The Beths – Expert In A Dying Field (Deluxe Edition) (2022/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:02 minutes | 1,43 GB | Genre: Indie Rock, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Carpark Records
In September 2022, The Beths released their third album, Expert In A Dying Field. The response was immediately positive and earned them a place on a great deal of Best-Album-of-the-Year lists like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Stereogum, to name a few. One year later, the band will release Expert In A Dying Field (Deluxe) with bonus material, including singles “A Real Thing” and “Watching The Credits,” along with acoustic and demo versions of album tracks and one never-before-heard demo “Keep The Distance.”
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See Siang Wong – Beethoven Trilogy 3: Unheard (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:58 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Red Seal
Pianist See Siang Wong completes his Beethoven trilogy with “Unheard”. The third album features unfinished, previously unheard works by Beethoven. In his sketchbooks, which he always carried with him, Beethoven jotted down ideas and musical experiments that he often never realised and which have survived today as fragments in libraries and private collections all over the world. “Unheard” brings together reconstructions and rarities based on such sketches. They show Beethoven’s incredible wealth of ideas and his creative power.
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Sanne Graulund – Context (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 30:27 minutes | 313 MB | Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Say Yes music
“Sanne Graulund is one of the few Danish jazz singers who can accompany herself on the piano with her own compositions. It is not commonplace on the Danish music scene and in november Sanne releases the album CONTEXT. An album that will really take life with her heart’s blood; the piano-driven jazz songs that you can both immerse and forget yourself in. The album will consist of both own compositions and adapted standards in the tradition from Nina Simone to Carly Simon and Ella Fitzgerald to Diana Krall. You can hear interpretations of Robyn’s” Dancing On My own”, Bowie’s 5:15 and Radioheads’s”no surprises”. In addition, classics in a dimmed, dusty and cinematic universe. The album is produced by Carsten Skov, and Jan Harbeck is a guest soloist on several tracks”.
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Sammy Miller and the Congregation – Joyful Jazz at Lincoln Center (Night 2) [Live] (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 28:52 minutes | 587 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Playbook Music
Praised by CLTure as a band that creates “a unique bond with the crowd,” sharing what SF Weekly calls “brassy stomp your feet music,” Sammy Miller and the Congregation Big Band delivers a spirited set of feel-good music for listeners of all ages. From this 16-piece ensemble, expect a high-octane and joyous evening of big brassy horn lines, playful interactivity, and plenty of fun.
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Sababa 5 – Aspan (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:00 minutes | 447 MB | Genre: Funk, World, Psychedelic Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Batov Records
Sababa 5 continues their musical journey following the success of their acclaimed self-titled debut album, which fused deep funk and Middle Eastern grooves. Their latest offering, still under the Batov Records label, ventures into more explorative and experimental instrumental compositions. While evolving their musical direction, ‘Aspan’ delves into the realm of psychedelic rock while retaining the essence of the band’s signature Middle Eastern groove.
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Rupert Cox – Search Party (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 45:31 minutes | 500 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Nu Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Albert’s Favourites
Search Party is the debut album from pianist, Rupert Cox. Rupert has made a little following for himself already being a respected player for Myele Manzanza, China Moses, Chris Hyson and many more. His debut album swings between laidback contemporary jazz and swirling electronics. There are mellow and moving moments alongside joyful, uplifting melodies and dancing rhythms.
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Robben Ford – Night in the City (Live) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 54:31 minutes | 639 MB | Genre: Rock, Blues Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © earMUSIC
Robben Ford is one of the most respected and influential guitarists in the world. He has won numerous awards, including a Blues Music Award and has been nominated for a Grammy numerous times. He has released over 20 albums, and his music has been featured in films and television shows. Ford is known for his virtuosic guitar playing and his soulful vocals. He is a master of blues, jazz, and rock, and his music is always filled with energy and passion. His new live album, ‘Night In The City’, was recorded at City Winery in Nashville, TN in 2021, and features Ford with Nate Smith on drums, Anton Nesbit on bass, Jeff Coffin and Jovan Quallo on saxophones. The album is a mix of new and old material, with most of the compositions coming from Ford’s ‘Pure’. Two vocal songs are also included: ‘Cotton Candy’ from ‘Purple House’ and a re-working of ‘Just Another Country Road’ from ‘ADay in Nashville’. ‘Night In The City’ is a must-have for fans of Robben Ford and anyone who loves the essence of blues-rock. The album display Ford’s virtuosity on the guitar, and captures the excitement of the live performance perfectly.
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Raze Regal & White Denim Inc. – Raze Regal & White Denim Inc. (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 42:23 minutes | 945 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bella Union UK
Guitarists Raze Regal and White Denim’s James Petralli have been friends since touring together around 2018, bonding over their shared love of jazz fusion, psych-rock, soul, and punk. They bring all of those combined influences to bear on their 2023’s collaboration Raze Regal & White Denim, Inc. Regal, who first garnered attention for his work with New York punk act Stalkers, met Petralli while working with Once & Future Band. Following that group’s dissolution, he moved to Petralli’s home of Austin, Texas, where the duo continued to hang out and eventually started working on music. Essentially, their collaboration sounds like a more jazz- and prog-inflected version of White Denim’s garagey psychedelia. It’s a vibe the group have been experimenting with since at least 2013’s Corsicana Lemonade and which feels like a natural evolution. Regal has a similar style to Petralli’s, marked by crisp improvisational riffs and chordal accents that straddle the line between fuzz-tone rock and ’70s jazz fusion. It’s an evocative style that brings to mind a punky take on players like Larry Coryell, Duane Allman, and George Benson. Cuts like the opening “Ashley Goudeau,” “The Hustle in You,” and “Dislocation” have a laid-back yet hooky sound that calls to mind classic sides by Steely Dan and the Isley Brothers. There’s a tactile, analog atmosphere to Regal and White Denim’s work, marked by woozy synths, vibraphones, and sundry guitar sounds, like on the intro to “Blood,” where their shiny guitar and keyboard hits sounds unexpectedly like the opening to a ’70s-era TV sitcom like Three’s Company. Elsewhere, they conjure a kinetically thrilling, ’80s post-punk energy on “Tivoli” and slide into the summery, Stevie Wonder-esque romanticism of “Idle Later.”
– Matt Collar
Peter Gabriel – i/o (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:17:33 minutes | 2,61 GB | Genre: Progressive Rock, Art Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Real World
Peter Gabriel has been working on i/o—shorthand for input/output—for 20 years now, reworking and re-recording and workshopping songs on the road. The final result is a sprawling head trip: two albums of the same songs mixed differently by, Gabriel has said, “two of the world’s best mix engineers.” Spike Stent (Ed Sheeran, Björk, Madonna) handles the so-called “Bright Side” and Tchad Blake (Sheryl Crow, Fiona Apple, the Black Keys) is the “Dark Side.” Comparing the two can feel like an Easter-egg hunt; choosing an overall favorite is hard and the best bet here may be to make a personal playlist combo.
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Mathias Haus – All my life (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:07:50 minutes | 693 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © JazzSick Records
The electric guitar sings, a flugelhorn joins in, the orchestra embeds both in shimmering string sounds. Philipp van Endert’s “Moon Balloon” is an atmospherically dense sound journey, a symbiosis of jazz and classical music, as ambitious as it is relaxed. Like the soundtrack to a road movie that has never been filmed, nostalgic and touching, but without being a tearjerker. Intense emotions are also inscribed in “All my Life”. In his composition, Mathias Haus – like Philipp van Endert
a fixture on the current jazz scene in NRW – wants to express nothing less than all the feelings that have accompanied him since his childhood and still shape him today: Longing, love, sadness, mystery, happiness, infinity and divinity. In short: “All my life”.
Laurence Kayaleh & Bernadene Blaha – Noskowski & Żeleński: Violin Sonatas (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:47 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Both Zygmunt Noskowski and Władysław Żeleński were leading exponents of Polish nationalism in the period from the last quarter of the 19th century. Noskowski is best remembered as a symphonist but his large-scale Violin Sonata in A minor is an imposing work that suggests the influence both of Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata and of Brahms. Żeleński was as eminent a teacher as he was a composer, seeking to broaden Poland’s provincial outlook through works such his opera Janek (Naxos 8.660521-22). His Violin Sonata in F major typifies the essentially conservative idiom that Żeleński pursued in his maturity.
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Kenny Wayne Shepherd – Trouble Is… 25 (Remastered) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:51 minutes | 1,38 GB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Provogue
Since bursting onto the global music scene in 1995 with his groundbreaking first album Ledbetter Heights from the blues clubs of Louisiana, followed by his career-defining second album Trouble Is… in 1997, Kenny Wayne Shepherd has transformed classic tunes into bold new forms every night on stage. The tracks on Trouble Is… were always in motion and never became museum pieces.
But giving a quarter-century-old album a second birth is another matter. So when the five-time Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum artist saw the 25th anniversary of Trouble Is… on the horizon, he hatched a bold plan to trace the arc from the hungry 18-year-old gunslinger who caught lightning in a bottle in 1997 to the still searching master musician who has the soul of his life in his fingers. To bring together the old crew from the original sessions at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, and revisit the track listing. And to remind veteran fans and new listeners how this album reignited modern blues.
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Katrin Küsswetter, Moritz Görg, Sophia Reiß, Andy Tirakitti, Tobias Tietze – Giuseppe Giordani/Alessandro Melani: Arias & Motets (Letzte Helden) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:59 minutes | 453 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rondeau Production
Giuseppe Giordani (1639–1703) and Alessandro Melani (1751–1798) were both extremely successful opera composers, but both were firmly in the service of the Catholic Church throughout their lives. With the works on this CD, soprano Katrin Küsswetter impressively demonstrates how transparent the boundaries were between secular and sacred music in the Baroque and early Classical periods. The sparse instrumentation provides the voice with plenty of creative freedom, which gives a good impres-sion of how this music may have sounded like in the composers’ lifetimes.
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Juliette Gréco – A la Philharmonie de Berlin (Live) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 46:56 minutes | 929 MB | Genre: Chanson, French Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Division Decca Records France
An emblematic figure of French chanson, Juliette Gréco is an artist who left her mark on the whole of the second half of the 20th century. There is no shortage of superlatives to describe her: égérie of the cabarets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés since the late 1940s, muse to an unspeakable number of artists and intellectuals, fashion icon, ambassador of the French art de vivre. Although the press continued to refer to her as “the muse of Saint-Germain-des-Prés”, she soon left the district to perform on the world’s most beautiful stages for decades to come. When, in 1966, Juliette Gréco gave a recital at the Philharmonie in Berlin at the invitation of Herbert von Karajan, she was more than just a name. She was a myth. In the hearts of crowds in East and West, she is the greatest since the death of Edith Piaf. This recording restores a great moment, born of an exceptional recital. When, at the end, 2,500 people tirelessly chanted Gréco’s name, the singer could not hide her emotion: ‘This is a miracle… I must be dreaming. I used to sing in clubs under the streets in Saint-Germain-des-Prés… and now here I am in the same place where the great von Karajan conducts his orchestra!’
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Gerardo Felisatti – Gerardo Felisatti: The Way It Stands [Così com’è] (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:30 minutes | 795 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Da Vinci Classics
“Music is the wine that fills the goblet of silence”: with these words, I opened a brief essay on my friendship with Gerardo Felisatti, included in a 2013 publication to celebrate the first 65 years of Carretta Wines. Since then, a decade has passed, and our family enterprise has reached its 75-year milestone.
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