The project centers around Eddy Vanoosthuyse's clarinet artistry, showcasing a personalized and immersive musical experience. There is a unique and reciprocal connection between Eddy Vanoosthuyse as a clarinetist and the contemporary Belgian clarinet repertoire, forming the heart of the 'Belgian Clarinet Heritage'. The artist's lifelong fascination with Belgian and Flemish music speaks to a deep-rooted passion and commitment to the local musical heritage.

If Eastern art music has a folk heart, its arteries are Roma and Klezmer sounds. From the orientalist imagination of Glazunov, the Jewish adoption of Prokofiev, the Uzbek inspiration of Khachaturian, to the Romani-Hungarian roots of Kokai and the Balkanism of Jan van der Roost: all composers on this disc build on the same toolbox of themes and techniques, and they all rely on the clarinet as the ultimate interpreter of this lore. Acknowledged and exquisitely performed by the Roeland Hendrikx Ensemble.

Imaginary journeys are a recurring theme in the works of composer George De Decker. For this full-length concert, De Decker drew inspiration from René Daumal's unfinished novel 'Le Mont Analogue' (1908-1944). Daumal once wrote,"Climbing the summit serves only one purpose: the adventure of the unknown," a sentiment that could well serve as a motto for all art. Harp, accordion, euphonium and double bass are combined with live electronics: an unusual, colourful, exciting cross-pollination. Five young, eminent musicians engage in dialogue with a sophisticated sound band at each concert. Their musical score, however, remains open to improvisation, allowing them to explore a wide range of tones, including vocal and instrumental sounds, natural acoustics, and computer-assisted sound manipulations.

On Plan BE, the Four Aces Guitar Quartet takes you on a journey through Belgian music history and presents its own arrangements of music by some iconic composers who have put Belgium on the international map. From Josquin Desprez’s subtle polyphony to the gypsy swing of Django Reinhardt, brought to you on four classical guitars by the internationally acclaimed ensemble Four Aces Guitar Quartet.

With the present album Continuado, we are building on the Piazzolla tradition in many ways. We play some of his staple works – think Oblivion – as well as hidden gems like Vayamos al Diablo and Concierto para Quinteto. Our very own Inti de Maet provided an arrangement of Piazzolla’s Libertango. We have also included work from local composers, who have added their own, personal, contributions to the tango nuevo genre.

In 1938, at the Reichsmusiktage in Düsseldorf, the Nazi regime opened an exhibition around music with the theme: 'Entartete Musik'. They collected examples of what they considered degenerate music. Gustav Mahler, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Mischa Spoliansky; these were just a few names on the long list of depraved composers. On this album, this music and more.

Now, Voyager, sail… (First Symphony), Op. 130 is Robert Groslot’s first symphony. The title refers to a poem by the American author Walt Whitman. And the “Scherzo” movement shares a link with the Beatles song, Getting Better from the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Groslot borrows musical motives and paraphrases them in his musical language. A unique selling point of the present recording is that the solo part of the Violin Concerto is performed by German virtuoso Linus Roth.

A disc for harp not mainly addressed to harpists, but to all contemporaty music lovers. A disc for harp with compositions not by harpist-composers, but from composers in the canon. A spectacular Concerto for Harp and Orchestra (Brussels Philharmonic) composed in 2022 by the American composer Geoffrey Gordon is the core of the recording. The Concerto is preceded and followed by solo harp music by two living composers (Toshio Hosokawa and James MacMillan) and by the famous In a Landscape by John Cage. Two world premiere recordings.

Antarctica label launches a new series named Spring and focused on debut recordings by a selection of compelling musicians whose talents and creativity are characterised by noteworthy essence and individuality. The first release is by Romanian pianist Cristian Sandrin who chose an original and engaging programme of music by Enescu, Ravel and Scott, highlighting the mutual influences of three composers of three different countries, all working in Paris. The recording took place in highly reputed Potton Hall under the technical responsability of Ben Connellan. Produced by Rachel Smith.

I Will Come Back is a chamber opera by Robert Groslot, based on the book I'm coming back by Adriaan van Dis, who also wrote the libretto. The chamber opera is accompanied by Six Poems by William Butler Yeats. On this album, Groslot excels in his compositions combining literature and musical grammar. The opera is performed by soloists Héloïse Mas and Thomas Oliemans, accompanied by the Vlaams Radiokoor and Brussels Philharmonic soloists. Over the past decade, Groslot has primarily been a prolific composer with a unique position in the contemporary music landscape. Groslot eschews the atonal excesses of modernism, deliberately pushing for accessibility to the listener and playing pleasure for the performer, but he never succumbs to the cinematic banality of postmodern music. In the compositions to which this recording is devoted, an extra dimension emerges: Groslot's literary imagination and the intuitive fusing of linguistic and musical grammar which transpire in the chamber opera I will come back and the Six Poems by William Butler Yeats.

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leoš Janácek and Guillaume Connesson are seemingly very different. Nevertheless, in their compositions for cello and piano, they all wrote eloquent and articulate pieces that manage to do one and the same thing. They tell distinctive yet expressive stories which, almost immediately, bewilder us and trigger our imagination. Even though Rachmaninoff’s piece is sizable, we should note that Janácek’s Pohádka is based on an epic Russian poem and that Connesson’s “Les Chants de l’Agartha” in turn drew inspiration from mythological tales. It’s quite amusing to realize that all three pieces end with a sort of “dance for a king”, whether it be a Tsar, a King of the World or a forceful pianist and his cantillate cello friend. There are quite a few triangular relations between the pieces but overall, what strikes us is that both Connesson’s and Janácek’s works portray specific “scènes” rather than telling an overarching story. It is swift storytelling in a fun but flowing way. Even Rachmaninoff’s four more elaborate movements are little gems on their own. It’s little surprise that the sonata’s third movement is often performed separately or as an encore. From a musical perspective the piano in all three pieces is not merely an accompaniment or a supporting guide but a true brother in arms (or partner in crime, as you please).The role of the pianist is very much equal to that of the cellist. At many important turning points it sets the right mood, the precise ambiance, and frequently introduces a musical theme. This last aspect is especially noticeable in the Rachmaninoff sonata. Emmanuel and Damien act as two narrators performing chamber music with a great deal of affection. At the end of the day such outstanding music requires a duo of equals searching for balance between the corresponding lines, to create a sincere interpretation.

This piano project is a meditative state of playing which immerses the listener in a bath of colors. You can hear a whole range of colors and atmospheres with influences from jazz, classical and neo-classical music, ethnic influences and, here and there, even a bit of Americana. Hoogewijs seeks to go back to his early roots, before he composed film music, where names like Joni Mitchell, Weather Report and even Stravinsky and Debussy were major influences. Best known as the composer of scores and themes for popular Flemish and Dutch television series, feature films, and documentaries, Johan Hoogewijs also produces radio tunes and music for modern dance productions and events. If not in his studio, Johan Hoogewijs most likely can be found on stage, playing piano.

"The hour between night and dawn ... when most people die, sleep is deepest, nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their worst anguish, when ghosts and demons are most powerful. The hour of the wolf is also the hour when most babies are born." (INGMAR BERGMAN) Tina Reynaert wants to create a platform for new piano music that has not yet been performed or discovered. The authenticity of contemporary acoustic music deserves to be recorded and to reach a wider audience. “The Hour of the Wolf” is a compilation of what she believes to be canonical works from the period 1990 to 2021.Tina’s journey began some years ago, when she started collecting piano pieces by composers from all over the world. She asked a number of them to compose and dedicate a piece to her. Given all the new musical developments and idioms of the twentieth century (atonality, serialism, multiple serialism, spectralism, extended techniques, ...), Tina wanted to discover how composers work today. What is their musical signature? Which new works illustrate the times in which we live? What more can be added or has the power to transform? This album is an attempt to answer such questions.

A Symphonic Journey from Philly to Utopia contains world premiere recordings of some of the works Dirk Brossé has written over the past 10 years. These works reflect the beauty of the world Brossé sees around him; they are a mirror to his soul. For these recordings, Brossé conducted Brussels Philharmonic. Dirk Brossé, an internationally acclaimed conductor and composer, is currently Music Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He is also Professor of Composition and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Ghent, Belgium. A highly-regarded, award-winning composer, Brossé’s body of some 400 works encompasses concerti, oratorios, lieder, chamber music and symphonic pieces, as well as scores for cinema, television and stage, including the Emmy-nominated score for the BBC/HBO series, Parade’s End.

Behold the Lamb of God, or better still: listen to it. At the invitation of clarinet virtuoso Eddy Vanoosthuyse, three Belgian composers translated Flanders' most famous painting in new music. Alain Crépin's dazzling Lamb Gods Impressions are performed on clarinet by the commissioner himself. Johan Duijck conducts the Flemish Radio Choir in his ethereal L'Homme Désarmé, while Dirk Brossé unveils The secret of The Mystic Lamb, a marvelous quest in which the Brussels Philharmonic sparkles alongside Vanoosthuyse’s solo clarinet. Listening to the Lamb: a divine delight.

PHALAENA means “butterfly” and symbolizes the lightness, grace and subtle rebirth of nature. The association / interplay of harp, violin and accordion (BAYAN) offers a unique mix of sounds and promotes the rediscovery of an eclectic, elegant and surprising repertoire. Sometimes smiling, sometimes heartbreaking and moving. The transcriptions and interpretations of the Phalaena trio are dedicated and intensely human. This unique instrumentation and the music chosen defies all the clichés surrounding the accordion and offers a surprising take on “known” music by an “unknown” instrument.

Revelations is the third collaboration between Wim Henderickx and HERMESensemble to be captured on album. The composer and the musicians of the Antwerp-based collective for contemporary music have been engaged in a prolonged voyage of musical exploration ever since 2006. Improvisation and experimentation, with Henderickx himself regularly standing in on percussion, have inspired and formed the basis of various new compositions. Revelations was created in 2017 as the music for a multimedia musical theatre piece directed by Wouter Van Looy and the dramaturgist Veerle Fraeters and produced by Muziektheater Transparant. Wim Henderickx is the house composer of Transparant and in 2011-2012 produced Medea with them in association with HERMESensemble. Revelations takes as its starting point the penetrating visions and revelations of the 13th mystic and poet Hadewych of Antwerp. Her visions were not prophecies but constituted an impressive account of a process of personal development towards understanding, love and oneness with God. Her exceptionally sensual descriptions of inner states and processes often bordered on the erotic. The writings of Rumi, mystic and poet dating from the same period, display an astonishing number of similarities to Hadewych’s work. Nowadays the poetic work of this Persian sufi is among the most widely read in all Islam. Revelations is by no means an illustrative depiction but rather translates the visions of Hadewych and Rumi to modern utopias. What do those inner voices and images of a woman alone on the stage say to us now? And in service of what utopia?

MisaTango was composed between September 1995 and April 1996 by the Argentine composer Martín Palmeri. The first performance was given on August 17, 1996 at Teatro Broadway in Buenos Aires by the Orquesta Sinfonica nacional de Cuba, the Choir of the Law Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires and the Polyphonic Choir of the City of Vicente López (choirs to which the work is dedicated). MisaTango is a choral mass on Tango sounds. It is composed on the same movements as a mass in classical Latin, in which the harmonics and syncopated rhythms of tango are mixed. The composer also introduces the emblematic instrument of tango, the bandoneon, soloist alongside a string orchestra (violins, violas, cellos and double bass) and the piano. A mezzo-soprano solo part punctuates the work, responding to the mixed choir. The work gained much notoriety when it was performed in Rome in October 2013, in the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, during the International Festival of Music and Sacred Art in the Vatican. The MisaTango was chosen that year to pay tribute to the enthronement of the former cardinal of Buenos Aires who became Pope Francis in 2013, in reference to the Argentine origins of this former Tango dancer. "This work was written with the intention of offering my choirs a choral symphonic work that could bring us closer to the tango repertoire. Indeed, working with my choirs, I have found how difficult and complex the interpretation of traditional tangos by choirs is. This work is therefore a tribute to choirs and tango as well as to its creators. But it is also the result of a spontaneous production, the fruit of my experience as a choir director, pianist and tango arranger.”

Sweet Saint-Saëns and wicked Apollinaire may be empires apart, but their hilarious animal portraits in Le Carnaval des Animaux and Le Bestaire ooze the same satirical genius. Belgian composer Piet Swerts translated the evident musicality in the Bestiaire poems into real melodies, and he rearranged Le Carnaval for clarinet, strings and piano. The acclaimed Roeland Hendrikx Ensemble fuses both zoos in an unparalleled chamber-musical Animal Farm which showcases the grand façades but also the foibles of the normal, and not so normal creatures that populate it. In 2015 Roeland Hendrikx founded his own chamber music ensemble, which essentially focuses on the rich repertoire for clarinet, piano and strings. In the largest line-up, there are six musicians on stage, but programmes in trio, quartet or quintet formation are also on offer.

Ten years of Revue Blanche. That’s ten years of making music together. At the occasion of this anniversary, the ensemble is going back to their roots: to vibrant turn-of-the-century Paris, where a luscious body of music emerged that has occupied a central place in Revue Blanche’s repertoire since the very start. Misia Sert became our guide. Walking in her tracks, Revue Blanche paid a call on Villa Servais in Halle – where she spent her childhood – and played a Polish song by her grave in Samoureau, near Valvins. While they encountered many iconic masters enchanted by her, she also put them on the track of lesser-known composers. With every step and every gem their curiosity grew, Misia seducing them to go beyond what they’d initially imagined. The present recording is Revue Blanche's homage to this fiery, unbridled spirit who – by devoting her life to the arts – perennially inspires others to do so as well. The ensemble found working on this album a challenge as well as a saving grace in a year without concerts. The involuntary break from the stage allowed them to focus on the recording process, where they applied ourselves to making Misia a perfect tribute. Now it’s finally here, our hope is that the soundsketch of this grande dame, who truly mastered the art of bringing people together, will help answering to the profound need for beauty and connection felt by many.

Hoffmeister's oeuvre is quite an extensive catalogue with a remarkable number of works for flute. Several flute concertos and numerous chamber line-ups in which the flute predominates, are at the forefront. Since the flute was very popular at the time, not only the composer but also the publisher in Hoffmeister prospered. The quality of his music was high, and Hoffmeister became one of the best-known composers of his time. With nine operas, all performed scenically in the prominent Viennese theatres, he did better than many others. Schubert, for instance, could never attend a performance of one of his own operas during his lifetime. The rediscovery of the six clarinet quartets' first edition by Eddy Vanoosthuyse brought the three temporarily lost quartets back into their initial series of six quartets how Franz Anton Hoffmeister put them together. Also the foreseen release of both volumes scores with three quartets each as it had been edited by Ignace Pleyel is epoch making and it is certainly an important contribution for the completion of Hoffmeister's work list to perform. Therefore, this complete recording of all six clarinet quartets is highly unique. Making recordings with top musicians is no mean feat in times of Corona, but Eddy Vanoosthuyse did not have to go on any complicated journey: the six quartets were recorded in the Chamber Music Hall of the Concertgebouw in Bruges. For the Zemlinsky Quartet, which tours the world without any worry whatsoever in normal times, the situation was decidedly different. Checks, repeated tests in Prague and Brussels, and the utmost caution one very trip were mandatory. In spite of these setbacks, however, the five musicians were gung-ho, and presented themselves in optimal form at their stands.

A Pulse of Joy is the second album from composer Dirk Brossé, and contains world premiere recordings of some of the works Dirk Brossé has written over the past 10 years. Dirk Brossé, an internationally acclaimed conductor and award winning composer, is currently Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and Music Director of the Ghent Film Festival. He is also professor of composition and conducting at the School of Arts / Royal Conservatory of Music in his hometown Ghent, Belgium. Maestro Brossé is a highly-regarded, award-winning composer, whose body of some 400 works includes concerti, oratorios, lieder, chamber music and symphonic pieces, as well as scores for cinema, television and stage, such as the Emmy-nominated score for the BBC/HBO series, Parade’s End. Other scores include Prince of Africa, Daens, Sacco & Vanzetti, Tintin, Rembrandt, Ben X, Pauline & Paulette, 14-18 and Scrooge.