Nigel Kennedy's recording was released on 25th September 1989 and went on to become one of the best-selling classical albums of all-time, selling over three million copies around the world. Originally recorded in November 1986 in the Church of St John-at-Hackney, London, it was a recording that would achieve unprecedented public and media attention and change the course of music history. Vivaldi's work, 12 movements in short three-minute bursts, was tailor-made for commercial radio. It was the first time that commercial pop marketing techniques had been used in the classical world and the first time that Nigel was unleashed on the media. It was a phenomenon waiting to happen. Nigel Kennedy's recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons sold over three million copies around the world. It topped the UK classical chart for over a year and entered the Guinness Book of Records as the bestselling classical recording ever. In 1989, the classical music industry came to terms with life after Herbert von Karajan. His death on 16 July marked the passing from the world of maestros to that of megastars. Pundits had predicted a classical music boom, courtesy of the new digital sound carrier, the compact disc, but no one could foresee a world in which Three Tenors, glamorous violinists and Welsh mezzo-sopranos would dominate the pop charts. And then there was Nigel Kennedy, a pupil of the Yehudi Menuhin School whose star was about to rise. He left the hothouse environment at Stoke d'Abernon with his individuality intact and came to the notice of Simon Foster, the A&R manager at EMI's budget classical label, Classics for Pleasure. It was Foster who championed Nigel's recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto, made at a fortnight's notice in 1984. Gramophone magazine gave it the 'Record of the Year' Award, and it received a gong from the early years of the Brit Awards for 'Best Classical Recording'. On 24 April 1986, Kennedy stepped up from the mid-price Eminence label to sign an exclusive contract with EMI Records UK, albeit in the face of some scepticism from the internal International Classical Division. It was suggested by one senior executive that no one called Nigel would ever make it. 'What? Like Adrian?' came the reply from another executive, and the objection was not raised again. The Wogan Show and other TV appearances introduced Nigel to a wider audience. Six months later, Nigel began recording this CD. Wider fame arrived with a concert in aid of The Prince's Trust in July 1989 attended by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Nigel played the last movement of 'Summer' with the CBSO conducted by Sir George Martin, one-time producer to The Beatles. After the concert, the BBC Radio 1 presenter Annie Nightingale introduced Nigel to the attending Royals and asked if Nigel should teach the violin to William and Harry. Diana smiled. 'I wouldn't let you within a million miles of them.' Nigel, unperturbed, replied: 'Shocking, your Royal Monstrette.'

Fans of the Berlin based Nils Frahm are by now familiar with his beguiling live shows where more often than not fellow touring artists are encouraged to join Frahm on stage - the likes of Rachel Grimes, Rob Lowe of Balmorhea as well as label colleagues Peter Broderick and Olafur Arnalds have all obliged with fascinating results. It will come as no surprise then that Nils Frahm, an accomplished composer and producer who signed to Erased Tapes in 2009, has extended his collaborative live musings to encompass the recording studio, working for the first time with noted cellist and fellow Berliner Anne Muller to produce 7fingers. With their first collective release Frahm and Muller have built a world where modern classical and electronica collide creating an 'intoxicating and delicious' collection of songs. Primarily a pianist Nils Frahm provides evidence with 7fingers that he can effortlessly turn electric throwing in loops, samples and glitches to accompany and showcase Muller on cello. Anne Muller, a renowned musician noted for her work with the Wolf-Ferrari-Ensemble, Phillip Boa and recent tours with Agnes Obel, proves an amp musical partner for Frahm. As the recognition continues to grow for Nils Frahm's previous solo piano works Wintermusik and The Bells, 2011 sees a new side to this young talent as he embarks on a detour into strings, symphonies and glitch beats alongside the estimable Anne Muller. 1. Teeth 2. Seven Fingers 3. Let My Key Be C 4. Show Your Teeth 5. Because This Must Be / Augmentation 6. Journey For a Traveller 7. Reminds To Teeth 8. Duktus 9. Long Enough

Intricately and lovingly presented album of music assembled from video testimonials of Holocaust survivors. "The widely diverse compositions presented on the album recreate a multidimensional image of people's lives and the multiple identities they carried - as Jews by faith and roots, and as European citizens (Poles, Germans, Russians) by culture." 1. DOINA - BADKHEN'S SONG 2. POLISH ARMY SONGS 3. TRAYB DI KHVALYES (DRIVE YOUR WAVES) 4. WALC FRANCOIS 5. W POClAGU JEST TLOK (CROWDED TRAIN) 6. KADIMA (FORWARD) 7. IN DEM KLEIN EM DORF, IN SMILTSCHENZI (IN THE TINY TOWN OF SMILTSCHENZI) 8. TUCHI NAD BUDYSHCHEM (THE CLOUDS GATHERED OVER BUDYSHCHE) 9. STEPAN BLONDIN (STEPAN THE BLOND) 10. PROSCHAI, GOROD NASH RODIMYI (FAREWELL, OUR NATIVE CITY) 11. PLASZOW INMATES' SONG 12. TREBLINKA SONG OF HOPE 13. ANI MA'AMIN (I BELIEVE)

Solo for Tamburium is legendary minimalist composer Catherine Christer Hennix's first solo recording in nearly 50 years, since her vaunted 1976 record The Electric Harpsichord. Using a keyboard-controlled suite of eighty-eight electronic tambura, Hennix creates a sweeping and exacting drone that thrusts the listener into what the composer calls divine equilibrium, a state of spiritual contemplation. Hennix was part of the downtown music school in New York, has worked extensively with some of it's key figures, including Henry Flynt and La Monte Young, and studied closely with Pandit Pran Nath. This new major work applies the principles she developed in this important moment to a maze-like sonic landscape that will apply to fans of '70s minimalism and contemporary electronic music alike.

Northern (Redux) is a complete reimagining of Deupree's acclaimed 2006 album featuring new piano contributions written and recorded by Fraites along with renewed versions of the original tracks composed by Deupree. The result is a hypnotic, majestic album filled with sweeping atmospheric melodies and rich, transformative soundscapes.

There isn't a more unique entry into a musical journey than that of Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit, who today announces her much anticipated debut album Aura will be released June 24 on Erased Tapes. 1. Aura 2. Thor 3. Himbrimi 4. ACaso 5. Jomon 6. Angelus Novus 7. Inori 8. Sir Etok

Vinyl LP pressing. 2023 release. Stewart Copeland's Police Deranged for Orchestra is a high-energy orchestral celebration of legendary rock star and composer Stewart Copeland and his career as the founder of one rock's most beloved bands, The Police. With more than 60 million records sold worldwide, six Grammy awards, and induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Police - founded when Copeland recruited Andy Summers and Sting in 1977 - have been a defining force in rock music for over forty years. Police Deranged for Orchestra is bursting with The Police's biggest hits, including 'Roxanne', 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' and 'Message in a Bottle'. With Copeland on drums, three singers, guitarist and the full symphony orchestra, these unique compositions - also arranged or "deranged" by Copeland - give new life to classic songs and select hits from the career of one of the generation's greatest and most influential artists.

One of the rare women in the neoclassical world, Alexandra Streliski creates music that enthralls listeners, filling their minds with rich, cinematic images. Side A 1. Plus tot 2. The Quiet Voice 3. Par la fenetre de Theo 4. Ellipse 5. Changing Winds 6. Interlude Side B 7. Blind Vision 8. Burnout Fugue 9. Overturn 10. Revient le jour 11. Le Nouveau Depart

Denovali is very delighted to present the new album of the prestigious Swedish pianist and composer Matti Bye - known for his scores for "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared", "Young Wallander", "Superswede", "Tove", "Everlasting Moments" among many others. Matti is also well known for his regular performances at various silent film festivals and screenings around the world, where you will see him perform solo and with artists such as Lau Nau and Anna von Hausswolff. Matti Bye's third album, "Capri Clouds", moves through the element of the air and further into space. A lone piano sounds, echoes - sometimes like a waltz. We have the sound of the wind with us and the sound of the sea below us as we fly, and above we hear the stars and planets spinning. A piano from the past, as if Satie met space - as if Spiritualized and Satie talked to each other across time and space. These songs go straight to the heart and to the senses, and create images in your head. Stories from your own memory bank, as well as new visions - music to lean into, meditatively and hopefully longing. But there is also an undertone of something dark and desolate. Musically, Matti Bye moves within the realm of neo-classicism, but he is also approaching romanticism. References to composers such as Schubert and Beethoven are to be found here, as well as to post-romantic bands such as Kraftwerk and The Cure. In this third album of a trilogy - the first was "Bethanien", the second "The Forgotten Land" - Bye continues his musical journey. Here we encounter a brighter and lighter production. Anders af Klintberg has brought "Capri Clouds" up from the underworld and the dream- scape, towards clouds and skies. A1. Blues 1:31 A2. Empress 4:00 A3. Akti 2:56 A4. Trist 2:09 B5. Doors 1:37 B6. Gen 3:10 B7. Static 2:22 B8. Forget 4:20

The internationally acclaimed 12 Ensemble return with their third studio album Metamorphosis, recorded at the iconic Abbey Rd studios. From the divine nature of transformation to alien visions of new worlds and rebirth, the conductor-less 12 Ensemble explore Renaissance hymn reborn as futuristic prayer, ancient Japanese ritual, otherworldly operatic arias and a monumental elegy that sees the ensemble harness it's biggest forces to date. This deluxe double-vinyl package has been created in collaboration with celebrated Art Director Ben Ditto, featuring photography by Greta Ilieva. Recorded in London's Abbey Road Studio 2, this high-quality edition is pressed in France from a bespoke lacquer cut by Cicely Balston. Presented in a double gatefold package with gold-foil embossing and UV gloss to the front cover, the record includes a foreword by author Charlie Fox and liner notes by Hugh Morris. The luxury 300g cover contains two slide-out double-sided record sleeves featuring further artwork from the series, and a double-sided foldout poster on 150g fine-art paper.

So Fragile, So Blue is about something we all have in common; this beautiful planet Earth that we all call home. At the core of this project is William Shatner and his remarkable talent for storytelling. In 2021, Shatner made a historic journey into space on Blue Origin's rocket, New Shepard. Just before the launch, Shatner shared a meal with two old friends, Robert Sharenow and Dan Miller. For many years the trio had written songs together-firstly in person, and later over Zoom throughout the pandemic. "I met Robert and Dan for dinner and of course began to talk about writing a song about going up into space and made some notes. But then I went up and I came down and then I made some phone calls. One of the phone calls was to Robert and Dan. I said "You know, that song we started to write about space? Forget about it. It doesn't work." The experience was beyond anything we could have imagined. We have to write a song about it, but it's not the one we jotted down that Sunday. So, we started to write a song, encapsulating, distilling what I experienced going up into space. We called it 'So Fragile, So Blue' and it does distil everything I felt and saw." Later, the songs would take on a new form thanks to another long-term friend, Ben Folds, who was fascinated by Shatner's experience going into space. Folds, who is Artistic Advisor at the Kennedy Center, brought new collaborators to the project-the wonderful composer and orchestrator Jherek Bischoff and bluegrass violin virtuoso and composer Gabe Witcher, who wrote original underscoring for the songs to create new orchestral works. The friends' creation was brought to life by it's final contributors, conductor Steven Reineke and the National Symphony Orchestra, at the Kennedy Center in April 2022.

In a Word, the sixteenth installment of the intergenerational collaboration series FRKWYS, brings together postminimalist composer Daniel Lentz with vocalist and sound artist Ian William Craig for an album that embraces erosion and the fertility of the loam left behind. A document of shared transformation, Lentz's elegant piano figures and Craig's trembling tenor are wilted, warbled, and looped through manipulated tape machines in a real time composition that evokes a strange warmth and layered beauty. Six panel fold-out CD edition includes artist essays and photographs.

Somnambulant Cycles is an instrumental album exploring the feeling of subconscious states. Intended to create a sense of physiologically fertile calm, the calm where ideas come from, where emotions are felt but pass by like pedestrians. It is the quiet of night when our ancestors saw spirits over the water but felt a strange comfort rather than fear. The strange sensation of being aware that you are sleepwalking, but not wanting to wake up.

Ghost Ship Trance Lamentations is the latest full-length album from Gareth Sager. While best known for his work with The Pop Group, Rip Rig + Panic, and Head, the new album showcases Sager's formidable skills as a pianist and composer. Recorded in Studio 1 at the famous Abbey Road studios, Ghost Ship Trance Lamentations finds Sager backed by bassist Debs Spanton, cellist Lisa Watchorn, and frequent collaborator Dave Wright on saxophone. The quartet creates a lush and soothing sonic palette across 15 piano-driven miniatures. Ghost Ship Trance Lamentations will be available on vinyl and CD beginning July 15th from ORG Music.

Contemporary pianist and composer James Heather announces his second album 'Invisible Forces' out on the 22nd April via Ahead of Our Time, Ninja Tune founders Coldcut's first record label. Influenced by the sensibility of electronic, ambient, orchestral and post-rock music but channelled through solo piano and his classical and jazz grounding. Heather's new album is about becoming aware of invisible forces around us to help deepen understanding of self and our connection to the world, from tuning into the natural world and getting lost in it's patterns and energies to gaining more knowledge around ancestral lines such as the concept of epigenetics. It's about looking that bit deeper into things, into areas that are not instantly visible but are all around us to achieve this. Since the release of his 2017 debut 'Modulations: EP1' and the subsequent full length, critically acclaimed album 'Stories From Far Away on Piano', Heather has amassed over 120 million streams on the major streaming platforms, reached number 14 in the Billboard Classical Crossover charts, and gained major critical and fan support; notable supporters of Heather's music include James Lavelle (UNKLE), Nils Frahm, Cillian Murphy, Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder (via his live session he did for them in 2021) and The Cinematic Orchestra. He has collaborated with Dawn Richard, Coldcut, Mumdance and Roger Robinson (King Midas Sound). 01/A1 - Meant To Be 02/A2 - No Time Limit To Grief 03/A3 - In Your Spirit 04/A4 - Balance 05/A5 - Ultraviolet 06/A6 - Forgotten Cities 07/B1 - Invisible Forces 08/B2 - Ancestral Future Now 09/B3 - Beginnings 10/B4 - Hidden Angel 11/B5 - Immortal Beloved

Presented together for the first time, American composer John McGuire's Pulse Music series (1975-1979) blurs the popular narrative that Minimalism was a reaction against Europe's angular, intellectual, inscrutable high-modernism. McGuire, born in California, studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles and UC Berkeley before going to Europe to study with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Gottfried Michael Koenig. His compositions lock serialism's warped geometries onto an evenly spaced grid, perfectly preserving serial music's multi-dimensionality while smoothing it's wildest disjunctures and sharpest angles. If serialism is Montreal's Habitat 67 modular housing complex, McGuire's Pulse Music compositions are the primary-colored grids of Le Corbusier's L'Habitation apartment complex - an exuberant expression of the same materials and principles. Every layer of pulses is made distinct through it's timbre, register, and tempo. We hear them as a plurality, organized like stars in the sky. Every so often the sky rotates and the stars appear in a different arrangement. Our ear naturally starts to draw connections and, as it sweeps between one layer and another, what was discrete becomes continuous. Pulses become flows; quantitative reality becomes qualitative experience. McGuire's pulse pieces were realized electronically, in the newly built Studio for Electronic Music at the State University of Cologne and WDR, but Pulse Music II adapted his ideas to an orchestral canvas. Commissioned retrospectively by the composer and radio producer Hans Otte for his Pro Musica Nova festival at Radio Bremen. Alongside the Bremen orchestra, conducted by Klaus Bernbacher, were four pianists-Christoph Delz, Herbert Henck, Deborah Richards, Doris Thomsen-and McGuire himself playing a series of twelve drone-like chords on the organ. The techniques of the electronic Pulse Music pieces required a speed and precision too great for live musicians, so for Pulse Music II McGuire adapted his method to an expanding progression of durations; this had the advantage of being much slower and requiring none of the carefully calibrated tempo changes of Pulse Music I or III. It was still based, says the composer, "on what seemed to me an interesting foray into a completely different kind of time structure. Complex time structures had, by 1975, become a condition for me in two senses: a compositional requirement and maybe an illness." The present recording was made by Radio Bremen at the work's first and only performance, and has been held in their archive until now. "108 Pulses" - originally composed a proof-of-concept piece and realized as a single, repeating loop in a 20 minute tableau - is also presented here for the first time.