this was instead left up to chance and developed through listening intently to each-other, trying to create an atmosphere where each player was vital, but where everyone always worked towards the whole. After ten intense days on the island, all that was left were the memories of the audience and, luckily, a hard-drive with over ten hours of recorded music. After everyone had had a chance to listen back to rough mixes of each night and make comments, the material was taken to Greg Haines' Electricity Works studio in Berlin, where the long process of selecting, editing and mixing began. Finally, almost two years after that first initial meeting in Reykjavik, the album is complete and ready to be released into the world. We hope you enjoy it. Participating musicians: Ingi Garðar Erlendsson (Tuba, Trombone, Thranophone) Greg Haines (Piano) Kira Kira (Voice, Electronics) Jan Kleefstra (Voice, Poems) Romke Kleefstra (Guitar) Borgar Magnason (Contrabass) Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson (Trumpet, Electronics) Sytze Pruiksma (Percussion) CD: Digipak. Vinyl: thick covers + thick printed inner sleeves, 180g vinyl, different vinyl colours, free download.

Faith Coloccia and Alex Barnett return to Blackest Ever Black with their second duo album, Weld, working with synthesizers, affected vocals, raw electrical noise, field recordings, EVP techniques, tape manipulation and drum machines to create a music at once lucid and mystic. Its songs embody various experiential philosophies and objectives: searching for the sacred in the forgotten and supposedly useless, exploring the meaning of natural', listening for the pulse of the ancient, using technology both to materialise memory and to dream a folklore for a future age. Coloccia and Barnett's ambition is apparent early on in the stately, medievalist keyboard/choral poetics of 'Truth Teller', moving through the agitated wormhole techno of 'Dreamsnake', to the white light-emitting, near-symphonic plainchant of 'Healer'. 'Blight''s zero-hour synth pulsations are first interrupted, then engulfed, by an extra-terrestrial broadcast of piercing bell and glass-tones, 'AM Horizon' is pitched bewitchingly between Prophet-5 pulp futurism and earthbound, atavistic dread, 'Agate Cross''s baroque harmonic sequence disintegrates at its very climax, cooling and dissipating into a deep starfield of pure tone. 'Ash Grove' and 'Rose Eye' are exhilarating exercises in contemporary musique concrète: complex timbral constructs in which Coloccia's disembodied glossolalia, swooping strings and other nameless sonic spectra conspire to evoke extra-dimensional space and the highest spiritual drama. Weld speaks its own distinctive dream-language, but we would certainly recommend it to anyone enamoured of the brittle sci-fi synth-scapes in Caroline K's Now Wait For Last Year, the amorphous electronics of Beatriz Ferreyra's recent work, Conrad Schnitzler's more gothic moments, and even the gravest metaphysical reckonings of a Stockhausen or a Rozmann.

Piano/ Trip Hop/ Electronic. For fans of Boards Of Canada, Pole, Hauschka, Four Tet, The Notwist. Working across a variety of media John Lemke explores all things sonic through live performance, sound design and his work as a documentary film composer. The Walizka EP is his latest solo release on Denovali Records. Three items in a suitcase, a clarinet, a looper and a microphone - is how it all started. A free improvisation with friend & collaborator Lukasz Bernacki (on clarinet) sparked John's desire to bring his compositional and production approach back down to the most basic elements. Creating simple, yet distinctive rhythms only through tapping contact microphones run into noisy guitar amps became the base for the EP's three tracks, consequently inspiring its live, lo-fi feel. Written and recorded between John's native Berlin and his adopted home of Glasgow, Walizka (Polish for 'suitcase') somehow absorbs the defining atmospheres of both cities in its core. Previously released digitally as a teaser for John's debut album, the Walizka EP actually presents newer material, progressing the electro-acoustic nature of 'People Do' towards more dub drenched territories. Refining John's blend of prepared piano and field recordings with hand crafted beats and swampy bass lines, this deeply moody and danceable release bends genres with refreshing ease. The EP is furthermore enhanced by a second half of remixes by fellow Denovali artists Piano Interrupted, SaffronKeira and Petrels and the ever elusive Everyday Dust. Far from conventional remixes, these pieces fall more in the category of re-imaginations, complementing the EP's first, more rhythm anchored half with a coherent ambient counterpart. CD: digipak. Vinyl: thick covers + thick printed inner sleeves, 180g vinyl, different vinyl colours, free download.

Classic/ Piano. "THE EYE OF TIME is the Solo-Project of French musician Marc Euvrie. Euvrie's musical development is deeply connected with the French DIY punk and hardcore scene, though he has been classically trained as well. He started to play piano being 9 years old, composed his first pieces with 15 and studied cello at the conservatoire after finishing school. Euvrie used to play in several bands before, being influenced by CLAUDE DEBUSSY, PHILIP GLASS, ERIC CHOPIN, J.S. BACH, MICHAEL NYMAN just as by GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR, A SILVER MT. ZION or PORTISHEAD, he began to translate his personal reflection of our complex world into music, which initiated THE EYE OF TIME. A self titled debut record, released in Spring 2012, evolved first. For his debut Marc Euvrie's critical writing exposed a dark look on the present, past and future: Linked to machines and samples, revealing an unnatural direction of the human being's existence. His upcoming release ACOUSTIC is a consequent change of focus. Looking for the motor, the personal needs to survive, he found himself experimenting with only Cello and Piano. Apparently these classical instruments turned out to be a relevant strong signal to go back to the roots with something more natural and simple to start from. Though both records seem to go in opposite directions in terms of sound and concept, a strong underlying layer stays inevitable: The Eye of Time's compositions imply a call to fight for the things we love. ACOUSTIC might be understood as a counterbalance to The Eye of Time's debut. Where the previous record disclosed the coldness of our time, destructing everything that is meant to be our deep nature and presenting the despair of our situation, Acoustic embarks on a little glimpse of hope: Finding some strength to keep fighting for the nature of things and their vital qualities. Marc Euvrie composed six songs for six different locations and points in time, reaching way back to ancient centuries as well as taking a glance into our near future of a yet unknown place. A very personal travel through time and space, between the beauty of nature (Cisjordania, Norway) and the beauty of hope, which allows humans to dream their dreams (Spain, Poland). Marc Euvries own feelings and thoughts about his life evoke mostly in the last two tracks, where he found a form to intensify what keeps him alive. CD: digipak, Vinyl: thick covers + thick printed inner sleeves, 180g vinyl, different vinyl colours, free download.

Erik K Skodvin is most known for his surreal darker compositions as Svarte Greiner or as half of the melancholic induced duo Deaf Center.

This collection of the two albums Flare and Flame marks his first musical entries under his own name, experimenting with the soundtrack based sides of Americana and Blues. While his Svarte Greiner albums might dwell on minimal atmospheric darkness, Flare / Flame are awash in their own destructive concept of light.

Second Editions presents Things Opening by Lori Goldston.

Lori Goldston's approach to the violincello is true and immediate. Describing herself as "classically trained and rigorously de-trained", Goldston indeed defies all conformities of genre, style and technique. Her playing reflects as much of Baroque as it does of American roots or experimental traditions. It is elegant, gritty, restless, delicate, irreverent, utterly pure. This album comprises of two parts, highlighting Goldston as both a distinct composer as well as a many-faceted performer. The first side holds a suite of songs written by Goldston to accompany the poems of Melinda Mueller, while the second features pieces written for Goldston by Jessika Kenney, Satchel Henneman and Julio Lopezhiler.

Recorded live by Mell Dettmer at the Chapel Performance Space and at Studio Soli in Seattle WA, 2018. Mastered and cut by Anne Taegert at Duplates & Mastering in Berlin, 2019. Photograph by Antonis Theodoridis, 2016.

Das international gefeierte 12 Ensemble veröffentlicht mit "Metamorphosis" sein drittes Studioalbum, aufgenommen in den legendären Abbey Road Studios. Von der göttlichen Natur der Transformation bis zu außerirdischen Visionen neuer Welten und Wiedergeburt erforscht das dirigentenlose 12 Ensemble Renaissance-Hymnen, die als futuristisches Gebet, altjapanisches Ritual, überirdische Opernarie und monumentale Elegie wiedergeboren werden, in denen das Ensemble seine bislang stärkste Leistung zeigt. Mit einem Vorwort des Autors Charlie Fox, Linernotes von Hugh Morris und Fotos von Greta Ilieva.

2CELLOS are back with their third album Celloverse, which returns to the sound and concept of their self-titled debut, building on Luka Sulic & Stjepan Hauser's unique ability to re-imagine current and classic rock and pop songs with their own extraordinary energy — blasting instrumental music off into a whole new Celloverse. The album includes audio recordings of their YouTube releases of "Thunderstruck" and "I Will Wait" as well as new takes on songs such as Avicii's "Wake Me Up," Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" and another Michael Jackson favourite "They Don't Care About Us." The title song is a 2CELLOS original, and to top it all off, there's an unforgettable guest collaboration with their good friend, Lang Lang on the Paul McCartney classic "Live and Let Die." Celloverse is available as a 10th anniversary edition of 1000 numbered copies on orange coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Croatian cellists Luka Šulić and HAUSER, together known as 2CELLOS, celebrated their 10th anniversary in 2021 with a brand new album, titled Dedicated. The album was led by the first single, a cover of Bon Jovi’s anthem “Livin’ On A Prayer”. Dedicated showcases their unique playing style on ten new arrangements that reinvent both recent hits such as One Republic's “Wherever I Go”, Ed Sheeran/Justin Bieber's “I Don’t Care” and Billie Eilish's “Bad Guy”, and iconic classics such as Guns ‘N Roses' “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and Aerosmith's “Cryin’”. In 2011, 2CELLOS went viral with their self-uploaded version of Michael Jackon’s “Smooth Criminal”. Since then, they’ve released five chart-topping studio albums, amassed over 2.5 billion streams and surpassed 20 million followers on their socials. They shared the stages with Elton John, Steven Tyler, Andrea Bocelli, George Michael and Queens Of The Stone Age amongst others. Dedicated is available as a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on white coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Includes insert Featuring covers of iconic cinematic scores Performed with the London Symphony Orchestra Limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on purple coloured vinyl 2CELLOS explore the magic of cinema and television in their new album Score, r eimagining the most beloved film and TV melodies with their distinctive sound.

2CELLOS have forged a signature style that breaks down the boundaries between genres of music, from classical and film music to pop and rock. Score is available as a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on purple coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Das Jahrhundertkonzert der 3 Tenöre vor 30 Jahren - jetzt auf farbigem Vinyl Sie waren die wohl berühmtesten Opernsänger der Welt: José Carreras, Plácido Domingo und Luciano Pavarotti. Gemeinsam füllten sie als "Die drei Tenöre" ganze Fußballstadien. Eine dieser vom Publikum geliebten Großveranstaltungen fand vor genau 30 Jahren statt, am 16. Juli 1994 im Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Schon damals holte die Übertragung des Ereignisses über 1,3 Milliarden Fernsehzuschauer vor die Bildschirme. Zum 30-jährigen Jubiläum erscheint nun eine limitierte und kolorierte Doppel-LP mit dem Live-Mitschnitt des Konzerts. Unvergessen ist Luciano Pavarottis Interpretation von Puccinis "Nessun dorma". An ihr müssen sich - lange nach dem Tod des Sängers - noch heute Tenöre messen lassen. Arien von Verdi und Massenet wechseln sich ab mit Evergreens aus der goldenen Ära Hollywoods von "Moon River" bis "Singin? in the Rain". Auch (bis dahin) unbekannte, aber mitreißende Lieder und Arien aus ihren Heimatländern präsentierten die drei Tenöre wie "Amor, vida de mi vida". Den Abschluss des grandiosen Abends bildet das Medley "Around the World". Begleitet wurden die drei Tenöre vom Los Angeles Philharmonic unter der Leitung von Star-Dirigent Zubin Mehta. - Lustiger Fingerzeig der Geschichte: Eines der größten Konzerte der drei Tenöre ereignete sich direkt vor dem FIFA World Cup 1994. 30 Jahre später startet die UEFA European Championship just am Erscheinungstag der Jubiläums-Edition.

Critically acclaimed pianist/composer Aaron Diehl's penchant for the past
influencing the future has come full circle with his fully realised suite of
Mary Lou Williams' Zodiac Suite - the first fully-fledged professional
recording of this incredible music
Solely paying tribute to Mary Lou Williams was not the goal, as Diehl's mission is
to give honour and praise to one of the greatest composers of the 20th century
and the forgotten rich history of Black Classical Music.
Joined by the orchestral collective The Knights and special guests Evan
Christopher (clarinet), Nicole Glover (tenor sax), Brandon Lee (trumpet), and
Mikaela Bennett (soprano), Diehl breathes vibrant new life into a masterwork that
the composer herself was never able to fully realize during her lifetime.
Aaron Diehl approaches the piano with a delicately nuanced expressivity and an
exquisitely attuned touch that have garnered him acclaim at the highest levels.
From his collaborations with such jazz innovators as Wynton Marsalis, Cécile
McLorin Salvant and Benny Golson, to his exploratory work in the classical realm
with Philip Glass or the New York Philharmonic, to his own current- crossing
recordings as a leader, Diehl is singularly committed to a journey of musical
discovery regardless of genre or context

»Eine funkelnde Aufführung, die erfrischend spontan wirkt – und doch gedanklich vollkommen geformt ist«
(Der Tagesspiegel)
Der kanadische Starpianist Jan Lisiecki präsentiert seinen gefeierten Zyklus der fünf Klavierkonzerte von
Ludwig van Beethoven erstmals auf Vinyl in einer hochwertigen Box mit fünf 180g LPs.
Die fünf Konzerte seien kein Zyklus im engeren Sinn, sagt Jan Lisiecki: »Beethoven hat diese Werke
sicher nicht zusammenhängend konzipiert. Dennoch gehören sie zusammen, denn sie zeigen ein unglaublich
differenziertes Bild von Beethoven, angefangen mit den beiden ersten Konzerten, die noch das Erbe Mozarts
verraten, über die so unterschiedlichen Werke Nummer drei und vier bis hin zum majestätischen Es-DurKonzert.« Den Pianisten fasziniert diese Vielfalt, »weil hier alle wichtigen, teils gegensätzlichen Facetten
Beethovens zusammenkommen«.
Lisiecki ist in diesen Einspielungen nicht nur als Solist zu erleben, sondern leitet die berühmte Academy of
St Martin in the Fields vom Klavier aus.
Die Veröffentlichung dieser Vinyl Box wird begleitet von einer großen Deutschland Tour im Januar 2025

'A Handful Of Memories' is the result of an appreciation upon reflection of Adam's
past experiences, trips with his family, his touring families and friends in some
places that hold special memories for him.
To reflect the personal, minimalist nature of the tracks, no effort was made to
remove any of the pedal noises or enhance the tracks in any way, as Adam
wanted them as exposed and natural as they can be.
The pandemic had a hand in Adam's return to modern classical piano after 25
years. As a highly sought- after touring pianist, Adam played extensively with
Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis and many others. When the pandemic
started, and the music world paused, he was halfway through a South American
tour with Martin Barre on his 50th Anniversary Tour of Jethro Tull. Forced to leave
his gear in Peru and hurry home before the airports closed, a period of reflection
had started and this album is a result of that.

With selections ranging from Praetorius to Britten,
plus all-time favourites by J.S. Bach (The
Christmas Oratorio) and Handel (Messiah), this
album brings together some of the most beautiful
and justly famous musical settings of the Nativity
story.
Festive or intimate, exuberant or elegiac, these
highlights from iconic recordings in harmonia
mundi’s voluminous catalogue are an ideal
sampling of the Christmas magic across epochs
and styles.

Zwei Jahre nach "It's a Long Way to Happiness", das über 20 Millionen Mal gestreamt wurde, meldet sich der Pianist Alban Claudin mit seinem wunderbaren zweiten Album "Room of Reflection" zurück. Während sein erstes Werk als eine Reise gedacht war, die sich der Natur und der Welt öffnete, ist dieses zweite Album persönlicher und stellt Fragen zu unserer Identität in der Gesellschaft: Wie kann man in einer Welt, die von Bildern sowohl in den Medien als auch in den sozialen Netzwerken überflutet wird, seinen Platz finden, Abstand gewinnen und sich selbst finden? Dreizehn Titel, die wie eine intime Reise konzipiert sind. Im Vordergrund steht die Melodie, berauschend, eingängig und teuflisch wirksam! Melodien, die man auf der Straße pfeifen kann, so wie man einen Beatles-Song pfeifen würde. Die Stärke von Alban Claudin: Er verleiht jedem Stück die Kraft eines Pop-Hits. Mit nur wenigen Klaviernoten gelingt es ihm, uns mehr zu sagen als jeder geschriebene und gesungene Titel. "Room of Reflection" erzählt uns vom Leben eines jungen Mannes in den Dreißigern: von seinen Freuden, seinen Zweifeln, seiner Beziehung zur Welt. Ein Album, das in seiner Zeit verankert ist und von Sanftheit und Träumerei geprägt ist.

“The album title ADELA comes from a song by Rodrigo which constitutes the emotional culmination of our duo’s programme. What counts is not the name, but the person we love and long for. Everyone certainly has such a person, and so we hope that each listener will find something close to his or her heart on our album.

The piano and classical guitar virtually never collaborate in music. However, after our first joint performance with Łukasz Kuropaczewski, we immediately realised that we could create intriguing music worlds together. We followed the same line of thinking in our choice of programme, which derives from both the piano and guitar repertoires, though the spirit of the South that informs most of that music is more typically associated with the guitar tradition. In my arrangements of classical works, I strove to represent the sonic qualities of both instruments, their unique expression, and cultural associations. I reworked Domenico Scarlatti’s famous “Sonata in D Minor (Toccata)” K. 141 so as to bring out its Spanish roots. Titled “Domingo” on our album, it features distinctive flamenco qualities and an improvised layer. The “Aranjuez Concerto BWV 1056” is, as its very name suggests, a fusion of the world’s most famous piece for guitar and orchestra, Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez”, with Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Keyboard Concerto in F Minor” BWV 1056. Themes from the second, slow movements of both concertos interlink here as in the film cross-cutting technique, and we swap roles, Łukasz leading the Bach theme while I take up Rodrigo’s.

Three of the works on this album have been enriched by the angelic voice of Jakub Józef Orliński. In these three, Egberto Gismonti’s guitar composition “Água e Vinho”, my own “Quarantine Song”, and even the famous “Adela” by Joaquin Rodrigo, the voice has been treated more as an instrument than a lyrical subject. “Quarantine Song” was composed during the COVID-19 quarantine in 2020 specially for Jakub Józef Orliński as its performer. “Pedro” was inspired by the films of Pedro Almodóvar.




[c] A3. Água e Vinho [feat. Jakub Józef Orliński] - Egberto Gismonti


[f] B2. Quarantine Song [feat. Jakub Józef Orliński] - Aleksander Dębicz

[h] B4. Adela [feat. Jakub Józef Orliński] - Joaquín Rodrigo

The Entertainer is Alex Twomey’s first album since 2012. Many have been waiting and, finally, here we are! During the silence, Twomey’s keyboard work has germinated into a more framed compositional structure, beaming with orchestral strings, woodwinds, and brass. Eleven cinematic settings and bouncing refrains mark this LP. Alex describes the album as, “vignettes alluding to a vague narrative regarding one’s idea as an artist.” A somber beauty is penned.

Alex previously recorded as Mirror to Mirror, and operated the record label Jugular Forest from 2004-2012. I first met him in 2010 during a large concert in Santa Cruz, CA. Alongside Twomey, myself, Kyle Parker (Infinite Body), Matthew Sullivan (Earn), Pedestrian Deposit, Mike Pollard, and Peter Friel performed that night. Alex’s performance was a thick ocean of chords, a penetrating grace that I can still recall. Everyone has since bloomed from the ambient roots of that time in their own way. Alex has held onto utilizing the keyboard, albeit as a tool to build a larger musical world. A legend to the map.

On this album the melodies dance as twinkling bulbs along a retired parade float. A dark comedy, a tragic smile. Love found in the rough of it all. Twomey is currently studying composition at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Sean McCann, April 2019

Film d'ouverture de la sélection "Un Certain Regard" lors du Festival de Cannes 2022, "Tirailleurs" met en scène Omar Sy, également coproducteur du film, dans la peau d'un jeune père sénégalais s'engageant en 1917 dans l'armée française afin de sauver son fils enrôlé de force. Alexandre Desplat, compositeur à la stature internationale multi récompensé, nous propose une partition sombre, où les percussions et les cordes tiennent une place prépondérante. Les instruments à vent et le piano sont quant à eux utilisés pour explorer des thèmes plus mélancoliques et introspectifs

Französisches und spanisches Gefühl für Nostalgie mit dem Pianisten Alexandre Tharaud "Ravels Konzert in G-Dur ist frisch und mozartisch in seinen Farben, während sein Konzert für die linke Hand von dunklen Schatten und unterdrückten Ängsten heimgesucht wird", erzählt Alexandre Tharaud. Ravels Musik liegt dem Pianisten besonders am Herzen. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Orchestre National de France und dem Dirigenten Louis Langrée spielte er nun die beiden Klavierkonzerte des Komponisten ein.

Er kombiniert sie mit Noches en los jardines de España (Nächte in spanischen Gärten), Manuel de Fallas schwelgerischem Werk für Klavier und Orchester.

Inspiriert von der Black Lives Matter Bewegung formuliert der britische Pianist und Komponist Alexis Ffrench seine Lebensaufgabe: Mit klassischer Musik möchte er für eine Gesellschaft der Vielfalt, Gleichheit und des gegenseitigen Respekts eintreten. Auf seinem Album "Truth" bringt er seine Vision zum Erklingen. "Was ist meine Aufgabe in der Welt" - diese grundlegende Frage versucht der britische Pianist und Komponist Alexis Ffrench mit seinem Album "Truth" für sich zu beantworten. Die Frage geht für den Sohn jamaikanischer Einwanderer auf den Tod von George Floyd zurück. Schockiert sah Alexis Ffrench das Video von Floyds Ermordung durch einen Polizisten am 25. Mai 2020. Ungläubig und überwältigt setzte er sich an sein Piano und begann zu komponieren. Musik zu schreiben, war der Weg für Alexis Ffrench mit den Bildern umzugehen. "Nach der Trauer kam die Wut, dann die Hilflosigkeit", erklärt er, "Ich fragte mich, wie ich als Musiker an den Protesten teilhaben könne, weil ich in dieser Zeit in der Pandemie isoliert war. Ich begann auf meine eigene, kleine Weise am Klavier. Es war Aktivismus für mich selbst, denn ich musste mich beteiligt fühlen, und es war mir wichtig, mit meiner Musik die Hoffnungen und Ängste zum Ausdruck zu bringen und andere zu ermutigen, ihre eigene Stimme zu erheben." Alexis Ffrench verfolgte die Berichterstattung über die weltweiten Demonstrationen der entstehenden Black Lives Matter Bewegung und untermalte die Szenen protestierender Menschenmassen mit Musik. Das Stück "Walk With Us (For Black Lives Matter)" veröffentlichte er bereits 2020 als Single. Andere Kompositionen aus dieser Zeit bilden die Grundlage für sein Album "Truth".Sein Engagement für mehr Vielfalt und Chancengleichheit durchzieht die Karriere von Alexis Ffrench wie ein roter Faden. Zusammen mit dem Princes Trust unterstützt er ein Programm, das Kindern aus besonders benachteiligten Familien Zugang zu Musikunterricht ermöglicht. Zudem hat Alexis Ffrench, der selbst aus finanziell bescheidenen Verhältnissen kommt, zusammen mit dem Sony Music UK Social Justice Fund ein jährliches Stipendium für People of Color an der Royal Academy of Music ins Leben gerufen. Auch er konnte nur dank eines Stipendiums dort studieren und war damals einer von nur zwei Schwarzen Studierenden in seinem Jahrgang. Alexis Ffrench vergleicht sich jedoch nicht mit einem Politiker, der Kraft seines Amtes Veränderungen herbeiführt. Sein Medium ist die Musik und sein Ziel, Menschen über alle Vorurteile hinweg zusammenzubringen, schlägt sich in seiner ganz eigenen Art des Komponierens nieder. "Meine Kompositionen sind kurz und wie ein Popsong strukturiert, weil ich so mit meinen Melodien die größte Wirkung erzielen kann", erklärt er. Seiner Vision, möglichst viele Menschen mit seiner Musik zu verbinden, ist er seit seinem Sony-Debütalbum im Jahr 2018 in großen Schritten nähergekommen. In Großbritannien ist Alexis Ffrench nicht nur ein Medienstar und kann Top 30 Charts-Erfolge feiern, er ist auch einer der meist-gestreamte Pianisten weltweit. Mit "Truth" hat Alexis Ffrench seine künstlerische Vision nun weiter gefasst. Das Album mag zwar aus Gefühlen der Trauer, Verzweiflung und Wut geboren sein, es ist jedoch von einer ungebrochen positiven Vision für eine Gesellschaft der Gleichheit, Vielfalt und des gegenseitigen Respekts getragen, die Alexis Ffrench mit den sanften Tönen seines Pianos in den Raum malt.

Den Titel für sein Album "Classical Soul Volume One" hat Pianist und Komponist Alexis Ffrench an klassische Hip Hop-Mixtapes angelehnt. Kurze Melodie-Fragmente aus Soul-Hymnen wie "Ain't No Sunshine" und "A Change Is Gonna Come" verbindet er, wie "Samples" im Hip Hop, mit seinen eigenen Kompositionen. Diese sind von persönlichen Momenten und Erinnerungen inspiriert. Alexis Ffrench sagt: "Dieses Projekt hat etwas von einem Rundumblick und ist auch das Ergebnis eines '360°-Prozess', bei dem ich zurückgeschaut, aber auch nach vorne geblickt habe". Der Tod seines Vaters war ein fundamentaler Einschnitt, ein Verlust, der nachhallte und Alexis neu auf sein Leben blicken ließ. Eine Auszeit in der Natur, in den Highlands von Schottland, brachte ihm Ruhe und Zeit zur Reflexion. "Diese Erfahrungen veranlassen dich, darüber nachzudenken, was man hat und wirklich liebt", erklärt er. Insofern ist "Classical Soul Volume One" auch eine universelle Erzählung von Verlust und Liebe und dabei eine Feier des Lebens.

Mit ihrer beeindruckenden Technik und sensiblen Musikalität gehört die deutsch-japanische Pianistin Alice
Sara Ott zu den weltweit führenden Interpreten.
Auf ihrem neuen Album „John Field ff Complete Nocturnes“ widmet sich Ott den Kompositionen von John
Field: „Für mich war die Auseinandersetzung mit den Nocturnes eine große persönliche Bereicherung: Sie
berühren mich zutiefst mit ihrer Schönheit und Anmut.“
Von seinen Zeitgenossen (Chopin, Liszt, Schumann) hochgelobt, sind John Fields Nocturnes heute weitgehend unbekannt.
“Ich hoffe, mit dieser Gesamteinspielung der Nocturnes, die damit auch schließlich im Katalog der Deutschen
Grammophon präsent ist, vielleicht ein paar Menschen dazu zu bewegen, die Musik von John Field zu entdecken – dem Mann, der uns das Nocturne vermacht hat.”

The Spanish Queen (of the Piano)

She had small, square hands. She was 1.52 m tall. As a child, she banged her head on the floor to be allowed to play the piano. She was Catalan. She was a pianist—one of the greatest. Her mission? To spread the Spanish repertoire. Her name was Alicia de Larrocha.

When she passed away in 2009 at age 89, Nelson Freire wrote, "I truly loved her; she was a modest woman, and her playing shone like the sun." Acclaimed worldwide, she stood alongside Victoria de Los Angeles as one of Spain’s finest artists.

Larrocha’s journey began at three, seated at a piano. At four, she studied under Frank Marshall, a student of Granados. By six, she was performing publicly; by eleven, she played Mozart’s Coronation Concerto with Madrid’s Symphony Orchestra, astonishing audiences. Despite her small hands, she developed an airy, precise touch, even daring to record Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto. But beyond technical mastery, her playing held a profound sense of life and imagination.

Though trained in Bach, Mozart, and Chopin, Larrocha fought to bring Spanish composers to global audiences. Albéniz and Granados owe much of their fame to her. Her international breakthrough came in the 1950s when an American impresario heard her Spanish recordings and invited her to the U.S., where she triumphed.

Her performances honored Spain’s musical heritage. From Soler’s sonatas to Granados' Goyescas, she infused each note with nuance. She brought Goya’s paintings to life in El Pelele and mastered the dark contrasts of Surinach’s Canción y Danza. Albéniz’s Iberia demanded both power and delicacy—qualities she commanded effortlessly.

Her final tribute was to her friend Francis Poulenc, performing his Toccata—a soaring farewell.

As one admirer put it in 1982, "She walked toward a piano too big for her, sat, placed her hands on the keys… and became the queen."

Alicia De Larrocha, Piano