UMG - David Holmes - This England (Original Soundtrack) - Red Colored Vinyl - VINYL LP

Family history and the present rise of intolerance to others belong to the story behind Jack Liebeck's latest album. His pairing of the Brahms and Schoenberg Violin Concertos, recorded with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Gourlay, stands as a personal homage to works from classical music's central European heartlands. It also reflects the experience of his Dutch/German Jewish family who suffered at the hands of the Nazis, but in particular his paternal grandfather Walter Liebeck. In 1934 Walter Liebeck, Jack's grandfather, fled the Nazis to find refuge in South Africa. Walter's favorite piece of music was Brahms' Violin Concerto and although he didn't live to hear Jack play, his love of Brahms seems to be in the genes and now felt the time for Jack to record the work with Walter in his mind. Alongside Brahms comes Schoenberg's vast and highly virtuosic Violin Concerto (1934-36), written shortly after Schoenberg's own departure from Germany in 1933. A fitting work reflecting that period, which seems still to have extraordinary relevance in today's volatile world.

Winnipeg band Living Hour will their third LP Someday isToday on September 2 (Kanine), the follow up to 2019's acclaimedSofter Faces. Composed of 11 songs, Someday is Today is the bandat their most pensive and longing, with their vulnerable lyricsbrought beautifully to life by the rich and generous instrumentationthat winds it's way through the album. A striking evolution of theirsound, illuminated by help of friends, including Jay Som's MelinaDuterte who joins the band on lead single Feelings Meeting & mixeshalf the album.Recorded over a week in their hometown, the project wrapped upmonths of electronic and disjointed correspondence necessitatedby mandatory lockdowns and punctuated by the harsh Winnipegclimate. Though the process was highly fractured, it breededcreativity and shockingly resulted in a new warmth, which mixes thesometimes-drifting Yo La Tengo-esque patterns of melancholy andthe gleaming, earnest splendor of Beach House. The whole thingfeels like a cohesive world of soft and gorgeous harmonies, filledwith an energy that flourished in spite of everything happeningaround them.

David Holmes / Black Bag