WDR Sinfonieorchester Koln - Shostakovich Collection - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Aptly subtitled A Journey of Passion through Europe and Time, the longtime collaborative duo of Ukrainian violinist Arkadij Winokurow and Austrian pianist Elisabeth Eschwé brings us this collection of works that, while spanning a few centuries and eras, all share the common theme of love and longing and the joy and melancholy these states can bring.

Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970) was one of the most distinctive composers in the musical avant-garde after the Second World War. While Karlheinz Stockhausen served as a kind of 'generator' in Cologne during the 1950s and 60s, inventing completely new sounds and techniques, Zimmermann was in many ways his opposite, a 'transformer' who redefined previously existing material by placing it in new contexts and collage-like structures, anticipating the ideas of the Postmodernists. Zimmermann created these new contexts on many levels. Especially in his younger years, he arranged and orchestrated songs and piano pieces using brash and daring instrumental colors. These arrangements then found their way into his works that are now recognized as modern masterpieces InchAlagoanaInch, InchKonzertInch, InchSinfonie in einem SatzInch, InchStille und UmkehrInch, etc. His self-composed works employing numerous quotations as well as his arrangements 'recomposing' previously existing music are juxtaposed in the excellent recordings presented by WERGO in this collection. It contains more than three hours of music as well as an extensive booklet with a wealth of information and an interview with Heinz Holliger, the guiding spirit behind this production. Holliger conducted all of the recordings and has worked for years to ensure that Zimmermann's long-forgotten arrangements were rescued, published, performed, and recorded. The performances and recordings took place as part of the celebrations organized by the WDR in Cologne in honor of Zimmermann's 100th birthday. This new from WERGO presents a fresh perspective on the composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, whose tragic suicide shortly after the completion of InchStille und UmkehrInch shocked the musical world. His fascinating instrumental effects and his embrace of popular and traditional music make his works feel much more at home in our

Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band are a multi-generational psychedelic powerhouse from rural Thailand whose ecstatic, amplifier-blown folk music has quietly become one of the most unlikely global cult phenomena of the last decade.Hailing from Phetchabun Province, the group formed as a community celebration band - playing weddings, temple fairs, ordinations and village parades. At the center of their sound is the electrified phin, a traditional three-stringed Thai lute whose piercing, spiraling melodies cut through walls of percussion and portable PA distortion. What might begin as a local procession quickly transforms into something transcendent hypnotic riffs cycling endlessly, rhythms pushing forward with relentless momentum, musicians of all ages locked into communal euphoria.Ten years after their last , Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band return with their first new album in a decade - and their first ever recorded inside a professional studio. Produced by Tommy Brenneck (known for his work with Amy Winehouse, Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones, Beyoncé, Mark Ronson, and The Budos Band), the album captures the band with a depth and clarity never heard before - without sacrificing the ecstatic propulsion that defines them. The result is both refinement and revelation. The phin still soars in sharp, spiraling lines; the percussion still drives with marathon intensity; but now every texture resonates with new dimension. It is the sound of a village tradition amplified for the world stage - communal, kinetic, and joyfully uncontainable.Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band do not simply perform songs; they create momentum. They build trance from repetition. They turn celebration into transport. A decade later, their return feels less like a comeback and more like a continuation of something timeless - music that exists beyond borders, beyond genres, and beyond expectation.