"Les ombres du Fantôme" presents a captivating exploration of Gaston Leroux’s timeless novel "Le Fantôme de l’Opéra" (1910) through fourteen evocative improvisations. Recorded in July 2021 using the majestic organs of Coventry and Arundel Cathedrals, accompanied by soprano voice and saxophone/bass clarinet, these improvisations delve deep into the narrative, themes, characters, and events of Leroux’s masterpiece. Employing an inventive musical language and leveraging the unique acoustics of these historic buildings, "Les ombres du Fantôme" transcends the physical realm, delivering a dynamic spectralism that immerses listeners in a sonic journey enhanced and extended through retrospective electronic augmentations.

Each improvisation within this collection acts as a thematic shadow, weaving a meta-narrative of Leroux’s iconic tale. Drawing inspiration from previous works, including an improvisation for a film scene and music composed for a podcast, the album intricately captures the essence of the novel, from the haunting presence of the Phantom to Christine’s desires and fears. Through the interplay of organ, soprano, and woodwinds, the album evokes the supernatural allure and psychological depth of Leroux’s narrative, offering a rich auditory experience that transcends traditional storytelling.

The meticulous production process behind "Les ombres du Fantôme" combines traditional recording techniques with innovative digital manipulation, resulting in a mesmerizing blend of sonic textures and timbral variations. From the haunting echoes of cathedral spaces to the ethereal harmonies of spectral editing, each track resonates with a sense of mystery and intrigue, inviting listeners to immerse themselves in the timeless allure of Leroux’s "Phantom of the Opera." "Les ombres du Fantôme" is more than just an album—it’s a sonic exploration that transcends time and space, offering a captivating reinterpretation of a literary classic.

Robert Sholl, a distinguished educator and scholar, teaches at The Royal Academy of Music and the University of West London. His expertise lies in twentieth-century music, improvisation to film, and live performance. Robert's recitals at prestigious venues and recordings of significant organ works demonstrate his profound musicality and scholarly contributions to the field.

Justin Paterson is a respected Professor of Music Production at London College of Music, University of West London (UWL). His research spans multi-mic recordings, interactive music playback, and collaborations with leading industry partners such as the BBC and Sony Interactive Entertainment. Justin is also co-chair of the Innovation in Music conference series and serves as a consultant to RT Sixty Ltd for innovative music apps.

Considered one of the most influential composers inspired by the natural world, Edward Cowie's collaboration with the exceptional Kreutzer String Quartet spans nearly a decade. This partnership has resulted in the recording of Cowie's first six quartets, as well as remarkable solo and duo works showcasing the quartet's unparalleled skill. Now, Cowie presents his seventh string quartet, "Western Australia," specially crafted for the Kreutzer Quartet, accompanied by four solo portrait pieces dedicated to each member. From the ethereal heights of Clifton Harrison's viola to the intricate melodies inspired by the habits of owls for Neil Heyde's cello, Cowie's compositions reflect a profound reverence for both the human animal and the natural world.

Delving into the heart of Australia's rugged landscape, Cowie's quartet captures the awe-inspiring vastness and ancient beauty of Western Australia. Each movement paints a vivid picture of the region's diverse landscapes, from the expansive horizons of the first movement to the primal origins depicted in the second, culminating in the mysterious allure of the Pinnacles in the final movement. Through his music, Cowie masterfully evokes the ever-changing landscapes and intricate ecosystems of Western Australia, inviting listeners on a transformative journey through time and space.

Additionally, the recording features four solo portraits, each a testament to the unique talents and personalities of the Kreutzer Quartet members. From Neil Heyde's emotive exploration of owls to Mihailo Trandafilovski's evocative interpretation of evolution, Cowie's compositions showcase the quartet's versatility and virtuosity. With each note, Cowie pays homage to his collaborators, celebrating their friendship and artistic prowess while pushing the boundaries of contemporary chamber music. Experience the extraordinary fusion of nature and music in Cowie's latest masterpiece, a testament to the enduring power of creative collaboration and the boundless wonders of the natural world.

The Kreutzer Quartet has established itself as one of the most sought-after string quartets in the UK. They appear regularly at the major London venues and have made many live and studio recordings for the BBC, and major networks all over Europe. They have taken their extremely eclectic programmes to Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Serbia, Montenegro, Sardinia, the US, Spain, Cyprus, Poland, and Lithuania. Recent critical and publicly acclaimed performances have been at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, de Doelen, Rotterdam, Quartet 2000, Manchester International, and the Vilnius Philharmonic Festival.

Introducing "Michael Finnissy - Alternative Readings," a recording that brings together the visionary compositions of Michael Finnissy, one of the foremost composers of our time, and the exceptional artistry of the Marsyas Trio, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, and pianist Joseph Havlat. Finnissy's distinguished career, marked by British Composer Awards, prestigious teaching positions, and a Koussevitzky Foundation commission, is a testament to his unparalleled ability to weave together diverse musical idioms, embracing inspiration from literature, poetry, visual art, and global folk traditions.

Finnissy's music transcends conventional boundaries, challenging societal norms and acting as a catalyst for change. His compositions reflect a deep connection to humanity, with the voice playing a central role in conveying powerful narratives. This new release features the Marsyas Trio, renowned for their mission to revive classical repertoire and commission new works, alongside the captivating vocals of Lotte Betts-Dean and the masterful piano artistry of Joseph Havlat.

The album's centerpiece, "Wisdom," commissioned during the 2020 lockdown, delves into the collective human experience of isolation and connectivity. Lotte Betts-Dean's mesmerizing voice, accompanied by the Marsyas Trio, brings Finnissy's reflections on this unprecedented period to life. The album's symmetry unfolds around "Alternative Readings," a chamber work for flute, cello, and piano, presented in two unedited, distinct versions recorded on the same day, exploring the nuanced interplay of physical communication in music.

As the Trio reflected on their collaboration with Michael Finnissy, they unveiled the profound question that permeate his work: How can we interpret music and understand the inner mind of a composer? Finnissy's compositions encourage individuality and freedom, inviting performers and listeners alike on a journey through diverse cultural traditions, spanning centuries.

The program notes provide valuable insights into each composition, showcasing Finnissy's versatile style, from the intimate solo vocal pieces to the dynamic chamber works. This release is a testament to Finnissy's enduring legacy, offering a rich tapestry of musical exploration that transcends time and resonates with the shared experiences of humanity.

Samuel Andreyev’s music is incredibly varied, from the sparse resonance of the Sonata da Camera, the ‘cartoon music’ (as the composer puts it) of Vérifications, characterised by primary colours and strong instrumental timbres; the Sextet in Two Parts which in contrast focuses on minute timbral shadings; and of course the cantata for solo voice and ensemble which is the title track of the album. Performed by ensemble proton bern, conducted by Luigi Gaggero with the magical soprano voice of Peyee Chen on In Glow of Like Seclusion (set to verse by J. H. Prynne) this album was beautifully captured in Zurich in 2022. The CD and digital album is to be followed with a double-LP vinyl version in the New Year. Samuel Andreyev’s music has been featured in portrait concerts in Bern, Geneva, Toronto, Paris, Kyiv, Strasbourg, Montréal, Tours, and many other cities. Andreyev is a laureat of the Henri Dutilleux Prize (2012, for ‘Night Division’), and the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs (2020, for ‘Vérifications’). He is also Vice President of the music council of the Fondation Prince Pierre (Monaco). With his YouTube channel and Podcast, Samuel Andreyev presents lectures on musical topics, as well as long-form interviews with prominent musicians as varied as Brian Ferneyhough, every member of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Linda Catlin Smith, Hugues Dufourt, Adam Neely and countless others. He has twice been a featured guest on the Jordan Peterson Podcast, in addition to appearances on Vox, The Symbolic World, Classical Chats and many others.

This arresting new album presents a major addition to the solo flute repertoire, bringing together the visionary artistry of flautist Noemi Gyori and the intricate, evocative music of composer Sinan Savaskan. Spanning nearly five decades of Savaskan's compositional output, the album explores the full expressive range of the flute it's lyric warmth, it's structural clarity, and it's capacity for sonic transformation-often in dialogue with subtly woven electronic elements. At the heart of the album lies Sonata '... una rilettura indipendente', a five-movement tour de force that is both architectural and deeply intuitive. Conceived as part of the composer's epic cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, this work embodies Savaskan's radical approach to form and harmony an evolving narrative shaped by transformation, resonance, and reflection. Written specifically for Noemi Gyori, the Sonata draws upon her exceptional virtuosity and interpretative insight, and represents a rare synthesis of structural rigour and emotional intensity. Alongside the Sonata are two additional works, each revealing a distinct facet of Savaskan's sound-world. The Sleep of Reason, for solo flute, offers a tightly coiled musical meditation, born from a nocturnal journey and haunted by socio-political undercurrents and subconscious recollections. Always at Dusk, No.3, for alto flute and electronics, distills a fleeting emotional memory into an atmosphere of suspended time, echoing the concept of duree rather than chronological sequence. The electronics, composed entirely from transformations of flute sounds, serve not as backdrop but as an active, organic extension of the instrument's breath, resonance, and timbral possibilities. Whether experienced through speakers or headphones, the recording invites deep listening preferably in dim light, as Gyori suggests offering an immersive sonic space where listener, performer, and composer meet. An album for connoisseurs of contemporary music, Sonata '... una rilettura indipendente' is a profound collaboration between two artists whose shared sensitivity reshapes what solo flute music can mean today.

Two decades after their pioneering 2004 album New French Song, soprano Alison Smart Fisher and pianist Katharine Durran return with a bold and timely sequel. New French Song II presents ten newly commissioned settings of French texts by women and non-binary composers, expanding the art song repertoire with fresh perspectives and luminous creativity. The original New French Song brought together 20 British composers, each setting a French poem-predominantly Romantic and written by men. This second collection rebalances the picture, offering a rich, contemporary counterpoint. The texts, all by women and non-binary poets, span eight centuries of Francophone literature, from Europe to the Caribbean, and reflect a wide-ranging poetic tradition-from the sensual cadences of Symbolism to the fractured textures of post-Modernism. The themes are universal: love's first stirrings, it's losses and partings, the solace of solitude, and the healing power of nature. Chosen with care to resonate with younger readers as well as seasoned listeners, these texts speak with clarity and nuance, free from gendered conventions, yet charged with emotional depth. The composers-among them Deirdre Gribbin, Shirley J. Thompson, Lesley-Jane Rogers, and Grainne Mulvey-respond with a dazzling range of musical idioms. From lyrical stillness to rhythmic intensity, their settings are at once rooted in the tradition of French melodie and alert to the sonic world of today. The resulting collection is kaleidoscopic in colour and tone, yet unified by a shared commitment to text, voice, and the art of expressive song. Two bonus tracks complete the programme: a new song each by Nicola LeFanu and Daryl Runswick, both closely associated with the performers and longstanding champions of new music. Together, New French Song I & II form a landmark achievement-an ambitious, beautifully realised cycle that now offers a more inclusive and representative vision of what the modern songbook can be. This album is a compelling testament to artistic curiosity, collaboration, and the enduring vitality of song. For listeners drawn to the intersection of poetry and new music, or for those seeking fresh voices in the classical landscape, New French Song II is a significant and rewarding release.

In May 2026 Metier Records is proud to present Michael Hersch's monumental chamber work Zwischen Leben und Tod (Between Life and Death) performed by violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved and pianist Roderick Chadwick, marking the label debut of one of the most gifted composers of his generation. Hersch's music has been described by The New York Times as "viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music.claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity". In January this year he was selected as the inaugural recipient of the John Hopkins University Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. Zwischen Leben und Tod is a startling yet moving 22-movement cycle for violin and piano written in inspiration of paintings by the surrealist German artist, writer and filmmaker Peter Weiss, each movement corresponding to a particular image. It's duration of 100 minutes makes it one of the longest works for violin and piano. Peter Weiss was best known as a playwright of searing and often disturbing stage dramas, including Marat/Sade which features the assassination of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat in an asylum-set play by the Marquis de Sade. Weiss's little-known paintings and drawings share many of the same characteristics, featuring loneliness, violence and grief (themes of asylums, war, prisons, cannibalism) but also deeply meditative imagery (a string quartet, a garden concert, a boy in the grounds of a country house). Hersch found Weiss's spectrum of colour and motion, of proportion and spacing, particularly musical, and Zwischen Leben und Tod makes a deep and visceral engagement with these same explorations. The result is a complex, rich and multi-layered work featuring extremes of tempi, dynamics and technique making enormous physical demands on the performers, while being hugely rewarding. Much of the music is disturbing and raw, but the overall effect is affecting, offering the listener moments of solace. In David Hackbridge Johnson's fabulous booklet notes he says "The little modal chord figures, the open strings that plaintively grate over them, the wisps of folk song, the lullaby figures - all these are a welcome balm to sooth the sores of an atrocity exhibition. What tenderness amid the haunted landscapes!.. Despite these scenes of peril, after over 90 minutes between living and dying in Hersch and Weiss's world, a curiously cathartic sense is achieved; a procession of bleak images in sound that somehow resist despair."  Violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved has known and collaborated closely with Michael Hersch for over twenty years, and this is their first recording together. His performance here alongside that of pianist Roderick Chadwick is hugely expressive, displaying extraordinary virtuosity. Michael Hersch is professor of composition at the Peabody Institute and is a composer of "uncompromising brilliance" (The Washington Post). His output includes opera, theatre, chamber, vocal and orchestral works, performed across Europe and the US, including UK premieres at the Aldeburgh Festival and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is the recipient of many prizes and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, both the Berlin Prize and Rome Prize, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and the President's Frontier Award from the John Hopkins University.

In May 2026, Metier Records presents Edward Cowie's Darkness into Light, a stunning collection of works for harp and flute, performed with superb brilliance by Alice Giles and Laura Chislett, two of the world's leading soloists on these instruments. The album features two major works for solo flute and solo harp, a duo for both instruments specially written for Alice and Laura, and the title track, a fantastic three-way improvisation for flautist, harpist, and Edward Cowie himself on piano. Edward Cowie is one of the most notable voices in contemporary music and is considered by many to be the "leading contemporary composer of music that is related to the natural world" (Fanfare). A remarkable polymath, Cowie is renowned as a composer, visual artist, and natural scientist. La Primavera is a series of 'sound portraits' for solo flute, inspired by the nine figures in Botticelli's painting, one of the most beautiful, mysterious, and cryptic of all time. The painting radiates light and movement, and this is reflected in Cowie's music, which epitomises the limpid and hugely flexible sonorities and brilliance of the flute. The series of variants follow the figures in the painting from left to right, 'blown' into the music by Zephyrus, signifying the breath of the flautist. In the painting, most of the characters are either dancing or posed in dance-like actions, linking it to Harlequin Dances for solo harp, one of the 'satellite' works inspired by characters from Cowie's opera Commedia (1977). In Harlequin Dances, Cowie fuses music of the 16th century with some of the gestures and theatrical devices of the Commedia itself. The sorrowful emotions of unrequited love lead to Harlequin's rehearsal of dancing himself to death, but also to something hopeful and luminous. Cowie skilfully uses the resonances and wide range of timbre of the harp, and the closing few minutes are some of the most beautiful and transcendental music he has ever composed. Australian Water Music for flute and harp, is inspired by the ocean and fresh water lakes of Australia, and also Handel's Water Music, this being a recurrent theme for Edward Cowie, both as a composer and a visual artist. The tremendous velocities of flute and harp capture the speed of a stream of water and it's liquid sound, as well as bringing delicious richness and expressive qualities. Each instrument plays alone, but also thematic and motivic materials are resounded and re-worked in a dynamic dialogue between them. Darkness Into Light came from a discussion with Alice and Laura about their shared experience of darkness and light. The resulting work takes the form of a transcendence into some sort of divine light from impenetrable and engulfing darkness (of mind and spirit), all done in one continuous and shared exploration. Edward Cowie said of the experience: "Working with two giants of the musical world in this process was pure and undiluted pleasure".

The third in Metier's 20th century British Piano Music series based on Tippett's Sonatas, this CD contains his Fourth Sonata and works by Colin Matthews, Constant Lambert and Robert Saxton, central figures in mid-late 20th century music.

Part of Metier's ongoing series of recordings of the music of Michael Finnissy, one of Britain's most accomplished and acclaimed contemporary composers. "This is rather special. If variety is the spice of life, then this disc is hot. And so are the Kreutzer Quartet, whose commitment and spirit make this demanding music sound clear, fluent and gritty. A must for anyone interested in new music, or in the evolution of the string quartet as a genre." - Fabrice Fitch (Gramophone)

The first of three Metier CDs (so far) featuring the Piano Sonatas of Sir Michael Tippett alongside contemporary works, each with a different performer.

Tippett's marvelous one-movement 2nd sonata is joined by fine works by Saxton, Sackman and Connolly in the 2nd volume of the Metier British Piano Music series, in which a Tippett Sonata is presented amongst contemporary works.