Chester Thompson – Wake Up Call (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 41:08 minutes | 511 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Progrock.com’s Essentials
Renowned drummer/percussionist Chester Thompson (Genesis / Weather Report etc) presents an album of sizzling Fusion and Jazz Funk highlighting his peerless ability and compositional ambition.
Over the past few decades, American drummer/percussionist Chester Thompson has proven himself as one of the most skilled, versatile, and adored musicians in his field. Best known for his work with iconic artists such as Santana, Genesis, Frank Zappa, and Weather Report, Thompson’s first two LPs – 1991’s A Joyful Noise and 2019’s Steppin’ – offered equally impressive and rewarding demonstrations of his characteristic flexibility and consistency.
Read morePrazak Quartet – Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet No. 3, Scherzo, Presto, Chamber Symphony (2010/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:26 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Praga Digitals
The fifth volume devoted to Schönberg’s chamber music. On display here is writing that, after being based on traditional models (youthful Scherzo and Presto), evolves towards a melodic density and clarity of counterpoint making the Chamber Symphony, Op.9 (1906) accomplished and radiant as much in its chamber transcriptions as in the versions for full orchestra. The Quartet No.3 (1926) achieves a masterful balance between rhythm and harmony, melody and counterpoint, horizontality and verticality. All these processes blend in an original art of the continuous variation. By blurring the formal aspect, the PRAŽÁKs make him the heir of other Viennese: Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms… and Beethoven.
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Black Lives – People of Earth (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:20 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jammin’colors
Soundtrack of unity! With “People of Earth”, the ensemble Black Lives releases a funky album characterized by cultural aesthetics that radiates hope for a common, peaceful world.
The Black Lives project was founded in 2021 by Stefany Calembert and bassist Reggie Washington. Consisting of a core formation, the ensemble is supplemented by collaborations with changing musicians. The compositions of Black Lives thrive on the individuality and passion of the artists and stand for diversity and tolerance in a time of right-wing populist tendencies in Europe. The formation has caused a sensation with its impressive performances in recent years and is setting an example for a free, bright future with its music. Black Lives is an ambitious and complex project that comes to life on stage through the solidarity and dedication of the musicians.
Read moreBatoru – Elegy for Africa (Remaster 2024) (1998/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:13 minutes | 635 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nabel
Batoru could be the name of an african bird; here it refers to an idea that – after careful preparation – finally turned into music in 1996. The suite „Elegy for Africa“ was inspired by various travels through Africa and is a musical dedication to the continent of colours and rhythm. Subtly moving grooves supported by an ingenious texture of minimalist ideas, form the basis for expansive melodic developement. drumbeats and heartbeats. The traditional responsibilities of soloinstruments and rhythm section dissolve into a richly woven tapestry of rhythm and tonal colours, that becomes the instantly recognizable hallmark of Batoru.
Read moreArnaud Dolmen – LéNo (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 46:49 minutes | 587 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Quai Son Records
Arnaud Dolmen: ”(LéNo) comes from our respective first names. And the common thread of this album is first of all a long friendship that materializes in music and that materializes through it. The concept is Jazz with our various influences. Our desire is to create a 2-piece orchestra with our instruments without external elements.”
Read moreProfeti Della Quinta – Salomone Rossi – Il Mantovano Hebreo (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:03:24 minutes | 2,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records
Profeti della Quinta makes its Linn debut with a unique programme of Italian madrigals, instrumental pieces and Hebrew prayers by Salomone Rossi (c.1570-c.1630). The programme encompasses Rossi’s many-faceted talents both as a court composer in the service of the Gonzaga family and as a unique innovator of devotional music for the synagogue. The award-winning a-cappella ensemble, comprising five core male singers, is joined for this recording by Katya Polin and Eva Saladin (violin) and Ori Harmelin and Ryosuke Sakamoto (theorbo). The native Hebrew speaking singers specialize in the music of the Italian Baroque and have an immediate connection to Rossi as a Jewish Italian composer.
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Psychlona – Venus Skytrip (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:32 minutes | 597 MB | Genre: Metal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ripple Music
From the anthemic, space-coveting single “Blast Off” to the kicky and cowbell-loving energy of “Star,” PSYCHLONA pack a massive punch and sense of cool throughout their sophomore album. Nod along, fuzz fiends, to the irresistable groove of their chunky, desert-worshipping anthems, and get yourself a one-way ticket for a ‘Venus Skytrip.’
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Aline Piboule – Coincidentia Oppositorum: Piano Works by Bach, Liszt & Greif (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:21:16 minutes | 2,58 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ARTALINNA
With this new program recorded for Artalinna in Metz in April 2023, Aline Piboule continues her original musical journeys by associating two unexpected composers, both genius pianists, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) and Olivier Greif (1950-2000), who each one carried out a powerful mystical journey during their existence. Of the two, it brings together two works as beautiful as they are complementary. From Liszt, Ballade No. 2 as then sublimated by Blessing of God in Solitude, coming from poetic and religious harmonies. From Greif, two Sonatas, among his most beautiful works, Three Poems of Li T’ai Po (1977) and the Codex Domini (1994), both played in the critical edition produced by Anne-Élise Thouvenin. Two pages of Bach open and end this recital, filled with grandiose and intense feelings.
Read moreAbel Sánchez-Aguilera – Sorabji: Toccata Terza (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:05:31 minutes | 1,74 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Piano Classics
The first recording of another monumental work for piano by the composer of Opus clavicembalisticum and Sequentia cyclica.
Kaikhosru Sorabji tended to discourage performances of his music, feeling that most musicians not only lacked the technical equipment and dedication to conquer his vast scores, but also that they would not satisfactorily grasp their spiritual content. Having lived much of his life in lofty isolation, Sorabji died in 1988, and only in the last two decades have advances in digital publishing enabled his many unperformed and intimidatingly large pieces to be transferred from manuscript, and then taken on by dedicated performers such as the British pianist Jonathan Powell, whose first recording of the eight-hour Sequentia Cyclica won widespread praise on its release by Piano Classics: Sorabji’s ‘most inclusive and revealing major statement’ according to Gramophone, ‘a wilful yet engrossing challenge that, in Powell, has met its match.’
Read morePlume – Escaping the Dark Side (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:21 minutes | 569 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Jazz & People
With such a nickname as Plume, the potential for metaphors is huge. There is a particular lightness to the saxophone of this Franco-American who came out of nowhere and released his first album at the age of 38 under the nickname Plume. Surrounded by experts Leonardo Montana on piano, Géraud Portal on double bass, and Antoine Paganotti on drums, Plume creates an almost classical but never conventional post-bop. Treading the line between the legacies of John Coltrane and Kenny Garrett, he creates a serene balance in which his playing evokes an endearing warmth from the beginning to the end of Escaping the Dark Side. The cherry upon this delightful debut is the trumpet of the great Ambrose Akinmusire on Falling Angels and Perseverance. – Marc Zisman
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