{"title":"NMC Recordings","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"emily-howard-torus-jfgnmp","title":"Emily Howard: Torus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEmily Howard\u003c\/strong\u003e is a multi-award-winning composer who is deeply fascinated with the \u003cem\u003epoetry\u003c\/em\u003e that can be found in mathematical shapes and processes. The development of a series of geometry-inspired orchestral works has been central to her creative practice over recent years, and these Orchestral Geometries make up three of the four pieces on Howard's new album, Torus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe work which gives the album its name was a 2016 BBC Proms Commission described by The Times as \"visionary\", and was the winner of the orchestral category of the 2017 British Composer Awards. Here the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins bring to life Howard's meditation on the shape which her collaborator, the mathematician Marcus du Sautoy describes in his notes for the album as \"a finite flat geometry where top and bottom are joined into a cylinder which is then connected at both ends to make a doughnut shape.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHoward translates this into vivid music punctuated with continual oscillations and pulsations, with the void in the centre of the shape playing a vital part in this music of stark contrasts. This new album follows \u003cem\u003eMagnetite\u003c\/em\u003e, the critically-acclaimed portrait disc which NMC released in 2016 as part of the label's Debut Disc series.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"an arresting take on that interplay of 'heart and brain' that has been a mainstay of Western music. The cerebral basis of all these pieces may be undeniable, though equally so is the precision of their forms and, above all, the allure of their expression judged intrinsically as sound.\" - \u003cem\u003eArcana\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"These recordings sit on the edge of discomfort, relishing in the stark contrasts of timbres available to an orchestra. Oscillating between these extremes, this is music-making at its most dynamic.\" - \u003cem\u003eBBC Music Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"On this album, all three orchestras, all three conductors and all three recordings fit well with the overriding need for lucidity as well as resolution - there's a sense of confidence that the means are always precisely suited to the expressive ends.\" - \u003cem\u003eGramophone\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"however grandly cosmic the thinking from which these compositions start out, the end results are intensely human as well as deeply satisfying.\" - \u003cem\u003eGramophone\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NMC Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD.","offer_id":50394100334923,"sku":"2052495","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/product_id._6ee1ca21_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726432418"},{"product_id":"bracing-change-2-2ldeb7","title":"Bracing Change 2","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 2017, when NMC and Wigmore Hall chose Bracing Change as the title for their new series of string commissions, they had no idea of the change lying ahead for the planet. Now in a world only beginning to process the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, amongst so much other turbulence, we present the second instalment in the series, introducing three new works to the string quartet repertoire. The composers Mark-Anthony Turnage, Paul Newland, and Helen Grime, all contribute to the rich history of the medium in hugely varying musical voices, as they collaborate with three of the most distinguished, internationally-renowned string quartet ensembles today. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Gilhooly CBE, Wigmore Hall Director, says, \"This ground-breaking partnership between Wigmore Hall, The Radcliffe Trust and NMC Recordings continues with Mark-Anthony Turnage's Contusion. The Piatti Quartet deservedly received a prize for their magnificent interpretation of the piece, when it was the compulsory work for the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. This recording of the revised version - which was premiered by the Piatti Quartet - dates from a few years later, following further deep engagement with the work. It is described by The Guardian as a 'concise, poignantly balanced one movement cry of pain'. The exceptional Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini brings us Paul Newland's difference is everywhere (altered), in which subtly shifting chordal textures build gradually to create a uniquely haunting sense of beauty. The album closes with Helen Grime's String Quartet No. 2. Helen was Wigmore Hall's first female Composer in Residence and her new quartet was created against the particularly intense backdrop of pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. It is premiered here by the Heath Quartet. The pace changes with Paul Newland's sparse and evocative work dominated by cluster chords. Quatuor Bozzini present exemplary ensemble throughout this quietly powerful piece.\" BBC Music Magazine\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NMC Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD.","offer_id":50394100695371,"sku":"2052492","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/product_id._7a00a076_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726432439"},{"product_id":"ailis-ni-riain-the-last-time-i-died-fdrapo","title":"Ailís Ní Ríain: The Last Time I Died","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Last Time I Died\u003c\/em\u003e is the first full-length album from the Irish composer \u003cstrong\u003eAili­s Na­ Ri­ain\u003c\/strong\u003e. The latest in NMC's Debut Disc series features a group of musically diverse artists performing a rich selection of Na­ Ri­ain's chamber and small-scale works, the \"theatre, intimacy, and nuance\" of which has occupied the composer over much of the previous 20 years of her career.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDescribed by the Irish Times as \"a significant talent\", Ni­ Ri­ain's music has been performed across Europe and further afield in Brazil, Japan, and the USA. One of the principle ideas explored in her work is communication with others, something which she has a unique perspective on as she is deaf\/hard of hearing. Whilst this has sometimes placed her in challenging situations regarding verbal communication, her hearing differences have also heightened and enhanced how she relates to sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Last Time I Died\u003c\/em\u003e is a portrait of a composer harnessing this unique experience of the sonic world to explore a huge range of substantial themes including consciousness, relationships, reality, and death. Focal points on the album include \"Revelling\/Reckoning,\" a two-movement work for wind quintet and percussion, which aims to reflect the contradictory nature of existence, heard here in a recording by the New London Chamber Ensemble and another musician who has embraced her hearing challenges in her artistry, the iconic percussionist \u003cstrong\u003eEvelyn Glennie\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eContradiction also lies at the heart of \"Hiding Out 'Neath the Everything\" for violin and recorded altered piano, which explores the internal and external aspects of consciousness in this recording featuring violinist \u003cstrong\u003eDarragh Morgan\u003c\/strong\u003e. Soberado, a toy piano work that reflects on experiences of sobriety, really exemplifies Ni­ Ri­ain's distinct approach to instrumentation in this recording by \u003cstrong\u003eXenia Pestova Bennett\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFeaturing \u003cstrong\u003eTim Williams\u003c\/strong\u003e on cimbalom and \u003cstrong\u003eTom McKinney\u003c\/strong\u003e on guitar, \"Thank You\" is a movement from Ni­ Ri­ain's 2010 music-theatre work Brief-Blue-Electric-Bloom, which combines music, sign language, poetry, and animation, aiming to \"enable a deaf audience and 'disable' a hearing audience so that they might 'receive' the work equally\".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NMC Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD.","offer_id":50394101055819,"sku":"2052491","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/product_id._27039064_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726432461"},{"product_id":"letting-the-light-in","title":"Letting the Light In","description":"\u003cp\u003eNMC Recordings releases the first commercial album to showcase disabled composers working in the UK. The composers featured on the recording include Sonia Allori, Sarah Lianne Lewis, Jo-Anne Cox, Elinor Rowlands, Leon Clowes and Sorcha Pringle. Performed by Welsh pianist Siwan Rhys, the album also features performances by Sonia Allori (clarinet and electronic wind instrument), Jo-Anne Cox (Cello), and Elinor Rowlands (Narrator). The album was made possible due to a partnership between Drake Music Scotland, the Disabled Artist Network, Ty Cerdd, and NMC Recordings and funded by PRS Foundation's Beyond Borders Fund 2023. The project was managed by Pete Sparkes, Caitlin Mulgrew, and Thursa Sanderson of Drake Music Scotland, alongside Associate Composer Ben Lunn. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe works featured on this album were premiered at a concert at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama \/ Coleg Brehinol Cerdd a Drama Cymru on 03 November 2023.  Ben Lunn, Associate Composer for Drake Music Scotland, and curator of this album said: 'Disabled people occupy a curious position in classical music. There are giant historic figures like Beethoven and Gustav Holst, but they are recognised as great composers - and much of the discussion around their disability is avoided, nullified, or erased. Similarly, the history of Disabled composers working with keyboards also is quite curiously rich where figures like John Stanley, Beethoven, Louis Vierne, Jean Langlais, and Erik Satie have made significant contributions to the genre over many centuries. This history places this album in a unique position, because despite the richness of history this is the first professional compilation release which specifically showcases Disabled composers who have written fascinating works for piano. The composers featured within this release are a snapshot of contemporary Disabled composers working in Britain, all of whom have a wide variety of musical concerns and interests - but give a hint of the wild variety that is being produced by Disabled composers more broadly today.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NMC Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50426719240523,"sku":"2217734","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5023363028325_0d2a037c_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1726816260"},{"product_id":"zubin-kanga-cyborg-pianist","title":"Zubin Kanga: Cyborg Pianist","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat is the future of the piano? This is a question that pianist, composer, and technologist \u003cstrong\u003eZubin Kanga\u003c\/strong\u003e has explored for over a decade now and one which he investigates in his first solo release on NMC, \u003cem\u003eCyborg Pianist\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInviting some of the most inventive and forward-thinking composers of today to incorporate a host of cutting-edge technological alterations and extensions into their new works for solo piano, Kanga develops a new 'cyborg sonic identity' for an instrument that has remained largely unchanged for the past century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCommissioned as part of Kanga's multi-year music and research project Cyborg Soloists, \u003cem\u003eCyborg Pianist\u003c\/em\u003e is a treasure trove of technological innovation as six distinct compositional voices unlock new possibilities in piano composition and performance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLaura Bowler's SHOW(ti)ME\u003c\/em\u003e incorporates a fascinating combination of interdisciplinary elements to explore the disparity between performers' public personas and their private anxieties, including layers of pre-recorded music, sound effects and words, piano, and MiMU sensor gloves which Kanga uses to shape sound using motion and gesture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe MiMU gloves were also used to mould the sound of a Korg Prologue synthesizer on the dreamy, restless \u003cem\u003eHypnagogia (after Bach)\u003c\/em\u003e, a piece by Zubin Kanga inspired by listening to Bach half-asleep on long-haul flights.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCounterfeits (Siminica)\u003c\/em\u003e by \u003cstrong\u003eLaurence Osborn\u003c\/strong\u003e uses the touch-sensitive keys of the TouchKeys keyboard - another brand new technology - to trigger live samples of Osborn's voice imitating a historical Romanian folk singer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe TouchKeys allows the vocal samples to bend and slide in pitch in response to Kanga's precise finger movements, exploring the intertwined relationship between 'voice' and piano.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe TouchKeys keyboard makes an appearance again in \u003cem\u003eOliver Leith's Vicentino, love you - studies for keyboard\u003c\/em\u003e, this time hooked up to the iconic Prophet Rev II synthesizer in an homage to a 16th-Century microtonal keyboard instrument.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe stormy swirls of sound of \u003cem\u003eShiva Feshareki's Whirling Dervishes\u003c\/em\u003e are produced using the British-Iranian turntablist's trademark ambisonic technology.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSpatialized turntable improvisations respond to composed material on the piano, representing the ecstatically meditative spinning of ancient Sufi tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo create her work \u003cem\u003eDEVIANCE\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eEmily Howard\u003c\/strong\u003e used EEG brain-scanning equipment to measure listeners' responses when played her music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe data gathered in this experiment was then combined with piano music and AI-generated sounds to create a piece which explores how our brain processes music on multiple levels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the album, what connects these six distinctive works is the piano, proving the instrument's astonishingly versatile and chameleon-like abilities that stand the test of time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NMC Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CDx2","offer_id":50440693383499,"sku":"2052487","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5023363027922_4649594d_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1726965303"},{"product_id":"the-sun-is-free-to-flow-with-the-sea","title":"The Sun Is Free To Flow With The Sea","description":"\u003cp\u003eOnyx Brass, described by BBC Music Magazine as \"the classiest brass ensemble in Britain\", celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2023 with their second release on NMC. Since its establishment the group have been pioneers in advocating the brass quintet as a medium for excellent new chamber music, and have commissioned over 200 new works. This new album, \u003ci\u003eThe sun is free to flow with the sea\u003c\/i\u003e, perfectly epitomises Onyx and their values, as a compendium of new music written specially for the quintet by some of the most renowned composers working today. Some works on the album have roots in conversations that took place more than a decade ago, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage's groovy but majestic ONYX30, and Errollyn Wallen's jaunty ONYX. Other works owe their inception to much more recent events, like Roxanna Panufnik's early lockdown project, Fanfare for Broadway Tower, commissioned by Onyx trumpeter Alan Thomas who asked composers to write music inspired by a location that he could easily run or cycle to with his trumpet.  Charlotte Harding takes inspiration from architecture for her angular Rhombus, while Emily Hall found her stimuli in poems by Arthur Rimbaud. Other composers were inspired by much more personal happenings, such as Yshani Perinpanayagam whose emotive Music for My Stolen Breath is built from transcriptions she made of her breathing rhythms whilst experiencing trauma in response to a racist attack in her place of work. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NMC Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50523650490699,"sku":"2052488","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/The_Sun_Is_Free_to_Flow_with_the_Sea_d27fb2db_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728022381"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/nmc-recordings.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}