Magnatune: new releases to recover from New Year's

I hope you've had a fun and diverting holiday pause, so here are four new albums to help you get back into the old grind of normal life!

  • Carlos Schwarz: Sea to Sky - New Age
    passionate, evocative, and captivating new age

  • Emiel Stopler: Stargazing - Jazz
    Dutch composer and fingerstyle guitarist

  • Daniel Estrem: JS Bach on Solo Mandola Volume 2 - Classical
    colorful classical guitar

  • Superdirt2: Algoriddims - Electronica
    highly danceable electro beats with virtuouso cello

For just $15/month you can become a Magnatune member and can download any of our 18,000 songs at no cost.

-john

 



Description:highly danceable electro beats with virtuouso cello
Genre:Electronica
Artist:Superdirt2
Album:Algoriddims

This album is a sound explosion! Inspired by classical harmonies and beats that groove to hell, Superdirt2 (Ras Tilo (electro, programming) and Käpt'n Dirt (cello) recorded their first full-length album.

The album is a synergism of what they believe music ought to be: nine tracks consumed by a deep emotional feeling, completed by an ecstatic and overwhelming groove character. All of this is conveyed through their compulsive need to share their passion of music to everyone who is ready to celebrate the party, which is called life.



Description:colorful classical guitar
Genre:Classical
Artist:Daniel Estrem
Album:JS Bach on Solo Mandola Volume 2

This album consists of three of the Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by JS Bach performed on the mandola, which is tuned an octave higher than the cello and played with the fingers rather than a bow. Albert Schweitzer made the famous statement that Bach often appears to be writing for some theoretical "universal" instrument rather than a specific instrument.

Mystery surrounds the cello suites. Unlike Bach's solo violin works, no original manuscript has been found although copies exist. As a result, many interpretations of the cello suites have been made with no sole accepted version. The cello suites are thought to be written around 1720, about the same time as the solo violin Sonatas and Partitas. The original violin solos were found not in Bach's native Saxony, but in Petersburg, Russia some 90 years after his death. They were almost used as cheap secondhand wrapping paper in a butcher shop. Fortunately an astute customer decided to investigate the origin of the manuscript. It has been posited that perhaps the next customer didn't consider what was given to him as wrapping paper and used the original cellos suites as a fire-starter in his hearth.



Description:Dutch composer and fingerstyle guitarist
Genre:Jazz
Artist:Emiel Stopler
Album:Stargazing

Stargazing is an album with acoustic guitar instrumentals, sometimes with the accompaniment of double bass, (electric) piano or marimba.

Although there are no lyrics, each of the tunes on this album has a story connected to it. The title track of this album, Stargazing, depicts an imaginary scene of a lone traveller. He plays his harmonica at a campfire and wonders what life is all about in the deserted wilderness under a wide, star speckled sky. In the background, one can hear the accompaniment of crickets and the crackling of a wood fire.

The Dutch magazine Muziekwereld reviewed this album and wrote:

"Emiel Stöpler is a talented composer, but on this album, we also hear a gifted guitarist who very accurately plays fingerstyle [guitar], with an impressive sense of detail and timing. The recordings are clear and placed directly in the mix, which does justice to the impressive and atmospheric guitar playing. The repertory is diverse, ranging from pop to ragtime and jazz to latin flavors."



Description:passionate, evocative, and captivating new age
Genre:New Age
Artist:Carlos Schwarz
Album:Sea to Sky

A perfect blend of acoustic and ethnic instruments, with evolving textures and delicate passionate voices. Detailed arrangements and meticulous recordings bring New Age music to a new level.

Featuring award-nominated and two-time finalist song Farewell. Emotion, passion, serenity, are only a few of the feelings that this music will evoke within you. As the album name suggests, something as grandiose as nature is intended to be reflected with every note in this music.

The album has a great flow thanks to the unique feel to each song that seldom overstay its welcome. In terms of uniqueness, the album is initially pushed by soothing voices and the warmth of the strings, to the beauty of haunting piano melodies joined by the deep and resonating sound of the cello. The album alternates between different sounding passages until it reaches its end; but each iteration is warm, peaceful, and engaging on a relaxing level.