Classical Music 259 Items

Selections from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s original musical Cinderella, featuring the original cast of the highly anticipated new theatre production, set for release in Spring 2021.

Wonderful set of Old-school tinged House tunes, a dedication to Theo, Larry, Chez and all the legendary deep House cats.

There is no such thing as confused programming! Relentless, grungy dark Acid with an industrial feel at a reasonable pace by I-F as Jungian Archetype!

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2018!

Björk presents a strings version of her highly-acclaimed eighth studio studio album Vulnicura, officially titled Vulnicura Strings. The original version of Vulnicura layered the boom and crack of electronic beats with an intense vocal melody and incredible string arrangements by Björk which have been performed live with a fifteen chair orchestra. The new version is musically wholly comprised of strings, with new violin solos by Una Sveinbjarnardóttir and strings recorded by a Viola Organista. Björk used the only Viola Organista in the world to perform some of the arrangements; an instrument which was designed originally by Leonardo Da Vinci but not built until after his lifetime. The instrument uses a friction belt to vibrate individual strings (similar to a violin), with the strings selected by pressing keys on the keyboard (similar to an organ). The instrument was recorded in Krakow, Poland by it's constructor Slawomir Zubrzycki and here is where the album reached completion.

Wavy grave rave for better tomorrow.

"How to begin? No beginning... never ending reverberation," Antoine Beuger writes in the accompanying notes to Leo Svirsky's River Without Banks. Dedicated to his first piano teacher Irena Orlov, River Without Banks is a mesmerizing, emotional collection of pieces that are simultaneously complex and fluid. The title River Without Banks comes from a chapter of musicologist Genrikh "Henry" Orlov's profound work Tree of Music. In said chapter, Orlov traces the history of sacred music from the Western and Eastern tradition and how the forms (of the chant, raga etc.) sought to eliminate the division between the physical and the spiritual - the bank and the river.

Arranged for two pianos with accompaniment from strings, trumpet, and electronics, this is Svirsky's deepest dive yet into the instability of listening and its transformation of musical semantics and affect. Like Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project, Svirsky overlays romantic musical gestures to create a lush unfamiliarity. No sooner than each track begins the next moment unfurls beneath it, cascading time and blurring perception of past and present. River Without Banks is less an album of songs than songs of a singular, unlocatable album. Performed by the composer with assistance from Britton Powell, Max Eilbacher, Leila Bordreuil, Tim Byrnes, and recorded by Al Carlson.

The crossover between electronic music and classical composition has never been in more vibrant and dynamic health. Multifarious musician Emika explores this fertile ground on her ambitious new opus 'Melanfonie': her first orchestral composition, some four years in the making.
Funded by a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign that exceeded its target by an impressive €25,000.
While many rebel from their classical training never to return to it explicitly, Emika has always been attracted to the potential and freedoms offered by the symphony form. As well as taking inspiration from her electronic music background in composing the music itself, Emika also applied some of production and playback principles from that realm to create a piece whose every element has been carefully considered.
Emika is on a quest to try and change what we mean when we talk about ‘classical music’. For her, the magic of the ‘genre’ is about the instruments themselves and more importantly the people who play them; not the restricting traditions and conventions of the classical world itself. I want to change the face of classical music and give it a more honest and real image. It is time we had something other than pomp and circumstance and avant-garde squeaks and pops.”

The latest in a brilliant run of releases from the 130701 label this year, ‘The Sea at The End of Her String’ is a seven-track EP that highlights three adventurous, hugely talented female artists from the current roster of FatCat’s pioneering 130701 imprint. Featuring seven exclusive new tracks, the EP is available both digitally and in a limited edition, one-time-only vinyl pressing of 300 copies to be sold exclusively on a short, triple-bill UK tour this Autumn. Both tour and EP feature the same three artists – French pianist / composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Polish cellist Resina and Swedish-Iranian pianist Shida Shahabi, whose debut LP, ‘Homes’, will be released in mid-October.

Through the course of time, DSR Lines (David Edren) never loses his intimate and profound connection to the universe of modular synths. These recordings made during 2014 in a residence at the Cem/Worm studio in Rotterdam, represent a further magical compendium of his Organic Electronic Music. In particular, here he draws from his expressive arsenal the cosmic and galactic potential of the Arp 2500, which happily floating throughout. A rigorous magician of vaporous, oscillating patterns, sidereal frequencies, nebulous dust; an explorer of inter-zonal paths, he unveils new dreamlike dimensions en route to unfold planets. Between Kraut-Kosmische accelerations and a personal approach of gentle minimalism, he always forges rare atmospheres of rhythmic pulsation, full of enveloping, spherical and spiralling sounds, luminous and radiant in their hypnotic aura, or magnificently ecstatic and ascending. Originally released by Ultra Eczema.

Mischa Blanos is part of the cult Romanian Formation Amorf (together with Christi Cons and Vlad Caia) which tours all over the world as a headliner of the “ro-minimal” scene. - The blend of electronic music and academic piano training is not new, but few artists have expertise on both musical fronts. The result is an album with a unique organic groove. - Technically Mischa is an outstanding pianist (with several piano prizes). His perfect knowledge of his piano, which he also uses as a rhythm box, allows him to improvise/jam, which gives “City Jungle” a certain “Jazz” dimension. - City Jungle is his first album (after two EPS for InFiné)

Mica Levi returns to Slip with six piano pieces played by Eliza McCarthy in ‘Slow Dark Green Murky Waterfall’ - a crepuscular suite riddled with Mica’s inquisitive, conversational phrasing and smartly expanding upon their 7” track, ‘Riding Through Drinking Harpo Dine’ [Foom, 2017], a new recording of which also appears in this set. The culmination of three years work between Mica and Eliza - winner of the 2013 British Contemporary Piano Competition - ‘Slow Dark Green Murky Waterfall’ follows up their collaboration on the Oscar-nominated score for Pablo Larrain’s ‘Jackie’ score with a finer-shaded, patient space for low-lit, smoky expression that’s so intimate and personal it almost feels like eavesdropping a private recording.

Another first-time-on-vinyl release from Koko, Ballads For Bass Clarinet (previously a Japan-only CD) comprises a couple of waltzes, a blues, a Monk-ish suite-like piece, a free-ish drums and clarinet interlude, and finally an elegy to civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer.

David Murray leads on bass clarinet, managing to go both deep and soaringly high; it sometimes sounds like two different instruments are being played. Backed by John Hicks (piano), Ray Drummond (bass) and Idris Muhammad (drums), Murray’s quartet is tight and the recording superb, with a warm and intimate sound.

Highly recommended.

Moby’s eclectic career has cast him in the roles of electronic dance music pioneer, singer and songwriter, producer, activist, and restaurateur, but for his latest venture he presents his music in a whole new light. Together with Deutsche Grammophon, he is releasing an album of some of his best known tracks in stunning new arrangements for classical instruments – featuring Moby himself and a stellar lineup of collaborators from across the musical spectrum.

Though it was as a creator of dance music that he found fame in the 1990s, Moby’s music has never been easy to pigeonhole – his 1999 smash hit album Play, for instance, drew heavily on samples from Alan Lomax’s archive of field recordings. On this newly announced album, to be released on 26 March 2021, classic Moby songs including “Porcelain”, “Why Does My Heart”, and “Extreme Ways” will be released in innovative new versions. The album concludes with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”.

Always a daring and imaginative thinker, Moby’s first classical collaboration came in October 2018, when he performed a selection of his songs alongside the LA Phil and conductor Gustavo Dudamel. This was the inspiration for the current project, which features not only full orchestral versions but new electronic arrangements, as well as sophisticated smaller-scale acoustic interpretations.

The 14-track album features some eye-catching collaborations including both Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and the acclaimed classical pianist Víkingur Ólafsson on “Porcelain”; Gregory Porter and Amythyst Kiah on “Natural Blues”; and Kris Kristofferson as well as original vocalist Mark Lanegan on “The Lonely Night”.

Info coming soon.

The story of six soulmate musicians meeting at the intersection of classical composition, pop, electronic and minimal music begins in 2016 with their celebrated performance at the Cologne Philharmonie. After follow-up performances at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn as well as the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Gregor Schwellenbach, Daniel Brandt, John Kameel Farah, Paul Frick, Erol Sarp and Kai Schuhmacher made a guest appearance at the invitation of Radio Berlin Brandenburg in the iconic Haus des Rundfunks in Berlin's Westend on February 2, 2019. "Live im Haus des Rundfunks" documents the first half of this evening, in which the individual composer-pianists introduced themselves to the audience in solos, duos and trios. This carefully choreographed set served as an electrifying prelude to the grand finale, the 20-minute collective mantra of Steve Reich's 1973 composition Six Pianos, a studio recording of which has already been released on the 2016 record Steve Reich "Six Pianos" – Terry Riley "Keyboard Study #1" (FILM LP/CD 002).