Created in the summer of 2017, at the initiative of Canadian pianist Renee Rosnes for International Women's Day, Artemis is a collective, international, transgenerational, and exclusively female jazz group. Quite a unique phenomenon in this day and age. With a first eponymous album released on the Blue Note label in 2020, which was favourably received by international critics, this lineup is back to delivery this new opus, albeit with a slightly changed line-up — Ingrid Jensen retains her role on the trumpet and the rhythm section remains unchanged (Rosnes on piano, Noriko Ueda on double bass and Allison Miller on drums). However, the newcomer Nicole Glover takes the place of Melissa Aldana on tenor saxophone while Alexa Tarantino assumes the alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, and flute (replacing Anat Cohen). The album is divided into eight beautifully crafted themes (two covers by Lyle Mays (Slink) and Wayne Shorter (Penelope) and six original tracks showcasing the compositional talents of each member of the group). A vast register of forms covers the entire aesthetic spectrum of a jazzy modernity, so typical of the Blue Note label’s heritage. Artemis develops lyrical, sophisticated, and continually seductive music, varying in moods and colours with shimmering arrangements and solo interventions of great emotional intensity, without ever losing the overall coherence of their ambition. Renee Rosnes’ (pianist, arranger and musical director for the group) influence remains apparent throughout the album, anchoring the group’s music in the tradition which it has honoured for more than thirty years, together with illustrious musicians like Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter and even Ron Carter — but throughout this well-executed project, the richness of the album's content undoubtedly owes its body and soul to all the musicians involved. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

Wielding her violin like a huntress' bow, Lindsey Stirling focuses her classical crossover vision with a deeply imaginative concept for her fifth album, Artemis. Named after the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon, the effort finds Stirling hitting her artistic stride with a grand soundtrack to a movie that doesn't yet exist, like a neon cyberpunk take on Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings score. Making her early work feel small-scale by comparison -- early-2010s tracks like "Song of the Caged Bird," "Beyond the Veil," and "Heist" come closest to what she's offering here -- Artemis also benefits from fewer special guests, which was a distraction on her previous full-length, Brave Enough. Here, Stirling's animated string wizardry shines and her ethereal vocals do a fine job without too much outside involvement. Not to say special guests Amy Lee ("Love Goes On and On") and Elle King ("The Upside" reprise) aren't welcome here; their contributions are just strategic buffers on an album full of highlights, standout cameos in this world Stirling completely owns. Summoning the mystical spirits of old while channeling future dystopian concepts in a heady narrative centered on persevering through the darkness to reclaim our inner spark, Artemis relies on the tension between light and dark, upsides and downsides, and the past and future to tell a heroic story with full cinematic scope. The grand opening of "Underground," which sounds like Stirling's take on an early-2000s J-pop song, is immediately followed by the sweeping title track, a dramatic swell of shiver-inducing energy that is lifted to the heavens upon her vocals. The rest of Artemis proceeds in a similar fashion, from the rousing "Til the Light Goes Out" and propulsive "Darkside" to the magical "Between Twilight" and angelic "Foreverglow." By the time the fictional credits roll with King's uplifting take on "The Upside," listeners might be begging for a fully realized visual accompaniment to this evocative wonder. With less folksy fiddling or outdated EDM to bog it down, Artemis signals an evolution for the artist, revealing itself to be Stirling's strongest work to date and a pure thrill for fans of her particular hybrid style.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

Super groups are often over marketed and rather dull. However, this appears to be the complete opposite with Artemis’s debut album, released on Blue Note Records. Behind the Artemis name, Greek Goddess of nature, the hunt and childbirth, are seven internationally acclaimed female musicians, each masters of their craft. At the head of this multi generational roundup, the Canadian pianist and musical director of the project, Renee Rosnes has brought together the Israeli clarinetist Anat Cohen, the Chilean tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, the Canadian trompettiste Ingrid Jensen, the Japanese double bassist Noriko Ueda, the American drummer Allison Miller, and on two tracks, the Franco-American vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. ‘Each member of Artemis is a unique individual, and this is what music needs, artistic versatility!’, explains Cohen. ‘It’s the people that make life interesting and that make music captivating’. The group’s identity has flourished organically thanks to the seven musicians, each expressing their own vison and perspective yet maintaining a strong homogeneity throughout the record. For Jensen, ‘the character of the Greek Goddess Artemis reveals the energy and the broad musical horizons that our band brings on stage’. This is where the success of the record, focused on natural unification, shines. This vast album, comprised mainly of original compositions also features eclectic covers of The Fool On The Hill by the Beatles, Cry Buttercup, Cry, popularised by Maxine Sullivan, The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan and If It’s Magic by Stevie Wonder. Expert in her field, Renee Rosnes’ musical arrangements capture and cement the artistic creativity of each member. This super group, entirely female in its line-up, sends a strong message to the male dominated jazz world. Artemis’ music is beautiful, intelligent, and challenges the preconceived ideas of the jazz genre. ©️ Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Parisian duo Polo & Pan (Paul Armand-Delille and Alexandre Grynszpan, respectively) have made a name for themselves as producers of infectious, bouncy electronic pop with strong tropical highlights and a colorful, sometimes retro aesthetic. Their 2017 debut album, Caravelle, featured a panoply of quirky samples and singers and stood out thanks to both its tight craft and loungey elegance. Polo & Pan's delightful 2020 EP Feel Good seems to have been a precursor to this second full-length, Cyclorama, as three of the EP's four cuts have been folded into this set. Like the duo's debut, Cyclorama is fashionable, melodic, and undeniably fun, mixing dancefloor appeal with smart pop songwriting. Not unlike their European forebears Air and Röyksopp, Polo & Pan blur the lines between electronic music's traditional roles of producer, artist, DJ, remixer, and composer, managing a bit of each with plenty of finesse while creating a distinctive brand of their own. And they sing! The cinematic "Ani Kuni'' is the album's showstopper here with its cinematic Morricone-like intro and choral melody based on an Indigenous Arapaho chant. The album's sequence winds through carefully paced moods, pitting dark against light with the eerie "Requiem" into "Feel Good" combo before moving into its second half. Polo & Pan have an impressive sense of scope, moving through myriad exotic landscapes without losing sight of their signature sonic palette and innate sense of class. The result feels like a sumptuous global journey accompanied by a cocktail tray and two impossibly suave tuxedoed guides.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

Parisian duo Polo & Pan (Paul Armand-Delille and Alexandre Grynszpan, respectively) have made a name for themselves as producers of infectious, bouncy electronic pop with strong tropical highlights and a colorful, sometimes retro aesthetic. Their 2017 debut album, Caravelle, featured a panoply of quirky samples and singers and stood out thanks to both its tight craft and loungey elegance. Polo & Pan's delightful 2020 EP Feel Good seems to have been a precursor to this second full-length, Cyclorama, as three of the EP's four cuts have been folded into this set. Like the duo's debut, Cyclorama is fashionable, melodic, and undeniably fun, mixing dancefloor appeal with smart pop songwriting. Not unlike their European forebears Air and Röyksopp, Polo & Pan blur the lines between electronic music's traditional roles of producer, artist, DJ, remixer, and composer, managing a bit of each with plenty of finesse while creating a distinctive brand of their own. And they sing! The cinematic "Ani Kuni'' is the album's showstopper here with its cinematic Morricone-like intro and choral melody based on an Indigenous Arapaho chant. The album's sequence winds through carefully paced moods, pitting dark against light with the eerie "Requiem" into "Feel Good" combo before moving into its second half. Polo & Pan have an impressive sense of scope, moving through myriad exotic landscapes without losing sight of their signature sonic palette and innate sense of class. The result feels like a sumptuous global journey accompanied by a cocktail tray and two impossibly suave tuxedoed guides.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

This isn't exactly the Artemis Quartett's first recording of any Beethoven quartets -- there was a disc attached to a BBC Magazine in 2003 with recordings of Beethoven's Opus 18 No. 2 and Opus 131. But for a quartet whose previous major-label experience has consisted of three discs -- one of György Ligeti, one of Dimitri Terzakis, and one coupling works by Berg and Webern -- Beethoven still seems like something of a stretch. But while the listener can tell from the edge of the quartet's attack and the intensity of its expressivity that the Artemis is a post-modernist quartet, the warmth and depth of its interpretations made it clear that it is also deeply in the tradition. Thus, while the intellectual rigor of the furious F minor Quartet Op. 95 compares the first Alban Berg Quartet recording, there is still something of the soul of the first Budapest Quartet's recording in the tone. And while the Fugue on a Russian Theme Finale of the enormous F major Quartet, Op. 59/1, is as vigorously argued as the Neues Leipzig Quartett's recording, there is something of the classic Amadeus Quartet's early '60s recording in the Adagio molto e mesto. One can only hope that this is the start of a complete Beethoven cycle. Heck, one can only hope there'd simply be more releases of anything the first-class Artemis Quartett wants to record. Virgin's sound is warm, deep, and true.© TiVo