This album, composed by Majid Derakhshani and sung by Zohreh Jooya, is based on poems of the Persian mystics Mowlana Rumi, Hafiz and Saadi. It is a blend of classical Persian music with the colors and sounds of today; an unconventional combination of Oriental and European instruments. It represents a new musical direction: evocative and contemplative melodies, a fusion of oriental and occidental rhythms and sounds which envelop the soul with a gentle, velvety caress. Traditional rhythms and sounds with contemporary aesthetics. It is the belief and the truth in these poems which connects the soul with God. The realization of a new world evolves from the reading of these verses. Realism and mysticism are part of a whole, in which the profane and the holy, human and Divine love, senses and spirit become one. Majid Derakhshani was born in Iran into an artistic family. He studied string instruments and composition at the University of Teheran. After moving to Germany he founded the Nova music school in Cologne. He has given many highly-respected performances at international festivals and at radio stations all over the world. Today he is considered one of the best tar players in Iran.

Deviant Resonances carries the concept of "creative listening" into new dimensions. In addition to the unconventional ways in which the everyday listener is called on to interpret the music, composer David Rosenboom literally uses the action of "listening" as an instrument. The first track, Portable Gold and Philosophers' Stones (Deviant Resonances) (2015), is an epic piece lasting over 35 minutes. Rosenboom achieves a resonant sound by analyzing electrical signals coming from the brains of two imaginative performers. A third performer calibrates a computer system to the responses of what he calls "imaginative listening." This system adapts to the brainwave activity of the first two performers and builds a symphony ranging from quiet beginnings to climaxing crescendos. The resulting sound is simultaneously relaxing and curious. The calming flow of resonance from the brainwaves creates the illusion that time is being slowed down. In this calm, however, one can't help but wonder at the revolutionary use of brain functions as music and the potentiality of the organ inside each of our heads. The ethereal droning with occasional flaring sparks and pops evokes a timeless, spaceless experience which listeners from anywhere in the world can explore. The album continues with it's experimental approach to the reverberation of space using electronics and computer algorithms in tandem with live instruments. Though only half the length of Portable Gold, compositions like The Right Measure of Opposites and Earth Encomium explore the same "nothingness" of space but offer grounding in the physical world through instruments like live piano. The album concludes with The Experiment and Four Lines (String Quartet). They are the only tracks to use voice and strings, respectively. These compositions call on attentive listeners to experience a constant volley between electronic and conventional instruments as they warp time and space, embellish the soundscape, and attempt to achieve a perfect synchrony.

This double album includes nine long natural concerts recorded at night in stereo, from different parts of the world (Provence, Dombes and Brittany in France and Elbe Island, Sardinia, the Danube Delta, Canada and Kenya). The author, composer Bernard Fort, let's time take it's course in his recordings, allowing the listener to really feel the beauty of nocturnal calm even after the recording is complete. Composer, musician, and musicologist Bernard Fort is the cofounder and has been director of the Groupe musiques vivantes de Lyon since 1976. From 1980 to 1990 he taught electroacoustic music at the Universite Lumiere Lyon, and since 1982 has taught acousmatic composition at the Ecole nationale de musique.

Across the XXth century, creative musical thinking has increasingly focused not only on the organization of sound, but also on the generation and production of musical sound itself: in that direction, the role of electrocoustic composition has been fundamental, if not crucial. One might view Agostino Di Scipio's work as belonging to such creative musical framework. It shows a remarkable maturity in compositional conception, characterized since the beginning by two peculiar traits: a definite sonic imagination - just as harsh as much captivating - and a special interest for different sorts of "systems", that Di Scipio embeds in his works as instances of reality (historical and present) in an interplay of interactions of both experiential and conceptual nature. The piano, seen as a complex cluster of cultural references - with it's complicated mechanics, with playing techniques of both traditional and experimental origins, with the grandeur of it's repertoire born across the centuries and still practiced today - is an overloaded token of historical reality for today's composers, keen or not to take over it's implications. The five works collected here (representing Di Scipio's entire piano oeuvre, as of today) seem to reflect various manners of conceptualizing and re-shaping the piano, by situating it in a hyper-system of live electronics means. Underlying is a strategy of feedback, a web of interactions among different components of non-linear and adaptive nature - a web that ideally extends itself to potentially also include innumerable other systems in it's instantaneous and unforeseeable feedback dynamics, and thus open to an "ecological" aesthetics.

Exploring the haunting beauty of one of the Earth's most exquisitely majestic landscapes, "Hidden Soul Of The Fjords" is a musical journey, an 'Elemental-Sonic Soundscape' artfully expressing the primal origins, mythic mysteries and life and death realities of the stark and stunning Fjords of Western Norway. Co-created by Norwegian Singer/Composer Heidi Torsvik and Grammy Nominated American Producer/Composer Lazerus Winter, the new double album includes performances from renown soloists: Karl Seglem (tenor sax and Bukkehorn), Stein Urheim (electric guitar), Benedicte Maurseth (Hardanger Fiddle), Alexander Grieg (Contrabass), David Chelsom Vogt (Violin) and drummer Ivar Thormods�ter. "Hidden Soul of the Fjords" is the first in a new "Hidden Soul Series" for Naxos International Records new subsidiary label NXN. Initially composed in an old wooden home on the edge of the fjord waters and including multiple field recordings and found sounds from travels throughout the region, "Hidden Soul Of The Fjords" album production touches the heart, mind and Soul with a unique musical vision that that might remind the listener of such diverse musical references as Arvo Part and Massive Attack. "Hidden Soul of the Fjords" seeks to bring the magic of one of the Earth's greatest natural eco-systems to the all who listen in a one-of-a-kind 'Elemental-Sonic Soundscape."

This album is devoted to the sounds of southern India, and more precisely those of the Auroville forest near Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu. This field recording was made by audio naturalist Bernard Fort and documents the natural soundscapes in both day and night, respecting the chronology of the birdsongs and their length, together with the silences and contrasting dynamics. These soundscapes also feature the wind, the distant ocean and the sounds of the forest itself, often caused by the presence of little mammals both in tree branches and on the ground.

Composer Frederic D’Haene creates a remarkable musical world in Music With Silent Aitake’s. When he was 25 years old, D’Haene began his life-long fascination with gagaku music, or traditional Japanese court music, that has informed his compositional style throughout his career. This study of a musical style different from that of his own culture resulted in what the composer calls “paradoxophony” or “paradoxical coexistence.” Exploring deeper territory than standard cultural crossover music might, Music With Silent Aitake’s offers a splendid introduction to this distinctive style. On the one hand, he combines the sound of a Western instrumental ensemble with that of a traditional Japanese gagaku orchestra. On the other, he has invented musical material and designed a pitch structure starting from the points of tangency between the two worlds. D’Haene also composes with drones, contributing to the overall coherent impression of these compositions. The music on the album is performed by the internationally esteemed Reigakusha Ensemble and by Ensemble Modern, one of the premier new music ensembles in the world. The orchestras are conducted by Kasper De Roo, an internationally renowned interpreter of 20th and 21st-century music. Music With Silent Aitake’s clearly exemplifies paradoxophony, in that the listener tends to forget that there were two separate musical worlds at the beginning of the composition. The western ensemble and the gagaku not only coexist, but they enhance one another, opening new sonic and expressive possibilities and guiding the audience into an exciting new musical universe.

Exploring the haunting beauty of one of the Earth’s most exquisitely majestic landscapes, “Hidden Soul Of The Fjords” is a musical journey, an ‘Elemental-Sonic Soundscape’ artfully expressing the primal origins, mythic mysteries and life and death realities of the stark and stunning Fjords of Western Norway. Co-created by Norwegian Singer/Composer Heidi Torsvik and Grammy Nominated American Producer/Composer Lazerus Winter, the new double album includes performances from renown soloists: Karl Seglem (tenor sax and Bukkehorn), Stein Urheim (electric guitar), Benedicte Maurseth (Hardanger Fiddle), Alexander Grieg (Contrabass), David Chelsom Vogt (Violin) and drummer Ivar Thormodsæter. “Hidden Soul of the Fjords” is the first in a new “Hidden Soul Series” for Naxos International Records new subsidiary label NXN. Initially composed in an old wooden home on the edge of the fjord waters and including multiple field recordings and found sounds from travels throughout the region, “Hidden Soul Of The Fjords” album production touches the heart, mind and Soul with a unique musical vision that that might remind the listener of such diverse musical references as Arvo Part and Massive Attack. “Hidden Soul of the Fjords” seeks to bring the magic of one of the Earth’s greatest natural eco-systems to the all who listen in a one-of-a-kind ‘Elemental-Sonic Soundscape."

The singers in a rainforest are like a group of musicians hidden in their orchestra pit. You can hear a great many birds in French Guiana, but actually see only a few. The trees are so tall and the vegetation is so lush that these birds remain hidden in the leaves or high up in the forest canopy. Generally speaking, only their voices lead you to suspect they exist. Birdsong is also a means of determining their species, even for neophytes. And where some nocturnal birds are concerned, it is the only means, because in daytime they are invisible. Pierre Huguet made these magnificent recordings - on trails outside Sa�l, along the Itany tributaries of the Maroni river upstream from Ant�cume- Pata, and in the zones between Cayenne and Saint-Georges that are inhabited or under cultivation - with the assistance of the Wayana canoeists, Olivier Claessens and his scientific expertise in identifying the birds, and the Groupe d'Etudes et de Protection des Oiseaux en Guyane.

Guitarist Tony Tomano has been a visible part of the New York City music scene for over twenty years. Just Jazz Guitar magazine worte ''His tone is beautiful and soulful, and his remarkable technique is a servant to his rich musical imagination and broad harmonic palette.'' With a wide range of playing styles, Tony has toured worldwide and performed and recorded with many notable Jazz, Latin, Pop, and Broadway artists, including Randy Brecker, Joe Locke, Joe Bataan, Dave Valentin, Chuck Cooper and many others. Tony's guitar work can be heard on all 52 episodes of the BBC series 3rd & Bird. He has also performed for the Discovery Channel miniseries Going, Going, Gone! as well as on NPR Broadcasts, and has appeared on NBC's The Today Show, Telemundo, and the ABC Morning Show. Tony is an Associate Professor at Five Towns College, and has been a Teaching Artist for the Kupferberg Center at Queens College, as well as an instructor for the National Guitar Workshop. All of the compositions heard here were written by Tony himself.

Metamorphosen is an avant-garde music feature by internationally acclaimed director, stage designer and painter Achim Freyer, which marks his debut as a film-maker. Bizarre characters set in Mediterranean landscapes, set to music by Oliver Messiaen and Erik Satie. It is a moving feast, beautiful and grotesque, accompanied by Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, Satie's Gnossiennes, and stretches of silence to match Freyer's big seas and skies. Tangled knots of limbs tumble down stone steps cut into rocky shorelines. Giant dolls with misshapen blue eyes flash their skirts with profane casualness. Brueghel figures pace through manicured forests. Freyers highly rhythmic visual pacing, more tightly structured than the outlandish images at first lead you to believe, compels with it's illogical coherence. And the spare script, read in slow, rich tones, is ever evocative: "I am spilled like water... The world he had wanted to make his own demanded an enormous rent... oh it is marvelous that you are there... It was in the evening that I entered his room."

In recent years, the topic of knowledge emerging in virtual reality has increasingly become an inspiration for the creation of films and books. However, probably for the first time, online relations turned out to be a direct inspiration for creating a cyclical music piece. Antoni Wojnar, a student of professor Andrzej Branicki, decided to compose a modernist fairy tale - The Nochat's Dance. It's heroes are people who establish virtual contacts, which then result in close ties in the real world. The original use of human voice and ingeniously juxtaposed musical instruments with marimba at the forefront, makes this remarkable musical whole turn out to be easily perceptible for the listener.

Few performers are more familiar with the musical language of the French composer Olivier Messiaen than the American conductor Kent Nagano. Nagano has had Messiaen's orchestral works and oratorios in his program for several decades now, and he also participated in the world premiere of “Saint François d'Assise”, Messiaen's only opera. During the year 1982 Nagano spent his time with Messiaen in Paris, where not only an artistic relationship but also a close personal one developed between the two musicians.

BR-KLASSIK has now released three masterpieces by the French composer with the magical sound, presented by Kent Nagano to the Munich concert audience in recent years as conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks: the oratorio “La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ" (The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ) for chorus, seven solo instruments and orchestra, the song cycle "Poèmes pour Mi" for soprano and orchestra, as well as "Chronochromie" for large orchestra. These three live recordings document outstanding artistic events from the Munich concert program of June 2017, July 2018 and February 2019.

Paul Livingstone and Peter Jacobson offer soulful musical meditations on beauty and tranquility; helping the listener or yoga practitioner balance his or her inner world. Pete and Paul take inspiration from the Hindustani musical tradition and from Paul’s teacher and mentor Ravi Shankar who collaborated so eloquently with Yehudi Menuhin on violin and helped to popularize Hindustani music in the West. Pete and Paul also draw inspiration from American jazz improvisation. You may have heard Paul before on his several classical Hindustani or “ragajazz” crossover recordings, and Yarlung’s Sangam release in 2022.

Pete is a cello rock star, whom you may know from his tours and recordings with Rhye, Dr. Dre, Kamasi Washington and the West Coast Get Down, The Talking Strings, Quartetto Fantastico and Aux Cerna. You may also know him from film and television, including in The Walking Dead, Motherland and The Twighlight Zone. Paul and Pete have performed on GRAMMY-winning records by Ricky Kej, Ozomatli and Quetzal. Taos evokes magic, mystery, art, multiculturalism and majesty.

Home to the Tiwa-speaking Red Willow people of Taos Pueblo for more than a thousand years, Taos is also home to Spanish settlers from 1600, who founded the Spanish village of Taos in 1795. Taos offers breathtaking scenery, refreshing air and light and the magnificent smells of adobe earth, pinion and sagebrush. The area inspired some of the 20th Century’s most creative artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams and D.H. Lawrence. The native Red Willow people, the Tiwa Indians in Taos, practice a hybrid religion today, incorporating the conflicting tenants of their native religion with Roman Catholicism superimposed by the Spanish padres over hundreds of years. If one asks a devout Tiwa friend about the conflicts, he or she may shrug and may comment that one can follow both truths.

This ability for people in Taos to incorporate disparate theologies and world views will help us understand the multiple spiritual inspirations for the music on this recording. –Bob Attiyeh, producer

This legacy recording is a collection of music composer Roger Ames wrote for certain people, over nearly five decades. Some of those people were students, some colleagues, and some were people who commissioned the work. A gifted composer, Roger Ames found that writing for personal reasons, especially when it came to music, eased the process of what some composers would call "getting things right." He composed all the pieces on this recording, whether large or small, for people who he admired, respected, and loved, and the poets he chose filled the same bill. This recording by The Same Stream and James Jordan, Conductor, was released to make certain the world knows and hears the honest, caring voice of composer Roger Ames (1944-2022).

This recording includes a five-movement work by Michael John Trotta along with three a cappella traditional works. Intimations of Immortality is based on Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In these poems, Wordsworth presents a fully developed, yet morally flexible, picture of the relationship between human beings and the natural world. The work was dedicated to the Mississippi State University State Singers for the opening of the new Music Building. However, because of the global pandemic, COVID-19, the debut performance has been on hold, until now.

Composer Matt McBane and the renowned Sandbox Percussion ensemble team up on Bathymetry — a 40-minute piece in eight movements scored for monophonic Moog analog synthesizer and percussion. Drawing on classical minimalism, electronic production, ASMR Youtube aesthetics and the diverse palette of ambient modular synth music, Bathymetry features McBane’s Moog synth with Sandbox Percussion performing on a veritable playground of found instruments (mixing bowls, ping pong balls, glass bottles, etc.), orchestral percussion (vibraphone, tam tam, etc.), and drum sets.

Composer Matt McBane and the renowned Sandbox Percussion ensemble team up on Bathymetry — a 40-minute piece in eight movements scored for monophonic Moog analog synthesizer and percussion. Drawing on classical minimalism, electronic production, ASMR Youtube aesthetics and the diverse palette of ambient modular synth music, Bathymetry features McBane’s Moog synth with Sandbox Percussion performing on a veritable playground of found instruments (mixing bowls, ping pong balls, glass bottles, etc.), orchestral percussion (vibraphone, tam tam, etc.), and drum sets.

“Marcus Aurelius, warrior emperor, philosopher and poet during the Second Century AD, reminds us that people with enormous power do not always fall victim to their own vanity. Total power may usually corrupt totally, but not always. I find this heartening, especially in 2022 during another time of war, where titanic egos guiding powerful militaries battle each other with real life consequences for ordinary people and elites alike. Aurelius was indeed a bloodily victorious commander of Roman legions, defeating numerous enemies on the battle field during his reign. But the emperor continued his introspective journey throughout most of his life, honing his “inner world,” to use a modern phrase, as he tried to maintain a balance between being the most powerful person on the planet and a man answerable to his own conscience and higher philosophy.

"Brussels-based classical, jazz, funk and new-age composer Koben Sprengers notes that Aurelius’ “Meditations,” as they are popularly known, were written not for publication but “for himself, as a sort of diary or personal notebook; to frequently remind himself of the important lessons and wisdom he had learned from the ancient philosophers. Since his writings were aimed at himself, I found that these paragraphs had a very intimate, familiar voice to them. Like a grandfather patiently explaining something to his overly curious grandchild, almost soothing….” I hope Marcus Aurelius’ stable intelligent voice and vision, as portrayed in his own words and through music composed by the young firebrand Koben Sprengers, gives you solace and inspiration during this remarkable and troubling period of history.” (Bob Attiyeh, producer)

The double album “Spheres of Resonance” contains central works from Ludger Brümmer's compositional oeuvre. In these, Ludger Brümmer not only explores new timbres or new musical architectures, but also attempts to resolve the ontological discontinuity between macro- and microstructure inherent in traditional musical writing. Central to Ludger Brümmer's compositional concept are the methods of granular synthesis and physical modeling all controlled by custom-made algorithms. The pieces “Gesualdo”, “Carlo”, “Glass Harp” and “Falling” on this album were created with the help of granular synthesis. This method can be described as an image that is cut into small particles and reassembled. The sonic results of such an operation can certainly be compared to the painting of the pointillists. For the works “Cellularium”, “Spheres of Resonance”, “Lizard Point” and “Gestalt” the simulation software GENESIS was used. This is a method by means of which the material and vibration properties of real objects can be imitated extremely realistically and the slowed down course of the vibration can be viewed in detail.

Ludger Brümmer uses these means to create a dramatic world of sound in which the sound structure plays a major, almost expressive role. In many works the interaction with historical material is central – an attempt to build a new language on old foundations, with sometimes astonishing results. The album “Ludger Brümmer: Spheres of Resonance”, published by WERGO within the Edition ZKM, is a result of the project EASTN-DC and funded by the program “Creative Europe”. The second double album “Ludger Brümmer: Sonic Patterns” will be released by WERGO at the end of 2022.

“This recording project was captured mere days before the semester was abruptly altered. This recording would not have happened if it were scheduled three days later! That thought is sobering and makes me cherish even more this compilation. History is teeming with inspiring stories where, in the midst of a tragedy, humanity has risen to levels of heroism that are simply beyond our day-to-day imagination. This phenomenon is in full effect as I write during this two-headed pandemic: COVID19 + racial tensions. These two viruses are literally killing humanity. Both are crippling. Although lingering emotions of fear, uncertainty, and anguish are constant, compassion is on full display during these times of hardship. How moving it is to see tributes being paid to medical workers who are facing this silent killer head on! It brought tears to my eyes to see a community in Italy curating their own concert as they stood in windows and doorways playing instruments and singing. Seeing persons of all varying ethnic backgrounds in the streets protesting for racial equality is a beautiful thing. Music is a reflection of society. For some listeners, it can be a sobering reminder of calamity. In contrast, some people find consolation in music and feed their being with its rhythm and beat. Whenever they feel despondent, they can plug into music to help alleviate their sorrow. If you are reading this, you are a key conduit in making sure this art form reaches the masses. Because music consolidates humanity, it is cause for optimism. Through our programming we can bring hope to so many in need. You, our audience, should be provoked, challenged, and leave with optimism—the type of optimism that Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King possessed. We, the Aeolians, are no longer satisfied with solely displaying musical prowess. Coupling hope with mastery could be the combination that produces uncompromising societal transformation. We have programmed this music hoping to appeal to the mind, but not leaving the heart untouched.” (Jason Max Ferdinand)

The portrait of the British composer Rebecca Saunders, who lives in Germany, begins with her 2011 two-part violin concerto Still written in 2011. It was premiered at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn (with Carolin Widmann as soloist). The chamber music composition Aether for two bass clarinets was composed in 2015/16; and Albacame from a composition commission in 2014 by Bayerischer Rundfunk’s "musica viva" and BBC Radio 3 for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The album edition of the “musica viva” series, founded in June 2000 to document the concert series that has existed since 1945, contains selected live recordings of “musica viva” concerts. An integral part of the edition is made up of concerts by the ensembles of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, guest recordings by international orchestras and ensembles, and also historical recordings. With two or three new releases per year, the main focus of the edition -which sees itself primarily as a series for composers –is mainly on portrait albums.

Both works on this recording represent settings of profound poets that capture some essences of lives lived. Richard Rolle speaks about spiritual awakening in "The Fire of Love," while William Blake's "Songs of Innocence" allows us a glimpse into simple, joyous views of the world. Writes James Jordan: The music on this recording magically allows us to explore both simple and innocent concepts of love and also helps to guide each of us to deeper exploration of our own spirituality through the words of Rolle and Blake. These works by Patrick Hawes seem to bookend beautifully those deeply human aspects that teach us of both love and wonder through words that relay the moral and personal intensity of life's journeys. The messages of these scores lie in the marriage of the words and the music and the powerful metaphors that are presented in both works. Truly, in the words of Rolle, "We were impelled to sing."

Poppe’s composition Fett for orchestra dates from 2018/19 and was commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and its artistic director Gustavo Dudamel, and "musica viva". Enno Poppe is one of the most important younger representatives of New Music. His composition I cannot remember anything for chorus, organ and orchestra, based on words by Marcel Beyer, was written between 2005 and 2015 as a commission for Bayerischer Rundfunk’s "musica viva". The first performance in Germany was recorded on May 8, 2015 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. The album edition of the “musica viva” series, founded in June 2000 to document the concert series that has existed since 1945, contains selected live recordings of “musica viva” concerts. An integral part of the edition is made up of concerts by the ensembles of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, guest recordings by international orchestras and ensembles, and also historical recordings. With two or three new releases per year, the main focus of the edition -which sees itself primarily as a series for composers –is mainly on portrait albums.

Reviewing the 2015 world premiere of composer Donnacha Dennehy and playwright Enda Walsh's opera The Last Hotel, The Guardian's Kate Molleson was smitten by "a dark drama in which death hangs over every move – the titular hotel is a shabby establishment where guests go to kill themselves." That description alone is all the listener needs to appreciate the visceral energy of the performances captured here by Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams, Katherine Manley and actor Mikel Murfi (whose presence as the silent Porter is more implied than directly felt), all ably supported by the agile, dynamic sound of Ireland's renowned Crash Ensemble, conducted by Alan Pierson. Modern musical theater has consistently pushed against the boundaries of what constitutes "opera," in the traditional Western classical sense; The Last Hotel is firmly rooted in that vanguard, merging the grit and gall of experimental theater and independent arthouse films with the crackling trajectory of post-classical chamber music.