Nareh Arghamanyan - Piano Sonatas - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In her early twenties Armenian born Nareh Arghamanyan, winner of the 2008 Montreal International Music Competition, belongs to the promising young generation of today's fine pianists. On this her first concerto recording on PentaTone she performs Listz with exuberance and precision beyond her age. A US tour will coincide with the of this album.

Some guys have all the luck. Xasthur founder Scott Conner sure ain't one of them. The always open wound of his life suppurates in a constant flow of sonic blood into and out of his latest album InchDisharmonic VariationsInch. The thirteen bitter, painful, dirt-stained, and sometimes even hopeful tracks sure ain't pretty InchGoldberg VariationsInch either. Rather the title InchDisharmonic VariationsInch serves as both the program and the message. Music is not just what Scott does. He does not lead a picture book life. There is only music. Scott does not write and record just 8 songs a year. He makes music 24/7 on his own time and in his own way. Scott does it analogue, in the hard old-fashioned way, with his gear and instruments piled up in the room where he stays at the time. In this musical flow of consciousness, this diary of an artist, all considerations of style are a luxury that Scott does not have. His current form of expression on InchDisharmonic VariationsInch tends towards the acidic taste of American dark folk with one detour into ambient sound. There is no guarantee for the direction that Xasthur will take next. Whatever happens depends on what Scott feels. Xasthur were originally conceived by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Scott Conner in the year 1995. Although started in the sunny state of California, USA, the project started out in the vein of bleak black metal of the Nordic second wave. In 2010, Scott announced the end of Xasthur and returned with an acoustic dark folk project under the banner of NOCTURNAL POISONING. In 2015, the American artist circled back to the name Xasthur, but insisted that his black metal days were over. On the previous InchInevitably DarkInch (2023), Xasthur have partly lifted the self-imposed ban on black metal, simply because Conner felt like it and therefore did it. With InchDisharmonic VariationsInch, Xasthur deliver

Alabama Shakes' debut BOYS & GIRLS marks the arrival of a major new rock-and-roll band. The album, on ATO Records, was recorded at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, TN. Produced and mixed by the band members, the album is a vibrant fusion of swampy, dirty South rock, blues and soul delivered with punk rock fervor. From the heartrending title song to such stomps as InchRise to the Sun,Inch the album demonstrates the sense of groove and space the band learned from their idols, along with a blistering force and emotion that simply can't be learned.