From the ever-magnificent Sub Rosa Label: “Composer Ahmed Essyad was born in Salé, Morocco, in 1938. After studying music at the Rabat Conservatoire (Morocco) he moved to Paris in 1962, where he became a student of Max Deutsch and, later, his assistant. Trained in the avant-garde practices of Western musical Continue Reading
Modern Classical
Laibach – Alamut
This is the Laibach I grew up loving, taking a very different and radical direction in each new album. The industrial music lounge act was growing irritating, but it might have been because the band needed time to come up with brilliant ideas after dipping into the sonic well way Continue Reading
Steve Layton – Introspection
Our dear friend Steve Layton’s latest work is a collection of minimalist music, including the first work, Gospodi pomiluj (Lord have mercy) which has a, dare I say it, holy feel to it. I owe Steve a great debt for introducing me to many modern classical musicians through his website, 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
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
Nick Sudnick – Opera of the Sixth Hour
Zga bandleader Nick Sudnick has been busy composing his Opera of the Hours series, and this installation might be his most creative yet. It has the passion of Rock-In-Opposition with a touch of Frank Zappa’s general weirdness. This is in keeping with what I remember of the old Soviet avant-garde Continue Reading
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
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.
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 Continue Reading