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'Mei Semones' sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is notonly a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means ofcatharsis. "Blending everything that I like together and trying to make something new -that's what feels most natural to me," says the 23-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. "It's what feels most true to who I am as an artist." Plinking guitar tones and asymmetrical time signatures exemplify her forays intoangular indie rock more now than ever before, especially on her debut Bayonet Recordssingle "Wakare no Kotoba"_its wide-interval arpeggios in odd meters being some ofthe most technically difficult guitar work Mei has ever implemented in her songwriting.Translated to "parting words'' in English, the self-described "anti-love song" serves as afarewell to a toxic friendship, complete with orchestral swells and crashing guitars. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing music at a young age,starting out on piano at age four before moving to electric guitar at age eleven. Afterplaying jazz guitar in high school, she went on to study guitar performance with a jazzfocus at Berklee College of Music. College is where she met her current bandmates,including string players Noah Leong and Claudius Agrippa, whose respective viola andviolin add softness and multidimensionality to Mei's intricate guitar work. After releasinga slew of singles and an EP in 2022, coinciding with her move to New York City, Mei andher band have since gone on to collaborate with post-bossa balladeer John Roseboroand embark on their first-ever tour with the melodic rock outfit Raavi. Semones chronicles infatuation, devotion, and vulnerability in her songs, complete withsweeping strings, virtuosic guitar-playing and heartfelt lyrics sung in both English andJapanese, that have all become part of her sonic trademark: ornately catchy, genre-fusing compositions serving as the backdrop to tender lyrics touching on theuniversalities of human emotion.

Ltd Edition!

Mit ihrem bahnbrechenden Album 'Here in the Pitch' hat sich die in Los Angeles lebende Künstlerin Jessica Pratt als Songwriterin einer neuen Generation etabliert und ist die klare Nachfolgerin von Folk-Ikonen wie Nick Drake und Joni Mitchell sowie von genialen orchestralen Pop-Komponisten wie Brian Wilson und Burt Bacharach. Das unaufdringliche und doch ehrgeizige Album hat bei Kritikern und Fans gleichermaßen Anklang gefunden und brachte ihr bis heute über 15 Millionen Albumstreams ein, wichtige Beiträge in der New York Times und bei Zane Lowe, ausverkaufte Shows von Los Angeles bis London, Kollaborationen mit den Modemarken Chanel, Valentino und Chloé und einen Live-Auftritt in der Late Show mit Stephen Colbert, wo sie ihre herausragende Single „Life Is“ vorstellte. Pratts einzigartige Stimme und ihr Stil erregten auch die Aufmerksamkeit von A$AP Rocky, was zu ihrer brillanten gemeinsamen Single „HIGHJACK“ führte, die im Sommer 2024 veröffentlicht wurde.

Ausgezeichnet als „Best Of The Year so far): Pitchfork, NPR, The New York Times, Paste, Stereogum, Rolling Stone

The Blues and the Abstract Truth is not just a landmark album in Oliver Nelson's career but in the history of jazz itself

The album features an incredible ensemble of top-tier jazz musicians, often referred to as a "supergroup": Oliver Nelson (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone, flute), George Barrow (baritone saxophone), Bill Evans (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Roy Haynes (drums). The early 1960s were marked by a shift from the hard bop of the 1950s to more experimental forms, including modal jazz, free jazz, and the incorporation of avant-garde elements. Musicians like John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Charles Mingus were all pushing the boundaries of jazz, and Oliver Nelson's work fits within this broader movement: in this album there's a perfect combination of modern compositional techniques, virtuosic performances, and emotional depth make it an essential listening experience for any jazz fan. It captures the moment when jazz was evolving into new, exciting directions while staying connected to its roots in the blues. The Blues and the Abstract Truth is considered one of the essential albums in modern jazz where Oliver Nelson's compositional style blends hard bop, modal jazz, and blues influences with sophisticated harmonic structures and striking arrangements. The album is noted for ts rich orchestration despite having a relatively small ensemble with use of textures and colours, particularly in tracks like "Stolen Moments," created a new standard in azz arranging.

Producer, designer, publisher, filmmaker, all-round scene phenom - Lasse Marhaug returns with his first album since relocating from Oslo to the Arctic Circle, surveying his 35-year career for a set of grizzled, doom-pocked rhythms and foghorn drones pulled from the aether. Expansive and hard to categorise, it's a precision-tooled set of ice-cold tonal productions that heavily lean into Mika Vainio’s rhythm experiments, with extra levels of growling bass and curious noises to send us deep into the uncanny.

Lasse Marhaug has put his mark on literally hundreds of albums - working with artists like Jenny Hval, Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Hilary Woods - so many others - yet he still regards himself as a primarily visual artist who got diverted into an occasionally different path. If his last album 'Context' was a kiss goodbye to decades of life in Oslo, 'Provoke' turns a new page, but one that draws heavily from memories of the distant past, reflecting on the way the topographies of Norway's frozen north helped shape his creative worldview. Weaving electronics into environmental recordings captured in the bleak Arctic winter, the album was mixed during the Polar night season, when, for two straight months, the sun never rose past the horizon. Somehow, even at its bleakest, Marhaug avoids the usual aesthetic signifiers for this kinda thing, finding elements of queered beauty in all the severity, juxtaposing elements that shine a bright light on all the odd spaces in-between.

A consideration of noise music's place in 2024, and whether it can still be a tool for subversion when its aesthetics have been so commodified, ‘Provoke’ also refernces an experimental '70s Japanese art magazine that attempted to define a new language for photography. Operating somewhere between these two guiding poles, Lasse feels his way through a subtly altered mode of expression, a new approach to familiar concepts. Album opener ‘Plates’, for example, gives it the full Ø treatment, like some exceptional ‘Oleva’-outtake, but , eventually, shards of interference start to exhale like horses blowing, creating uncanny sensations that hit through ambiguous feeling rather than sheer noise terror. Ritualistic, corporeal - hard to know what you’re listening to and why it makes you feel that certain way - so much more than just machine cycles optimised for their ultimately hollow brutalist aesthetic.

Marhaug paints vivid pictures from a carefully chosen palette, drawing us into a soundworld that's rich with contradictions and contrasts. Even the relatively deafening 'New Topographics' offsets its wall of distortion with a muffled, perforating kick drum, cutting into the noise like a knife through butter. And all of this preparation makes the album's lengthy centrepiece 'Monochrome Head' even more impactful; hinging on a Pan Sonic-like alloy of bass and drums, the track snowballs through tempered feedback and improv scrapes and whistles that pick up into an orchestral din. Marhaug accents the bluster with rhythmic hums that gather in momentum until they're almost oppressively heavy, as if everything's about to collapse.

A masterclass in quietly subversive world-building, 'Provoke' invites us to peer at an expansive sonic landscape and marvel at its intricacies, but this time around there's a Lovecraftian behemoth lurking somewhere beneath its icy surface.

"Long sought-after by those in know, this essential Irish jazz album finally gets a vinyl reissue on Outernational Sounds! Fully licensed from producer John D’Ardis, remastered at Abbey Road from the original tapes, and with lacquers cut at Dubplates and Mastering, the Noel Kelehan Quintet’s stunning 1979 Ozone is presented with unseen photographs of the band and commentary from original band members.

Featuring moody, modal jazz of the first order, subtle and original composing and world- class playing, Ozone was the creation of Ireland’s most respected jazz composer and musician, pianist Noel Kelehan (1935-2012). The only small-group album under his name, and arguably the first ever Irish jazz LP, Ozone was a landmark recording, but it was far from Kelehan’s only achievement. Born in Dublin, Kelehan had studied music from an early age. From the mid-1950s he worked at state-broadcaster Radio Éireann (RÉ, later RTÉ – Radio Telefis Éireann), and from the early 1960s he fronted Dublin’s first be-bop unit, the Jazz Heralds. A busy professional career saw him compose for numerous Irish pop stars, arrange and conduct many of Ireland’s Eurovision entries, and even contribute string arrangements to U2’s Unforgettable Fire LP.

But jazz was Kelehan’s first passion, and he never stopped playing in both small modernist units and composing for his own big band. The late 1970s saw him fronting the Noel Kelehan Quintet, alongside drummer John Wadham, saxophonist Keith Donald, bassist Frank Hess and trumpeter Mick Nolan. Playing weekly in Dublin for several years, they opened for visiting stars including Dollar Brand and the Ronnie Scott Orchestra, and eventually played a two-week residency at Ronnie Scotts in London. Though Kelehan had recorded a big-band LP of traditional Irish songs arranged as easy jazz in 1970, Ozone was his first album of modern jazz. Released on John D’Ardis’s independent Cargo imprint and press on blue vinyl, it featured original compositions such as the deep collectors cut ‘Spon Song’, subtle Latin flavours on ‘Spacer’s Delight’ and a beautiful modal arrangement of the traditional Irish air ‘Castle of Dromore’. A legendary recording in Ireland, Ozone reflected Kelehan’s keen appreciation of classic quintet-era Miles, with touches of the cerebral fusion of Ian Carr and the arranging genius of Neil Ardley. Not just a landmark Irish jazz set, Ozone is a lost classic of European jazz more widely."

elbow return with their seventh studio album on 3rd February 2017. 'Little Fictions' was recorded in Scotland and Manchester and sees the band collaborate with the string players of The Hallé Orchestra, the Hallé Ancoats Community Choir, members of London Contemporary Voices and session drummer Alex Reeves. As with the previous three elbow albums it was produced by Craig Potter.
'Little Fictions' is emphatically a band album. Having written individually for its chart-topping predecessor, 'The Take Off and Landing of Everything', sessions this time were collective affairs, with all four members gathered initially in a house in Scotland before moving to Guy's attic in Prestwich and finalising recordings in the familiar setting of Blueprint studios, Salford.
'Little Fictions' is an upbeat album. All the band talk of the sessions being 'joyful', Mark summarises it as 'the sound of four people who love what they do and each other', of an album that came into being naturally and, at times even unconsciously. Lead single 'Magnificent (She Says)' was embraced for the joyous, thrilling piece of music it is, positive and outward looking. Mark never even considered his audible switch towards electric guitars, most notable on the psychedelic lushness of 'All Disco', until the very end of the process.
The departure of drummer Richard Jupp prior to commencing the writing and recording process in earnest saw early sessions characterised by new approaches to rhythm, with the band utilising percussive noises, sampling and loops to build tracks. The grooves that run through much of the album, from the go-go beats of 'Gentle Storm' through the jagged trip hop of 'Kindling' to the soulful 'Firebrand & Angel' represent both the band's widest musical palette and a newfound sense of experimentation borne from both necessity and desire. That desire fuelled the title track, an eight minute piece that is epic without at any point feeling excessive. As a shorthand for the album it is perfect, crossing musical genres and experimenting with sound in ways that demonstrate the confidence and enthusiasm of the band throughout the recording process.
'Little Fictions' is, therefore, more than just yet another brilliant elbow album. In many ways it marks the start of a new chapter for the band, characterised by a rediscovery of shared purpose in doing the thing that has always brought them together, the place that Mark describes as 'the creative space where we all meet'.

Zum 50sten Jubiläum (genau genommen 51sten) des 1973 erschienenen Solo-Debüts von Haruomi Hosono - dem Kultalbum 'Hosono House' - haben sich auf dieser Compilation verschiedenste Künstler versammelt, um mit ihren eigenen Neuinterpretationen einem Werk Tribut zu zollen, dessen Wirkung und Einfluss weit über Japan hinausreicht und auch heute noch spürbar ist. So nannte u.a. Harry Styles es als eine der Hauptinspirationsquellen für sein Grammy-gekröntes Album 'Harry's House'.
Bekanntheit erreichte Haruomi Hosono auch mit dem Elektropop-Trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, dem auch Yukihiro Takahashi und Ryuichi Sakamoto angehörten.
Die Compilation wurde von Josh Bonati gemastert, das Vinyl für ein besseres Hörerlebnis mit 45rpm geschnitten.
Auch für das Artwork ließ man sich durch das Original inspirieren von Tomoo Gokita.

- 2LP: ( inkl. OBI & Einleger mit Archivfoto sowie bedruckter Innenhülle)

„aboutJAZZ – Christmas“: Dieses Album vereint die schönsten Jazz-Versionen beliebter Weihnachtsklassiker und liefert damit eine stilvolle Musikbegleitung für die schönste Zeit des Jahres. Ob stimmgewaltige Titel wie Nat King Coles „The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)”, sanfte Melodien wie in Norah Jones‘ „Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones)“, verspielte Töne mit Jamie Cullums „It’s Christmas“ oder eine märchenhafte Atmosphäre wie in Peggy Lees „The Christmas Waltz“ – dieses Album vereint die beliebtesten Weihnachtstitel mit dem vielseitigen Genre der Jazzmusik. Echte Klassiker und neue Interpretationen von Künstlern wie Gregory Porter, Laufey, Diana Krall, Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé, Tony Bennett, Melody Gardot, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald und vielen weiteren sorgen für ein rundum stimmungsvolles Musikerlebnis. „aboutJAZZ Christmas“ ist ab dem 22. November als 2LP, 2CD und Download erhältlich.

Nosferatu (1922) is still one of the most highly regarded horror films of all time, F.W. Murnau’s unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it remains an Expressionist masterpiece of the silent era.

Much of the original score by Hans Erdmann (meant to be played live by an orchestra) was lost, leading Nosferatu to inspire several subsequent soundtracks, the best known of which is by Hammer Horror composer James Bernard, written for the Tanis Film video reissue of the film in 1997. The world premiere of the score was performed by Nic Raine and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra at the London Film Festival the same year and now, almost twenty years later, the score is being pressed on vinyl for the first time.

Robin Carolan's latest soundtrack for Robert Eggers' highly anticipated Nosferatu is a haunting, gothic-infused and meticulously crafted work that draws from a vast palette of sounds, instruments, and inspirations. Following their successful collaboration on The Northman, Carolan reunites with Eggers to bring the legendary tale of Nosferatu to life, infusing the film with a score that is as complex and nuanced as the story itself. With Daniel Pioro, one of Britain's most exciting young classical musicians, at the helm as the orchestra leader and first chair for a vast majority of the recording, the soundtrack features a vast orchestration, including 60 string players, a full choir, various horns and woodwinds, a harpist, and two percussionists. Despite the grandeur of the orchestration, one of the most challenging pieces was the music box used at the film's beginning. Carolan and Eggers struggled to perfect its sound, a process marked by their meticulous attention to detail, which Carolan describes as almost telepathic. Set in the 1800s, Nosferatu allowed Carolan to incorporate contemporary instrumentation, though he made a deliberate effort to ensure the score didn't sound overly modern. Letty Stott, who also worked on The Northman, contributed ancient horns and pipes, enhancing the soundtrack's eerie atmosphere. Additionally, percussionist Paul Clarvis custom-built a toaca-like instrument for added authenticity. Carolan's inspirations for the soundtrack were as eclectic as they were profound. He frequently drew upon the works of Bartok and Coil, while films like The Innocents, Angels and Insects, and Eyes Wide Shut provided cinematic inspiration. Additionally, he explored the more obscure side of Hammer Horror soundtracks and found a deep connection to the music of the Ukrainian film The Eve of Ivan Kupalo, which helped shape the score's otherworldly tone. Carolan intentionally moved beyond the typical horror score, focusing on capturing the tale's melancholy and tragic elements while weaving in a sense of warped romanticism. The result is a soundtrack that not only complements the film but also stands on its own as a testament to Carolan's artistry and the enduring power of collaboration.

Robin Carolan's latest soundtrack for Robert Eggers' highly anticipated Nosferatu is a haunting, gothic-infused and meticulously crafted work that draws from a vast palette of sounds, instruments, and inspirations. Following their successful collaboration on The Northman, Carolan reunites with Eggers to bring the legendary tale of Nosferatu to life, infusing the film with a score that is as complex and nuanced as the story itself. With Daniel Pioro, one of Britain's most exciting young classical musicians, at the helm as the orchestra leader and first chair for a vast majority of the recording, the soundtrack features a vast orchestration, including 60 string players, a full choir, various horns and woodwinds, a harpist, and two percussionists. Despite the grandeur of the orchestration, one of the most challenging pieces was the music box used at the film's beginning. Carolan and Eggers struggled to perfect its sound, a process marked by their meticulous attention to detail, which Carolan describes as almost telepathic. Set in the 1800s, Nosferatu allowed Carolan to incorporate contemporary instrumentation, though he made a deliberate effort to ensure the score didn't sound overly modern. Letty Stott, who also worked on The Northman, contributed ancient horns and pipes, enhancing the soundtrack's eerie atmosphere. Additionally, percussionist Paul Clarvis custom-built a toaca-like instrument for added authenticity. Carolan's inspirations for the soundtrack were as eclectic as they were profound. He frequently drew upon the works of Bartok and Coil, while films like The Innocents, Angels and Insects, and Eyes Wide Shut provided cinematic inspiration. Additionally, he explored the more obscure side of Hammer Horror soundtracks and found a deep connection to the music of the Ukrainian film The Eve of Ivan Kupalo, which helped shape the score's otherworldly tone. Carolan intentionally moved beyond the typical horror score, focusing on capturing the tale's melancholy and tragic elements while weaving in a sense of warped romanticism. The result is a soundtrack that not only complements the film but also stands on its own as a testament to Carolan's artistry and the enduring power of collaboration.

For Talia Hoit from Colorado, who has been classically trained to play the piano since the age of five, her early musical education has definitely paid off. Now she writes original songs, performs on vocals and keyboards, and composes orchestra scores for symphonic metal. For many years, she has also had a passion for writing songs outside of any formal band situation, and is now working with talented producers and musicians to bring her most personal and intimate songs to life to share with the world. For five years, Talia was the keyboardist and a songwriter for the band AnaDies. Presently she is the lead singer, orchestrator and co-songwriter in the symphonic metal band Beyond Forgiveness and the keyboardist for the metal band Ob Nixilis. As a solo artist, she recorded two original home studio albums for personal purposes, Fate’s Too Small (2007) and A Little Longer (2012), which had a limited physical CD release only, mostly just for friends and family. Back in 2019, she recorded the single Angel (produced by Jarek Musil), which just recently received a new master, and after the experience of working with a professional producer she decided to pursue her solo project, to professionally produce and commercially release as many of the personal songs she had written over the years as possible. In 2023, she released two more singles: Abandon and Whispers in the Storm. Her extensive experience in the music industry and understanding of classical music are quite audibly reflected in these works, which show a high level of quality and expertise. Talia’s music is definitely a treat for symphonic metal fans and heavy music lovers, showing influences of bands such as Within Temptation, Nightwish, Evanescence, and Visions Of Atlantis.

"The Millennium Bell is the 20th record album by Mike Oldfield, originally released in 1999. The theme of the album is a reflection of different periods of human history. The album borrows its name from the dawning of the 3rd millennium and Oldfield's Tubular Bells series of albums. The Millennium performance of the latter half of the album plus some older tracks was given in Berlin, Germany on New Year's Eve 1999, with an estimated audience of 500,000 people.

Oldfield recorded the majority of the album at his home studio, Roughwood Studios, Berkshire, and then recorded the orchestrations in just one day at Abbey Road Studios, London with the London Session Orchestra. It was Oldfield's third album within one year, after Tubular Bells III in late 1998 and Guitars MOVLP1694 earlier in 1999. The album is eclectic in style, ranging from majestic choruses and soundtrack-esque orchestral passages through New Age sonic textures and ethnic sounds to strong pulse of electronic percussion. The Millenium Bell is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent blue coloured vinyl and includes an insert."

Berlin-based dance night and sound system SHUSH present their first musical offering: six soulful tracks that encapsulate the unique spirit of their functions and underlying community. Atlanta house ambassador Stefan Ringer lends his touch on deep vocal cut ‘Focus’, electronic jazz maestro Ziggy Zeitgeist serves up the late-night coaster ‘Yours To Make’ (feat. Jitwam), whilst SHUSH’s own D’Monk deals the dubbed-out damage of ‘Love Or Lust’, a raw house cut heavy on the 909s. Alongside them, producer Whodat offers a slapper in her own distinctive Detroit-style, AMA//MIZU comes with an introspective downbeat roller whilst Dweller presents one of his stunning orchestral works.
Spread across two sides of a 12”, these bold selections translate their feeling both on and off the dancefloor.

The Millennium Bell is the 20th record album by Mike Oldfield, originally released in 1999. The theme of the album is a reflection of different periods of human history. The album borrows its name from the dawning of the 3rd millennium and Oldfield's Tubular Bells series of albums. The Millennium performance of the latter half of the album plus some older tracks was given in Berlin, Germany on New Year's Eve
1999, with an estimated audience of 500,000 people.


Oldfield recorded the majority of the album at his home studio, Roughwood Studios, Berkshire, and then recorded the orchestrations in just one day at Abbey Road Studios, London with the London Session Orchestra.

It was Oldfield's third album within one year, after Tubular
Bells III in late 1998 and Guitars (MOVLP1694) earlier in
1999. The album is eclectic in style, ranging from majestic choruses and soundtrack-esque orchestral passages through New Age sonic textures and ethnic sounds to strong pulse of electronic percussion.

The Peace Chant compilation series is a Temple, a reliquary of sacred harmonious statements made by enlightened artists throughout time. With Tramp Records' latest offerings, "Peace Chant, Raw Deep and Spiritual Jazz volumes 5 & 6, deeper, darker, and even more remote chambers of this already exalted temple are brought to light. The team at Tramp, with their torch of love and with reverence for those builders who came before, have returned from their quest with musical treasures unfathomable. Indeed, some of these tracks sound as if they may have literally been plucked from the ancient hands of some towering golden idol. But this quest was no looting effort, no. The Gods, as well as the artists and their families were fairly compensated through Tramp Records' rigorous and historically conscious licensing efforts.

Some of the treasures herein include, from Volume 5, a German gospel/modal jazz hybrid replete with flutes and vibes (and even a surprise gospel choir) reminding us not to 'speak when we should be silent' called "Ich Rede Wenn Ich Schweigen Sollte"; Indian jazz/rock fusion outfit Jazz Yatra Sextette's literal peace chant, "Shanti" led by Louis Banks (real name Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi), who worked with Embryo and John Maclaughlin; and Ron Wilson Trio's walking meditation and study on the beauty and rhythm of "Zimbabwe" in 3/4.

Die Londoner Experimentalisten Kinkajous releasen ihr neues Album auf dem Nottinghamer Label Running Circle. "Nothing Will Disappear" ist Ambient-Maximalismus in seiner subtilsten und zartesten Form. Anklänge an Floating Points und subtile Klangfarben-Shifts á la Jon Hopkins und James Holden sind deutlicher zu erkennen als bei anderen zeitgenössischen Jazzacts. Die beiden Vorgänger "Hidden Lines" (2019) und "Being Waves" (2021) sind Paradebeispiele für ihre Mischung aus analoger, akustischer und orchestraler Instrumentierung und schafften es beide in zahlreiche Jahresendlisten.

Von CLASH als "ein wichtiger Teil der britischen Musiklandschaft" beschrieben, beziehen Kinkajous ihre Inspiration aus Orchester-, Instrumental- und elektronischer Musik und sind für ihren fesselnden und filmreifen Sound bekannt. Angeführt von Schlagzeuger/Produzent Benoît Parmentier und Saxophonist Adrien Cau, können sie mit einer beeindruckenden Besetzung aufwarten, zu der auch Keyboarder Jack Doherty und Bassist Andres Castellanos gehören. Die mutigen neuen Räume, in die Kinkajous vorgedrungen ist, kommen gut an, mit ausverkauften Headliner-Shows im Londoner Jazz Café und King's Place, neben einer gigantischen Zusammenarbeit im letzten Winter mit dem London Contemporary Orchestra im Londoner Earth Theatre und Auftritten bei den Bluedot und EFG London Jazz Festivals.

Stars align and Oli Heffernan brings his ever-(d)evolving Ivan The Tolerable to Riot Season for two LPs of sublime entropic drift.
Having this time recruited Christian Alderson (The Unit Ama) on drums, John Pope (Ponyland) on double bass, Kevin Nickles (Ecstatic Vision) on flute and saxophone and Ben Hopkinson on electric piano - both works were recorded as a quintet almost instantaneously, the players barely brushing or breathing a note before the whole thing was done.

The first LP, Vertigo, is all claustrophobic, dense and disorientating - like Sun Ra sitting in with Exploding Star Orchestra
Whereas the second LP, Water Music, is the music of lapping waves, becalmed, creaking hulls, circling birds and gentle winds. - Equal parts Laraaji and Natural Information Society
Bob Fischer (Electronic Sound Magazine) on ‘Water Music’
"A summer's afternoon daydream of an album. Beautifully soothing psychedelic jazz overflowing with raga delights...immerse yourself in its charms"

John Hubner (Complex Distractions) on ‘Vertigo’
“An expansive collection of free-flowing sound and mood bringing to mind Coltrane (John and Alice) as well as the great Albert Aylor, while touching on the forward thinking compositions of Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra. From the titanic soundscape of "New Worlds On Earth" to the Marc Moulin touches of "Liquid Voices" and the mysterious eccentricities of "Swimming", 'Vertigo' hangs in the air long after the final note plays.”

lim. to 200 180Gr Vinyl!

Schnieke is rich and fruitful, yet carries a sadness within. A 5-string violin charts its melodious journey from Istanbul to Belin, accompanied by electronics, breakbeats, live drums and percussions. An authentic oriental funky mood keeps you in a trance or gets your body moving tribally…

This is Schnieke, a.k.a. Özgür Akgül, with his first studio album Hediye, or Gift. The album is intended as a gift to Özgür's grandmother, Hadiye, who was very important to him and to whom he dedicates a song. But his debut album will also come as a gift to anyone interested in how a sophisticated musical sensibility brings together electronic elements with stringed instruments of all kinds. Özgür plays the violins himself, as well as the analogue synths and drum machines. Guest musicians include Hasan Gözetlik (trumpet and trombone), Göksun Çavdar (saxophone), Korhan Erol (electric guitar and bass), Burhan Hasdemir and Baris Güney (live percussion), Zafer Tunç Resuloglu (live drums), John Gürtler (church organ) and the Istanbul Strings, Turkey’s most vibrant string ensemble.

Their diverse influences create a wide emotional range on Hediye - sometimes dark and melancholic, sometimes wild, groovy and danceable, somewhere between jazz, dub and electro, each song surprising in its own way. Despite the variety of the individual songs, a captivating pulse runs like a thread through Schnieke's first album. Incidentally, Özgür came up with the band name during a night out in a bar, when a friend explained to him what Berlin slang he absolutely had to know. He liked the sound of the word ‘schnieke’ – it means something approximating ‘snazzy’ - and perhaps he secretly also wanted to flatter himself a little! Well, shouldn't we all do that much more often?

Hediye consists of eight tracks, three of which are traditional: Aman Doktor comes from Istanbul, Özgür's birthplace, and is a homage to his own origins. Kadioglu comes from the Aegean region and features the zeybek dance form which, despite its ‘standardisation’ in recent times, still summons up the ecstasy, inspired improvisation and musical finesse of its historical roots. The other five tracks are Özgür's own compositions, with Pasali providing the soundtrack for the 2010 Turkish feature film Memleket Meselesi. Creating compositions for film has been Özgür’s primary passion since his time as a student at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. You can hear that in his music, because on his debut album Özgür does completely without vocal support, the instrumental depth stands for itself, and, in the style of The Cinematic Orchestra, space is created for us to develop our own images while listening – it is a soundtrack for the film we want to make of it.

In den letzten Jahren hat der legendäre John Williams eine Reihe von ganz besonderen Konzerten aufgenommen und mit einigen der größten Orchester der Welt eine Auswahl seiner eigenen Musik dirigiert. Nun bringt
die Deutsche Grammophon eine einzigartige Sammlung dieser Aufnahmen als 7-LP-Set in limitierter Auflage
heraus. “John Williams in Concert” vereint Aufführungen von Filmmusik mit dem Saito Kinen Orchestra,
den Berliner Philharmonikern und den Wiener Philharmonikern sowie die Weltersteinspielung von Williams’
zweitem Violinkonzert mit der Solistin Anne-Sophie Mutter und dem Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Das stilvoll gestaltete Set enthält neben den Booklettexten der jeweiligen Alben, einen neuen Essay über
John Williams vom renommierten Filmmusik-Autor Jon Burlingame, Erinnerungen von Williams selbst,
Anne-Sophie Mutter und anderen an diesen Aufnahmen beteiligten Musikern sowie eine Auswahl an Konzertund Porträtfotos.