Ever had your mind blown by some thrilling, strange new sound and wondered, “Where on earth can I find more music like that!?” Look no further. The following Modern Classical Masters, all recorded for the flagship classical label Deutsche Grammophon, are some of the most influential musicians you may have never heard of; together, they [...]

Man, I don’t know where to begin. One of the most best labels ever. Nonesuch is the home to most of my favorite classical recordings of all time, and most of them came in with today’s new haul. The Kronos Quartet, John Adams, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Arvo Part, Louis Andriessen… we got quite a [...]

A wonderful composer. His most famous piece is undoubtedly his Symphony No. 3, the highest-selling piece of contemporary classical ever. It is simple and moving, and if you know it and love it, you should hear more of his work. He was 76. He will be missed. Download: Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 Symphony No. 2 [...]

I’ve been going on and on about this record for awhile now; it’s crazy and overblown and beautiful. It’s art-rock; it’s classical; it’s proggy. I love it. As I initially put it to my friends, “it sounds like Todd Rundgren, Ariel Pink, and Owen Pallett trying to make American Idiot.” I mostly got blank stares. [...]

Innova Recordings was founded in 1982 by an organization called the American Composers Forum so that composers, that most embattled and consistently maligned species of contemporary music makers, would be able to record the forward-thinking, fresh and visceral music they were making. This was music that had a firm foothold in no markets — not [...]

Last night at Carnegie Hall, I attended the U.S. premiere of La Commedia, a 100-minute opera about Hell. There were tumbling jazzy episodes; passages of stringent, chilly modernism; bursts of propulsive minimalism; a children’s choir; and a rambling spoken monologue by a racist, cranky old man. It was, to put it mildly, a bit of [...]

We got this a month ago, but I am somehow just getting around to listening to it now and, oh my god, the new Sigh record is throwing me into all kinds of ridiculous, excited spasms. I mean, good god, where the hell do I even start with this thing? By saying it just knocked [...]

A deeply weird and haunting clusterfuck of an avant-garde record came into eMusic on Friday. It is filed under Jazz, but the only distant relation it bears to Jazz is the fact that it is completely improvised. Otherwise, it lays about thirty miles safely outside of any genre borders. It is called The Songs, and [...]

My friend Ben’s obsession with the perfect-spring-music pop album that Phoenix is about to release (I am late on the Phoenix train by at least three years, but hoo boy I’m on board now) led him to Google the term “Lisztomania,” the title of the first track off of the upcoming Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Lisztomania, [...]

Hello!! So. My name is Jayson Greene, and I’m the “new Todd,” in eMusic office parlance. If you Google my name, (…..not like I’ve done that — ever) you will find that there is a lead singer of a “screamo” (scare quotes firmly in place) band called The Panthers with my name, even with my [...]

I don’t ask for much. All I wanted last night was for Goldie to win Maestro and for British Sea Power or Burial to win the Mercury. But the Mercury judges clearly don’t care for my views and gave the prize to Elbow for The Seldom Seen Kid. Curses. But my Mercury choices never win, [...]

In my early 20s I shared a large mouldering Victorian house in Crouch End, north London. The four of us were all broke and underemployed: there was a half-finished art installation in the hallway and there were mice in the kitchen. We spent a lot of time drinking cheap wine and playing music. Jack, studying [...]

There’s a cover version I’ve been loving recently, but from none of the usual sources. BBC4 have been running a series of documentaries, cookery programmes, dramas etc all of which attempt to “get inside the Medieval mind.” Most of them have been excellent, but it’s the idents created to advertise it that I’ve been loving. [...]

Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Whether you agree with it or not, the New York Philharmonic will be undertaking one of the most important cultural exchanges between the United States and North Korea in more than 50 years tomorrow when they take the stage at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre. Among others, eMusic [...]

I’ve been in love with minimalistic classical music since I can remember. Droning, hypnotic, repetitive, ambient? Sign me up. We got one of the genre’s key titles today, Gavin Bryars‘ “The Sinking of the Titanic,” but with a twist.

A quick note to point out the start of our Year-End user poll — 30 – 21 in the US is here, and that same batch in the UK is here. And I’d love to see the “should win/will win” picks on this one. As for interviews: today we have one with Simone Dinnerstein, whose [...]

The Everly Brothers, Nellie McKay, John Fahey and others pace an incredibly strong selection of Thursday new arrivals.

So much to talk about. Let’s do this:

Yancey and I talked this morning about all the great new records on the site today and I even mentioned to him not to overlook the new Picastro. So what does he go and do in his massive, epic, awesome new arrivals post? He forgets the new Picastro.

With the sorrowful departure of Luciano Pavarotti, it’s unfortunate that for many people, the ever lasting image of the legendary tenor will be of a bloated singer waving the white hankie whilst singing a duet with Josh Groban. This video will help: an excerpt (Ingemisco) from a 1967 recording of Verdi’s Requiem. Pavarotti is 31 [...]