New Classical

  • Discussions: Aija Alsina

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    Latvian composer and pianist Aija Alsina has delivered a deeply touching follow-up to her 2017 debut Domum. Recorded at home on an upright piano, Alsina employed the instrument’s felt mode. When its third pedal is pressed, strips of felt land between the hammers and strings. The softening effect is ideally suited to her very personal…

  • Various Artists – Realismo Mágico

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    Valencia’s Piano and Coffee Records is part of an international collective “working together for the love of art.” The group’s goal, according to its website is to “push boundaries and creative conversation.” To date, the imprint’s contribution to that conversation has featured a sophisticated mix of ambient, electronic and new classical works. Peru’s Sergio Diaz…

  • Eydís Evensen – Bylur

    One of the more pleasant aspects of a COVID-19 recovery might be a renewed appetite for unapologetically beautiful music. I doubt that this is everyone’s idea of what a new Roaring ‘20s will sound like. But to the extent that more difficult music has served as a unique reflection of the last year or so,…

  • Marcello Liverani – Shapes Vol. 1

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    Italian composer and performer Marcello Liverani says his new EP has a second inspiration, besides the Zen philosophy that so often informs his gently beautiful work. It is the photography of the great Fan Ho, whose mostly candid documentation of Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s earned him international acclaim. Ho passed in 2016…

  • Distant Animals – Constancy blooms: An Abridged History of Rust

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    Today is the 10th anniversary of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, following 18 days of protest that were part of the region’s Arab Spring. We will recognize a host of similarly consequential 10-year anniversaries in the weeks and months ahead: the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan that led to the…

  • Discussions: Biliana Voutchkova

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    Biliana Voutchkova is a violinist, composer and improvisational artist who splits her time between a city home in Berlin and a rural one on the coast of Bulgaria’s Black Sea. Under more normal circumstances, she also tours internationally as both a solo artist and collaborator. She first picked up the violin at four. Just five…