• Music

    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 and meaning of the Latin psalms of the canonical Requiem. As for people who are knowledgeable, for example by virtue of belonging to the Catholic Church of the Latin rite, even for them, I am sure, these texts are devoid of the burning apocalyptic meaning with which they were filled…

  • Music

    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], viola [2, 3] Mikhail Blekher: honky-tonk [1], celeste [2], piano [3, 4], harpsichord [4] Vladimir Volkov: double bass [4] Ivan Chernobaev: percussion Ilya Ioff: violin [1, 3, 4], drums programming [3]

  • Music

    Clarice Jensen – Ainu Mosir

    Brooklyn-based composer and cellist Clarice Jensen has an incredible resume, including performing on new releases from both Michael Stipe and Taylor Swift as well as well as being the artistic director of ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble.  This release is from her first soundtrack.  Information from her Bandcamp site follows: “The fifteen-minute long 5-track EP was recorded at Jensen’s home in Brooklyn. It was performed on cello and electronics and also sees Clarice expanding her ouevre into works for piano. The material comprises her first feature film comission, since which Clarice has worked on three more, and so marks…

  • Music

    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 this work I examine closely a chord played by four guitars and bass guitar. There is no repetition in the piece, except gesturally.. five strings is presented in its original 36-minute version and also as five shorter pieces, five strings I-V. In January 2021 I asked our mother, my brother…

  • Music

    María Cristina Kasem – Obras – (2006 / 2017)

    Friends and readers, thank you for indulging your scribe a well-needed rest after 1,000 days of activity.  We relaunch with one of the most gorgeous electroacoustic recordings I’ve come across in a while.  María Cristina Kasem is a composer and violinist from Argentina who has an extensive body of work in academic experimental music.  These three works are eerie, but so incredibly engaging that the sounds managed to soothe my ears.  A very pleasant find.

  • Music

    Benjamin Aït-Ali – Essai sur des sons oubli​é​s

    This is perhaps one of the most beautifully stunning acousmatic works I’ve ever heard.  Every percussive strike of the piano had me transfixed while listening, so much so that I wasn’t able to do my normal routine of working while listening to music.  Our dear friend Benjamin Aït-Ali took a bit of time away from composer serious music, but has come back to it with a vengeance.  It’s a gripping work, this.

  • Music

    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 humanity. In the mythology of many peoples of the planet Earth, clay is presented as a medium for the emergence of life and as a material for the creation of the first homo. The Old Testament Adam of the Semitic tribes, Enkidu of the Sumerian peoples, Gayomart in the Zoroastrian…

  • Music

    Arturo Stalteri – Flowers 2

    Italian progressive rock legend Arturo Stalteri presents a brand new album filled with interpretations of works by Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Sigur Rós and, surprisingly, King Crimson’s In The Court of the Crimson King done in sublime fashion.