![]() Artist: Art van Damme Quintet Title: Art In The Black Forest Genre: Jazz, Post Bop, Swing, Cool Jazz Label: © MPS - Musik Produktion Schwarzwald | Edel Germany GmbH Release Date: 1968/2014 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 88,2kHz/24bit Source: highresaudio.com Duration: 00:34:26 Recorded: 1968 Called “The hippest cat ever to Swing an accordion”, Art Van Damme was born in the small town of Norway, Michigan in 1920. The 40’s and 50’s saw the classically trained Van Damme revolutionize the way the accordion was played, removing it from its stereotyped role as a polka playmate; in 1947 Van Damme made the cover of the prestigious jazz magazine Downbeat and was voted “Top Accordionist” 10 years in a row. He starred on such popular American TV programs as “Today”, “The Dinah Shore Show”, and “The Tonight Show”, and toured Europe some 40 times. With his decision to combine guitar and vibes with accordion, Van Dam’s groups developed a unique sound early-on. His recordings with MPS were some of his best, given the company’s predilection of allowing the musicians a free hand. As one reviewer put it, Van Damme played “…right-hand runs with a velocity and lightness of touch that defied the presumed limitations of the instrument, consistently emphasizing the lyric contours of a melodic phrase rather than the lightning technical flourishes that led up to it.” |
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![]() Artist: Art Van Damme Title: Ecstasy Genre: Jazz, Post Bop, Swing, Cool Jazz Label: © MPS - Musik Produktion Schwarzwald | Edel Germany GmbH Release Date: 1967/2014 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 88,2kHz/24bit Source: Qobuz Duration: 00:33:16 Recorded: SABA-Tonstudio, Villingen/Black Forest, March 1967 Called “The hippest cat ever to Swing an accordion”, Art Van Damme was born in the small town of Norway, Michigan in 1920. The 40’s and 50’s saw the classically trained Van Damme revolutionize the way the accordion was played, removing it from its stereotyped role as a polka playmate; in 1947 Van Damme made the cover of the prestigious jazz magazine Downbeat and was voted “Top Accordionist” 10 years in a row. He starred on such popular American TV programs as “Today”, “The Dinah Shore Show”, and “The Tonight Show”, and toured Europe some 40 times. With his decision to combine guitar and vibes with accordion, Van Dam’s groups developed a unique sound early-on. His recordings with MPS were some of his best, given the company’s predilection of allowing the musicians a free hand. As one reviewer put it, Van Damme played “…right-hand runs with a velocity and lightness of touch that defied the presumed limitations of the instrument, consistently emphasizing the lyric contours of a melodic phrase rather than the lightning technical flourishes that led up to it.” Ecstasy, The Gentle Art of Art, and Lullaby in Ryhthm were recorded in 1967-68 with the MPS “house” rhythm section at that time, German bassist Peter White, and Swiss drummer Charly Antolini. Van Damme brought along his Chicago compatriot, guitarist Freddy Rundquist, and German vibes player Herbert Thusek was added to the mix to keep the front-line guitar-vibes-accordion “Van Damme sound” intact. The three albums offer a wide range of standards played with taste and unpretentious virtuosity. |
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![]() Artist: Ayla Çelik Title: Ben Genre: Pop Label: © Sony Music Entertainment Türkiye Ticaret A.Ş. Release Date: 2016 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 44,1kHz/24bit Source: Qobuz Duration: 00:39:25 Ben, Türk şarkıcı Ayla Çelik'in ikinci stüdyo albümü. 15 Ocak 2016 tarihinde Sony Music etiketiyle yayımlandı. Albümde toplam 10 şarkıya yer verildi. Albüm 6 yeni şarkı ve 4 versiyondan oluştu. Albümdeki şarkılarının sözü, müziği Ayla Çelik ve Gökhan Tepe tarafından hazırlandı. Albümün prodüktörlüğünü Ayla Çelik, müzik direktörlüğünü ise Erhan Bayrak üstlendi. Albümün stil danışmanlığını Nevin Şahsuvaroğlu yaptı. Albüm fotoğrafları ise Jülide Güngör’ün objektifinden çekildi. Albümde Ozan Çolakoğlu, Mustafa Ceceli, Erhan Bayrak, Orhan Sancak ve Miraç Kutlu gibi isimlerin düzenlemeleri yer aldı. |
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![]() Artist: Art Van Damme Ensemble Title: Art and Four Brothers Genre: Jazz, Swing, Cool Jazz Label: © MPS - Musik Produktion Schwarzwald | Edel Germany GmbH Release Date: 1969/2014 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 88,2kHz/24bit Source: Qobuz Duration: 00:32:17 Recorded: 1969 Called “The hippest cat ever to Swing an accordion”, Art Van Damme was born in the small town of Norway, Michigan in 1920. The 40’s and 50’s saw the classically trained Van Damme revolutionize the way the accordion was played, removing it from its stereotyped role as a polka playmate; in 1947 Van Damme made the cover of the prestigious jazz magazine Downbeat and was voted “Top Accordionist” 10 years in a row. He starred on such popular American TV programs as “Today”, “The Dinah Shore Show”, and “The Tonight Show”, and toured Europe some 40 times. With his decision to combine guitar and vibes with accordion, Van Dam’s groups developed a unique sound early-on. His recordings with MPS were some of his best, given the company’s predilection of allowing the musicians a free hand. As one reviewer put it, Van Damme played “…right-hand runs with a velocity and lightness of touch that defied the presumed limitations of the instrument, consistently emphasizing the lyric contours of a melodic phrase rather than the lightning technical flourishes that led up to it.” |
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![]() Artist: Anoushka Shankar Title: Land Of Gold Genre: World Music, Indian Classical, Pop, Electronic Label: © Deutsche Grammophon is a Universal Music Company Release Date: 2016 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 44,1kHz/24bit Source: Qobuz Duration: 00:57:49 Recorded: Jeevan Music Studios, London, September/October 2015; Snap Studios, London, September 2015; Sear Studios, New York, October 2015; Corzano e Paterno, Tuscany, July 2015 Everyone is, in some way or another, searching for their own “Land of Gold”: a journey to a place of security, connectedness and tranquillity, which they can call home. This journey also represents the interior quest that we all take to find a sense of inner peace, truth and acceptance – a universal desire that unites humanity. The seeds of Land of Gold originated in the context of the humanitarian plight of refugees. It coincided with the time when I had recently given birth to my second child. I was deeply troubled by the intense contrast between my ability to provide for my baby, and others who desperately wanted to provide the same security for their children but were unable to do so. It was a disturbing comparison that played on my mind, fuelled by a sense of growing outrage, that the mass displacement of this vulnerable tide of people had been caused by external political decisions and detached acts of war. It is tragic to think that we live in a world where our capacity to offer sanctuary to those uprooted by violent circumstances beyond their control is determined by geographical borders. |
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![]() Сomposer: Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758), Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1759), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) Artist: Alison Balsom, Academy of Ancient Music, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Stephen Cleobury Title: Jubilo: Fasch, Corelli, Torelli & Bach Genre: Classical Label: © Warner Classics Release Date: 2016 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 96kHz/24bit Source: Qobuz Duration: 00:54:04 Recorded: June 2015 (4, 5, 10, 12, 19–21) & January 2016 (11), King’s College, Cambridge; 10–12 June 2016, St Jude-on-the-Hill, London (1–3, 6–9, 13–18) 2013 Gramophone Artist of the Year, three time winner at the Classic BRITs and also three time winner at the Echo Klassik Awards, Alison Balsom OBE has cemented an international reputation as one of classical music’s great ambassadors and is ranked amongst the most distinctive and ground-breaking musicians on the international circuit today. |
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![]() Artist: Annett Louisan Title: Berlin, Kapstadt, Prag Genre: Pop Label: © Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH Release Date: 2016 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 44,1kHz/24bit Source: HDTracks Duration: 41:25 Berlin, Kapstadt, Prag (English: Berlin, Cape Town, Prague) is the seventh studio album by German recording artist Annett Louisan, released by Columbia Records on May 13, 2016 in German-speaking Europe. Conceived amid the recording of Louisan's follow-up to her 2014 album Zu viel Information, conception of the album was motivated by her appearance on the reality television series Sing meinen Song (2016), the German version of the The Best Singers series, for which Louisan had reworked several original songs. A breakaway from the chanson genre on her previous albums, recording of Louisan's pop renditions took place in Prague. |
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![]() Artist: Alexander von Schlippenbach Title: Globe Unity Genre: Jazz, Free Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Modern Creative, Experimental Big Band, Free Improvisation Label: © MPS - Musik Produktion Schwarzwald | Edel Germany GmbH Release Date: 1967/2015 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 88,2kHz/24bit Source: highresaudio.com Duration: 41:06 Recorded: December 6-7, 1966 at Ariola Studio Cologne If you are into free jazz this is an essential album! An insight into what was going on in European free jazz scene at the height of the movement, Global Unity presents the who’s who of German and European free jazz: Dutchman Willem Breuker, Germans Karl Berger, Gunter Hampel, Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kovald, Manfred Schoof, and the orchestra’s leader, composer-pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. Von Schlippenbach’s compositions revolve around loosely organized structures, allowing maximal freedom in conjunction within the musicians’ role as “instantaneous composer”. The music reflects influences from such earlier ground-breaking albums as Ornette’s Free Jazz, and Coltrane’s Ascension as well as contemporary European classical. On Global Unity, intensely building orchestral passages are interspersed with Brötzmann’s blasting sonic homage to Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders, Schoof’s Don Cherry-inspired melodic flight and von Schlippenbach’s intensely percussive Tayloresque piano attack. Multifarious textures, space and an early taste of ethno characterize Sun, as the players exchange their traditional instruments for bells, temple blocks, triangle, duck call, lotus flute, rattles, gongs, temple blocks, etc. before eventually returning for solo and ensemble play on their more traditional instruments. Certainly not dinner music – but it’s music with bite and flavor and lots of food for thought when you’re looking for something with creative meat to it. |
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![]() Artist: Agnes Obel Title: Citizen Of Glass Genre: Indie Rock, Singer/Songwriter Label: © Play It Again Sam Release Date: 2016 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 44,1kHz/24bit Source: Qobuz Duration: 00:40:51 Citizen Of Glass is the third studio album from Berlin-based Dane Agnes Obel, released October 2016 via Play It Again Sam (PIAS). Citizen Of Glass serves as the follow-up to Obel's UK breakthrough album Aventine and was recorded, produced and mixed by Obel at Aventine-Neukölln and BrandNewMusic-Studios in Berlin. "The title comes from the German concept of the gläserner bürger, the human or glass citizen," says Obel. "It's actually a legal term about the level of privacy the individual has in a state, and in health it's become a term about how much we know about a person's body or biology or history – if they're completely made of glass we know everything. There's an increasing sense in this world that you have to make yourself a bit of glass. To be willing to open up, use yourself as material, and not just if you're an artist or a musician." "I worked with the title from the very beginning to push myself to do new things," she continues. "I wanted to push myself conceptually from the starting point, to push the glass theme throughout the songs in different ways – in the lyrics, in the instruments – to do things in a very new way. As an album, it feels bigger to me, a lot bigger." |
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![]() Artist: Avenged Sevenfold Title: The Stage Genre: Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal, Alternative Metal, Post-Hardcore, Thrash Metal Label: © Capitol Records Release Date: 2016 Quality: High-Fidelity FLAC Stereo 96kHz/24bit Source: ProStudioMasters Duration: 73:40 Recorded: 2016 at United Recording Studios, Serenity West Recording, Capitol Studios and Joe's House of Compression The Stage is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. It is a concept album about artificial intelligence and self-destruction of society. It was released on October 28, 2016 after a live stream event on the band’s Facebook page. The Stage is the first Avenged Sevenfold album to feature Brooks Wackerman on drums, who joined the band in 2014, but wasn’t revealed as Arin Ilejay’s official replacement until Illejay’s departure in 2015. The Stage is also the band’s first album to be released through Capitol Records. It is also the band’s longest studio album at 73 minutes and 35 seconds, thus beating City of Evil by almost a minute. The album also features their longest song to date, “Exist”, with a run-time of 15 minutes and 41 seconds. |
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