Softenings for 7 Flutes (2024) is a work by Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard, commissioned and premiered by the Icelandic flute ensemble viibra. Here, he explores softening as a means of destabilising categorisation and boundary-making, proposing the flute body and the human body not as separate entities, but as wobbly bodies in a continuous state of osmosis.

SHHH!! Ensemble, the percussion-piano duo of Zac Pulak and Edana Higham, brings together a programme of beautiful and unexpected sounds inspired by the night sky and the vastness of space on their third album, Starry Night. Featuring newly commissioned works by Mari Alice Conrad, Paolo Griffin, Monica Pearce, and Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis alongside Vincent Ho's contemplative Nostalgia and Jocelyn Morlock's sparkling early composition Quoi?, the album moves between the immense forces of the universe and the intimate inner worlds of sleep, memory, and consciousness, exploring how dreams process emotions and memories and shape our evolving sense of self. Across the programme, Stafylakis, Griffin, and Conrad look outward to astronomical events, gravitational interactions, and the possibilities of peaceful exploration, while Pearce and Ho turn inward to examine emotional and psychological experience. Morlock's Quoi? brings an exuberant and light-hearted energy to the album. Bringing celestial motion to a human scale, Starry Night is dedicated to the memory of Jocelyn Morlock, who was, and continues to be, an inspiration and a brightly shining north star to many. Known for their distinctive 'avant-accessible' blend of the experimental and familiar and praised as 'truly virtuosic and intense' by Confluence Concerts and 'a beautiful discovery' by the Societe de musique?contemporaine?du Quebec, SHHH!! Ensemble has commissioned more than two dozen works and performed at festivals, concert series, and with orchestras across Canada. Their debut album, Meanwhile, was nominated for Classical Recording of the Year at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards, while An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene received two nominations at the 2025 East Coast Music Awards.

GRAMMY Award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan's thoughtful and probing recital program Fellow Citizens delves into stories of immigration and migration through compositional voices ranging from the 19th century to the present day. Nick explains, 'The 'wanderer' has been a trope at the centre of song repertoire since the advent of the art form fostered by travelling troubadours; through the migrant journeymen protagonists of Schubert, Mahler, and their contemporaries; to today's itinerant singer-songwriters.' Fellow Citizens, with Nick's fellow GRAMMY Award winner pianist Myra Huang, is bookended by works of composers who migrated during their lifetimes. The album opens with 'God Bless America,' Irving Berlin's musical prayer of thanksgiving to the nation that gave him refuge as a child fleeing pogroms in Russia. In the closing set of songs are by Robert Owens and Florence Price, each of whom followed the path of America's Great Migration in the twentieth century, whilst Rebecca Clarke's relocation to the United States was prompted by the Second World War. Songs by British-American composer Rebecca Clarke and British composer Errollyn Wallen CBE, alongside works by Franz Schubert and Ralph Vaughan Williams, explore the act of traveling from one place to another. Folk-song arrangements by Bela Bartók and Antonín Dvorak - both of whom spent extended periods in America - sit alongside an arrangement of the folk-gospel tune Poor Wayfaring Stranger by Ohio-born composer Steven Mark Kohn. Ruth Crawford Seeger's striking setting of Chinese-American poet and actor Hsi Tseng Tsiang's Chinaman, Laundryman, is juxtaposed with Schubert's expansive setting of Franz von Schober's poem romanticising the figure of the homeless wanderer as a kind of eternal pilgrim. Mohammed Fairouz's setting of W. H. Auden's poem, Refugee Blues, recounts the plight of Jewish refugees during World War II, who found themselves denied entry at nearly every port as they sought to escape the Holocaust. The title track comes from a song by Chicago-based composer Eric Malmquist, an eloquent setting of Carl Sandburg's poem of the same name. The world premiere recording of Shawn Okpebholo's cycle, The Beautiful, responds to Sandburg's poem, meditating on the question of who are our fellow citizens as Americans, through settings of poems by Margaret Noodin, Carl Sandburg, Claude McKay, and Tsitsi Jaji. Booklet art features historical images of immigrants passing through Angel and Ellis Island, as well as scenes from the Great Migration. In the year of America250, Fellow Citizens reflects on two enduring narratives in American history: one that asserts America is for Americans and another that celebrates the country as a Nation of Immigrants.

Trumpeter Sam Jones releases an ambitious collection of works for his instrument, focusing on modernists who have integrated it into their respective aesthetics. Works by Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, Liza Lim, Charles Wuorinen, Louis Karchin, Luciano Berio, Olga Neuwirth, Wolfgang Rihm, and others display an impressive range of expressive and instrumental territory.

Prophecies of Fire' is sublimely moving and exciting percussion music (for bass drums, timpani, tom-toms, snare drums, tam-tams, and orchestral bells) performed by the celebrated Sandbox Percussion ensemble. It's waves of seismically rumbling low drums and shimmering metallophones wondrously wash over the listener. Adams writes:?'Prophecies of Fire is a celebration of the elemental power of sound itself to touch, to move, and perhaps even to transform human consciousness.' Composer John Luther Adams's music has won a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award, and has been performed by such prominent ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, and the JACK?Quartet. 'John Luther Adams... one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century.' (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) 'His music becomes more than a metaphor for natural forces: it is an elemental experience in it's own right.' (Tom Service, The Guardian) 'His music perfectly echoes the landscape he loves: impersonal, relentless, larger than human scale, yet gorgeous.' (Kyle Gann, Chamber Music magazine) Sandbox Percussion is a highly lauded, award-winning, Grammy-nominated percussion quartet dedicated to championing the work of living composers through it's unwavering dedication to contemporary music. Sandbox Percussion's performances have been hailed as 'exhilarating' (The New York Times) and 'virtuosic... utterly mesmerizing' (The Guardian).

Among the most distinctive voices in contemporary Irish music, Deirdre Gribbin has established an international reputation for chamber works of striking individuality and expressive depth. The works featured on this recording exemplify a sound world shaped by colour, texture, and an extraordinary sense of time, inviting listeners into spaces of reflection and emotional resonance. Central to this programme is Kindersang, a song-cycle based on the historically significant Kindertransport, a work that gives voice to the experiences of displaced children during the Second World War, while also resonating powerfully with the realities faced by children in the present day. It's dialogue between voice and violin creates an intimate and often haunting exchange, underscoring themes of memory, separation, and survival. Alongside this stands Soul Outsider, a chamber work inspired by the portraits of Lucian Freud, in which cello, clarinet, percussion, and electric guitar engage in a striking and dynamic interplay. Here, contrasting timbres and textures mirror the psychological intensity and layered humanity of Freud's imagery. Rooted in an awareness of history, memory, and landscape, Gribbin's music draws subtle connections between heritage and contemporary experience. Lyricism, connected to folk sources and tradition, emerges through a profound sense of place, atmosphere, and human experience, carefully crafted yet immediately engaging.

'A single motif is enough to identify the composer,' is howfriends have described the work of the composer Anatolijus senderovas (1945-2019). A distinctive artist who balanced the rationality of contemporary music with an innate emotionality in his work, he left a special mark on Lithuanian musical culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, continuing the Litvak thread that is inseparable from Lithuania's cultural history. This album, marking the 80th anniversary of the composer's birth, features three works: the Concerto in Do (2002), the Concerto No 3 for cello and symphony orchestra (2012), and 'The Songs of Shulamith' for cello and symphony orchestra (2000). These works are performed by Gleb Pysniak, one of the most prominent cellists in Lithuania and the Baltic States, and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robertas servenikas. ' Text: Rasa Murauskaite-Juskiene English text editor: Joseph Everatt

Tapestries brings together trumpeter Adam Zinatelli, composer and percussionist Chris Sies, pianist Chloe Weston, and Kensington Sinfonia in contemporary works by Canadian composers Chris Sies, Evan Ware, Mark Limacher, and Jens Ibsen. Written for combinations of trumpet, piano, percussion, and string orchestra, the four works explore connections between memory, perception, musical history, and experimentation, drawing on influences that range from Baroque traditions to psychedelia and progressive metal. At the centre of the album is Sies' Tapestries, an exploration of sound, colour, and memory shaped by experiences of psychedelia, sonic hallucination, and synesthesia. Evan Ware's Concerto for Trumpet and Strings approaches Baroque sensibilities through a contemporary harmonic language, while Mark Limacher's Ruminations considers musical variation through the shifting processes of remembering and reimagining. Jens Ibsen's Overdrive brings the intensity of progressive metal into the string orchestra, expanding it's sonic vocabulary through a distinctly different musical influence. Together, the works move between historical reference and contemporary experimentation, revealing contrasting approaches to texture, form, and expression within Canadian composition. Trumpeter Adam Zinatelli has served as Principal Trumpet of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra since 2009 and is a founding member of the Canadian National Brass Project and Reveille Trumpet Collective. Composer and percussionist Chris Sies has composed, produced, and performed with artists and ensembles across a wide range of musical settings, with performances throughout North America. Pianist Chloe Weston performs as a soloist and chamber musician across Canada and internationally, with a focus on creating connection through shared musical experience. Founded in Calgary in 1988, Kensington Sinfonia has built a longstanding commitment to chamber and string orchestra repertoire, including the commissioning and performance of Canadian music. On Tapestries, these musicians come together in a program that reflects the breadth of contemporary Canadian musical expression.

Composer Miya Masaoka's Botanical Life: The Complete String Quartets consists of six string quartets composed from 2013-2026. These works span a wide range of approaches, from episodic and meditative forms to motivic structures, highly experimental, and other compositional strategies, all performed by the Mivos String Quartet.

What if a shopping centre could become a place of presence? In 'Concert for a Space and Time' (2019), the Danish-American composer Lil Lacy stages an 'alternative Christmas concert' among the escalators and glass lifts. Singers emerge unnoticed from the crowds, strings sound from the building's heights and depths, and stone, steel, wood and glass dissolve into their elemental origins-an invitation to let go, look up and rediscover connection in the most unexpected of places.

Two iconic masterpieces of the twentieth century come together on this exceptional release that will be available on vinyl and digitally: Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" and Maurice Ravel's "Bolero". Recorded at Valencia's renowned Palau de la Música, the album combines a live performance of Rodrigo's celebrated guitar concerto and the rarely heard "Tiento Antiguo" (June 2024) with a studio recording of Ravel's mesmerizing Bolero (February 2026). Together, these works reveal two distinct yet complementary visions of musical Spain, viewed through the lenses of one of Spain's greatest composers and one of France's most brilliant orchestrators. At the center of the recording is acclaimed Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic, whose artistry, technical mastery and expressive depth have made her one of the leading guitarists of her generation. She is joined by the Orquesta de Valencia under the direction of Alexander Liebreich, whose dynamic leadership has further strengthened the orchestra's position among Spain's leading symphonic ensembles. From the poetic lyricism and emotional intensity of Concierto de Aranjuez to the irresistible rhythmic momentum and dazzling orchestral colors of Bolero, this release captures music of enduring beauty, passion and brilliance. The combination of live spontaneity and studio precision makes for a compelling listening experience and a distinguished addition to any classical vinyl collection.

Metier presents the world premiere recording of Sinan C. Savaskan's captivating Concerto Eleven Conditions of Responsibility, written for and performed by the Octandre Ensemble, under conductor Jonathan Hargreaves. Savaskan has had a long association with the ensemble, having served as their inaugural Composer-in-Residence. Conceived as part of the composer's ongoing epic cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, Eleven Conditions of Responsibility embodies Savaskan's radical approach to composition. His constructivist methodology means that all the parameters of his music are dependent on the formal architecture, itself based on the behaviour and properties of sound and it's circular, logarithmic characteristics, giving rise to intricate, evocative works. During the COVID period when everyday life was so different, Savaskan read works by Henri Bergson and emile Durkheim, scholars from the turn of the 19th century, altering the way he thought about the fourth dimension - 'duration' (rather than time), space, and our attitude to commitments, therefore responsibilities. Savaskan came up with eleven of his own responsibilities, and became aware of how we conceptualise and adopt them. This became the basis for eleven thematic segments spread across the 3 main sections of the Concerto, 'little icons, as it were, to meditate upon', which each have their own fundamental pitch and related pulse. Circular Functions, the particular harmonic/structural method he has developed over the past 45 years, dictates how these segments are integrated into the three larger harmonic arcs. The three sections of 'Eleven Conditions of Responsibility' are modules 141, 148, and 11 of the cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, projected eventually to contain 360 pieces, reflecting the contemplation of a particular static object from different angles, covering 360 degrees. The pieces are assigned numbers which refer in some way to important dates in their conception. In December 2015, Savaskan's Many Stares through semi-nocturnal Zeiss-blink (Module 30), an Octandre commission, won a BASCA British Composer Award. Sinan C. Savaskan is based in London, as a composer, lecturer, and teacher of composition, and was Head of Academic Music at Westminster School for thirty-seven years. His music has been commissioned, performed, and broadcast in over thirty countries by some of the foremost performers, ensembles, and orchestras. In 2000, Savaskan was selected as the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts' prestigious Grants to Artists Award - the first British composer to receive this award. He has also written much ballet and incidental music, as well as music for film. In 2025, Metier Records released Sinan Savaskan's album of music for solo flute and electronics, The Sleep of Reason, with celebrated flautist Noemi Gyori, an arresting collection of works exploring the full expressive range of the flute. The Octandre Ensemble was formed in 2011 by composer Christian Mason and conductor Jon Hargreaves, their core repertoire being music written after 1945, with an emphasis on timbre and ritual. ?

At 77 years young, Danish composer Poul Ruders continues to delight and surprise with a seemingly endless flow of masterworks. He can be gloriously, explosively extrovert one minute-withdrawn, haunted, intently inward-looking the next. Super-abundant high spirits alternate with pained, almost expressionistic lyricism; simplicity and directness with astringent irony, all of which can be heard in this program of three new concertos for three very OLD instruments. Transfigurations: A Double Portrait for Recorders and String Orchestra (2022) features Michal Petri on a musical journey in which she takes us on a 'relay run' of the various recorders, from tenor to soprano to alto to sopranino and back again. A Moveable Concerto: Five Short Pieces for Positive Organ and Strings (2023), written at the suggestion of Peter Navarro-Alonso, organist and choir master at the big baroque Copenhagen Church Vor Frelsers Kirke (Our Savior's Church) is a stylistic romp that switches from baroque minimalistic noodling and Dutch barrel organ antics to more contemporary displays. The heart of the work however is the stunning Largo legatissimo where the sounds hang near motionless in the air. The program concludes with the Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra (2019) written for Mahan Esfahani and performed by him and the late Leif Segerstam, a work already recognized as one of this century's most important contributions to harpsichord literature. All of the musicians on these recordings are among the most respected in their field: Michala Petri is internationally recognized as one of the most extraordinary musicians of her generation and has played a decisive role in transforming the recorder from a historical and educational instrument into a respected voice on the world's concert stages. Danish-Spanish organist and composer Peter Navarro-Alonso is recognized as one of the most versatile and innovative musicians on the Scandinavian music scene. Renowned both for his exceptional artistry as an organist and as a visionary composer and Mahan Esfahani, widely regarded as one of the most innovative and intellectually adventurous musicians of our time, whose extraordinary artistry has redefined the role of the harpsichord in modern concert life. An essential recording for all fans of Ruders' music and aficionados of contemporary concertos for unusual instruments.

Bebop Riddle V is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic, and spirited. In this work, Thomas crafted animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and buoyant sonic adventures, a bit like two hummingbirds darting around a field of wildflowers. Iridescent, bold, and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle V are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - variously whimsical, jazzy and bebop-like, layered, and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts - requiring highly characterized dynamics and articulations, as well as fast fingering changes - sparkle forth for 8 minutes, unfolding fourteen continuously developing phrases, each lasting between 15 and 50 seconds. The music is organic and concerned with transformations and connections at every level. Poetically speaking, this composition has a kind of fractal quality to it - each part has a similar flair, twirl, whirl, pivot, and character as the whole. There are seven additional alternative instrumentation versions for Bebop Riddle V which can be purchased separately.

Bebop Riddle V is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic, and spirited. In this work, Thomas crafted animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and buoyant sonic adventures, a bit like two hummingbirds darting around a field of wildflowers. Iridescent, bold, and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle V are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - variously whimsical, jazzy and bebop-like, layered, and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts - requiring highly characterized dynamics and articulations, as well as fast fingering changes - sparkle forth for 8 minutes, unfolding fourteen continuously developing phrases, each lasting between 15 and 50 seconds. The music is organic and concerned with transformations and connections at every level. Poetically speaking, this composition has a kind of fractal quality to it - each part has a similar flair, twirl, whirl, pivot, and character as the whole. There are seven additional alternative instrumentation versions for Bebop Riddle V which can be purchased separately.

Bebop Riddle V is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic, and spirited. In this work, Thomas crafted animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and buoyant sonic adventures, a bit like two hummingbirds darting around a field of wildflowers. Iridescent, bold, and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle V are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - variously whimsical, jazzy and bebop-like, layered, and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts - requiring highly characterized dynamics and articulations, as well as fast fingering changes - sparkle forth for 8 minutes, unfolding fourteen continuously developing phrases, each lasting between 15 and 50 seconds. The music is organic and concerned with transformations and connections at every level. Poetically speaking, this composition has a kind of fractal quality to it - each part has a similar flair, twirl, whirl, pivot, and character as the whole. There are seven additional alternative instrumentation versions for Bebop Riddle V which can be purchased separately.

If there is one idea that unites Christian Ridil's chamber music, it is a fascination with musical communication. His music thrives on interaction: voices converse, challenge one another, overlap, and continually reshape their relationships. On the sixth album in GENUIN's Christian Ridil series, the musicians of Ensemble Modern illuminate these relationships with remarkable acuity and infectious vitality. These world premiere recordings bring together works from different phases of the composer's career and offer a multifaceted view of the chamber music of a composer now over eighty-from a work for solo viola and pieces for wind trio to large mixed ensembles with piano.

Bebop Riddle V is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic, and spirited. In this work, Thomas crafted animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and buoyant sonic adventures, a bit like two hummingbirds darting around a field of wildflowers. Iridescent, bold, and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle V are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - variously whimsical, jazzy and bebop-like, layered, and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts - requiring highly characterized dynamics and articulations, as well as fast fingering changes - sparkle forth for 8 minutes, unfolding fourteen continuously developing phrases, each lasting between 15 and 50 seconds. The music is organic and concerned with transformations and connections at every level. Poetically speaking, this composition has a kind of fractal quality to it - each part has a similar flair, twirl, whirl, pivot, and character as the whole. There are seven additional alternative instrumentation versions for Bebop Riddle V which can be purchased separately.

This recording brings together the complete works for clarinet and piano by Paul Ben-Haim, Mordecai Seter and Tzvi Avni, three central figures in the development of Israeli art music. All three composers were born and trained in Europe before settling in Israel, where each forged a distinctive musical voice shaped by new cultural surroundings and traditions. From Ben-Haim's richly lyrical writing, influenced by Mediterranean and Middle Eastern elements, to Seter's more introspective and historically informed approach, and Avni's later exploration of modern and experimental styles, these works offer a compelling overview of a changing musical landscape. The clarinet, long associated with both Western chamber music and Jewish musical tradition, serves as a unifying voice throughout, revealing a repertoire of striking contrast, colour and expressive depth.

Novus Ritus, a CD featuring percussion, voice, live electronics, and interactive video, has been released by Stradivarius. This project is part of MUSIC4D, an initiative of the "A. Scontrino" Conservatory of Trapani, funded by the European Union under the Next Generation EU program, with scientific coordination by Eugenio Catone. MUSIC4D is an innovative project created to explore the intersections between music and technology, redefining the boundaries of education, composition, and performance in the digital age. Conceived by Antonino Errera, Novus Ritus was brought to life through a collaboration between the "A. Scontrino" Conservatory of Trapani and Arizona State University, facilitated by Simone Mancuso and Gabriel Jose Bolanos, professors of Percussion and Composition, respectively, at the university. The tracklist unfolds through four tableaux vivants, animated by the pulse of percussion rooted in archetypal rhythms. The original music is performed by the composers themselves, with the vocal contribution of Irene Sciacca, a student at the Scontrino Conservatory and co-author, alongside Errera, of the vocal lines for the chants, which are performed in four languages: Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Sicilian. The instrumentation includes both ritual Mediterranean instrumentso typical of Morocco and Tunisia and instruments used in classical and avant-garde music, including the sixxen, microtonal instruments designed by the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. In the album liner notes, Miriam Scotto di Santolo writes: "Filtering, reverberation, granulation, and sound spatialization 'transport' the audio from the present to the remote past, closing the magic circle like contemporary mechanai. Novus Ritus, as the Latin etymology suggests, points to the cyclical nature of an Hypostasis: Rites dedicated to the Moon, the prehistoric Great Mother who appears in the sky each month as a reflection of the Sun as a sickle announcing birth and death, wind and rain, sowing and harvest, in a mystical dance that has always inspired poets, mystics, and artists everywhere." It is an original project with broad geographical and temporal horizons, an evocative listening journey that suggests narratives, stories, and references to be identified and discovered within an intertwining web of auditory and visual impressions.

Bebop Riddle V is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic, and spirited. In this work, Thomas crafted animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and buoyant sonic adventures, a bit like two hummingbirds darting around a field of wildflowers. Iridescent, bold, and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle V are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - variously whimsical, jazzy and bebop-like, layered, and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts - requiring highly characterized dynamics and articulations, as well as fast fingering changes - sparkle forth for 8 minutes, unfolding fourteen continuously developing phrases, each lasting between 15 and 50 seconds. The music is organic and concerned with transformations and connections at every level. Poetically speaking, this composition has a kind of fractal quality to it - each part has a similar flair, twirl, whirl, pivot, and character as the whole. There are seven additional alternative instrumentation versions for Bebop Riddle V which can be purchased separately.

A proliferation of programmatic music infuses Winter Night, composer Elena Ruehr's seventh release on AVIE, the result of a particularly close collaboration with the international members of the Boston Trio - violinist Irina Muresanu and cellist Mihai Marica, both Romanians, and Korean pianist Heng-Jin Park -who are joined by native New Yorker violist Marcus Thompson in Elena's piano quartet. Emotions, energy and the natural world abound in the world premiere recordings of the album's four works. The title track, Elena's Piano Trio No. 3, is a four-movement narrative that is by turns lyrical, graceful and melodic. The joyful Piano Trio No. 4, subtitled 'Ski, Kayak, Bike', recalls childhood sports enjoyed with her father, the work's dedicatee. The three movements of Piano Trio No. 5, 'Troubled Times', confront emotional responses to challenging personal circumstances, yet also seem especially appropriate now given the state of the world's current events. Piano Quartet No. 2, 'Maple', is an homage to an ancient tree that has stood the tests of time, much like the Stradivarius instruments that were made using the beautiful, dense wood. Elena's music appropriately references composers working at the same time as the famed luthier, Bach, Pachelbel and Vivaldi.

Bebop Riddle V is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic, and spirited. In this work, Thomas crafted animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and buoyant sonic adventures, a bit like two hummingbirds darting around a field of wildflowers. Iridescent, bold, and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle V are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - variously whimsical, jazzy and bebop-like, layered, and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts - requiring highly characterized dynamics and articulations, as well as fast fingering changes - sparkle forth for 8 minutes, unfolding fourteen continuously developing phrases, each lasting between 15 and 50 seconds. The music is organic and concerned with transformations and connections at every level. Poetically speaking, this composition has a kind of fractal quality to it - each part has a similar flair, twirl, whirl, pivot, and character as the whole. There are seven additional alternative instrumentation versions for Bebop Riddle V which can be purchased separately.

Schattenspiele brings together several facets of Gebhard Ullmann's remarkable creative world, blurring the boundaries between composition and improvisation, structure and spontaneity. Developed over many years, these works reflect an artistic journey of constant reinvention, where musical ideas evolve through performance, reflection and collaboration. From the atmospheric Kleine Symphonie with Berlin's adventurous LUX: NM ensemble to the vibrant colours of Hell und Bunt for the Aduma Saxophone Quartet and the deeply personal solo bass clarinet works, the album reveals Ullmann's unmistakable voice: lyrical, adventurous and endlessly imaginative. The recording captures this music with exceptional intimacy and clarity. The ensemble works were recorded at Berlin's renowned Bonello Studio, where performances were preserved almost entirely live, retaining their organic energy and immediacy. The solo works and saxophone quartet were recorded at Guy Sternberg's celebrated Low Swing Studio, centred around it's lovingly restored vintage Neve console, whose warm, transparent sound perfectly complements the expressive depth and rich sonic palette of Ullmann's bass clarinet and chamber music. Together, these extraordinary recording spaces help bring every nuance of Schattenspiele vividly to life!

Bebop Riddle V is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic, and spirited. In this work, Thomas crafted animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and buoyant sonic adventures, a bit like two hummingbirds darting around a field of wildflowers. Iridescent, bold, and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle V are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - variously whimsical, jazzy and bebop-like, layered, and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts - requiring highly characterized dynamics and articulations, as well as fast fingering changes - sparkle forth for 8 minutes, unfolding fourteen continuously developing phrases, each lasting between 15 and 50 seconds. The music is organic and concerned with transformations and connections at every level. Poetically speaking, this composition has a kind of fractal quality to it - each part has a similar flair, twirl, whirl, pivot, and character as the whole. There are seven additional alternative instrumentation versions for Bebop Riddle V which can be purchased separately.

Frederic Rzewski - A Mensch The title of this album refers to the Yiddish word Mensch: literally 'a human being,' but in everyday use someone who acts with integrity, awareness and responsibility. For Frederic Rzewski, the term carried exactly this meaning. A Mensch is not a perfect person, but someone who remains fully human-capable of doubt, contradiction and critical thought, and resistant to becoming passive within larger societal systems. This idea runs quietly but consistently through his work. The pieces brought together here span more than sixty years, from the early 1950s to the last decade of his life, forming a kind of timeline across his career. The musical language changes, sometimes radically, but the underlying concerns remain strikingly constant. Rzewski's music engages with literature, politics and history, often through concrete situations-prison, injustice, personal crisis-but never in an abstract or detached way. The question is always how individuals relate to these forces, and whether they can remain human within them. In that sense, the ethical dimension of the Yiddish Mensch is not just a title, but something that can be heard throughout the programme. Taken as a whole, this recording traces a composer who never gave up on the idea that music can carry meaning beyond itself. Across decades of work, his voice remains clear in it's insistence that art can still ask what it means to live-and to act-as a human being.

Bebop Riddle V is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic, and spirited. In this work, Thomas crafted animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and buoyant sonic adventures, a bit like two hummingbirds darting around a field of wildflowers. Iridescent, bold, and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle V are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - variously whimsical, jazzy and bebop-like, layered, and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts - requiring highly characterized dynamics and articulations, as well as fast fingering changes - sparkle forth for 8 minutes, unfolding fourteen continuously developing phrases, each lasting between 15 and 50 seconds. The music is organic and concerned with transformations and connections at every level. Poetically speaking, this composition has a kind of fractal quality to it - each part has a similar flair, twirl, whirl, pivot, and character as the whole. There are seven additional alternative instrumentation versions for Bebop Riddle V which can be purchased separately.

Pursue Peace represents the first volume of a collection of music by Canadian Jewish composers under the 'Jewish Music at York' umbrella, curated by composer Noam Lemish. Including works by James Rolfe, Sid Robinovitch, and Lemish himself, the works rotate around themes of conflict, resolution, and peace, engaging with Jewish texts and presenting a diverse range of musical aesthetics.

The Individual and the Entire Tissue was commissioned by Figura Ensemble for Figura Festspiele 2024 and is based on poems from Third-Millennium Heart by the Danish poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen. Drawing on his decades of experience in Denmark's music scene, Jakob Davidsen has crafted a unique musical meditation on the relationship between the individual and the surrounding world: part song cycle, part musical theater, part cabaret, the seven-movement work is structured with two expansive outer movements framing five shorter central movements. Each of the middle movements draws inspiration from a composer, a specific work, or a musical genre, while the outer movements are shaped directly by the poetry itself. Through this architecture, the work creates musical connections that mirror it's central themes of inner and outer relationships. Bringing Davidsen's musical vision to life are frequent collaborators soprano Signe Asmussen and performers from Figura Ensemble, DR Big Band, New Jungle Orchestra, and Davidsen's own Kammerat Orkester, creating a distinctive, richly varied, and responsive sound world. Founded in 2010 by pianist and composer Jakob Davidsen, Jakob Davidsens Kammerat Orkester is one of Denmark's leading ensembles exploring the borderland between improvisation and composition. Known for it's innovative approach to crossover music, the orchestra has performed widely in Denmark and abroad, received a Danish Music Award Jazz for Special Release of the Year in 2012, and was honored by the Danish Arts Foundation for the interdisciplinary project Lend Art Your Ear. The ensemble has collaborated with numerous international artists and has developed a particularly close artistic partnership with Figura Ensemble in recent years.

Clarinet, voice, and percussion trio Sputter Box releases their debut album featuring composers Martha Callison Horst, Allison McIntosh, Filippo Scaramucci, Daijana Wallace & Kakia Gkoudina, Bethany Younge, and Brendan Sweeney. As the first full-length album entirely composed of works for this unique instrumentation, this album showcases their mission to build and expand the repertoire for the trio with tracks ranging from contemporary art songs to absurdist music theater.