INTERNATIONAL

Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent is the follow up to his debut, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent.

From announcing a single via a TikTok live stream during the closing night of his two sold-out London’s O2 Arena shows, ‘Forget Me’ arrived with high anticipation from the start, and was shortly followed by a true spectacle of a music video that saw Lewis re-enact Wham’s 1983 hit ‘Club Tropicana’ shot-for-shot.

So, for album two, the idea is simple but potent: to go in and do the exact same thing. No bells, whistles or starry featured vocalists, and no ruinously expensive stays in distant studios. Like it was on the first album, straight-up, full-force honesty. “I don’t want to create a new sound for myself, or reinvent myself.” says Lewis. “The songs I want to write are emotional songs, about love or loss.”

Reissue, High Quality
Robert Glasper’s 2005 Blue Note debut Canvas signaled the arrival of a singular new voice in jazz and his 2007 follow-up In My Element solidified his status as a rising star who was taking the music someplace new. Featuring bassist Vicente Archer & drummer Damion Reid, the album expanded the possibilities of where a modern jazz piano trio might go by delving further into his hip-hop & gospel roots. This 2-LP Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition was mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

When this album was recorded in 1980, the English Baroque Soloists ensemble had only been founded for barely two years. Indeed, John Eliot Gardiner first created the Monteverdi Choir in 1964, then the Monteverdi Orchestra in 1968 which played on modern instruments. In the late 1970s the orchestra transitioned to period instruments and became the English Baroque Soloists. The first concert under the new name was in 1977 at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, although the orchestra was not officially formed until 1978. The Water Music Suites is one of English Baroque Soloists’ first recordings. The instrumental level is remarkable, Gardiner’s aesthetic being already made of accuracy, instrumental perfection, intonation and dynamism – it was a question of breaking down all the prejudgments that could exist on the baroque at that time.

Further celebrating John Eliot Gardiner’s 80th birthday is this LP release of a recording made in 1980. At the time, Gramophone magazine praised it for making Handel’s Water Music “sound as delightful as it can ever have sounded”. The three orchestral suites, bubbling with energy and invention, were first heard in 1717 after King George I commanded a waterborne concert on the River Thames.

Prokofiev: Violin Concertos is an album by Itzhak Perlman, released in 2023. Prokofiev: Violin Concertos includes a.o. the following tracks: “Violin Concerto No.1 In D Major, Op.19 I. Andantino”, “Violin Concerto No.1 In D Major, Op.19 Ii. Scherzo: Vivaciss”, “Violin Concerto No.1 In D Major, Op.19 Iii. Moderato”, “Violin Concerto No.2 In G Minor, Op.63 I. Allegro Moderato” and more. The album is a classical LP.