Ezra Furman - Goodbye Small Head - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The winner of the very first Queen Elisabeth Competition for cellists in Brussels in 2017, Victor Julien-Laferrière also won the Victoire de la Musique Classique in 2018 in the category 'Soloist of the Year', and joined Alpha Classics in 2019 for several recordings. After a first recital album devoted to Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Denisov in the company of the pianist Jonas Vitaud, he now presents two cello concertos by Antonín Dvorák (op.104) and Bohuslav Martinu (no.1, H196), accompanied by the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gergely Madaras. The two composers, born in Bohemia in 1841 and 1890 respectively, shared a strong attachment to the music of their homeland and a significant American experience - even if the reason for their travels was very different Dvorák was director of the National Conservatory of New York from 1892 to 1895 (during which time he composed the 'New World' Symphony and this cello concerto) while Martinu emigrated to the United States during the Second World War and remained there until 1953, composing dozens of successful pieces. With this recording, Victor Julien-Laferrière couples two key works for his instrument by eminent members of the Czech school.

Welve Nudes was recorded in October and November 2018 and mixed by venerated producer John Congleton (Sharon van Etten, St Vincent, John Grant). Furman says the album has two spiritual heroes - the late great punk rock rocker Jay Reatard, and Canadian poet, philosopher and essayist Anne Carson. InchShe's one of my top three living writers,Inch he says. InchAnne had these visions, or meditations, to deal with the intense pain in her life, which she calls 'nudes', and similarly these songs are meditations on pain and recognising what's there if you go digging around in your anger and fear and anxiety. So, my album is called Twelve Nudes.Inch

Goodbye Small Head is the name of the new record from Ezra Furman. Twelve songs, twelve variations on the experience of completely losing control, whether by weakness, illness, mysticism, BDSM, drugs, heartbreak or just living in a sick society with one's eyes open. These songs are vivid with overwhelm. They're not about someone going off the rails, they are inside that person's heart. The songwriting here is a revision to William Wordsworth's famous proclamation that InchPoetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings it takes it's origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.Inch This poetry, my poetry, arrived in the midst of the storm. It was written as I teetered toward the edge. The band and I had had a run of records that were very communal, very first person plural. We, us, ours. I was trying to exist in and create a shared space with my audience, make anthems for taking care of one another in dark times. But there does come a time when a woman is left alone in a room to unravel. And you need anthems for those times too. GSH also reflects a band reaching a new peak of our powers. If I were a music journalist, I would call this an orchestral emo prog-rock record sprinkled with samples. Thank goodness I'm not a music journalist! I think of this music as cinematic and intense. A friend of mine said it sounded like Inchthe coolest movie soundtrack of 1997,Inch and I'm quite pleased with that description. We've incorporated a small string section into eight of the twelve tracks, and are using samples for the first time-nothing you'd recognize, just some uncredited singing that Sam found online, chopped into beautifully evocative bits. Other than that, this record features something that's become nearly an anachronism a band that's been playing real instruments together for over a decade, intuitively in touch with each other as musicians. Four players in