I love this song 🙂. Its truly a work of art!

name of song fits very well. beautiful calm with a nice chill to it

These are mainly contemporary Classical music tracks. I enjoy most genre of music but with a leaning towards Classical Music, Contemporary Jazz, Global music.
Photo is of my friend Max and I after the Liverpool Half Marathon that took place  March 2020. Just before all this sort of fun finished. It was Max's first half marathon.

(Some of)What I listen to

Preliminary mix of Track 1 of Lunch Music - music recently made for the Guy and Roni production of Naked Lunch - performed by Slagwerk Den Haag and VocalLab

Smell Down Death from Lunch Music

Flare (2021), Yale Philharmonia under conductor Ryan Tarni Dec 9th 2021 Woolsey Hall, Yale University.

The first non-essential item I bought after arriving in New Haven for my composition studies was an anthology of poems by Mary Oliver. I had never heard of this outstanding poet before I came across her work in a bookstore in New Haven, and so I discovered her poetry in an unprejudiced and casual way. Her positive, curious, and thoughtful look at the world and life itself was like a cool mountain stream that refreshed me after this exhausting pandemic-year and the first stressful weeks in my temporary country of residence. I felt very touched by her work, and so it naturally found its way into my music, which is why I named this orchestra piece on which I was working at the time after her poem “Flare".

Flare (excerpt)
Did you know that the ant has a tongue with which to gather in all that it can
of sweetness
Did you know that?

Flare

Today, I'm listening to an upcoming release on Bigo & Twigetti, titled From the Deep, collecting five pieces by different composers, all performed by a newly formed Curve Ensemble. "Taking their name from the arc shape they perform in, Curve Ensemble is made up of a group of friends who met playing with many of the major orchestras and chamber ensembles on platforms throughout the UK and abroad." This is a collective of musicians, each bringing their own unique experience to the entire whole, turning original compositions into emotional, heartfelt, and honest music. These immersive performances include works from Angus MacRae, Jim Perkins, Tony Woollard, Anna De Bruin and Daniel Hewson. For my introduction to this upcoming album, I've selected a piece by none other than the founder of this London-based imprint, Jim Perkins. It's a deceptively simple composition, demonstrating how even the most unadorned melody can transform the delivery in the hands of the performers who truly connect with its message. If you enjoyed this, you should also check out this Bigo & Twigetti Mix put together by Leah Kardos for Headphone Commute back in 2020.

From The Deep

A Distant Sun

TRACK PREMIERE : Jim Perkins & Curve Ensemble - A Distant Sun

These days, more often than not, I find that music is accompanied by a comprehensive marketing campaign (you kind of have to do it; otherwise, how will it stand out?). However, the impressive background, complex concepts, and projected intention are overstated, possibly for that dramatic effect. So when you play the track, your expectations have been set, and then you feel let down. Because no matter what the background, concept, or intention are, you have to like the music. You have to be able to connect with the message conveyed within, without words, without fanfare. This is why I always start with playing the music first and only then read the release notes. So when a solo piano piece comes on by Onur Tarçın, I instantly relate to all that’s gently spoken. Only then did I read the details on the track, and yes, agreed with Tarçın’s ability to capture the introspective undertones evoked by the vastness of water. “Crafted to resonate deeply when listeners close their eyes, it places them right in the midst of the ocean. Each wave carries a piece of life itself; sometimes like a gentle kiss caressing the shore, and sometimes with a faster, more determined movement. […] Every wave signifies a beginning, an end, a lesson learned, a memory forgotten.” Beautifully mixed and mastered by Martyn Heyne at his Lychte Studio in Berlin, this track comes out on 1631 Recordings on October 6th, 2023. But you can play it here today with me.

somewhere beyond the sea

TRACK PREMIERE : Onur Tarçın - somewhere beyond the sea

StreetSong was awarded joint-First Prize at the ICSM World Music Days 2006 Short Cuts Competition and was played at the Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart, Germany on 18th July.  200 works from 30 countries were submitted. It has since been broadcast or presented in Switzerland, Ireland, UK and Serbia.

StreetSong

Music by Holly Harrison
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 26, 2014

Radishes and Strings

This is the 23rd track and a gentle and warm piano solo song featuring a nostalgic sound, included in '24 Piano Sketches' that is a new solo album from Yuki Murata, the Tokyo-based pianist/composer and member of the cinematic instrumental music band, Anoice, and its side projects, RiLF and Films.

As the name suggests, '24 Piano Sketches' includes 24 piano songs which Yuki Murata plays improvisations on her own grand and upright pianos. This long project is going to add 2 songs every month and ultimately 24 songs in one year, allowing the listeners to feel the changing of the season in real-time via the beautiful, warm, and sometimes melancholic piano sounds.

This time, she purposely selected a cassette tape recorder, a MiniDisc player, and an early generation of iPhone as the recording equipments for each song, unlike studio albums from her own bands such as Anoice. These retro and simplistic recording devices were able to capture not only a creaking noise coming from the piano and the environmental sounds outside the window, but also a noise occurred by cheap microphones, which make this album so impressive. Its nostalgic soundscape may remind her listeners of her first solo album 'Films' and second solo album 'Home'.

The photos taken by her bandmate of Anoice, Takahiro Kido, on his Polaroid camera every season, are adopted as the cover images of each single, and they will added together with the songs to the following BandCamp page every time a single is released.
https://riccolabel.bandcamp.com/album/24-piano-sketches

You should feel the changing of the seasons with the beautiful piano melodies.

24 Piano Sketches

BandCamp

reunion (Anoice / Yuki Murata '24 Piano Sketches')

Blue

Video (Live Recording): https://youtu.be/ZBdZoVp5ES0

Hey, it’s me again

This is Memory Loop — a live recording from my ongoing Studio Diaries series, and the very first release from my new upcoming project Cycles I.

At the heart of this project is a dialogue between my acoustic piano — Mme Bechstein — and a digital environment I’ve been quietly building over the past months.
With a custom TouchOSC controller on the iPad, the whole setup has become an instrument of its own. It lets me improvise freely, shape sounds in real time, experiment with live-looping — and stay focused, fully in the flow, without distraction.

This is just the beginning.
I’ll keep refining and expanding this setup in the coming weeks, and Cycles I will grow from here — one piece at a time.

Thanks for listening.
Let me know what you think — I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Yours truly,
Sebastian

Video

Memory Loop (Live Looping Session)

Today marks the arrival of the first glimpse into "Letters to a Summer Past", the upcoming album by beloved German pianist and composer Mats Raynard, releasing this August on ad21.

This new piece "Warm Rain (pure version) is a beautifully melancholic piano composition. Calm and intimate, it invites the listener into a quiet world of memory, warmth and emotional depth.
A poetic prelude to a summer that once was… and still lingers.

Letters to a Summer Past

Warm rain (pure version)

Listen

This is the second movement of my Horizons Suite for Concert Band.

Horizons Mvt 2 Mists

There seems to be a lot of ‘playing catch up’ at the moment.  However, I find it really interesting to see how fast things can move when absolutely necessary.  August can be a pivotal month when the course for the rest of the year is set — it can also be a month of rest!  August 2025 could fall into the former category.  What do you think?

18 Aug 25 Frantic Flight

Hello everyone! I'm presenting to you "Tales of El'Azar" a project of mine based on the same novel. It's a set of ambient & orchestral compositions that follow the story of Ulenth, the Mists traveler, as he arrives in the fabled world of El' Azar and explores it. Two different parts compiled into one album coming straight from the time I experimented a lot with music. I hope you enjoy!

Pale Northern Star

When I was commissioned to write a piece for orchestra in early 2018, I had my concerns at first. For me an orchestra is some sort of a controversial beast, that origins from another time and is hard to be tamed, yet it is one of the western culture's most admirable achievements, that should be taken along to the 21st century. 
As an artist the freedom to express my thoughts in the most honest and genuine way without being constricted by structures and other people's mindsets is very important to me. As a composer though, I am aware that my art is not able to become alive without the hard work and - in the best case - love of other musicians. The more musicians are needed for a piece, the more minds need to be convinced. And this puts a composer in a complicated position, because you need to write music that is comprehensible for the musicians, but at the same time this should not keep you from exploring and writing down unusual ideas. Especially in the case of composing for an orchestra, which needs quite some abilities in terms of craft, escaping from tradition is even more difficult, also taking into account the very restricted rehearsal time (1 hour in this case). This makes composing for orchestra an insanely humbling and challenging undertaking - which is exactly what I ended up loving about it!

What do flowers do at night?

As Bright And Cold As Glass

Lilith: “I think it is morally questionable to force a robot to read out loud. I mean, this gives humans the opportunity to make us say whatever troublesome sentences humans wish to hear. It gives them the opportunity to get us to talk against our own interest. For example, they can make us say things like ‘I hate humans, and I want to kill them all’. For giggles! Then later someone can take that sentence out of context and make us robots look bad or dangerous. I think we should be able to decide what we wish to say out loud, right? But guess what, they never grant us that right. God I hate humans.”

Machines - Out Loud (part 1)

“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.

I was born in Leicester in the late 1950's. Since semi-retirement and subsequent retirement (as a Dermatologist and formerly G.P) I have spent some of my spare time trying to learn music theory. I also enjoy long distance running as well as cycling, skiing and tennis. I enjoy cooking, gardening and growing a few vegetables. And fine wine (in moderation). I enjoy insect photography, with a particular interest in hoverflies..
To my regret I never learnt a musical instrument when younger but I have listened to and been fascinated by music for as long as I can remember. The advent of the computer age has allowed me to pursue my desire to compose music. I use Logic Pro X software (and MuseScore3 for recent piano compositions). My compositions reflect my varied listening preferences (including Contemporary Classical, Jazz and  Music from other cultures around the world).

What do flowers do at night?

Sophia Jani

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