Nordic Affect is an Icelandic quartet consisting of four women, all of whom also sing, and at least one of whom, Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, is also a composer, writing the title work He(a)r (the title is a pun on the words "hear," "her," and the Icelandic word "hér," which means "hear"). That work has a prominent spoken-word part, and it's deployed not in a continuous performance but as a frame for the other works, on alternating tracks. With the composer as Nordic Affect's violinst, one is entitled to assume that she was on board with this idea, and it forms an instantly appealing contrast with the other music…

Hania Rani announces "Music for Film and Theatre", a personal selection of recent compositions for film, theatre and other projects.
Writing music for film and theatre has always been a big part of Hania Rani's musical world. It is also a part of the creative process that can be tantalisingly out of reach for listeners, either the project doesn’t come to fruition or the music simply isn’t available away from the film or play. From early collaborations with friends, to last year’s two scores for full length films (xAbo: Father Boniecki directed by Aleksandra Potoczek and I Never Cry directed by Piotr Domalewski‘) Rani has been involved in many such projects, each representing an important step in her artistic development and life as a composer and artist.

Coil was initially established in London in 1983 as an experimental solo outlet for ex-Psychic TV member John Balance, and became a full-fledged experimental sonic manipulation unit a year later following the arrival of keyboardist / programmer Peter Christopherson (Sleazy), a founder of Psychic TV as well as a member of Throbbing Gristle. From a creative angle, the band has demonstrated and provided innovative schemas of composition and experimented various forms of ambient music, from industrial to ritual and droning, mainly based on tape machines, loops, sonic electronic machines and various instruments. The sound aesthetic is impregnated by very deep, richful, moving and disturbingly obsessive textures as in the now classic How to Destroy Angels (1992) and Musick To Play In The Dark (1999)…

Almost every one of Peter Gabriel’s best-laid plans winds up going awry, and so it was with Scratch My Back, his 2010 collection of orchestral covers of some of his favorite songs. He had hoped to have the artists he covered return the favor by interpreting his songs but that project never got off the ground, so he pursued New Blood, an album where he turned that orchestra upon his own songs. New Blood is in every way a companion piece to Scratch My Back; it’s cut from the same aesthetic cloth, it's austere and cerebral without being chilly, it finds emotion within intellect.

In the last years of the 1970s, Terry Riley seemed to be everywhere; it would not have been unusual for a Riley fan in 1979, through only a moderate amount of travel, to catch him in two different cities in different months of the year. At this point, Riley was delivering hours-long concerts, no two the same, playing from the advertised start time until the hall was no longer available for the evening. Riley was utilizing a Yamaha Organ, modified to accommodate two outputs, and a secret weapon, "The Shadow," a box built by Chester Wood that was an early digital delay. It was used in addition to the ancient Revox tape delay that Riley had employed for more than a decade in concerts that, by this time, invariably began with Riley stating, "I do have a tape recorder up here, but there is nothing on the tape. I use it to create some of the loop effects that you will hear tonight. Everything you will hear me play will be live."

With a title taken from the Spanish version of the band's motto – "sing while you may" – Canta Miedras Puedas is a useful enough single-disc compilation of the Legendary Pink Dots' work in the first half of the '90s…

Fink & The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - Live in Concert (2013) {Ninja Tune ZENCD201}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 322 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 138 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 255 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Ninja Tune | ZENCD201
Classical / Alternative / Acoustic / Symphonic Rock / Modern Classical

Back in 2012 Fink played a very very special one-off show. It was in Amsterdam, and they were accompanied by The (full) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The product was an undiluted triumph – a perfect marriage between Fink’s subtle and melodic songwriting and the power of a full orchestra. The subsequent live album, entitled Fink Meets The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will be available on 14th October 2013.

John Cale - Eat/Kiss: Music for the Films of Andy Warholol (1997) {Rykodisc HNCD 1407}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 363 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 160 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 50 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1997 Hannibal Records / Rykodisc | HNCD 1407
Modern Classical / Minimal / Experimental / Avant-Garde / Stage & Screen

John Cale's soundtracks for two of Andy Warhol's experimental films of the early 1960s, premiered in 1994 and recorded live at a concert at Lille, France in 1995, are multi-part free-form works on which his keyboards are accompanied by fellow ex-Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker, pedal steel guitarist B.J. Cole, and a string quartet. The abstract nature of the films allows Cale free rein to create impressionistic soundscapes occasionally reminiscent of the ambient work of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. Cale fans should note that though some of the music is melodic, there is none of the pop or rock found on many of his albums, but then most Cale fans probably are adventurous enough to give this a try.

Ground-breaking composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi announces the release of his new collection ‘Einaudi Undiscovered’. The project features a selection of hidden gems handpicked by Einaudi himself from his incredibly rich and extensive back catalogue, including previously unreleased tracks. From live renditions of tracks such as ‘La Nascita’ and ‘In Un’Altra Vita’, to a Starkey remix of ‘Experience’, alongside lesser known material and pieces from his soundtrack work, this new album gives listeners the opportunity to connect and discover the music of this multi-faceted artist. It also features a rarely heard vocal version of his most popular composition ‘Nuvole Bianche’ and the Main Theme from ‘The Third Murder’ which was previously only released in Japan.

Nonesuch Records releases an album of songs written and performed by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. The musicians, who have known each other since their student days, were presented with three days of gratis studio time and decided to experiment with ideas they had begun putting to tape during the sessions for their January 2021 Nonesuch release Narrow Sea. With Shaw on vocals and Sō—Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting—filling out this new band, they developed songs in the studio, with lyrics inspired by their own wide-ranging interests: James Joyce, the Sacred Harp hymn book, a poem by Anne Carson, the Bible’s Book of Ruth, the American roots tune “I’ll Fly Away,” and the pop perfection of ABBA, among others. The album is co-produced by Shaw, Sō Percussion, and the Grammy Award–winning engineer Jonathan Low (The National, Taylor Swift).

Hania Rani announces ‘Music for Film and Theatre’ a personal selection of recent compositions for film, theatre and other projects.

Known for their lush and atmospheric, largely instrumental music, the Irish/Norwegian duo Secret Garden rose to fame in the mid-'90s and have since won an international following for their gentle but emotionally evocative sounds, dominated by violin and keyboards and combining notes of Celtic and Norwegian folk, pop, and new age styles. The duo first came together to write and perform the song "Nocturne," which became Norway's winning entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. While they would dabble in vocal music on 2007's Inside I'm Singing and pare back their arrangements on 2013's Just the Two of Us, the sizable majority of their releases saw them remaining loyal to their trademark sound, playing music that touched the hearts and soothed the souls of their many fans around the world.