Eleven meditative, atmospheric tracks filled with elegant melodic clarity form Norwegian electronic musician Erik Wøllo’s latest album, Where The River Widens. The impressionistic, minimalist electric guitar lines are looped and layered with effect pedals for a seamless balance of intimacy and spaciousness. Created and inspired in the valley of Skåbu, Norway, during the late summer of 2024, the 44-minute album is imbued with the spirit of its mountainous surroundings. It captures a slow tranquil intensity preserving spontaneous moments.
Where The River Widens' organic expression and sonic texture evoke a seamless fusion of emotion and stillness.

Aside from his only opera Fidelio, Beethoven’s general link with the theatre in Vienna came about largely with incidental music or songs to be inserted into the works of other composers—insertion arias. König Stephan was written to celebrate the politically significant opening of a new theatre in Pest, its triumphant mood honouring the ruling Austrian Emperor. Standard-bearer of female heroism Leonore Prohaska is commemorated with a Soldier’s Chorus and a Romance with harp accompaniment. In Friedrich von Matthisson’s poem Opferlied (‘Sacrificial Song’), a young man prays to Zeus to bestow upon him beauty and goodness in youth and old age. Two of Beethoven’s four settings are heard on this wide-ranging programme.

The Florentine Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1682-1732) was the finest theorbo player in early 18th-century Europe, and spent almost his entire career at the Habsburg court in Vienna. He composed sacred and secular vocal works special enough to warrant the attention of both Bach and Handel. Conti's oratorio David, a setting of a dramatic libretto by Apostolo Zeno, was first performed at Vienna in March 1724. The cast of singers included the tenor Francesco Borosini, soon afterwards a principal cast member for Handel in Tamerlano and Rodelinda (Conti's writing for Borosini descends to a low G, hence the decision here to cast baritone Furio Zanasi as Saul).

This is the first installment of the series dedicated to Sergei Prokofiev's Symphonies performed by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under the baton of ist chief conductor Pietari Inkinen.

Double-CD compilation that includes all three of the albums King recorded for Leon Russell's Shelter label in the early 1970s, as well as some other cuts (half a dozen of which were previously unissued) recorded around the same period. King's vocal and guitar-playing skills remained intact when he joined Shelter, but these recordings aren't among his best. That's partially because he was playing with rock-oriented sidemen, and partially because the material - divided between covers of blues standards, contemporary rock and soul items, and songs written by Leon Russell - wasn't especially exciting or sympathetic. Most crucial was the near-total absence of material from the pen of King himself. Although this set isn't bad, when you want to turn to classic King, you'll go elsewhere, particularly to the sides he recorded for the King label in the '60s.

The J. Geils Band made many fine, sometimes great, studio albums but where they really captured their full, thrilling potential was on the concert stage. Most live albums tend to be a poor excuse for actually being at the show in question, but the Geils Band's live albums jump out of the speakers with so much joy, fun, and unquenchable rock & roll spirit that you might as well be there. "Live" Full House was their first live record, and it is a blast from start to finish. Recorded in 1972 at Detroit's Cinderella Ballroom, the group runs through songs from their first two albums, The J. Geils Band and The Morning After, kicking out the jams on rockers like the Motown chestnut "First I Look at the Purse," Otis Rush's "Homework," and one of the group's first self-penned classics, "Hard Drivin' Man," as well as positively scorching through an incredible version of John Lee Hooker's dark and evil blues "Serves You Right to Suffer"…

Lee Konitz has long been a versatile jazz musician, adaptable to many different styles. This Brazilian-flavored session is one of two that the alto saxophonist recorded during the mid-'90s for Venus; his session partners include trumpeter Tom Harrell, guitarist Romero Lubambo, pianist David Kikoski (who mostly sticks to electric piano), bassist David Fink, drummer Duduka Da Fonseca, and percussionist Waltinho Anastácio. As expected, Konitz's light sound works well with the Brazilian favorites they perform, with Harrell being a particularly inspired foil for the leader. The works of Antonio Carlos Jobim are well represented, including breezy takes of "Favela" and "Wave." Harrell's lyrical "September" (featuring him in a fine muted solo) and Konitz's "Brazilian Serenade" also fit the mood of this relaxing CD very well. This rewarding release is well worth investigating.