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Lucian Ban & Mat Maneri:

Transylvanian Dance

Transylvanian Dance takes as its starting point transcriptions of folk songs and dance tunes collected by Béla Bartók a century ago. For Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri, these pieces have become “springboards and sources of melodic material” for performances “that capture the spirit of the original yet allow us to improvise and bring our own world to them…” Ban explains: “In our process we don’t have any preconceived notions of how we should arrange these songs. Some take a very improvisational approach. Some are more defined compositionally and harmonically. And others combine the folk material with original motives of ours. If you go deeper into the source material, new vistas are opening.”

Recorded live in October 2022 in the context of the Retracing Bartók project in Timi?oara, the album also bears testimony to the finely attuned understanding that Ban and Maneri have achieved in their long-running musical partnership.

Eugenia Moliner:

Song to the Moon

Internationally acclaimed flutist Eugenia Moliner releases her new album, Song to the Moon, on July 26, 2024, under the Azica Records label. This evocative collection features music by Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert, Nikolai Medtner, and Thomas as well as a specially commissioned piece based on Antonín Dvorák’s beloved "Song to the Moon."  The idea for this recording emerged from a commission by Tom Baron of a piece inspired by his favorite melody from Dvorák’s opera Rusalka: the enchanting "Song to the Moon." From this initial concept, Eugenia Moliner envisioned an entire album dedicated to songs and lieder for flute and piano. Moliner, profoundly moved by Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder—a work composed after the death of two of Mahler's children—connected this project with the recent loss of her brother Pedro. "I feel like the entire album is a profound exploration of the evocative powers of music as a vessel for catharsis and healing; through playing this music I feel I grieve and release the pain of Pedro's loss," says Moliner.

Stathis Karapanos:

The Complete Works for Flute of Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith had studied violin in Frankfurt am Main, was hired as the concertmaster of the Frankfurt Opera House Orchestra already at the age of nineteen, and performed as a violist and viola d’amore instrumentalist with renowned soloists and orchestras in Germany and foreign countries for many years prior to devoting the last years of his career to conducting. He composed many of his works for his own use during his many years of concert activity.

At the same time, however, from Hindemith’s earliest years onward his interest in composition ranged over a considerably broader spectrum. He wrote a sonata for almost every instrument of the orchestra as well as solo concertos for some of them. Here he succeeded in optimally exploiting the qualities typical of each instrument both in sound and technique because he himself had a command of almost all of them – and of some of them a command on a considerable level. Along with his professional concert activity and the education of future composers, throughout his life Hindemith dedicated himself to an often-neglected area of music culture: the performance of music by amateurs. Even in his last lecture he stated of this: “Conquering the world with sensations is not all that difficult. It is much more difficult to write music for children, for amateur players, for amateur choirs, in short, to produce music for people who can do little or almost nothing musically.”

Accordingly, along with compositions for professional flutists, Hindemith also wrote works for children and adult amateurs in which the flute assumes a leading role. A composition for this instrument sketched on the blackboard is extant from his composition classes.

Daniel Hope:

Irish Roots w/Galways,Garvey,Lunasa,AIR Ens, TSSO

With a wide-ranging programme featuring familiar landmarks, creative adventures and musical surprises, Daniel Hope’s latest Deutsche Grammophon album is now available. The release coincides with news of Hope’s appointment as the next Intendant and Artistic Director of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and Academy, a role he assumes as of 1 November 2025. Irish Roots is available on CD, digitally and on vinyl (2 LPs). Limited-edition versions of both the CD and the vinyl album – including an art card signed by Daniel Hope – are available exclusively from the DG Store.

Brought up on stories of his paternal great-grandfather Daniel McKenna, who left Ireland in the 1890s to build a new life in South Africa, Hope has always been intrigued by Irish music and culture. As well as making a documentary for ARTE and WDR entitled Celtic Dreams: Daniel Hope’s Hidden Irish History, first aired in spring 2022, the violinist has been delving deeper into the connections between folk and classical music in Ireland, informed by performance experiences with award-winning Irish band Lúnasa and the research of musicologist Olivier Fourés.

Jordina Milla - Barry Guy:

Live in Munich

This live recording, from Munich’s Schwere Reiter hall, documents the debut concert performance by the duo of Catalan pianist Jordina Millà and British bassist Barry Guy. Together they they shape fluid, highly detailed music, of ever changing mood, and cast fresh light on the meaning and possibilities of “extended technique” in free improvisation. The musicians first crossed paths at Barcelona’s Mixtur Festival in 2017 where Guy was composer-in-residence, creating a piece together with a mixed festival ensemble of professionals and students. Millà, as one of the pianists in the group, immediately stood out for her “commitment, energy, virtuosity and creativity,” and a musical friendship was established.

Guy and Millà went on to record a studio album together, String Fables, for the Polish label Fundacja Sluchaj in 2021. Live In Munich represents a major advance in its depth of sound and range of expression, with remarkable clarity even at moments of most intense activity. In characterizing their swirling, undulating sound, Jordina Millà draws analogies with the movements of the sea, “so full of life and dark at the same time, a change of light making the treasures and wonders visible.” In the duo, “heightened listening and sensibility allowed colours and sudden changes to be perceived, expressed and established in the musical discourse.”

Brian Eno:

ENO (OMPS)

“This soundtrack to Gary Hustwit’s documentary of the same name provides a neat reminder of Brian Eno’s polymathic brilliance…. An essential, though naturally incomplete, survey of Eno’s myriad musical strategies.” – Electronic Sound

The Official Soundtrack to the 2024 Gary Hustwit generative film Eno, is available now on vinyl and CD on UMR, the same time as the unique documentary enters cinemas. There are two beautifully packaged versions of the vinyl - 2LP recycled black vinyl and limited edition 2LP pink & white vinyl - and a 73-minute-long CD with an illustrated 16-page booklet of elegant portraits. Eno - the definitive documentary about the visionary musician, artist and activist is a typically groundbreaking project - a feature film that’s never the same twice. The film is now playing in cinemas as well 

Norma Winstone - Kit Downes:

Outpost of Dreams

Her first ECM recording in six years finds Norma Winstone in a new duo with pianist Kit Downes. A unique artist as both jazz vocalist and lyricist, here Norma brings her poetic sensibilities to new pieces by Downes as well as compositions by Carla Bley, Ralph Towner, and John Taylor. The programme is completed with fresh perspectives on two traditional tunes, “Black Is The Colour” and “Rowing Home.” The duo, Norma says, was “a chance thing”, a musical unit formed almost accidentally. Winstone’s regular pianist for work in Britain, Nikki Iles, was unavailable for a gig in London, “so I booked Kit. I’d never played with him before. And of course, he could play everything immediately, and amazingly. So we did a few more concerts, and I found I responded to the sense of adventure in his playing. You never know quite what is going to happen, and I love that quality.” When London Jazz News collected a round-up of greetings for Norma’s 80th birthday, she recalls, Downes wrote: “Can’t wait to jump off musical cliffs together again in the near future.” She laughs: “That’s the way we both think of it. We’ll see where the project takes us. “

Giovanni Guidi:

A New Day

Rekindling the familiarly flowing interplay with fellow travellers Thomas Morgan and João  Lobo – the trio’s musical partnership goes back over a decade at this point –, on A New Day Italian pianist Giovanni Guidi moreover expands the group’s instrumental grasp with the introduction of American saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, who makes his ECM debut here. Not only is the ensemble scope widened; with Brandon Lewis in tow, new dialects and fresh perspectives are broached, and different instrumental paths taken, inspired by an overall heightened sense of communication and Lewis’s unmistakable, confident tone.

On the opportunity to include the saxophonist in his band, Giovanni explains that his conversations with Brandon Lewis go back many years and that witnessing him live led Guidi “to believe that with James, the group dialogue could develop towards more abstract, open and improvisational approaches. In a way it was quite the gamble, as we come from very different paths, but the session for A New Day proved us right: the trio is pushed into new territories, while James – in my view – finds a very unique and interesting way to connect with us. It was a sincere journey of discovery.“

Trent Reznor - Atticus Ross:

Challengers(Original Score)

The Milan Records release of CHALLENGERS (ORIGINAL SCORE) features music from Director Luca Guadagnino’s new film composed by two-time Oscar®* winners TRENT REZNOR and ATTICUS ROSS. Set within the high-stakes world of professional tennis, the film required a soundscape as thrilling as the onscreen action, prompting Guadagnino to turn to hard-hitting techno and electronic music as the starting point for Reznor and Ross’ scoring efforts. The result is a powerful, propulsive score that perfectly matches the pulse of the film, its pulsating techno rhythms and synthwork driving the story while enhancing the emotionality at its core. Also included within the 16-track collection is original song “Compress / Repress” co-written by Reznor, Ross and Guadagnino – listen here. Starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers arrives in theaters today from Amazon MGM Studios – get tickets here. Written by Justin Kuritzkes, directed by Luca Guadagnino.

Christopher O'Riley:

The Well Tempered Clavier Book I

Pianist, arranger, collaborative artist, composer, educator, and media personality Christopher O’Riley follows his passions into a fractal array of innovative directions, ever striving for the truest and deepest human connection, through performance and collaboration. 

It is with O’Riley’s dedication to the learning abilities, personalities, and imaginations of artists that he comes to his latest endeavor – a traversal of J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier. O’Riley has produced an online archive of video lectures entitled “Everything We Need to Know About Playing the Piano We Learn From The Well-Tempered Clavier,” a series illuminating a new perspective on each Prelude and Fugue, expanding on the ways the paucity of Bach’s notation encourages us to engage creatively and imaginatively. 

O’Riley’s The Well Tempered Clavier Book I delves into the subtle intricacies of Bach’s famous masterwork, revealing the composer’s nuanced craftsmanship through an exploration of the spaces between notes. Inspired by Bach’s profound lyricism and informed by historical insights, O’Riley’s interpretation transcends conventional keyboard traditions. Embracing the expressive potential of articulation and texture, he illuminates counterpoint with dynamic contrast, unveiling hidden dialogues within Bach’s compositions. Through meticulous attention to intonation and rhythmic flexibility, O’Riley uncovers layers of meaning, echoing the Japanese concept of “Ma” — the significance of space and silence. This album invites listeners to immerse themselves in Bach’s universe, where every pause resonates with depth and possibility.

Danish String Quartet:

Keel Road

Keel Road is the latest chapter in the Danish String Quartet’s reckoning with music from – or inspired by – northern folk and traditional sources, rounding off a decade of sustained engagement with the genre. Wood Works, issued in 2014 on the Danish Dacapo label gave notice of the extent of the DSQ’s commitment to folk, explored in parallel with their classical activities, and Last Leaf, released in 2017 on ECM New Series took the story further. A resounding success with press and public, Last Leaf ranked high amongst albums of the year at NPR, The New York Times and Gramophone, the latter magazine suggesting this might be “the best album of folk ditties from a string quartet you’ll ever hear”, an assertion now challenged by Keel Road. 

Once again, the group casts its associative net wide: “We set out on a musical journey that traverses the North Sea. For centuries, the main communication channel of Northern Europe, the highway and the internet of bygone eras. And even though known for its swift upsurges and strong gales, brave sailors would again and again travel the keel road, enabling a continuous exchange of goods, culture and music. The musical keel road of this album will take us from Denmark and Norway to shores far away: to the Faroe Islands, to Ireland and England.” The journey illuminates musical affinities as well as distinctions. “While folk music represents local traditions and local stories, it is also the music of everywhere and everyone. At the end of the day, our stories and our music remain closely connected.

Anna Gourari:

Paul Hindemith - Alfred Schnittke w/Orch. Svizzera

In a programme that combines Alfred Schnittke’s Concert for piano and string orchestra with Paul Hindemith’s Symphony Mathis der Maler and the composer’s The Four Temperaments, pianist Anna Gourari together with the Lugano-based Orchestra della Svizzera italiana under Markus Poschner shines in powerful performances that dress these idiosyncratic and contrasting works in beaming colours. The recording, captured at the Auditorio Stelio Molo – abound with sonic detail –, undergirds both the counterpuntal fabric of Hindemith’s neoclassical leaning repertory, and the polystilistic maze of Schnittke’s Concerto, where, according to the composer himself “everything – unable to create the balance between ‘sunshine’ and ‘storm clouds’ – shatters finally into a thousand pieces”.

Ensemble for These Times (E4TT):

Emigres & Exiles in Hollywood - For Good Measure

Award-winning SF chamber group Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) has released their fifth recording, “Émigrés & Exiles in Hollywood” via Centaur Records (CRC 4111). The album is the result of a multi-year exploration via the group’s “Jewish Music & Poetry Project (JMPP), the digital EP features music by many of the talented émigré composers who fled a war-torn Europe during World War II for Los Angeles, going on to write film noir and other movie scores and establish the “Hollywood” style that we hear in the music of John Williams and so many other films today, as well as landing in academia and shaping the next generations of American composers. Featuring chamber music, arrangements, and songs by eight composers—Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Miklós Rózsa, both of whom went on to win Academy Awards, Hanns Eisler, Bronislaw Kaper, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexandre Tansman, Henryk Vars, and Eric Zeisl—and is performed by soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Abigail Monroe, and pianist Margaret Halbig. 

Ensemble for These Times Is Proud to Launch the Second Season of “For Good Measure”  A Podcast with BIPOC, Women, and LGBTQIA Creative Artists.      "CLICK HERE FOR PODCAST"
 

 

Julius Rodriguez:

Evergreen

You can find Julius Rodriguez in many places. You could walk into a packedMeshell Ndegeocello’s The Omnichord behind the piano with energy practically surging from his fingers through the room. You might scroll up on social media and catch him alternating from drums to bass to guitar at the speed of a jump cut. You may also step onto festival grounds and see him on stage either solo or accompanying another likeminded visionary, jamming like his life depends on it. No matter where, the New York-born and Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer electrifies any lane. By doing so, he also transcends perceived boundaries between genres and styles, redefining the music to mirror his own fluid creative inclinations and delivering a sound that’s solely his alone.

Following widespread applause from The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The FADER, and more, collaborations with everyone from Wynton Marsalis to A$AP Rocky, and tens of millions of streams, he grows in as many directions as possible on his second full-length offering, EVERGREEN [Verve Records]. “I kept seeing the word EVERGREEN everywhere,” he recalls. “I looked up the definition, and it struck me. An ‘EVERGREEN’ is a plant whose foliage remains functional for all seasons. That’s similar to how I like to be; I want to be myself no matter the genre I’m playing or what’s going on around me. There are a lot of styles on this record, but it’s recognizably my voice.”

ARKAI:

Crossroads

Award-winning electro-acoustic duo ARKAI releases their highly-anticipated debut album Crossroads this on August 9, bringing their spellbinding virtuosity and limitless imagination to an all-electric selection of original songs that will almost certainly be a defining moment for the future of progressive string music. 

Created in collaboration with GRAMMY-award winning producer Jonas W. Karlsson, Crossroads showcases ARKAI’s signature sound, a novel synthesis of their virtuosic western classical Juilliard training and love for the progressive mainstream. Drawing inspiration from neoclassical, electronic, and prog rock worlds, their style innovatively integrates instrumental mastery with heavily-processed string leads, sequential layering, dynamic bass grooves, and atmospheric sampling – all coming together to create a cinematic and genre-defying sound that has the aura of an other-worldly jam session between 2Cellos, Philip Glass, and John Williams.

Rising stars in the classical crossover world, ARKAI has performed hundreds of shows around the globe including esteemed engagements at GRAMMYs on the Hill, Abu Dhabi Culture Summit, Carnegie Hall, US Air Force Academy, and TED Talks. They have opened for GRAMMY and Oscar-winning musician Jon Batiste, collaborated with esteemed photographer David LaChapelle for Milan Design Week, and released music with viral pianist sensation Tony Ann and Decca Records.

Crossroads illustrates ARKAI’s journey of chasing dreams and discovering one’s place in the world — the pressure of expectations, predeterminations, realism and practicalities, and the search for a new path forward.

Janine Jansen:

Sibelius VC, Prokofiev VC1 w/Oslo Phil. - Makela

Decca is delighted to announce Dutch violinist Janine Jansen's new album, featuring violin concertos by Sibelius and Prokofiev, with Janine as the soloist in both works. These are her first new concerto recordings in nine years. Jansen is a musician of poise, sensitivity and elegance who regularly visits the world’s most esteemed orchestras and concert halls. Joining her on the album is Finnish conductor, Klaus Mäkelä, and the Oslo Philharmonic. Mäkelä’s Decca recorded cycle of the complete symphonies of his compatriot Sibelius with Norway’s flagship orchestra was described by BBC Music Magazine as ‘the most electrifying and often revelatory of them all.’

Sibelius’s Violin Concerto No.1 is coloured differently from its counterparts in the Romantic literature. Its combination of fire and ice - of display countered by introversion - is a facet of the score Jansen has always made her own. Her performances of the work, with Mäkelä in 2023, were widely acclaimed by European critics. In addition to Sibelius’s work, Jansen includes one of the major violin concertos of the twentieth century. Unbounded lyricism is pitted against destructive, forceful cynicism in the first of Serge Prokofiev’s concertos, a work in which Jansen has put her formidable technique in service of the work’s savagery and intimacy.

Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra:

Lover - Tattoo, Featuring Haley Reinhart

Jeff Goldblum revealed two brand new singles featuring singer, songwriter & actress Haley Reinhart. Accompanied by his long-time band The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, the duo are covering Taylor Swift’s classic hit “Lover” & Loreen’s “Tattoo”, out digitally now via Decca Records. Physical 7-inch copies of the two tracks single will also be available on September 7th, and can be pre-ordered here.

Speaking about the release, Jeff Goldblum says: “With apologies to Sammy Cahn, recording with Haley is even lovelier the second time around. She interprets Taylor Swift and Loreen with her own unique style and skill to make it sound like it’s the first time you hear these love songs sung.”

Following the release of their latest EP ‘Plays Well With Others’, Jeff & the band toured across US & Europe, during which they performed short renditions of "Lover" and "Tattoo". With each show, the band's interpretation evolved, increasingly making them our own, much to the audience's delight. Naturally when the opportunity arose to record new tracks, they opted to create full arrangements of both songs. Haley Reinhart, with her profound understanding of both pop and jazz genres, was the ideal vocalist to enhance these recordings.

Jeff Goldblum has been playing the piano for most of his life, and performing with his band for the past 30 years, but it was only when he accompanied soul-jazz star Gregory Porter on BBC’s Graham Norton Show that the actor’s distinctive style and natural feel for the instrument caught the attention of Decca Record executives, who suggested he make an album. After a run of glowing reviews in the press followed by packed live shows in prestigious jazz clubs and venues in London, Paris and Berlin, which were met with yet more praise from critics, Goldblum landed a No.1 jazz album in both the UK and US with his record ‘The Capitol Studios Sessions’, followed up by another No.1 album ‘I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This’, in 2019.

Last year, Jeff Goldblum released in his inimitable style his EP ‘Plays Well With Others’, delivering  sheer joy with his idiosyncratic take on a collection of standards that, for him, are amongst the best songs ever written. With all tracks newly arranged by The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra themselves, Jeff is joined by an array of talented, and unexpected, guest singers including Kelly Clarkson, Mattiel Brown, Rodrigo Amarante or Freda Payne. 

Tomasz Stanko Quartet:

September Night

Recorded at Munich’s Muffathalle in September 2004, this previously-unreleased live album of the Tomasz Stanko Quartet is a fascinating document, capturing a developmental chapter in the group’s music: between the song forms of the Suspended Night repertoire and the improvised areas that the Polish players would explore on Lontano.  The Munich show was a highlight in a year in which the Stanko Quartet played a record number of gigs, with extensive tours of the US and Europe. The great trumpeter himself is at his charismatic best here, playing superbly, clearly inspired by the energetic support and communicative power of Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz, the dynamic young musicians for whom he had been a mentor. 

Oded Tzur:

My Prophet

There’s a cunning intensity that inhabits this freshly etched programme of five extensive pieces plus an introductory miniature, presenting saxophonist Oded Tzur in a light that balances the extremes: bright inflections of fiery refrains go hand in hand with long passages of ruminative and deeply felt interplay. In the process, the saxophonist exhibits some of his fiercest playing yet. Accompanied by his quartet of pianist Nitai Hershkovits, bassist Petros Klampanis and the new group member Cyrano Almeida on drums, the saxophonist continues on the idiosyncratic musical path he has carved out for himself – a flowing jazz idiom that seamlessly combines multiple forms of expression –,  while delving deeper into the meditative and highly concentrated realm of improvisation.

The Guardian’s John Fordham called Tzur’s last album Isabela “a bewitching session” and “a gem in the playbook of doing more with less,” while observing how his “saxophone tones materialise imperceptibly, (…) his fragile, meticulously-shaped notes seem to float in still air.” Indeed, The New York-based saxophonist’s uniquely soft, flute-like tone bears resemblance to none of his contemporaries and his uncompromising determination in forging a singular way through the realm of jazz and improvisation is unmistakably his very own, and has reached a whole new level of maturation on My Prophet.

Bruce Liu:

WAVES - Music by Satie

Bruce Liu Turns the Spotlight on Satie - The pianist continues his exploration of French pianism in a new digital album,  out on 28 June 2024

Waves: Music by Satie features two contrasting versions  of the composer’s six Gnossiennes “far more than a demonstration of virtuosity and sensitivity …,  this album is a beautiful journey of dreams, dance and poetry”?ResMusica on Waves: Music by Rameau · Ravel · Alkan

The much-anticipated debut studio album from Bruce Liu, winner of the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition, was released to critical acclaim in November 2023. Waves: Music by Rameau · Ravel · Alkan – Liu’s homage to French pianism – focused on three composers who played a part in the evolution of keyboard music in France between the 18th and early 20th centuries. The vinyl and limited-edition deluxe versions of Waves featured bonus tracks by a  fourth: Erik Satie. Liu’s readings of his Gnossiennes are now being made digitally available for the first time. Waves: Music by Satie presents two performances of all six works – the original grand piano versions and newly recorded upright piano interpretations – and is set for release on 28 June 2024. Gnossienne No. 1, Lent (upright version) will be issued as a taster track on 7 June and a video for No. 4, Lent (grand piano version) will come out on the same day as the album.
 

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