2020 is a year that we will never forget. Fear and isolation painted the background for my latest album called Lockdown. Written and recorded during this most turbulent of years. I have always found the darkness a dangerously productive spark for creativity. As the world has been turned upside down the songs and lyrics flowed and flowed. ...
Genre: Blues
Subgenre: Electric Blues
Ivanovs: Symphonies Nos. 15 & 16
Janis Ivanovs' (1906-1983) Symphonies Nos. 15 &16 see their world premiere release in this 2021 studio album by the most prominent Latvian orchestra the LNSO. Available previously only as broadcast copies and ageing LP records from the 70ies and 80ies, these timeless pieces by perhaps the most talented Latvian symphonic composer are now available to a wider ...
Composer: Janis Ivanovs (1906-1983)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
She has elicited favourable comparisons with mavericks such as Bjork and Liz Frazer of Cocteau Twins, but Storm Gordon is very much a sui generis artist, one who occupies her own distinct space. Now, 14 years on from the critically-lauded Someone to Dance With, the singular Scottish singer-songwriter and visual artist releases her new album, The Lie I Love the Best, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Michael Csányi-Wills: The Last Letter - Symphony No. 1 - Seagull Nebula
Prima Facie is pleased to release this collection of orchestral works by Michael Csanyi-Wills. Symphony No. I was released in 2020 and was met with great critical acclaim. Keen to continue the working relationships between Prima Facie and Cardiff University, Mark Eager successfully organised the recording of two more works by Michael, The Last ...
Composer: Michael Csanyi-Wills (1975)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
After 12 amazing years, the UK’s most successful folk band Bellowhead called it a day in 2016 going out in characteristic style with a sell-out show at the London Palladium. It’s taken a few years and a global pandemic, but to the delight of their many fans, the band ‘Reassembled’ for a one-off worldwide concert stream last December, marking the 10th anniversary of their 3rd album Hedonism. ...
Genre: Folk
Subgenre: Traditional Folk
Mature, Gentle and Powerful: These are the words that open Digging Up The Scars, Neilson Hubbard’s new album. Hubbard has been making beautiful music for decades, as a member of Strays Don’t Sleep (with Matthew Ryan), The Orphan Brigade (with co producer Ben Glover), as a solo artist, and as one of Nashville’s most ...
Genre: Country
Subgenre: Alternative Country
As the pandemic goes on making regular concerts impossible, the Louth Contemporary Music Society continues its work in the studio. Last autumn’s album release Meadow, featuring music by Linda Catlin Smith, won praise from leading critics on both sides of the Atlantic, including the New Yorker’s Alex Ross. Now comes a follow-up, Embers, which ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Santa Ratniece: Vigilia del Mattino
Album contains world premiere recordings of Latvian composer Santa Ratniece sung by the Latvian Radio Choir - one of the leading choirs in the world today. Santa Ratniece (1977) is an unusual personality among Latvian composers a traveller and researcher whose music cannot be confused with the compositions of any other composer. Her music is processual; it is music in which time expands like an ...
Composer: Santa Ratniece (1977)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Choral
Aeternum: Latvian Composers for the Centenary of Latvia
In anticipation of Latvia's centenary, the State Choir "Latvija" and its artistic director, Maris Sirmais, announced their idea for a special and lasting gift to Latvia a new, rich repertoire of choir songs that could be sung by both professional and amateur choirs. Thus they established a creative laboratory in which seventy-seven composers wrote new music for choir. ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Choral
"Tricks Of The Trade" by Malcolm Holcombe is easily his most “accessible” album yet. It’s chock-full of his trademark angry old man folk and suffer-no-fools blues. But there are also some tracks that are a little more like rock and there’s even one track that can best be described as a honkytonk tearjerker. ...
Genre: Songwriter
Subgenre: Contemporary
Lazybody again sees Annie team up with producer and Slow Weather partner Chris McCrory, 11 sparse songs of love, despair and all emotions in between. Scottish singer-songwriter Annie Booth returns with her sophomore album ‘Lazybody’. Recorded over the course of several months at ...
Genre: Songwriter
Subgenre: New Acoustic
To commemorate the 10th year since the passing of esteemed British jazz composer, bassist and bandleader Graham Collier, My Only Desire Records presents this 1975 recording of his previously unreleased suite 'British Conversations'. The recording features lead soloists trumpeter Harry Beckett and guitarist Ed Speight, alongside The Swedish Radio Jazz ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Big Band
Audrey Spillman matches the slow burn of a torch song with the blazing feeling of falling in love on Neon Dream. Produced by her husband Neilson Hubbard and recorded in Nashville, the compelling project provides a snapshot of her life over the last five years, from getting married and starting a family, to grappling ...
Genre: Songwriter
Subgenre: New Acoustic
Ink on a Pin - A Celebration of Joni Mitchell
Sara Colman, the acclaimed UK singer, songwriter and composer, announces a November release for her new album celebrating the music of Joni Mitchell, with striking new arrangements and poignant re-workings of seven songs from one of her most significant influences. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Seminal British Jazz-Rock band, Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, join forces with National Youth Jazz Orchestra to celebrate the launch of Bulletproof, a new album from the virtuoso saxophonist, composer & bandleader. Nearly 5 decades after the formation of the legendary British jazz-rock band Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia; the group ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Big Band
"sister in kith" is the third album from Treppenwitz, the latest chapter in an ongoing story. The band set up with microphones in a living room; the engineer pressed record and they played. There was no separation between the instruments, and the audio has almost no post-production treatment. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
Separated by the North Sea during the pandemic, as a band we were greatly missing the thing we love most - creating music in a room together. In the depths of winter we decided to try writing new songs together on zoom. It came with it's challenges and distractions -Ewan and Lauren grappling with mediocre broadband in the rural Highlands, ...
Genre: Songwriter
Subgenre: New Acoustic
Dzenitis, Buravickis, Leimane, Paidere
The Sinfonietta Rīga state chamber orchestra was founded relatively recently, in 2006. This selection of compositions written for the orchestra and its conductor, Normunds Šnē, are even younger: Ruta Paidere’s Tempera is from 2012, Andris Dzenītis composed Euphoria in 2017, Aigars Raumanis and Sinfonietta Rīga first performed the Temperature of ...
Composer: Andris Dzenītis (b. 1978), Platons Buravickis (b. 1989), Linda Leimane (b. 1989), Ruta Paidere (b. 1977)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
In his debut album, Janis Porietis features world premiere recordings of works for trumpet and organ by Latvian composers Maija Einfelde, Rihards Dubra, Alvils Altmanis, Ilze Arne, Romualds Jermaks, Dzintra Kurme-Gedroica, Georgs Pelecis and Renate Stivrina recorded at the Riga Cathedral's famous E. F. Walker & Co. Organ during the year of 2020. ...
Composer: Maija Einfelde (b. 1939), Rihards Dubra (b. 1964), Alvils Altmanis (b. 1950), Jānis Porietis (b. 1953), Ilze Arne (b. 1953), Romualds Jermaks (b. 1931), Dzintra Kurme-Gedroica (b. 1968), Georgs Pelēcis (b. 1947), Renāte Stivriņa (b. 1985)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
This is an album of musical friendship where the Riga Saxophone Quartet meets with composers and like-minded performers, and five compositions grounded in poetry, dreams, the Book of Revelation, Old Rīga streetscapes, and the art of photography come into being. ...
Composer: Dace Aperāne (b. 1953), Mārīte Dombrovska (b. 1977), Rihards Dubra (b. 1964), Edgars Makens (b. 1977), Rihards Zaļupe (b. 1983)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Classical Crossover
