Thomas Flippin and Christopher Mallett are Duo Noire, who perform astounding guitar duets. From their Bandcamp site: “Duo Noire’s playing throughout is virtuosic, sensitive, and calibrated beautifully to the style of each work. “Night Triptych” contributes an hour’s worth of important new music into the repertoire, presenting works that will Continue Reading
Classical
Colin Stetson – SORROW – a reimagining of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony
There is something about the contrabass clarinet that is achingly sad to hear. American-Canadian composer Colin Stetson has an already impressive body of work, but his interpretation of Henryk Górecki’s most iconic composition is something else to behold. As he states on his Bandcamp site: “The concept was simple, and Continue Reading
Adrián Demoč / Apartment House – Žiadba
Another Timbre is a record label based in Sheffield, England, known for producing high-quality experimental and modern classical music. This particular release features Slovak composer Adrián Demoč and is performed by the ensemble Apartment House. While only two tracks are available for listening, both are dense and calming compositions.
Lalo Schifrin – Danube Incident (RIP)
Lalo Schifrin passed away a few days ago at the age of 93. The mark he left in jazz, classical and soundtrack music is massive. Thanks to the good souls at the THE SAD OLD WORLD Facebook group for posting a gorgeous little ditty by Schifrin from 1969. Fans of Continue Reading
Alessandra Celletti – Stop Femicides
Femicide, like most other –cides, is a pernicious evil, and women suffer atrociously in parts of the world, but despite the provocative title, this album is more of a celebration of some rather amazing songs influenced by ladies, interpreted by our dear friend Alessandra Celletti. Some of the covers were Continue Reading
Tom Johnson – Organ and silence
From the ANTS Bandcamp site: “A music concerned for, as the author writes in the disc notes, “… the importance of silence in music…”. This work is conceived not “for organ” but, really, for “organ and silence”, as the silence is a fundamental part of it, and it’s not possible Continue Reading
Brooklyn Rider – The Wanderer: Live From Paliesius, Lithuania
Brooklyn Rider are one of America’s best contemporary classical music quartets and they simply don’t receive the exposure they so richly deserve. In this album, the first six tracks are dedicated to modern composers like Osvaldo Golijov from Argentina and Gonzalo Grau, who hails from Venezuela. Both come from a Continue Reading
Passepartout Duo – Argot
My, this is a lovely release. Passepartout Duo manage to balance modern classical music with a minimal post-rock sound without the “rock” part. It’s exquisite listening, especially for those who like minimalist music. Think of Arvo Pärt collaborating with Sigur Rós, and this might give you an idea of what Continue Reading
Tigran Hamasyan – StandArt
It’s not exactly Christmas music (today is when our Armenian brothers in the faith celebrate theirs, and we celebrate ours tomorrow), but any opportunity to hear the music of the excellent Armenian-American pianist Tigran Hamasyan is a happy event. May you all enjoy your holy day!
OpensoundOrchestra – String Quartets
Today, we have some fine contemporary classical music coming out of Russia. Fancy Music usually deliver consistently good albums, and this one is no exception. The Opensoundorchestra interpret the works of newer composers such as Nastasya Khrushcheva, Elmir Nizamov, Anatoly Palaev, Vladimir Kobekin, Vladimir Martynov and zhokhowski