The celebration of Yule in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rite. Christmas, as we mostly now call it, gave us hymns, processions and chants, and in between, silence in church. Yule meant a vibrant pre-Christian secularity, with feasting and dancing, the noise of instruments and decorating the house with holly, ivy and mistletoe as a tribute to the gods of earth and air.

Much of the music on this album dates from an earlier time when in a throwback to Yule churches were decorated with Christmas greenery, and at home there would be carols sung round a burning Yule log, the two traditions side by side. But the songs on this album are contemporary performances, a matrix where immaculate a cappella voices meet improvising instruments in a synthesis of secular and sacred. There’s no knowing how the earliest Christmas songs were created, but the first ones must have been passed on orally until someone wrote them down. Writing, then later printing, set the songs free, and some travelled all over Europe, adopted by singers who then made their own versions. New songs were made, but many ancient ones survived the centuries, each new performer passing on their own memories of a song to the next generation. Alongside this oral tradition more formal manuscript collections were created in church and cloister as clerics composed new chants for their own communities.

These historical processes are intertwined throughout this album, which is very much a product of the Trio Mediæval aesthetic; there are medieval compositions from England, arrangements of North European music by Tone Krohn, Anders Jormin and by trio members Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Jorunn Lovise Husan, together with a new composition by Norway’s English composer Andrew Smith.

Trio Mediæval
Sinikka Langeland, Kantele
Vegar Vårdal,  Hardanger, Fiddle & Violin
Arve Henriksen, Trumpet & Organ
Anders Jormin, Double Bass
Helge Norbakken, Percussion

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Advent and Christmas are for many people a time for light and hope and warmth. Yet the world around us is cold and turbulent. Wars are being fought. People are fleeing from their homes. Children are dying. Thousands of people lack food and medicine. Our prayers are for peace. We sing “Beautiful is our Earth! Glorious is God’s heaven!” as a protest song for peace and justice, the world being unjust.

During Advent many of us are fond of the familiar and much-loved Christmas carols as we remember them from our childhood, and as they have been sung for generations. There are carols in these traditional arrangements on this album, but there are others in completely new arrangements, made specially for Uranienborg Vokalensemble and for this recording.

Christmas can be a festival that intensifies our feelings – what is good seems even better, and what hurts feels even more painful. Perhaps we have lost someone close to us: can we then sing “Oh, Christmas, so cheerful”? We know that there are people who look forward to Christmas but at the same time dread it, and we believe that Kjetil Bjerkestrand’s arrangement brings out this element of equivocation and irony. The birth of Jesus – this is the message of Christmas! – a birth that changed the world for ever. May your Christmas be peaceful!

Uranienborg Vokalensemble
Elisabeth Holte, Conductor
Kjetil Bjerkestrand and Øystein Moen, Synthesizers & Samplers
Torun Torbo, Flute
Henriette Viktoria Eide Skagen, Organ

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The voice guides you quickly around the sphere. Then each channel play a range of sinus tones to verify level and bandwidth of reproduction. These test tones also serve to check transparency and properties of the codecs, including fold-down and headphone virtualization.

The tones start at 30Hz and ascend in octaves: 30 – 60 – 120 – 240 – 480 – 960 – 1.920 – 3.840 – 7.680 – 15.360

Channel order within interleaved WAV:
1: L
2: R
3: C
4: Lfe
5: Ls (side/surround)
6: Rs (side/surround)
7: Lrs (rear/back)
8: Rrs (rear/back)
9: Ltf (height front)
10: Rtf (height front)
11: Ltr (height rear)
12: Rtr (height rear)

If your immersive speaker layout is 5.1.4 then please omit/mute channel 5 and 6 from these files. If your immersive speaker layout is 5.1.2 then please also omit/mute channel 11 and 12 from these files.

NOTICE: For the time being, Dolby Atmos MKV dowloads are provided as direct download dropbox links and are not available for download through the downloader app. The download link will be supplied at checkout.

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This is the album’s debut in Stereo and 5.1 Channel Surround Sound DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD, Stereo DSD 512, and 7.1.4 Channel Auro3D and Dolby Atmos TrueHD MKV Immersive Surround Sound at NativeDSD!

With arrangements by pianist Alan Broadbent, the sublime ballads album finds the Swiss trumpet legend and his Jazz ensemble addressing such Jazz classics as Mal Waldron’s “Soul Eyes,” Charlie Haden’s “Nightfall,” Les Alrich’s melodic and mellow “Old Friends”.

The album also features J. Russel Robinson’s “Portrait of Jennie,” a tune originally written for a 1948 movie of the same name and which became a hit song later that year for Nat King Cole before being covered by J.J. Johnson, George Shearing, Blue Mitchell, Red Garland, Oscar Peterson and Wes Montgomery. It was even included on Clifford Brown with Strings, the 1955 album that ignited Ambrosetti’s youthful ambition to pursue Jazz.

Franco Ambrosetti, Flugelhorn
Alan Broadbent, Piano, Arrangements & Conductor
John Scofield, Guitar
Peter Erskine, Drums
Scott Colley, Bass
Sara Caswell, Violin & Concertmaster

Note: For the time being, Dolby Atmos MKV downloads are provided as direct download Dropbox links and are not available for download through the downloader app. The download link will be supplied at checkout.

The post Sweet Caress appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

My journey with this album began during a challenging period, but it turned out to be an incredible experience.

While I was in the hospital for heart surgery, I started listening to Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata, performed by Barenboim. It lifted my spirits and sparked a thought – wouldn’t it be wonderful to spread happiness through music?

That’s when I began dreaming of becoming a concert pianist.

Liam Nassereddine, Piano

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The inner strength of this album is the progression from minor to major. With our instruments we speak about contrasts between loss and comfort, captivity and freedom, injustice and honesty, sarcasm and humor, drama, and love.

Sasha Witteveen, Double Bass
Jorian van Nee, Piano [Tracks 1, 3, 11]
Jose David Ospina Gaviria, Double Bass [Tracks 4-10]

The post Into the Light appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

This album is available today in Stereo and 5.1 Channel Surround Sound DSD exclusively at NativeDSD. Plus Auro3D 5.1.4 Channel Immersive Surround Sound 96k FLAC. It is not available on SACD.

Concerto
Dedicated to the great Belgian clarinetist Eddy Vanoosthuyse, this concert was created over the Christmas holidays of 2006. It was premiered in Brussels in March 2007. “Concerto” for Clarinet and Wind Band is a work full of emotion and rhythm. With a soft touch of jazz it becomes a very easily enjoyable piece to all lovers of good music.

In large part, this concerto exploits a wide range of the technical possibilities of the clarinet, making use of most of its range. The virtuosity is present in much of the concerto contrasting with a middle section in which the melodies blend in with the environment, with a fresh and passionate touch. During this section, the composer puts no limits on the use of infinite pianissimos capable of hypnotizing us until we feel the pure essence of the music. In the final section, he makes the clarinetist showcase his/her virtuosity and best technical abilities, all wrapped up in a catchy rhythmic framework that will make us vibrate to the end.

“Concerto” is a work intended for an audience open to rhythmic and harmonic variety, and willing to experience a series of sensations that only good music knows how to give us.

Luxembourg Military Band
Eddy Vanoosthuyse, Clarinet
Oscar Navarro, Conductor & Composer

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This album is available today in Stereo and 5.1 Channel Surround Sound DSD exclusively at NativeDSD. Plus Auro3D 5.1.4 Channel Immersive Surround Sound 96k FLAC. It is not available on SACD.

Oscar van Hemel was among the most performed Dutch composers in the years 1935–1970. He received several awards for his work and his violin concertos were performed by well-known soloists such as Theo Olof and Herman Krebbers with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Van Hemel was a moderately modern composer who used classical musical forms combined with atonal harmonies and melodies. He applied the twelve-tone technique, bitonality, “germ cell technique” and serialism but continued to strive to captivate his audience through lyricism. In the First Violin Concerto, for instance, the orchestration is particularly colorful and accessible.

Oscar van Hemel was born in Antwerp, Belgium. His father cut cardboard books for barrel organs as an arranger and had a passion for brass bands. This characterized the childhood of Oscar, who played the violin and piano. In 1914, van Hemel successfully completed his violin studies at the Antwerp Conservatory. After the publication of his First Violin Sonata in 1936, he started composing more and more. Van Hemel settled with his family in Hilversum, Netherlands in 1949 and composed numerous works, many commissioned by Dutch broadcasting companies (such as KRO and NCRV) and the Dutch government, among others. 

Oscar van Hemel was among the most performed Dutch composers in the years 1935–1970. He received several awards for his work and his violin concertos were performed by well-known soloists such as Theo Olof and Herman Krebbers with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Van Hemel was a moderately modern composer who used classical musical forms combined with atonal harmonies and melodies. He applied the twelve-tone technique, bitonality, “germ cell technique” and serialism but continued to strive to captivate his audience through lyricism. In the First Violin Concerto, for instance, the orchestration is particularly colorful and accessible. 

The First Violin Sonata from 1933 is dedicated to Willem Pijper, whose “germ cell technique” is reflected in it. It has a brevity typical of van Hemel, with its four movements – Moderato, Allegretto, Lento and Vivace – lasting just 12 minutes. At the 1937 Internationales Musikfest in Dresden, this surprising work created wonderment at Oscar van Hemel’s hitherto unknown talent. Another gem, the Piano Trio from 1937, is captivating from beginning to end: Romantic temperament in the Moderato, somber musings in the Grave, concluded by a playful Rondo Finale reminiscent of Bartók.

Muriël van Hemel, Violin
van Hemel Ensemble
Frans Douwe Slot, Piano

The post A Tribute To Oscar van Hemel appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

Available in Stereo DSD & DXD plus Auro3D 96k FLAC and Dolby Atmos MKV. The meditation on the two words common to both Jewish and Christian traditions for two thousand years reach into the sound world of Trio Mediæval, weaving their music into a thread first spun more than half a millennium ago.

Trio Mediæval

NOTICE: For the time being, Dolby Atmos MKV dowloads are provided as direct download dropbox links and are not available for download through the downloader app. The download link will be supplied at checkout.

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