Folk Radio reviews Dark Nights...
A really excellent 4* review of Samantha Whates’ forthcoming album Dark Nights Make for Brighter Days.
Dark Nights Make for Brighter Days
Samantha Whates
featuring:
Samantha Whates, vocals & guitar
with Aisling Angnew—flute; Feargus Hetherington—violin & viola; Angus Lyon—accordion; Mira Opalinska—piano, rhodes, celesta, glockenspiel; Matthew McAllister—guitars; Douglas Whates—bass and guitars; Jamie Flanagan—drums & percussion; Brian McRae—drums & percussion.
Debut album from singer-songwriter Samantha Whates.
To be released on the 10th October 2011.
Please join us for the launch concert.
Click the cart icon above to pre-order your album and be among the first to get your hands on this eagerly anticipated release!
An excerpt from Feargus Hetherington and Mira Opalińska’s recording of Highland Ballad - a 19th Century work for violin and piano by Scottish composer Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie.
Part of ‘A Highland Ballad’ project to be released on Natural Studio Records.
Source: vimeo.com
Mini-documentary. James Akers recording his new album, Thesaurus Harmonicus, due for release later this year.
Bach & Brouwer
Matthew McAllister
This recording is a pairing of two works by composers whose styles would appear at first glance to be in sharp contrast. Despite two centuries separating their composition, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No.1 (BWV 1007) and Leo Brouwer’s Suite No.2 share distinct similarities.
Recorded at the Cathedral of The Isles, Millport, 9th and 10th November 2010.
A little behind the scenes look at the making of the debut album from Samantha Whates, to be release in 2011.
Standing Stones (NSRCD011): Here is Frevo Quartet at their most versatile and beautiful best. Standing Stones is their second offering in their themed EP series and displays the full virtuosity of these young musicians. An unlikely combination of instrumentation - guitar, violin, flute and bass - works superbly well to produce a perfectly balanced whole. From the beautifully haunting “Arisaig” to the rumbustuous “Guards Brigade at Anzio” we have a delightful selection of Scottish and Irish music reflecting both the traditional and contemporary. The enjoyment of playing comes through clearly in this superb quality recording. If you haven’t heard Frevo before, this is the perfect introduction.
Histoire du Tango (NSRCD010): Their musicianship is of the highest order and the fact that they did their own arrangement of this now legendary work, also illustrates their extremely good taste in orchestration. My admiration of this group is further enlarged by the fact that it was recorded ‘live’ in front of an audience in a concert from Crail Parish Church, Fife, a fact that really only comes to light when the audience’s applause erupts at the conclusion; despite the fact that it states it on the sleeve, one does tend to forget this live situation, so good is the recording and playing quality.
Histoire du Tango (NSRCD010): Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango has been recorded many times. This recording is like no other. The Frevo Quartet’s arrangement adds depth and sparkle to the original flute and guitar version. These musicians (and they are all excellent) bring the work to life in this performance recorded before an audience at Crail Parish Church in Fife. There is nothing else on this twenty-two-minute CD, and nothing else is needed. A little gem, and presented in a beautifully produced folder. Wonderful.
Tales from the Dark Side
Gordon McPherson, composer
featuring:
Hebrides Ensemble
Scottish Flute Trio
The Music Lab
“Trauma? There is a little more to say. How easy it is to suppose that McPherson’s music “represents” trauma, that it “depicts” traumatic experience. (What comfort there would be in this: a trauma seen from a distance.) But in doing this we do music a disservice, we jumble categories and practices, we mistake one art for another: an art of representation for an art of the actual. Music is a performing art, and however abstract and mediated it might be, it lives and thrives in what is actual, the reality of its production. Real breath, spit, fingers, lips, back and arms; real physical and mental control: the real possibility of an error, a trip and a collapse. Risk, uncertainty attend every performance.”
“McPherson, and other composers at the RSAMD, cite the tradition of pop and rock performance – the overtness of bodily and collective commitment, the noise, the vibrant (the compelling, the frightening) extortions of sound, pulse and rhythmic drive, and ask, can these be found in the concert hall? Where, in carpeted, air-conditioned environs of official, institutionally sanctioned culture, is the pulsional body, the thrown body, the hubris? How is the skill and accomplishment of the performer parenthesised? How can the prodigiously endowed contemporary musician be made poor? This CD has three examples of how this is accomplished.” - Dr. Martin Dixon (from the liner notes)
Spiricom was recorded at the Academy Concert Hall, RSAMD, Glasgow, 10th October 2007.
Waltzer was recorded at the Alexander Gibson Opera Studio, RSAMD, Glasgow, 5th November 2007.
Bloodshake was recorded at the Academy Concert Hall, RSAMD, Glasgow, 12th November 2007.
Merula (NSRCD001): Scottish classical guitarist Matthew McAllister has incredible talent as a composer and guitarist. A student from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, he knows his stuff, and this instrumental album is sure to soothe any guitar-loving beast. It’s best served with a glass of red wine and a comfy chair. If you’re into listening to more than one instrument, this may not be the album for you. While it’s beautifully composed, all you hear is guitar and not much else. Highlight: ‘Mr. Dowland’s Midnight’—just gorgeous!
Standing Stones
Frevo Quartet
In this, the second in a series of themed EPs, Frevo Quartet perform music that is close to home; all the members of the quartet hail from Scotland or Ireland and the music on this new recording reflects that heritage.
Recorded at the Cathedral of The Isles, Millport, 13th and 14th September 2008.
Histoire du Tango
Frevo Quartet
In this, the first in a series of themed EPs, Frevo Quartet present their stunning new arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango. Recorded live in concert, this dynamic performance exudes the vivacity and excitement of tango music.
Recorded live at Crail Parish Church, 15th March 2008.
