Various Artists - Momentum - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Composer Witold Janiak, referring to Plato, invites us to an intellectually sophisticated journey through the world of his music. Noesis is the perception of music in the most perfect way! Witold Janiak is piano passionate, loves composing, teaches by choice, and out of necessity wears the shoes of conductor, manager, driver, technician, and more. He is a graduate of the Music Academy of Katowice, and a jazz professor in Zespol Szkol Muzycznych in Lodz. He has won numerous awards, including at the Krakow Contemporary Music Contest, and has performed in the Kalisz Jazz Pianist Festival, Wroclaw Jazztopad Festival, and the Lancut Chamber Music Festival.

The combination of violin and guitar as well as classical playing styles and jazz has been on everyone's lips since the inimitable duo Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhard. An equally deep musical friendship exists between the Viennese violinist Rudi Berger and the Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta, whose new album Belo Horizonte received the Latin Grammy Award for InchBest Brazilian Album of the YearInch in 2020. Their first collaborations started in 1988 in the United States, since then the two extraordinary musicians have played over 500 joint appearances to date. This album by the title InchRudi Berger featuring Toninho HortaInch presents a cross-section of these years of musical life together, with recordings from Austria, New York City and Rio de Janeiro, from duo to 9-member formation. The compositions by Berger and Horta always transcend genre boundaries and incorporate influences from bossa nova, jazz, but also classical and folk music.

Glaschu is the new studio album from urban Gael, now highland resident, Mary Ann Kennedy. Dedicated to Glasgow, the album features songs and poetry celebrating life in Glasgow from the past and present. Mary Ann's debut solo album, 'An Dàn', confirmed her place as a composer and songwriter as well as performer, released on ARC to critical acclaim in July 2017. She writes InchI grew up in the southside of Glasgow, in a city rich in languages and cultures, and as part of Scottish Gaels' biggest urban diaspora. It was something of a strange and wonderful upbringing for me and my sister, feeling part of a big community but at the same time- in terms of peers at least- sometimes feeling like the only Gaels in the village. Things change, and it's a joy to see today at the bottom of the street where I grew up, one of Glasgow's three Gaelic schools. You can take the girl out of Glasgow, but never Glasgow out of the girl, and in the spirit of Gaels' eternal need to sing about home, this is my Gaelic love-song for the city in all it's guises- the voices of arrivals in search of a new life and of those, like me, born and bred there with Gaelic as our first language.Inch