Tenor Richard Resch presents a moving Christmas album that explores the season's deeper meaning through sacred and folk music. Named after Jochen Klepper's powerful Advent hymn, the album traces the symbolic journey from darkness to light, weaving together Baroque masterpieces, traditional carols, and lesser-known gems from across Europe. With works by Rosenmuller, Briegel, Graupner, Buxtehude, and others, the recording offers a musical meditation on hope, faith, and the light born at Christmas. Highlights include the mystical Maria durch ein Dornwald ging, the Byzantine chant Miladuka, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Von guten Machten-a testament to trust in the darkest of times. For Richard Resch and his ensemble, this album is both personal and profound. "These pieces remind us that Christmas is not just a tradition-it's a message of light in the midst of night."

The second album of German harpist Maximilian Ehrhardt on Carpe Diem Records is a unique concept album of music for the rare Italian "Arpa Doppia", a chromatic harp from the 17th Century. As there are only a few original compositions known for this instrument, the intention of this project was to invent a new repertoire for the Italian chromatic harp and to utilise the instrument's special tonal and technical characteristics to build a bridge between the past and the present. Six compositions from the 17th century are being complemented by six contemporary works that pay reference to their original templates in very different and fascinating ways. This harp album is a totally new musical experience, both imaginative and daring, and will hopefully contribute to the recognition of a wonderful, almost forgotten instrument.

French lutenist Florent Marie presents his second solo album on Carpe Diem Records: A collection of Renaissance lute music by the famous John Dowland. Recorded in a small church in the normannic countryside, this album features both melancholic and more uplifting compositions of the great English master of the lute, creating an emotional and colorful rendering of these mostly well-known and loved pieces.

The first solo album of Swiss double bass player and composer Fridolin Blumer is an exceptional album, even for the rarity-driven catalogue of Carpe Diem Records. Acting as a stylistic counterpoint to the many Early Music solo albums on the label, "Anklam" is a solo album of entirely improvised contemporary double bass music, focusing on instantaneous musical creation in the moment, instead of reviving century-old compositions. Fridolin Blumer is a jazz musician who has dedicated his whole musical career to exploring music beyond the written score, even beyond formal musical concepts. His style is not easily determined by conventional understanding of music. His music is primarily sound that evolves and moves in time, creating structures while moving through and past them, taking the listener on an unforeseeable trip into the feeling and thinking process of the creative mind. His music is non-descriptive, not trying to depict anything outside of itself, not telling a story other than it's own. The album is called Anklam simply because that's where it was recorded. It is split into twelve pieces just to give it a conceivable structure. The parts have numbers, as they together form a sort of larger musical structure. Any intrinsic meaning, inner beauty or musical logic remains at the listener's disposal to be discovered, heard or felt. Fridolin Blumer opens a vast space of possibilities of understanding and insight by staying as grounded and elementary as possible. In this way, he creates a sonic artwork that is at the same time spiritual and deeply human. "The line I trace with my feet walking to the museum is more important and more beautiful than the lines I find there hung up on the walls." (F. Hundertwasser)

Ostium is a selection of works from medieval, traditional and oriental sources featuring different ancient and modern flutes and recorders, drawing a rich tapestry of early flute sounds and melodies that inspired and formed later Euopean musical culture on many levels. Greek flutist Dimitris Kountouras performs these pieces together with his ensemble Ex Silentio.

Draumsyn is the debut solo album of Norwegian hardanger fiddle player Anne Hytta. This album, now available as a 180g Vinyl LP, is a selection of her own compositions, rooted in the traditional Norwegian hardanger fiddle style, but truly unique and timeless in sound and expression. The music of Draumsyn is a travel into an unknown world, a world of ancient wisdom, emotions and colors, closely connected to the nature of Norwegian mountain landscapes, valleys and streams. Fans of Scandinavian music as well as open-minded listeners of any genre will be fascinated by this one-of-a-kind recording beyond common conventions of folk-, world-, or classical music. "Draumsyn also deserves to be praised as a sound product. Rarely have I heard a richer, truer and more detailed fiddle sound. May this album become school-forming as a sound product, as well as a composed and performed album." (Folkemusikk, Norway)

The Japanese word “yugen” is usually defined as “an awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious for words.” Toyohiko Satoh chose this title for his new recording of his own compositions, which he created mostly in the last years, living in Japan and being involved in traditional Japanese arts and tea ceremony. As a performing musician and composer, Satoh spent most of his life in Europe. Now, toward the end of his career, he shows his own understanding of cross-cultural connection between east and west as well as between classical and traditional music. Yugen contains songs and instrumental pieces that are difficult to classify, but all the more beautiful and inspiring to listen to.

This new release is the debut album of Thimios Atzakas, Greek oud composer and virtuoso. The selection of his own arrangements and compositions that he has chosen for this release displays his range of style, which is influenced by European jazz, Oriental traditions, and contemporary classical music. He is joined by an ensemble of six other musicians from around the world, including Avgerini Gatsi, James Wylie, Nikos Paraoulakis, Elektra Miliadou, Kostas Anastasiadis, and Dimitris Zacharakis.

The singer and songwriter Petter Udland Johansen (also known for his ensemble Hirundo Maris together with Arianna Savall) releases his debut solo album with his own compositions: Piano songs between pop music, improvisation and classical influences, weaving together his many interests and influences as a musician. Being Norwegian, he travelled and lived in many European countries, experienced and performed diverse musical styles from pop and folk music to Early and Medieval music. This very personal album is a colorful, emotional and deeply honest expression of a distinctive musical soul travelling the many roads of life.

The Greek Medieval music ensemble Ex silentio's new album reflects the musical life of the oriental courts of Thessaloniki (Greece), Nikosia (Zyprus) and Istanbul (Turkey), from the Middle Ages to the 17th century. After the album "Mneme" from 2015 on Carpe Diem Records, "Lethe" ("Oblivion" in Greek) presents music by forgotten composers and from forgotten places from the Mediterranean countries that are close to the middle east and exchanged music and culture between east and west throughout the ages. Ex Silentio was founded in Greece in 2001 and is one of the few Early Music ensembles in Greece focusing on historical performance. Directed by the recorder and transverse flute player Dimitris Kountouras, the ensemble performed in international festivals such as Styriarte in Graz, Banchetto musicale in Vilnius, the Swedish Early Music festival in Trollh�ttan, the Via Medieval in Mainz, Alte Musik in St Ruprecht in Vienna, Marco Fodella in Milano, Mousike' in Bari, the Festival of Athens, the Athens Megaron, the Early Music Festival in Nicosia in Cyprus, the Mozaik Project in Albania etc.

Classical Music

This new CD of Blockflöte and harpsichordist performer as well as Medieval and Renaissance music specialist Corina Marti and her Schola Cantorum Basel ensemble explores, in first recordings, the largely unknown late-French Baroque music of Charles Dieupart (1667- 1740) in the form of the trio sonata with recorder and treble viol. Israeli harpsichordist, some-time conductor of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra and Barrocade Vocale co-founder Yizhar Karshon plays one of the “six suites” by Dieupart in its original edition as a solo harpsichord suite.

Mneme by the Greek early music ensemble "Ex Silentio" is a collection of musical remembrances from around the Mediterranean Sea: dances, songs and instrumental pieces from medieval and early renaissance sources. At home in the traditional folk and "classical" early music worlds, Ex Silentio create colorful portraits of mighty kings, noble knights and beautiful princesses who once populated those countries as well as people's imaginations then as now. "Mneme" is a historically well-informed, visionary and highly creative fairytale derived from Greek mythology and Mediterranean psyche.

En El Amor is a fascinating new project that brings together two well-known jazz musicians, Michel Godard (serpent) and Jarrod Cagwin (percussion) with the Bosnian singer Natasa Mirkovic, a truly versatile vocalist who became known internationally with her theme song for Angelina Jolie’s “In the land of blood and honey,” as well as for her recording of Schubert’s “Winterreise.” On this album, the singer performs songs from her childhood in Bosnia: Ancient Sephardic traditionals, that are still being sung by the people of the Balkan area today. She clearly draws inspiration from her ancestral roots, while at the same time the three musicians arrange these old songs in a new and experimental context, creating a magical soundscape that transcends time, culture and tradition. Recorded in the breathtaking acoustics of the former synagogue of St. Polten in Austria, this album becomes a total work of art fusing ancient and new, religious and secular, traditional and modern artistic expression.

"• “Dowland – A Game of Mirrors” is a sophisticated merging of modern jazz and English renaissance music. The French jazz guitarist/composer David Chevallier conceived this project based on the original melodies by John Dowland, and then created his own instrumental arrangements for guitar and theorbo, which give the well-known songs a completely new sound. • New acoustic jazz arrangements of Dowland Songs • Set for soprano, guitar and theorbo • Booklet in English & Frenc"