NEWS FROM THE NAXOS MUSIC GROUP

NXN Recordings was established by Naxos Norway in 2019 with the aim at showcasing the vibrant Norwegian music scene. Our aim is to release innovative, high quality music that bends, explores and challenges the established genres. There’s much to discover in our catalogue; from neo-classical to ambient, jazz and contemporary music, plus many things in between. Our varied recordings all have the recognisable 'cool Nordic sound' in common, yet the music has proved to have global appeal.

Thomas Torstrup – jazz pianist and organist – has already released a couple of recordings together with up-and-coming Norwegian jazz musicians. Torstrup here presents his new material for jazz quartet, resulting in his debut as a bandleader. The album Two Brothers can be characterised as melodic jazz with an original touch and a wide palette of stylistic references. His sources of inspiration range from American jazz traditions, to sacred music, and the world of Olivier Messiaen. Thomas also finds inspiration in sounds of nature, such as raindrops and wind, and those of children trying instruments for the first time!

‘Elegant and classy jazz from young musicians.’
– Adressa.no on debut ;Snøkorn

Organ and tuba. Not the most common ensemble, but a very exciting soundscape with unexplored sound possibilities. Organist Magnus Moksnes Myhre and jazz tuba player Daniel Herskedal met for the first time as students at the music conservatory in Trondheim, and the duo have now created a completely new vibe with Desert Lighthouse. Their many sources of inspiration meet in a shared fascination with the oriental tonal language.

‘Such is the range of Herskedal’s tuba, from deep bass growl to high-pitched cry, and so lyrical his playing, that it is not always easy to distinguish tuba from bass trumpet.’
– AllAboutJazz.com

Since his return to music, Andreas Ihlebæk has become one of the most internationally acclaimed Norwegian composers and pianists. His solo debut The Guest (2017) was immediately declared a genre- and mind-bending masterpiece in Europe’s biggest newspaper (Bild), a level of praise which was unanimously repeated by European music magazines and media outlets across the genre spectrum. The Guest was performed at the 40th anniversary of the Oslo Concert Hall, which Norwegian state radio NRK called “the musical highlight of the year”. Ihlebæk released his second album Northern Lullabies for NXN Recordings in 2020 (NXN8001) to great critical acclaim and a Spellemannprisen nomination (Norwegian GRAMMY). In the lead-up to his third album I Will Build You A House, all tracks have been released as singles and have been featured in playlists by Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Amazon. He continues to be one of the most played composers of modern classical pieces globally.

For a limited time, the Piano Chill playlist on Apple Music will be guest curated by Andreas Ihlebæk. Listen to recordings by Andreas, plus tracks from some of his favourite artists, including Max Richter, Leif Ove Andsnes, Chilly Gonzales, and more. Discover now on Apple Music: https://apple.co/2UaMUFX

The three cello concertos on this album illustrate that fertile period in the second half of the 18th century when features of the Baroque were gradually replaced by the so-called galant style. Foremost amongst the composers inaugurating this change was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach whose Cello Concerto in A major is a perfect example of the passionate and dramatic range that marked him out as a pivotal figure of his time. Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major modulates between older and newer styles, whereas his Cello Concerto in D major is a Classical masterpiece, and a worthy companion to his greatest symphonies.

The digital single release of C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A major: III. Allegro assai is now available, featuring Danish cellist Andreas Brantelid, Concerto Copenhagen and conductor Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

In July of 2021, I finally met with an all-star cast at the Virginia Arts Festival to work on a pandemic delayed project – the first complete recording of the Walton Facade, including the appendix of four poems that had never been captured on recording. Walton’s Facade – and his relationship to the poet Edith Sitwell – is an intriguing story of the artistic brainchild of two extraordinary artists in a fertile and fervid time in an England emerging from the flu epidemic, 100 years ago.

While at Oxford, William Walton had the great good luck to fall in with wonderful friends – Sacheverell, Edith and Osbert Sitwell – a brilliantly literary, artistically avant-garde, zany and very wealthy family – who ‘adopted’ the impoverished young man whom they rightly considered a musical genius. It is not surprising that artistic collaborations flourished – the first, Facade, when Walton was only 19 and captivated by the poetry of Edith Sitwell. Edith’s use of language was uniquely rich and varied, filled with alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia. She treated words almost as musical/rhythmic sounds, mesmerising, hypnotic and haunting. Walton wove her incredible poems into the fabric of his orchestral imagination, where they surface, disappear and glowingly emerge in a fascinating partnership. The pieces are by turn funny, surprising, mysterious, beautiful, troubling and endlessly entertaining.

The film Fabian – Going to the Dogs took part in the Berlin International Film Festival 2021 (Berlinale) and made its German cinema debut on 5 August. The film has licensed music from the Naxos recording of Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Handel’s Serse (Xerxes) on SWR Classic.

In the 1920s in Berlin, Dr. Jakob Fabian, who works by day in advertising for a cigarette company and by night wanders the streets of the city, falls in love with an actress. As her career begins to blossom, prospects for his future begin to wane. Director Dominik Graf adapts Kästner’s novel Going to the Dogs as a grand disco ball refracting eroded dreams of happiness.