classical

Listen / Purchase: https://lnk.to/mhlived

This album is also part of Lost Tribe Sound's Salt & Gravity Series:
https://losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/salt-and-gravity-series

Last year in and out of lockdown, Dupé made an album about his great-aunt Margaret, who spent her entire adult life in service at Abbotsford Convent. Margaret’s life story was both ordinary, and even more so in hindsight extraordinary. She lived a life that would be considered extreme today… a life without freedom. Reflecting upon her life proved to be humble, emotional, and fertile ground for 21st-century perspective whilst exploring narrative and biography through music.

While the music serves as most uninhibited expression of Margaret’s story, these writings from Dupé help provide further insight into Margaret’s life: 

Margaret was my grandmother’s sister, I didn’t know my grandmother but I met Margaret several times as a child. We would drive all day from Canberra to Melbourne from before light to after, to spend time with our relatives since both my parents were born and raised there.

Visiting this diminutive elderly woman with white hair in a bun and black habit and large crucifix was a strange procedure since she was clearly a prisoner in this convent. With both of her parents dead, her sisters put her into Abbotsford Convent as a grieving nineteen year old unwed mother.

A nun would sit at our table listening to the conversation to remind us all of that fact. Margaret was a “bad girl” and as such had been kept away from the children and reforming girls that were also in the convent. She existed within this small village of impounded women, day by day through two world wars, Vietnam and the death of her entire family. She slept in a dormitory, rose at five for prayers, worked in a laundry all day and had only one possession, a secret radio to listen to the races and footy. Her dormitory was in a building within a grey concrete courtyard which was gated and had one tree within it whilst restricted beautiful grounds lay all around.

As a teenager, Margaret was working for a married farmer in the western districts and had fallen pregnant to him (I don’t know if it was consensual) and had a child which she named Eileen after her favourite sister. The child was taken away and when she had another child a year later with the same man, she also called her Eileen (probably believing the first child had died). The first Eileen lived and went into the world equally oblivious to her mother’s plight and the second Eileen died after birth and was quietly buried in a suburb in Melbourne where Margaret would be buried 65 years later.

When she arrived at the convent, Margaret was given a new name and the gate closed behind her for the rest of her life. My father loved this wiry rebel (named Jock by him for her jockey-like stature) who lived both a hard and a sheltered life. Researching and reflecting on Margaret’s life made me deeply consider gender, class, compassion and the Catholic Church as connected to my family and more broadly. The archives from the convent where she lived for over six decades provided no trace of her existence except for a record of being slightly ill twice in the 1960s… no photographs, no accounts of any activities or interests.

Margaret Hammett Lived

I had a friend

Tony Dupé - I Had A Friend (from Margaret Hammett Lived)

Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune (French for "Moonlight") is one of the most beloved and recognizable pieces in the classical piano repertoire. Composed as the third movement of his Suite Bergamasque, it was completed in 1890 and later revised before its publication in 1905.

This impressionistic masterpiece is known for its delicate, flowing melodies and rich harmonic textures, evoking the serene beauty of a moonlit night. The piece begins with a soft, almost whisper-like entrance, gradually unfolding into a lyrical, expressive theme that shimmers with emotional depth. Its gentle arpeggios and dreamlike phrasing create a sense of weightlessness, as if floating in a tranquil nocturnal landscape.

Clair de Lune is often associated with introspection, romance, and a quiet sense of wonder. Its timeless appeal has led to its inclusion in countless films, TV shows, and cultural moments, making it a universal symbol of beauty and nostalgia. Whether listened to for relaxation, inspiration, or sheer admiration of Debussy’s artistry, this piece remains an enduring testament to the power of impressionist music.

Classical Music - The Essential Collection

Clair de Lune

ᯤ Spotify

The Gymnopédies, published in Paris starting in 1888, are three piano compositions written by French composer and pianist Erik Satie.

The melodies of the pieces use deliberate, but mild, dissonances against the harmony, producing a piquant, melancholy effect that matches the performance instructions, which are to play each piece "painfully", "sadly" or "gravely".

Audius Classical Music
https://audius.co/classicalmusic

Best of Satie
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/gymnopedie-no-1-single/847714522

Satie on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/0vzKMInu4PzU2Qyi6NgmRK

Satie Album on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Erik-Satie-Essential-Collection/dp/B00J0LBFIG/

Erik Satie - The Essential Collection

Jazzopédie

Emotional Plus

Ufo361 - STRANGERS

slow down for me

Fire! - She Owned His Voice

Sonata schizophrenia

HC on the piano covering Clark's (aka Chris Clark) "Black Stone" from his latest album "Iradelphic" out on Warp Records. 
Cover photo from the actual recording session...
See video of the original here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J81reO5htsM

Clark - Black Stone (HC Cover)

Manchineel

Touch (Piano Version)

from 'µ: of anxiety x discernment' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den333
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/philipprumsch

Based on the idea of transferring the sound language of Ambient, Minimal Music and Avant-Pop into an orchestral format, Leipzig-based pianist, composer and sound designer Philipp Rumsch founded his own ensemble in 2015. This ensemble consists of twelve artists from Leipzig, Berlin, Dresden and Weimar. Besides the ensemble, they all work in various musical contexts and environments.

Between 2013 and 2020 Philipp Rumsch has studied jazz piano under the aegis of Michael Wollny and Richie Beirach at the Academy of Music and Theatre Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig. In 2016 and 2017 he has refined his sound design and composition capabilities at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen with, among others Niels-Lyhne Løkkegard and August Rosenbaum.

After his last LP reflections (2018), Philipp Rumsch deals on his third Denovali release µ: of anxiety x discernment with the subject of anxiety. Based on his own researches, observations and interviews he made, Rumsch develops a multi-dimensional picture of this complex emotional state. Individual experience dissolves in order to explore a collective perception of this phenomena.

On µ: of anxiety x discernment Philipp Rumsch for the first time uses his self-written texts, but implements also writings by other people, who especially wrote them for the new album. The music of the suite, which consists of two mirror-inverted pieces, adopts different shapes. These shapes range between songs, complex compositions and conceptual improvisation.

For the recording of µ: of anxiety x discernment, Rumsch extended his ensemble by numerous guest artists. The sessions took place at the prestigious Jazzanova Recording Studios in Berlin. In order to achieve an extraordinary listening experience, specialized artificial heads were used to record in binaural stereo. The artwork again has been created in cooperation with Berlin-based Designer Andi Rueckel.

µ: of anxiety x discernment was mastered by Valgeir Sigurðsson (collaborations with Björk, Sigur Ros, Ben Frost, Nico Muhly, Hildur Guðnadóttir et al.) who already was part of the production process of Philipp Rumsch’s Solo-EP A Forward-Facing Review.

In 2018 Philipp Rumsch and his ensemble received the Leipzig award for young jazz musicians, funded by Marion Ermer foundation. The production of µ: of anxiety x discernment has been supported by Initiative Musik gGmbH with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

d3 (Short Version)

Philipp Rumsch Ensemble - d3 (Short Version)

It's been a crazy year so far and so I took a day off. From everything. I spent the day reflecting on the present. I spent the day away from noisy thought. In the evening I sat down at my piano, took a breath, and played the simplest tune that I could muster. It is minimal and slow. It's in a major chord but still feels sullen. I wanted to share it with you in hopes that it will bring you peace.

Mike Lazarev - Simple Piano For These Complex Times

River Styx

River Styx (Piano Solo)

For Noah

hiraeth

“Some of it reminds me of minimal music, the repetitions, the different layers that build up little by little, but she doesn’t hide behind them, she uses these techniques to express her own ideas. I find it wonderful how carefully she goes about it. When she’s onto an idea, she doesn’t just grab it, but approaches it carefully and gives the idea time to blossom.” – Tuula Simon, WDR 3, “3 von jetzt” (“3 of now”)

Sophia Jani is a German composer of contemporary classical music who takes a poetically minimalist approach to composition. She is the current Composer in Residence of the Dallas Symphony for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons, as well as the 2023 Musical Artist in Residence of the Arvo Pärt Center and recipient of the APC Fellowship.

Her music has recently been performed by the New Jersey Symphony, the Munich Symphony, Bang on a Can, musicians of the Dallas Symphony, the Goldmund Quartet, vocal sextet Sjaella, and pianist Eunbi Kim, among others. She has also contributed music to successful film, theater, dance and album projects.

In 2021, Jani was awarded the prestigious Scholarship for Music by the City of Munich for her solo violin piece III. Her debut album of chamber works, 2022’s Music as a mirror, received a nomination for the German Classical Music Prize “Opus Klassik.” In June 2022, she co-composed and produced “Tulips” with violinist Darian Donovan Thomas, which was featured on !K7’s String Layers Vol. II. And in July 2022, she participated in the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute at Princeton University, where her composition “What Do Flowers Do at Night?” was performed by the New Jersey Symphony under conductor David Robertson.

In addition to her work as a composer, Jani is passionate about building a diverse and international community of artists that open-mindedly addresses the challenges notated music faces in the 21st century. To that end, she is one of the founders and artistic directors of “Feet Become Ears”, which is a platform that commissions, presents, and celebrates contemporary chamber music.

Jani holds degrees from the University of Augsburg, the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and the Yale University School of Music where she studied with Martin Bresnick and David Lang, made possible through the generous support of the Fulbright foundation.

Manchineel

Sophia Jani

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Rebeca Harath (aka Sarkha)

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