2/3 a.m.

Excellent release by the italian guitar Duo Lumen performing the Rosarivm-cycle by the fairly unknown czech composer Jan Novák (1921-1984).

Contemporary classical music for guitar without any folk references (especially to spanish or latin american music) is pretty hard to find. Here’s a very fine example of a well structured, complex, yet accessible modern music for guitar that points in a specific non-folkish direction (not that I wouldn’t like that).

In my humble opinion, this is a major release in the well hidden cc classical music scene!

Don’t miss this, if you’re into classical guitar and/or contemporary music.

The cycle has been released as free download a couple of weeks ago on the excellent italian netlabel Parafonica.

Read more about it here:

http://parafonicanetlabel.blogspot.com/2012/06/duo-lumen-plays-jan-novak-rosarium.html

Download it here:

http://archive.org/download/par007DuoLumenPlaysJanNovk-Rosarivmjune102012/DuoLumenPlaysJanNovk-Rosarivmpar007-2012.zip

»It feels good, but is it good enough? Take to the men in white coats …«

This may be my personal soundtrack for this rather humble summer. Excellent psychedelic pop/rock with a lot of 70ies taste and hints of Beatles, 10CC, Porcupine Tree and early Brian Eno (the pop-Eno, not the ambient Eno).

Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana is probably the most popular choral composition of the 20th century. If you haven’t a copy of it on CD (or on your iPod), here’s a free recording featuring the MIT Concert Choir:

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/MIT_Concert_Choir/Carmina_Burana_Carl_Orff/