Articles
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Extended Circle
|The master of Scandinavian cool is back with another down tempo voyage of discovery. Accompanied by his extended band of Mats Eilertsen on double bass and Jarle Vespestad on drums as well as sax player ...read more -
Slowly Rolling Camera
|This debut from British four piece Slowly Rolling Camera has strong overtones of the Cinematic Orchestra, yet as that band is hardly prolific and it’s genre less than oversubscribed it’s great to hear something that ...read more -
In Each and Every One
|Drummer Seb Rochford, you know, him with the unfeasible afro, seems to be everywhere these days. Frankly I’m surprised that he found time to make an album with his band, but it was certainly worthwhile. ...read more -
Hindsight Bias
|Prog meets post rock with a hint of disco. Sounds like a bad idea, but this ‘Scandiwegian’ trio pull it off rather well. Bly de Blyant is drummer Øyvind Skarbø, guitarist Hilmar Jensson and multi-instrumentalist ...read more -
Anyone With A Heart
|Finnish pianist Rantala seems to have more breadth than most in the field of contemporary music. His last album, My History of Jazz, a homage to the music that influenced him, could not be more ...read more -
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Decca Sound - The Analogue Years
|54 albums from Decca’s golden years between 1954-1980, sensitively remastered onto CD and packaged with mock original jackets in a thick cardboard box, all for less than £100. How can it get any better than ...read more -
Les nuits d'ete & La mort de Cleopatre
|Les nuits d’été was adapted by Berlioz to add a part for Mezzo-Soprano when he became entwinded with a certain soloist who later became his wife! His musical ability shines through in these pieces as ...read more -
Shostakovich: Symphony 4
|The Fourth is the stuff of legend. In 1936, Dimitri Shostakovich’s music had been denounced in Pravda (allegedly at the behest of Stalin). Shostakovich composed “an artist’s creative response to just criticism” Fifth symphony, and ...read more -
Dvorak: Cello Concertos
|I’m a big fan of Dvorák’s Cello Concertos (especially the B Minor) and have liked Isserlis cello work for years. He claims it’s taken almost 40 years to take on the Dvorák. It’s a bold, ...read more -
Correspondances
|Henri Dutilleux passed away in May this year aged 97. ‘Correspondences’ is a song-cycle based around the poems and letters of Mukherjee, Rilke, Solzhenitsyn and van Gogh, set to music. The disc also features ‘Tout ...read more -
Bach Arias
|This disc of JS Bach Arias contains a beautiful melange of his works. The musicians clearly take their own interpretation on the musical directions; ‘Choral Schubler’ better known as Watchef Auf is a fine example, ...read more -
6 Sonatas for Violin & Piano
|These particular Bach violin sonatas are written (and commonly played) with harpsichord accompaniment, but here it’s a direct transposition to the piano. In fact, this harks back to recordings made before the trend for authenticity ...read more -
Advent at Merton
|It seems appropriate as Christmas approaches (at the time of writing) to listen to Advent music. Peter Phillips and Benjamin Nicholas, both of whom have glittering musical backgrounds, lead the Choir of Merton College, Oxford. ...read more -
Billy Strayhorn And The Orchestra
|One of the regular side projects of the Ellington Orchestra was to let the group back the Duke’s alto sax player Johnny Hodges. Billy Strayhorn, Ellington’s collaborator in composition, leads the Ellington Orchestra in this ...read more