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SACD

Christopher Wrench – Bach: Organ Sonatas, BWV 525-530 (2009) [SACD / Melba Recordings – MR 301125]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 23 Views

Title: Christopher Wrench – Bach: Organ Sonatas, BWV 525-530 (2009)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Christopher Wrench commands a broad solo repertoire including the complete organ works of Bach, whilst also working as a liturgical musician, pedagogue & chamber player. He teaches organ at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University & directs the music programme at St Mary’s Anglican Church, Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. In 2008 he was awarded the Lord Mayor’s Australia Day Cultural Award for his outstanding contribution to the musical life of Brisbane.

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1 min read

SACD

Christoph Deluze – Dmitri Kabalevsky: Piano Sonatas Opp. 6, 45, 46 (2011) [SACD / Praga Digitals – PRD/DSD 250 279]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 18 Views

Title: Christoph Deluze – Dmitri Kabalevsky: Piano Sonatas Opp. 6, 45, 46 (2011)
Genre: Classical
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

The Preludes and Sonatas of Dmitri Kabalevsky are amongst the best piano works of the forties, and deserve a place on concert programs alongside better-known works by composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Pianist Christoph Deluze has become well known for his interpretations of Kabalevsky, and here he performs the three Piano Sonatas. The first is reminiscent of Scriabin, and the second and the third are war pieces filled with highly virtuosic passages. Deluze’s performances confirm their impressive stature, intense lyricism and rhythmic vigor. Sonatas on the SACD disc are excellent, with a very natural ambiance, and Deluze‘s performance are exceptionally good.

Christoph Deluze’s second album devoted to the music on Dmitry Kabalevsky covers the composer’s sonatas. The three sonatas together fill just about an hour, but there is enough substance in the music that listeners who can appreciate Kabalevsky’s style should feel satisfied. Deluze presents the sonatas in reverse, beginning with the Sonata No. 3, the most popular one. For those who don’t know this music, but do know the music of Prokofiev, this may strike them as a lightweight imitation. Kabalevsky’s sonata often has some of the same staccato sound, but the character is not as outspoken as Prokofiev’s, even though there is clearly sarcasm in the final movement. The second movement is gentler, played with nuanced touch and phrasing by Deluze. Sonata No. 2, written during World War II, is the centerpiece of the recording, literally and figuratively. The succession of changing characters and moods in each movement seem to tell a story of the war, perhaps how it played out in one village or town. It is more substantial in that respect than No. 3, which was written a year later, and even the textures in it seem weightier. At times, particularly in the third movement, the different lines and voices Deluze brings out give it orchestral-like dimension. The much earlier Sonata No. 1 (1929) is a different animal, with an indebtedness to Scriabin. The melodies don’t quite seem to settle into anything that’s immediately easy to follow or into a single tonality, and there’s the impression that the young Kabalevsky was aiming to be modern and shocking, to not follow the more romantic path of Rachmaninov or others. Its finale does pay homage to those ever-present bells that are found in so much Russian music. Deluze understands this music thoroughly and performs with utmost skill, demonstrating that even though Kabalevsky was obviously a more conservative composer than his contemporaries, he was nonetheless a talented one with a unique voice.

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3 min read

SACD

Chris Lomheim Trio – The Bridge (2002) [SACD / Artegra – ART2004]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 19 Views

Title: Chris Lomheim Trio – The Bridge (2002)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Pianist Lomheim is a regular performer at clubs in the Minneapolis St. Paul area, and his rhythm section have both played with top names in jazz. The Trio has a very polished and straight-ahead approach to nine tunes that happened to includes five jazz favorites and three originals played by Chris Lomheim, Gordy Johnson, and Phil Hey, three leading players in the Minneapolis/St. Paul jazz community. The original title tune by Lomheim was recorded away from the studio in a chamber music hall at Hamline University.

All tracks are complete takes with no editing. This audiophile recording was made using tube and ribbon mics, Millenia Media preamps, Meitner converters, and DSD editing with the Sony Sonoma. The surround speakers are used simply for hall ambience. This album also has the technical warning about assigning the center channel string bass to the left and right front channels if you lack a center channel speaker.

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1 min read

SACD

Chris Gestrin – Stillpoint (2002) [SACD / Songlines Recordings – SGL SA 1540-2]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 17 Views

Title: Chris Gestrin – Stillpoint (2002)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Vancouver pianist and composer Chris Gestrin has drawn comparisons to Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, if either of those masters were young today and equally at home with the acoustic and the electronic, jazz and ambient. Gestrin’s handpicked versatile quintet, featuring trumpeter Brad Turner, creates rich images in sound. From a tender solo piano improvisation to swirling group inventions, a narrative of almost cinematic sweep unfolds. Gestrin’s compositions range across jazz, experimental music, new age and world music for their ideas, but this is not “fusion” in any ordinary sense; there is too much originality and panache for that. The multi-channel remix opens on an imaginary environment that connoisseurs of surround sound, whether jazz fans or not, will surely appreciate.
Vancouver, Canada-based keyboardist Chris Gestrin crosses an amalgamated array of perceived borders on this curiously interesting release. As an acoustic pianist, he often insinuates a theme via delicately constructed melodies and an open-ended approach. Gestrin and his musical associates pursue ambient dreamscapes and climactically driven passages throughout this beautifully recorded production. Moreover, this high-tech recording (Direct Stream Digital) might be analogous to the sonic characteristics often witnessed on the German ECM Records label. Nonetheless, a good portion of this outing features Gestrin’s clever use of synths, dulcimer, and various electric/acoustic percussion instruments. Saxophonist Jon Bentley and trumpeter Brad Turner frequently serve as the equalizers due to their ambient and/or fiercely enacted exchanges, while drummer Dylan van der Schyff’s cymbal swashes and rumbling tom fills provide the undulating rhythms. Many of Gestrin’s frameworks are built upon simple melodies and modulating crosscurrents, as the musicians delve into a few dark corners here and there. The ensemble is equally adept at segueing through a multitude of free jazz/crash-and-burn type endeavors or executing ethereal soundscapes amid multifarious perspectives. Recommended.

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2 min read

SACD

Chris Gestrin – After The City Has Gone: Quiet (2007) [SACD / Songlines Recordings – SGL SA1568-2]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 22 Views

Title: Chris Gestrin – After The City Has Gone: Quiet (2007)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

In the summer of 2004 Vancouver keyboardist Chris Gestrin spent three intense days in the studio on a Steinway D, recording in high resolution DSD with nine different duo and trio groupings of musicians from Vancouver’s vibrant music scene. Apart from a handful of compositions including a few solo piano pieces, all the music was completely improvised, exploring the process of spontaneous composition with concentration, finesse and expressive power. In the exposed settings on this 2007 release, success depended on sustaining the inspiration of the moment.

Recorded over a three-day period in 2004, this two-disc set of stark improvisations places pianist Gestrin in ever-changing trio, duo and solo settings with a dozen compatriots from Vancouver’s creative music scene. The pieces are quiet and roomy, suffused with a cool northwestern mist as they roam through soft scribblings, mysterious foreign landscapes and composed-sounding impressionist sketches. Remarkably, the diverse pieces all feel like parts of a planned whole, a freeform Zen suite to be contemplated and absorbed.

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1 min read

SACD

Chris Botti – Night Sessions (2001) [SACD / Columbia – CS 85753]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 25 Views

Title: Chris Botti – Night Sessions (2001)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

At the precise moment when a corporate reshuffling and a reduced roster led to death knells in the press for Columbia Records’ jazz division, Chris Botti was signing on after three albums at rival Verve, the jazz arm of Universal. Along with Bela Fleck, poached from Warner Bros., Botti seemed to represent the new lean-and-mean Columbia Jazz, an eclectic, contemporary artist with considerable crossover potential to go with his jazz legitimacy. While the dominant sound on Botti’s Columbia debut is naturally his haunting, minor-key trumpet playing, highly reminiscent of the more introspective aspect of Miles Davis, his original music, co-written with one-name producer Kipper, is strongly reminiscent of the pop-jazz approach of his most recent employer, Sting, whose tour hiatus created the opportunity for the recording of the album. Sting even contributes a song, the samba-paced “All Would Envy,” complete with lyrics describing a wealthy May-December marriage, sung by Shawn Colvin. But elsewhere his spare, stylish, multi-cultural music provides a guiding principle. Botti is true to the basic tenets of smooth jazz, which hold that a steady beat within a propulsive rhythm track must be maintained, over which the soloist makes his presence felt. But he and Kipper keep things simple, often using an acoustic guitar to create musical textures more suggestive of Rio than west Los Angeles, where the record was actually cut. And even with his less-is-more style of playing, Botti is capable of coming up with melodies that would be strong enough to support lyrics if someone wanted to write them. (A good example is “Light the Stars.”) “Easter Parade,” the final track, is by the members of the Blue Nile, another good touchstone for the trumpeter’s moody, atmospheric sound. The result is a step above most of the cookie-cutter contemporary jazz albums of the day.

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2 min read

SACD

Chlara – In A Different Light (2016) [SACD / Evosound – EVSA375S]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 26 Views

Title: Chlara – In A Different Light (2016)
Genre: Pop
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The fast rising Anglo-Asian singer-guitarist, Chlara, returns with an album of guitar-centric classy interpretations of her favourite pop classics, including Hotel California, Stuck On You and True Colors, alongside contemporary hits including Hello (Adele), Stay With Me (Sam Smith) and Jealous (Labrinth). Many of the songs have been a part of Chlara’s live shows over the past few years, so working on the tracks on the studio was an easy fit.

British-born Filipina singer / songwriter Chlara (born Chlara Isobel Magtultol) labeled as Philippines acoustic songbird, Chlara spent the early years of her life living in England before moving to the Philippines at the age of nine. Her father Cesar who passed away when Chlara was only two years old was a music lover and left with Chlara his love of music. From the age of three Chlara was already singing and was very much influenced by the music that was constantly played at home, listening to Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Air Supply, The Carpenters, Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. After moving back to the Philippines, Chlara’s mum Gina enrolled her into a few singing schools, While regularly joining the school singing programs and plays Chlara also began playing the guitar at the age 11, learning from his brother and with her own self study, she would watch & learn from videos on YouTube. Before starting college Chlara had already started writing her own songs. Growing up all Chlara ever wanted to do was sing and have the world hear her songs and now is fully focused to reach her dreams having signed a long term management and recording agreement with Evolution. She was featured in Evosound’s album “Voices of Love” together with the finest female vocals featuring Susan Wong, Olivia Ong, Julienne Taylor, Emi Fujita, Stacey Kent, Katie Melua, Chantal Chamberland with her version of Lionel Richie’s Stuck on You.

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2 min read

SACD

Chip Davis, London Symphony Orchestra – Mannheim Steamroller: Fresh Aire 8 (2000) [Audio Fidelity 2016] [SACD / Audio Fidelity – AFZ5 238]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 21 Views

Title: Chip Davis, London Symphony Orchestra – Mannheim Steamroller: Fresh Aire 8 (2000) [Audio Fidelity 2016]
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Mannheim Steamroller is an American rock band, founded by Chip Davis, that is known primarily for its series of Fresh Aire albums, which blend classical music and rock, and for its modern recordings of Christmas music. The group has sold 28 million albums in the United States alone. Fresh Aire 8 is the final album in the Mannheim Steamroller Fresh Aire series, subtitled as “Eight Topics of Infinity”. Fresh Aire 8 has a full sound that offers a well-balanced blend of synthesizers and orchestra richly augmented by the London Symphony Orchestra. Always thematic affairs, the topic this time is Infinity and how it relates to all facets of human life, love, art, philosophy, mathematics and of course music. This allows for some rather bizarre musical pieces as classic Mannheim Steamroller riffs weave their way through the tapestry of new sounds.

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1 min read

SACD

Chip Davis, London Symphony Orchestra – Mannheim Steamroller: Fresh Aire 8 (2000) [Audio Fidelity 2016] [SACD / Audio Fidelity – AFZ5 238]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 15 Views

Title: Chip Davis, London Symphony Orchestra – Mannheim Steamroller: Fresh Aire 8 (2000) [Audio Fidelity 2016]
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Mannheim Steamroller is an American rock band, founded by Chip Davis, that is known primarily for its series of Fresh Aire albums, which blend classical music and rock, and for its modern recordings of Christmas music. The group has sold 28 million albums in the United States alone. Fresh Aire 8 is the final album in the Mannheim Steamroller Fresh Aire series, subtitled as “Eight Topics of Infinity”. Fresh Aire 8 has a full sound that offers a well-balanced blend of synthesizers and orchestra richly augmented by the London Symphony Orchestra. Always thematic affairs, the topic this time is Infinity and how it relates to all facets of human life, love, art, philosophy, mathematics and of course music. This allows for some rather bizarre musical pieces as classic Mannheim Steamroller riffs weave their way through the tapestry of new sounds.

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1 min read

SACD

Chie Ayado meets Nobuo Hara and His Sharps & Flats – My Way (2010) [SACD / East House Records – EHSA-1005]

adminSeptember 12, 2025 72 Views

Title: Chie Ayado meets Nobuo Hara and His Sharps & Flats – My Way (2010)
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Japanese unique music band, Nobuo Hara, Sharps & Flats, and a rare jazz singer who repainted the history of Japanese jazz over the past 10 years. Chie Ayado meets saxophonist Nobuo Hara and His Sharps & Flats for this recording of 13 standards. The No.1 “For Once In My Life” with special big band arrangement is sure to become a hot topic. Only Chie Ayado can sing George Gershwin’s famous song “Swanee” so expressively. A surprisingly performance!
As this is the case with many international stars, Chie Ayado is not a household name in America. In her native Japan, she’s a superstar jazz performer with tens of millions recordings sold. She’s so in demand, she continues to play over forty large-venue concerts a year. Her label, EWE, is making a name for itself with Three Blind Mice-style analog recordings of unbelievable accuracy and dimension. Vocals are listening-room immediate and the piano is detailed, full and beautifully balanced. Very little processing is used, so you hear Ayado’s unique vocal and piano playing without all the sonic distractions hiding many modern digital recordings. Nobuo Tsukahara, better known as Nobuo Hara is a Japanese jazz saxophonist and bandleader. Hara played in a military band during World War II and in a Tokyo officer’s club after the war. He took leadership of the ensemble Sharps and Flats in 1952, which he would lead until the 1980s. This band recorded copiously and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival. Sharps and Flats accompanied Chiemi Eri and included sidemen such as Norio Maeda, Shotaro Moriyasu, and Akitoshi Igarashi.

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2 min read