Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto share recordings of their show at Sydney Opera House in 2018, yielding 80 minutes of sublime, glassy electronics; minimal but full of that light-handed emotive brilliance Sakamoto seems to always supply so generously, and with such little effort. Gorgeous, moving music.

After the success of her Deutsche Grammaphon debut which she dedicated to the composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Mirga Gražinyté-Tyla (together with Giedre Slekyte) now lets us discover works by Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnyté: Music of transcendent beauty, harrowing and full of emotional force. A music that combines mystical experience and outbursts of vibrant energy. To Mirga, working together with Šerkšnyté has q quite special significance: “My connection with Raminta Šerkšnyté’s music is verypersonal. Probably what fascinates me most is the poetic quality and the mystery of this composer and her work. The ‘Ramintacism’, the minor thirds. Her personal voice."

In 1991, composers Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov were amongst a small group of composers, including Sofia Gubaidulina, blacklisted in Russia. Firsova and Smirnov fled the country with their two young children and took refuge in the UK. Since then, their daughter, Alissa Firsova, now aged 31, has risen to become one of the most notable stars of the new composing generation working in Britain.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is a place of prayer, peace, spiritual renewal, and a temple to all who love the organ—and Zorn responds in kind with a remarkably soothing and peaceful exploration of lyricism and sonic variation. Interrupted only occasionally by a few trademark Phantom of the Opera explosions, the music is meditative, devotional, and at times achingly beautiful. Inspired by the mystical worlds of William Blake and the French organ traditions of Charles Tournemire and Olivier Messiaen, the music is an extended exploration in search of spiritual healing.

John Zorn - The Hermetic Organ vol. 2 - St. Paul's Chapel, NYC (2014) {Tzadik TZ 8312}
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Classical / Avant-Garde / Modern Classical / Improvisation / Organ

Drawing upon traditions as varied as Messiaen, Xenakis, Ligeti, Bach, Tournemire, Ives, Korla Pandit and The Phantom of the Opera, Zorn’s organ improvisations are transcendent, inspiring, ecstatic experiences, offering a direct line to the workings of his rich compositional imagination. Performed at St. Paul’s Chapel at a time when the organ was undergoing extensive reconstruction, the limited number of stops available to him focused his imagination to new heights, resulting in Zorn’s most revelatory recital to date. The second volume documenting these legendary organ recitals is a overwhelming experience filled with moments of passion, tenderness, fragility and extraordinary power.

Terry Bozzio + Metropole Orkest - Chamber Works (2005) {Favored Nations FN2530-2}
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Classical / Contemporary Classical / Rock / Jazz / Fusion / Drums

One of the most eclectic figures in rock music moves deeply and wholeheartedly into the classical realm (with his innovative drum kit exploring the landscape throughout) on a set with Holland's classic Metropole Orkest that would do his mentor, Frank Zappa, proud. Terry Bozzio's résumé boasts Jeff Beck, the Brecker Brothers, and the formation of Missing Persons, but he seems proudest of his three-year association (1975-1978) with the symphonically influenced Zappa – which brought him into the public eye.

Alexandre Bloch juxtaposes two French composers on this disc. First of all, Maurice Ravel, with the Rapsodie espagnole, his first major work for orchestra alone, written at the age of thirty-two, and La Valse, premiered thirteen years later and which he himself described as a ‘fantastical and fatal whirlwind’. And then Benjamin Attahir, born in Toulouse in 1989, one of the most gifted and prominent composers of the new generation. Commissioned by the Orchestre National de Lille and recorded here for the first time, it is a concerto for serpent that showcases the splendid sound of this low wind instrument, a member of the brass family even though it is made of wood covered in leather. ‘Adh Dhohr is part of a cycle I wanted to write focusing on the Salah, the daily rhythm of Muslim devotion’, says Benjamin Attahir. ‘This piece refers to the noon prayer, when the sun is at its zenith . . . The musical form is constructed around this “zenithal” moment and unfolds concentrically around it. (…) I wanted – as in oriental music – to return to the strictest monophony, which is a rather unusual project in concertante music. Soloist and orchestra share a single voice between them.’

THE RIVER OF TIME, Navona Records’ latest release, is a captivating tour de force by conductor Mike Fansler and the Western Illinois University Wind Ensemble. Recorded by legendary engineer Bruce Leek – whose recording portfolio includes the President’s Own Marine Band – this album captures the full emotive intensity of one of America’s finest collegiate ensembles.

This release features two wandering musical landscapes inhabiting a poetic world by Abbas Kiarostami. Joanna Kamenarska was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She began her violin studies with Josif Radionov in Sofia before continued in 1995 with Ruggiero Ricci and Igor Ozim at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Joanna has been awarded numerous prizes at international competitions from the age of ten, including third rize of the International Mozart Competition Salzburg in January, 2002. Joanna was also a semi-finalist in the Queen Elizabeth International Competition and the Sibelius Competition, 2005. Born in Barcelona in 1980, Moisиs is an active concert pianist, music curator and passionate writer. He began his musical education at the age of ten and was lauded only three years later by the press as "un nom qui'l faudrб retenir!" [a name to remember!] at his official dйbut in the French city of Agen in 1993. He is a winner of the Scarlatti International Piano Competition in Naples (Italy) and the Richmond Piano Competition in Boston (USA). He was also a nominee for the Arthur W. Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association and a finalist for the Kahn Career Award.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has a long tradition of commissioning and performing important new music, and the four works on this album were commissioned and premiered by the orchestra and its conductor Andris Nelsons during the first years of his tenure. Eric Nathan takes us on a journey through a series of interconnected worlds, whereas George Tsontakis marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in a series of Sonnets for co anglais and orchestra. Timo Andres carries on ‘conversations’ with composers of the past, while Sean Shepherd has been inspired by five giants of artistic modernism.

"Torneremo Ancora" is the new album by Franco Battiato (Sony Music Legacy), available from Friday, October 18 (on CD and double LP) in stores and on digital stores.

Purveyors of contemporary ambient and electronic inspired music, A Winged Victory for the Sullen make a bold return on new album “The Undivided Five”. The pair, made up of Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Wiltzie, have created iconic film scores and forward-thinking ambient groups, releasing a series of game-changing records for Erased Tapes and Kranky. On “The Undivided Five” they rekindle their unique partnership for only their second piece of original music outside of film, TV and stage commissions, creating an album that channels ritual, higher powers and unspoken creative energies. Their fifth release (following their debut album, two scores and an EP), they embraced the serendipitous role of the number five, inspired by artist Hilma af Klint and the recurrence of the perfect fifth chord.

Having made a gradual switch during the 15 years since his first album was published from electronica to instrumental variations on ambient and minimalism, Max Richter is among the most commercially successful composers of our time. This album of his solo piano music belongs in the genre explored so thoroughly for Brilliant Classics by Jeroen van Veen, whose prolific recording history includes hugely popular albums of Philip Glass (BC9419) and Michael Nyman (BC95112), Ludovico Einaudi (BC94910) and Yann Tiersen (BC95129) and his fellow Dutch musician Jakob ter Veldhuis (BC94873) and himself (BC9454). The appetite for slowly moving, unchallenging, post-Minimalist music is apparently infinite, and so this new album is sure to be a success.

The music of contemporary Lithuanian composer Peteris Vasks has a reputation for depicting nature, a grand tradition in the northern countries, and for creating structure that examine the relationship between nature and human culture. One might also add that from the evidence of the music here, which dates from between 1972 and 2011, Vasks is one of the few composers, in the Baltics or anywhere else, to succeed in gradually moving in the direction of tonal music without a sharp shift in direction. That's a testament to the strength of his musical personality.