Magnatune: gorgeous back catalog

This week, we feature four albums from the Magnatune back-catalog, that we think you might enjoy.

Chad Lawson: A Solo Piano Christmas

New Age
Release date: 3/11/2013

What's Christmas without a Christmas album? However, we think that listening to All I Want Is Christmas for about the 1000th time just doesn't cut it. And this is why we chose to pick Chad Lawson's "Solo Piano Christmas" for today's newsletter. The arrangements and skilful play make this album stand out from all the commercial Christmas themes and offer a welcome breather from all-too-excessive belting and jingles. Truly, Chad Lawson's arrangements are festive, soothing and suited for both, background music in any store or for being listened to during down times.

http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/chadlawson-solochristmas

Vito Paternoster: The Chinese Four Seasons and the Korean Four Seasons

Classical
Release date: 08/17/2015

Do you remember the movie Road to Perdition by Sam Mendes, particularly that transition from the lonely car, driving through rural America, to Sullivan and son entering Chicago? Do you remember the goosebump-inducing film score that perfectly underlined it? Well, then you know what kind of feeling Vito Paternoster's majestic and unique "The Chinese Four Seasons and the Korean Four Seasons" will bring about. Think The Four Seasons with a twist: due to a change of key and arrangement, this version of the Vivaldi classic becomes very festive, addictive, and truly moving. It awakens a yearning for more. Checking it out strongly recommended!

http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/paternoster-chinesekoreanfour

SkinMechanix: The Secret Life of Angels

electronic
Release date: 11/30/2007

Eclectic, refined electronic music to the theme of angels: SkinMechanix are the type of album fans of electronic music want to hear around Christmas! The soundscapes perfectly blend into the background of any store and are just as fun to listen to with headphones on. Are you ready for ethereal electronica this Christmas? Then, The Secret Life of Angels should be your go-to album this December!

http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/skin-angels

Mercy Machine: Mercy Machine

Rock/Pop
Release date: 10/5/2004

Beautiful voices, dreamy melodies, great lyrics and a great instrumentation: with Mercy Machine, the band with the same name will make your Christmas as beautiful as it gets. This is the type of music you could listen to the entire day while working or preparing for Christmas eve. And this is why we thought we absolutely must bring this album back to your attention! Even though from 2004, it never gets old. Checking it out highly recommended!

http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/mercy-mercy

 
Description:cellist extraordinaire
Genre:Classical
Artist:Vito Paternoster
Album:The Chinese Four Seasons and the Korean Four Seasons

In 2005, the great Italian composer Francesco D'Avalos, in his book "La Crisi dell'Occidente e la presenza della Storia" (The meaning of the Twentieth century through the evolution of music - edited by the Bietti publishing house) remembers his favorite pupil: "Vito Paternoster wrote beautiful music of a rare originality. I remember Inzaffirìo and The Bread.... he had such a deep knowledge of traditional harmony that he could use it in all its expressive potentialities whilst still respecting its strictest rules."

The language that he possessed in all its potential becomes a game of manipulation, overlapping and connecting distant references, alluding to ancient times, distant places and leading to a joyful nostalgia.

It is not a rejection of the present, but an attempt to overcome it.

His musical language draws equally from elements of Vivaldi to Jazz styles, from Bach to Pop music, from Strauss to Folk music.

The strong coupling of national popular melodies however is very far from its nineteenth-century practice aimed to create and improve national identities for the early Nation States. On the contrary: the idea of national culture, and everything that is related with localisms, is removed from its original function becoming, with a slight irony, a pretext to create some elegant music language games. The popular themes are adapted to trans-national and universal contexts, and the local musical colors are confined to the realm of memory, of a glorious but mythical past, distant in time and space. It is a way to enrich the present with some hope.

Full liner notes are available for download to members.
Description:Multi-award winning pianist and composer who is not afraid to put his hat in anything
Genre:New Age
Artist:Chad Lawson
Album:A Solo Piano Christmas

A fireside conversation by award winning pianist/composer, Chad Lawson. 10 solo piano Christmas classics; perfect for any holiday setting. Solo Piano Christmas is a collection of ten Christmas carols arranged for solo piano by Chad Lawson and played to perfection with his smooth and elegant touch.

Nominated for Christmas Album of the Year - SoloPiano.com
Description:richly textured space synth
Genre:Electronica
Artist:SkinMechanix
Album:The Secret Life of Angels
Description:introspective avant-pop songs
Genre:Alt Rock
Artist:Mercy Machine
Album:Mercy Machine