一些细节让我感到，你真的摆脱了，进入一个新世界，认真地游离其中，看到天上有露珠瓦解，你会笑着感到疑惑，脑波轻柔地颤抖，继续舞蹈，在似曾相识的霎那，四周响起一首浪漫而用力的钢琴曲，很远的地方，我站在一片旷地，看着公园的路，所有人都在移动，临近质变，我想遍历所有空间，但隔着异样的距离，根本无法迈出一步，想起那天车来车往，年轻又凶的阳光穿透树叶，车站旁是巨大的电钻和灰尘，争先恐后的人群，想要把一切都排除在外，这种聒噪的幸福感，来自那场耳语，想再找到只能选择在一个布满鬼怪的深夜，全速冲进瀑布，经历源自个人历史之一段危险，在充满雾气的尽头，用一小时面对终将到来的自我审判，一直以来我都是干枯地蜷缩着，但住在潮湿的地方，被水汽滋出油沫，浑身泛出香味，于是总有水蛇来缠绕，也不知道是搏斗了还是拥抱了，反正力气耗尽，我还以为我站着，可能这就是逐渐沉默的理由，沉重的生命力发出低声嗡鸣，它们经过我，从脚后跟到后脑勺，脊背没有任何发凉，就掉进了深渊，也许是因为峭壁亮起了灯，原本无法承载的电压，带来了安详，听起来像是死了，我顶天立地地看着上面，不太确定，无声中躺下，在所有平静表象的缝隙中，有隆隆的条理在运转，现在从何而来？这个漫长的假日，我就此对回忆模糊推演。
一张传统、朴素、具体的唱片，带有强烈自省、自责、自怜的意味，记录一段回忆以及展现个人某些意识发展、成立和回忆的关联。

With the release of "Tapestry," Michael Hoppe has once again bestowed upon the world a recording of stunning beauty and incredible emotional depth. Hoppe has been one of my very favorite artists since I first discovered his music in 1998, and he seems to just keep getting better with each new release. Hoppe has created a trademark of sorts by including photos taken by his grandfather, E.O. Hoppe, to illustrate the music. This time, in addition to the photos in the twenty-page booklet, there are poems written for each piece by Therese Tappouni AND a video short film, Nous Deux Encore, which Hoppe scored. The British-born and Grammy-nominated Hoppe has released at least seventeen other albums over the past twenty or so years and is one of the most well-respected artists recording today. Several of his earlier albums were recorded with other artists including Tim Wheater (flute), Martin Tillman (cello), and Joe Powers (harmonica), and he has also collaborated on spoken-word albums with artists such as Michael York and Tim Wheater. Over the past several years, Hoppe has realized a life-long dream by recording several of his compositions with The Prague Symphony. While Hoppe's music is very calming and soothing, it is much too nuanced and evocative to relegate to background music. Although I have listened to "Tapestry" at least ten times, I keep pausing while writing about it to drink in the beauty of the music.
"Tapestry" begins with the sweeping "Prairie Moon," a piece we were given a sneak-preview to on last year's Nostalgie. This time it is fully realized by The Prague Symphony, painting landscapes of gently blowing grasses, endless skies, and nostalgia for a simpler life. Violinist Alyssa Park appears on three tracks, the first of which is "Sanctuary." With Hoppe's ethereal keyboard washes behind the soulful violin, peaceful warmth envelops the listener. "Maxie's Theme from Nous Deux Encore" features Mitsuki Dazai on koto. Oboe and guitar create an unusual but spellbinding trio. Strings are added, but the koto carries the enchanting melody from start to finish. "Moonflower," for piano and keyboard, is simply gorgeous in its elegant simplicity. "In Paradisum" is the only vocal piece, and features contralto AnDee Sanchez, whose graceful voice reaches right into your soul. "Impromptu" is the first of three piano solos, all of which are perfect in their simplest form. I love all twelve tracks on this album, but I think "Tears and Roses" is my favorite. It also appeared on Nostaglie, but this time it's a soulful duet for violin (Alyssa Park) and guitar. Joe Powers makes another appearance on "Embers," again demonstrating that the harmonica can be so much more than a campfire instrument. "Pastoral" is a shimmering symphonic masterpiece presented (this time!) on keyboards. Reflective and oh so peaceful, it makes me wonder why Michael Hoppe isn't a household name. "Tapestry" closes with the solo piano "Grace" - tender, honest, and gently embracing.

Street lamps glimmering to a flicker of static. Brass and woodwind bursting through the interstices of dank and smoky bars. A thousand shades of grey, interminably looping. Bring me a half-gramme, a flight far north!
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I began writing this piece of music as a Berliner, physically and mentally entrenched in the noise and bustle of the city. Once I became a traveller again, the music took quite a different turn, a mellower and less frantic one. And later on, I came to discover an awe-inspiring and preternatural landscape surrounding me; the final transition takes me to adventure and the excitement of discovery. From a caged pencil-pusher, to a colonialist explorer with a moustache and golden monocle, leaping from rock to rock on a lunar-like landscape.
This temporary liberation, or change in mental state, elicited the phrase Half-Gramme Holiday. It refers to the Soma drug in Huxley's Brave New World, which is frequently used by each citizen to induce a transient and seemingly delicious holiday of the mind.

Myspace:

Written and recorded by Daigo Hanada
Mastered by Emil Thomsen (ET Mastering)
Artwork by Kevin Townsend / Layout by Nicolas Hyatt

Great new album from Olafur Arnalds - a long time favourite of Rough Trade. The highly anticipated record features Ólafur’s ground-breaking new software, Stratus, which transforms the humble piano into a unique new instrument. He is currently performing his new material on a huge worldwide tour. The Stratus Pianos are two self-playing, semi-generative player pianos which are triggered by a central piano played by Ólafur, and are the centrepiece of his new works. The custom-built software is born out of two years of work by the composer and audio developer, Halldór Eldjárn. The algorithms generated from Stratus were also used to create the innovative album artwork. On the album Ólafur uses these methods reinvigorate the compositional experience, feeding back into the creative process in a completely new way. As Ólafur plays a note on the piano, two different notes are generated by Stratus, creating unexpected harmonies and surprising melodic sequences.

The brand new album from Max Richter DGs best-selling artist/composer with music crafted from 2015s outstanding ballet production Woolf Works, a critically-acclaimed ballet triptych by choreographer Wayne McGregor, inspired by the life and works of English novelist Virginia Woolf.
Featuring powerful, compelling, emotional music, encompassing electronic textures and soundscapes, as well as orchestral episodes.
Following the success of SLEEP, this album showcases different sides of Max Richters vast palette of sounds, including upbeat, Arpeggiator pieces
Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works shows Maxs passion for both lavish string and piano melodies, but also his virtuoso electronic side.
The first track on the album features spoken words by Virginia Woolf herself, reading the essay Craftsmanship from a BBC recording of 1937.
The original ballet was met with outstanding critical acclaim on its premiere in 2015, winning the Critics Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.
The Observer described it as a compellingly moving experience; for The Independent it glows with ambition... a brave, thoughtful work; The Guardian called it a haunting meditation on memory, madness and time and lavishly atmospheric score.
Each of the three acts springs from one of Woolfs landmark novels: Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves enmeshed with elements from her letters, essays and diaries.
What a brilliant creative human being Virginia Woolf was. Its been extraordinary to have the chance to be submerged in the matters that troubled her, the questions she wrestled with and the visionary quality of the answers she discovered Max Richter

Review by Blair Sanderson
Antonio Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni is one of the most beloved works in Baroque music, and even the most casual listener can recognize certain passages of "Spring" or "Winter" from frequent use in television commercials and films. Yet if these concertos have grown a little too familiar to experienced classical fans, Max Richter has disassembled them and fashioned a new composition from the deconstructed pieces. Using post-minimalist procedures to extract fertile fragments and reshape the materials into new music, Richter has created an album that speaks to a generation familiar with remixes, sampling, and sound collages, though his method transcends the manipulation of prerecorded music. Richter has actually rescored the Four Seasons and given the movements of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter thorough makeovers that vary substantially from the originals. The new material is suggestive of a dream state, where drifting phrases and recombined textures blur into walls of sound, only to re-emerge with stark clarity and poignant immediacy. Violinist Daniel Hope is the brilliant soloist in these freshly elaborated pieces, and the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin is conducted with control and assurance by André de Ridder, so Richter's carefully calculated effects are handled with precision and subtlety. Deutsche Grammophon's stellar reproduction captures the music with great depth, breadth, and spaciousness, so everything that Richter and de Ridder intended to be heard comes across.