With so much virtuosity living inside bassist Gary Peacock and guitarist Ralph Towner, one might expect from this duo a showcase of lively showmanship. And while this is most certainly at it's heart, on the whole we are given an understated album recorded out of deepest respect for it's listeners. The improv is robust yet tender and marked by a distinct patina around the edges. Oracle is like the ocean: we know it's overall shape, but the movement of every wave is at the whim of something unseen that flows through all of us.
Double vinyl LP pressing. "Incomparable" is what the German weekly paper Die Zeit called this album on it's release in 2000, before going on to describe the music as follows: "A high, warm voice sings fragile songs, Annette Peacock accompanies herself on the grand piano, a string quartet models sound sculptures: the time measure from classical music, the feeling from jazz, openness from the lyrics, and a voice of dreams." An Acrobat's Heart is a ravishingly beautiful album by one of the most mysterious, elusive and beguiling figures on the fringes of jazz. It features the unique vocals and piano playing of singer-songwriter Annette Peacock, performing her own compositions with the acclaimed Cikada String Quartet. Available for the first time on vinyl, this ECM Luminessence Series is presented in tip-on gatefold jacket.
Ruiz: Behold the Stars / Kerenza Peacock, Huw Watkins, Laura van der Heijden
Signum Classics
CD · 1 disc
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Mar 19, 2021
Signum’s first album with Mexican composer Rodrigo Ruiz combines the composer’s musical and literary passions in performances by world-class soloists Kerenza Peacock, Huw Watkins and Laura van der Heijden. Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Ruiz has attracted commissions from a number of artists, with both the opening Violin Sonata and ‘A riveder le stelle’ commissioned by Kerenza Peacock for this recording. The second work is a duo for violin and piano that is accompanied by poetic quotations from Canto XXXIV of Dante’s Inferno. The booklet notes include an interview with the composer by Jessica Duchen, who describes how the programme “clearly shows Rodrigo´s roots in the traditions of Beethoven and Brahms, but with individual twists that clearly indicate we are in fact on new territory”.
Davis: Arcadia / Bateman, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Signum Classics
CD
$19.99Oct 04, 2019
Oliver Davis graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1994 and has since composed numerous concertos, ballet scores, albums, soundtracks and television scores working with many of the major London orchestras. The Infinite Ocean was composed for choreographer Edwaard Liang and was commissioned by San Francisco Ballet for the Unbound festival, 2018. Liang requested the work to be in six sections and to feature a solo violin. The aim of Arcadia was to create a piece which evoked an idyllic serene place. Gemini was specifically composed for violinist Kerenza Peacock and was designed to explore the contrasting styles of her playing.
The Suite for piano and orchestra was written for Huw Watkins on piano and heavily involves thematic development throughout. Inferno began life as a short orchestral sketch, which gradually evolved into a full, single-movement piece. Lastly, The Elements was commissioned by The Hanke Brothers, who specifically wanted a piece describing the four elements. The ensemble containing piano, viola, recorder and tuba, produces a unique timbre, and the piece explores the possible various aspects of this timbre.
Live Recording from July 7th, 1988, Karlsruhe (Germany). A Jazz evening that had everything: intimacy and exaltation, subtleties and fireworks, modernism and Old School. With his predilection for the piano trio as a central form of expression, Michel Petrucciani was out of step with the mid-eighties. He was a driven man, playing in his most active period more than one hundred concerts a year, with the feeling deep inside him that, given his illness, he had less time available than other people, a feeling which he repeatedly mentioned in talks with friends and journalists. Petrucciani wanted to condense his music, releasing energy under tension in an awaited discharge. The bassist Gary Peacock and the drummer Roy Haynes were the perfect partners. One had been socialized in post bop, sowed his wild oats in Free-Time and later, as a partner of Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett among others, perfected his trio playing. The other had personally experienced the birth of bebop and was one of the busiest jazz luminaries in his field.
Davis: Liberty / Bateman, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Signum Classics
CD · 1 disc
$19.99Feb 02, 2018
British composer Oliver Davis’s works have been described as being ‘’ (The Times) and having ‘pulsating rhythmic energy’ (Classic FM), and has been heard the world over through his frequent collaborations with ballet companies, from Edwaard Liang’s 13th Heaven which premiered in Singapore to Secrets, choreographed by Erico Montes and premiered by The Royal Ballet. In this new recording Liberty, Davis explores works for violin, soprano, strings and orchestra, working with a host of world-leading performers including violinist Kerenza Peacock, soprano Grace Davidson and cellist Katherine Jenkinson, all alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Paul Bateman. Previous albums from Davis have been critically praised, entering in the top 10 in the UK specialist classical charts and becoming disc of the week on Classic FM and the Mail on Sunday and featuring in several ‘Best albums of the year’ listings.
Dance is the final part of a triology of albums following Flight and SEasons. This project started as a concept album, using the title as the inspiration for the works. Though several of the works embrace the composer's background collaborations in ballet, there are other works influenced by violinist Kerenza Peacock's connection with folk music.
Seasons combines Antonio Vivaldi's timeless concerto cycle The Four Seasons, performed by the Trafalgar Sinfonia and soloist Kerenza Peacock, with a new contrasting composition by British composer Oliver Davis. Inspired by the same set of poetry upon which Vivaldi based his Four Seasons, Davis's new work Anno, performed by Grace Davidson, is a composition for orchestra and solo soprano. This release follows the success of Davis's debut Signum album Flight earlier this year (SIGCD411): "... exuberant works are performed with charisma and sensitivity by Kerenza Peacock and the LSO." (BBC Music Magazine) Since graduating the RAM in 1994, Oliver Davis has composed and produced numerous concertos, albums, soundtracks and television scores working with all the major London orchestras.
Oliver Davis: Flight / Peacock, Bateman, London Symphony Orchestra
Signum Classics
CD · 1 disc
$19.99Apr 14, 2015
Flight is a new album of works from British composer Oliver Davis (b.1972), composed for and in collaboration with violinist Kerenza Peacock. Flight captures the spirit of movement and energy present in many of Davis’s compositions. On disc, Kerenza performs alongside the London Symphony under conductor Paul Bateman. Since graduating Royal Academy of Music, London in 1994, Mr. Davis has composed and produced numerous albums, soundtracks, concertos and television scores while working with all the major London orchestras and the Royal Ballet, among other arts groups and organizations.
