This album is an absolutely sublime combination of folk music and classical, with Gaelynn Lea’s violin sounding like a full orchestra. From the release website: “‘All the Roads that Lead Us Home’ is a focused, vibrant piece of music by a person who is able to take a solitary instrument Continue Reading
Classical
Misty Shore Duo – Stillness and Waves
The Misty Shore Duo are Chen-Hui Jen & Jacob Sudol, with Jen performing on piano and Sudol performing with computer electronics. The duo perform the works of Morton Feldman, Alvin Lucier, Michael Pisaro and one of Sudol’s own compositions. For electroacoustic music, each track has an amazing warmth to it.
Liudmila Knyazeva (Людмила Князева) – Русская классическая хоровая музыка 19-20 в. (Russian Classical Choral Music of the 19th-20th Centuries)
My friend, the Russian composer Liudmila Knyazeva, has composed an album of Eastern Orthodox choral music. It’s a wonderful venture with the vaunted hymns the Church is known for. This is an especially nice thing to hear as we as Orthodox prepare for the Marian Fast, as well as for Continue Reading
Novoselie, Questa Musica – Requiem
A sublime, baroque look at the requiem on Fancy Music. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Requiem (from Latin requies – “rest”) is a high genre of concert sacred music, a kind of mourning oratorio. Even the above phrase is little understood by the general public, not to mention the names Continue Reading
Divertissement Сhamber Orchestra, Sergey Kuryokhin – Re:SEASONS
Sergey Kuryokhin was as fine a composer as he was an improvisor. The Divertissement Orchestra, led by violinist Ilya Ioff, reinterprets one of Kuryokhin’s finest compositions from his album The Sparrow Oratorium. Well-played, indeed. Alisa Ten: vocals [1, 2, 4] Vera Chekanova: vocals [2, 3, 4] Lidia Kovalenko: violin [1], Continue Reading
LENsemble Vilnius, Vykintas Baltakas – Horizons
The LENsemble Vilnius, conducted by Vykintas Baltakas, won my attention because of their astounding interpretation of their interpretation of Osvaldas Balakauskas‘ composition Rain for Cracow (1991) for violin and piano. A worthy release.
Ian Vine – Five Strings
Ian Vine, a composer out of the United Kingdom, provides us with a conceptual piece of classical music. From his Bandcamp site: “Recently I have written a series of pieces that are concerned in one way or another with the presentation of unique, and yet similar, events or objects. In Continue Reading
Svitlana Nianio – Transilvania Smile, 1994
Though the recording quality is not audiophile quality, this collection of theater music by Ukrainian singer and artist Svitlana Nianio documents the soundtrack to a theater project she was involved in at the time called Transilvania Smile. From her label Muscut Records’ Bandcamp site: “Svitlana Okhrimenko (artist name: Svitlana Nianio) Continue Reading
Girma Yifrashewa – My Strong Will
Girma Yifrashewa is a graduate of the Yared School of Music in Addis Ababa, and continued his studies at the Sofia State Conservatory of Music in Bulgaria. This new work of his combines Ethiopian instrumentation with classical music, and it blends together quite well.
Evgeny Masloboev – Clay. Thirteen Contemplations on Matter
Clay is the topic of the latest Fancy Records release by composer Evgeny Masloboev. The topic, as described by the artist, is a fascinating one, tied in with some incredible contemporary classical music. From the Fancy Records Bandcamp site: “Clay is a living mystic. This is the ever-dancing childhood of Continue Reading