2017 release. Together at last! Two folk legends of Laurel Canyon's countercultural music scene join forces on this gorgeous album of all new recordings! Features captivating versions of classic tunes by fellow folk icons Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen plus a few of their own compositions!

This double CD from Schütze maintains the high standards of previous releases, with one disc tending toward a kind of delicate techno jazz, and the other moving into a twilight ambient world of slow-motion musical gestures and elusive melodic fragments. Schütze's prior experience as a film composer serves him well; he is a master at creating moods, and rather exceptional in his use of musical resources, refusing to limit himself to a particular instrumental palette or style. On the more ambient disc of the two, one of the four pieces is firmly in the Brian Eno/Steve Roach mode (and as lovely as anything produced by those two artists), while another piece is much closer to the industrial genre, with an austere combination of both organic and machine-like drones, and delicate, random chime tones with occasional clicking sounds…

Norwegian saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Harald Lassen returns with RIK, a vibrant and exploratory new album that picks up the threads of his acclaimed Balans - the album that earned him a Spellemannprisen (Norwegian Grammy) - and weaves them into something stranger, softer, and more surprising. “It’s the little brother,” Lassen says. “Same blood, same environment, but making different choices.”

The Schumann Quartet is releasing its eighth album. "Martin – Ullmann – Fauré" will be published on August 15th by Berlin Classics and is a co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur. The string quartet, founded in Cologne in 2007, does not bear its name in honor of the composer Robert Schumann, but is named after the three brothers Erik, Ken, and Mark Schumann, who have been playing music together since childhood. Since 2022, the violist Veit Hertenstein has completed the ensemble. The renowned group has received numerous awards, including first prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Bordeaux. For this latest recording, the four musicians teamed up with the Berlin-based pianist Hinrich Alpers. Together, they focus on works by Frank Martin (1890–1974), Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944), and Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924).

For this, the fifth instalment of his Shostakovich symphony cycle, John Storgrds turns to some of the earliest of the composers orchestral output, works which Shostakovich largely wrote during his student years. The orchestral scherzo was a favourite task set by composition tutors of the time: the relatively simple form still demands that the student produce contrasting material for the outer and central sections, and manage the transitions effectively. Unsurprisingly, the form looms large in the early works of Shostakovich, as well as Stravinsky, Bartk, and many others.

Christian Li signed to Decca when he was just 12 years old. Now 17, this album represents a ‘coming of age’ moment for the young violinist as he records Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. With the winning combination of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and their Conductor Laureate, Vasily Petrenko, the album includes several transcriptions of popular Tchaikovsky works, arranged for violin and piano or string ensemble. “Whatever he touches, this young violinist emerges as an extraordinary wunderkind.” BBC Music Magazine.

Matthias Bamert and the LMP have dusted off some treats in their 'Contemporaries of Mozart' series for Chandos. This latest release, featuring premiere recordings of six symphonies by the Bohemian-born Josef Myslivecek, is one of the best. None of these works, dating back to the 1770s is much more than 10 minutes long, yet each is delightfully imaginative, and benefitting from the LMP's sprightly playing.

The musicians of Les Ombres pay tribute to Luigi Boccherini. The free and audacious composer was an insatiable traveler and the inventor of the string quartet whose belatedly acknowledged genius has now earned him a major place in the history of music.