Viv McLean - Echoes - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This is the first featuring Aoife with a string quartet. Co-produced by Jeremy Kittel and Aoife, the album was recorded in Brooklyn on the last days of October 2019. The title of the project comes from the Peter Sears poem, InchValentine,Inch which is the final movement of the 3 song suite along with Sears other poems InchNight FishingInch and InchThe DarknessInch. Peter Sears (1937-2017), was named the seventh poet laureate of the state of Oregon in 2014. The suite was penned in 2015 by O'Donovan along with Jeremy Kittel and Teddy Abrams, the conductor of the Louisville Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, OR. - In addition to Bull Frogs Croon are fresh takes on two songs that have been part of O'Donovan's repertoire for years, and both fit beautifully. The Irish folk song InchLakes of Pontchartrain,Inch which Crooked Still recorded 15 years ago, gets revisited and re-imagined with a bit more bounce in it's step than the now classic Paul Brady approach. The other is Hazel Dickens' InchPretty Bird,Inch which O'Donovan recorded years ago for an unreleased Dickens tribute album and again with Crooked Still. Aoife says InchI think the through-line for me is that the poetry of both of those songs fit well with how Bull Frogs Croon ends in such a beautiful, loving way.

Nidaros Cathedral's large German cathedral organ from 1930 represents the culmination and completion of the late Romantic German organ tradition of which Reger and Straube were prominent exponents. On this album, Nidaros Cathedral organist Magne H. Draagen presents a collection of organ works of Norwegian organists who either studied in Leipzig themselves for longer or shorter periods of time in the early 1900s, or were pupils of one of them who had studied there. A characteristic feature of the works is that the classical forms from the German Romantic school are combined with elements from Norwegian traditional folk music, and through this they are distinguished to a greater or lesser extent by a national tonal language. Organist Magne H. Draagen (b. 1974) holds a Bachelor's degree in Church Music and soloist diploma from the Norwegian Academy of Music. As organist he performs regularly at home and abroad, with a repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the present day. He has contributed to numerous recordings as composer, arranger, conductor, accompanist and soloist. Since the autumn of 2012 he has served as Director of Music of Nidaros Cathedral.

The next album in their mixtape series, Light and Shadow is the new album from Orchestra of the Swan and artistic director David le Page. Featuring new arrangements of works by Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman and Radiohead this latest instalment promises to take you on a compelling, imaginative journey - bridging musical genres such as jazz and electronics in their signature 'Swan' style. Praise for Earthcycle SIGCD789 InchSuperb recorded sound repays listening on headphones with some ravishing details. The curious-minded won't be disappointed.Inch - Gramophone