This debut recital by teenage sisters Camille and Julie Berthollet (Camille plays both violin and cello, Julie the violin) consists of light music, but has an exuberant, fearless quality that suggests deeper things to come. The sisters arrange the program in the manner of a 19th century concert for the general public, with an orchestra trading tracks with a piano in the accompanist slot and a gleeful mix of familiar tunes, ethnic dances, folk-like melodies (here extended forward to Gershwin, whose Summertime gets a highly novel treatment), and movements of serious trios by Schubert, gorgeously played. This would all be enough in itself, but the real fun comes from the constantly shifting roles of the solo violins and cello, variously deployed in arrangements that have in some cases been around for a while (the Gluck tune appears in a setting by Fritz Kreisler), but have never been put together in quite this way. Sample the Paganini Caprice No. 24 and enjoy the deconstruction of Paganini's solo violin work into material for two violins and orchestra. The cleverness with which the whole program is put together belies the lightness of the material, and these are definitely young musicians to watch. Highly recommended.© TiVo

This debut recital by teenage sisters Camille and Julie Berthollet (Camille plays both violin and cello, Julie the violin) consists of light music, but has an exuberant, fearless quality that suggests deeper things to come. The sisters arrange the program in the manner of a 19th century concert for the general public, with an orchestra trading tracks with a piano in the accompanist slot and a gleeful mix of familiar tunes, ethnic dances, folk-like melodies (here extended forward to Gershwin, whose Summertime gets a highly novel treatment), and movements of serious trios by Schubert, gorgeously played. This would all be enough in itself, but the real fun comes from the constantly shifting roles of the solo violins and cello, variously deployed in arrangements that have in some cases been around for a while (the Gluck tune appears in a setting by Fritz Kreisler), but have never been put together in quite this way. Sample the Paganini Caprice No. 24 and enjoy the deconstruction of Paganini's solo violin work into material for two violins and orchestra. The cleverness with which the whole program is put together belies the lightness of the material, and these are definitely young musicians to watch. Highly recommended.© TiVo

The guitar music on this ECM release by Zsófia Boros is all pretty contemporary; the oldest piece is the Milonga of Alberto Ginastera. The composers are an interesting group; Mathias Duplessy is a largely self-taught French guitarist who traveled in Romany circles and learned flamenco styles, which shaped his music. However, none of them is much known, at least beyond France and Argentina. It is impressive that guitarist Boros shapes the pieces into a coherent whole. The overall mood is reflective, quietly lively, suggestive of improvisation, but within her framework, Boros adds numerous shades. Sample El Abrazo ("The Embrace"), by the Quique Sinesi. The album takes its title from its finale, El último aliento ("The Last Supper"), by Carlos Moscardini, a deeply elegiac piece. Boros is a wonder, but even more spectacular is the engineering from ECM, an absolutely exemplary demonstration of how to record a solo guitar. The listener is put into a profoundly intimate space, but that space is not invaded by extraneous noises. This adds up to an absorbing 40 minutes of music for late nights, accompanied by brandy and perhaps other quiet intoxicants. An unusually fresh and fully realized release from ECM that made classical charts in the spring of 2023, despite the obscurity of its repertory.© James Manheim /TiVo

Since their self-titled debut together in 2001, the Millers—Buddy, a supreme guitar texturalist and wise singer/songwriter Julie—have made three honest, unpretentious Americana albums as a couple. (Both also have solo careers.)  Their 40-year marriage has not only survived but it's been apparent since their definitive cover of Richard Thompson's "Keep Your Distance" on their first album that somehow these two musical pros spark each other's best creative impulses. Julie writes the songs and Buddy devises the settings. They sing together and alone. Music is clearly at the core of their relationship. It's a point made abundantly clear in the aptly titled duet, "I Love You," which also happens to be In the Throes' most engaging melody with Julie's words at their nimble best: "I'd go to any extent/ Call up the president/ To erect a monument/ I love you/ Nothing can make it untrue/ Nothing can make it undo/ I'd take a bullet for you/ I love you." While both are acceptable singers on their own, together the vocal blend makes for a transcending force. Their duet singing, with Emmylou Harris added as a third voice, rises to an even higher level in the sweet and sad eulogy, "The Last Bridge You Will Cross," which Julie wrote upon hearing that Congressman John Lewis had died. The loud rocked-up title track features Julie's now raspy voice alone as the regretful lover admitting faults, on the edge of self-loathing: "I'd be independent if I could/ I can't do anything I should/ I'm just a little bitty baby now/ I oughta grow up, but I don't know how." Their voices together add urgency to the raucous, "The Painkillers Ain't Working"—"I've been biting this bullet so long I'm gonna break my teeth/ Feels like the bed I'm on has fire underneath." Bob Dylan had a hand in writing lyrics for an early version of the solemn "Don't Make Her Cry," which Julie eventually set to music and Buddy sings with passion. Recorded in their home studio with Buddy as producer/engineer, the voices—not surprisingly—are particularly well-recorded. Musical guests include Austin guitarist Gurf Morlix, Alison Krauss collaborator Viktor Krauss on bass, and bluegrass fiddler Stuart Duncan. The Millers are a formidable musical duo who effortlessly share the spotlight while pursuing their passion together. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Before and After Science is really a study of "studio composition" whereby recordings are created by deconstruction and elimination: tracks are recorded and assembled in layers, then selectively subtracted one after another, resulting in a composition and sound quite unlike that at the beginning of the process. Despite the album's pop format, the sound is unique and strays far from the mainstream. Eno also experiments with his lyrics, choosing a sound-over-sense approach. When mixed with the music, these lyrics create a new sense or meaning, or the feeling of meaning, a concept inspired by abstract sound poet Kurt Schwitters (epitomized on the track "Kurt's Rejoinder," on which you actually hear samples from Schwitters' "Ursonate"). Before and After Science opens with two bouncy, upbeat cuts: "No One Receiving," featuring the offbeat rhythm machine of Percy Jones and Phil Collins (Eno regulars during this period), and "Backwater." Jones' analog delay bass dominates on the following "Kurt's Rejoinder," and he and Collins return on the mysterious instrumental "Energy Fools the Magician." The last five tracks (the entire second side of the album format) display a serenity unlike anything in the pop music field. These compositions take on an occasional pastoral quality, pensive and atmospheric. Cluster joins Eno on the mood-evoking "By This River," but the album's apex is the final cut, "Spider and I." With its misty emotional intensity, the song seems at once sad yet hopeful. The music on Before and After Science at times resembles Another Green World ("No One Receiving") and Here Come the Warm Jets ("King's Lead Hat") and ranks alongside both as the most essential Eno material.© TiVo

Pianist Alexandre Tharaud has offered a praiseworthy variety of recordings, ranging from Bach and Rameau to contemporary music, jazz, and now a double album of film music where he has to strike a balance that will satisfy both listeners looking for a wash of cinematic sentiment and those interested in a wider range of expression. He does admirably. The majority of music on this double album is French, naturally enough, but Tharaud does not short American composers (and in so doing reveals something of their debt to French music), and there are Italian pieces going all the way back to Nino Rota's score for Federico Fellini's The Nights of Cabiria (1958). The first CD is devoted to orchestral arrangements, taken with just the right tone by conductor Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; the second contains solo piano readings augmented by vocalists (one gets a taste of both the hugely popular singer Vanessa Paradis and soprano Sabine Devieilhe, among others) or instrumentalists (violinist Nemanja Radulovic). Tharaud offers Italian works in various moods (Rota's flamboyant music from Fellini's Otto e mezzo, otherwise known as 8 1/2, breaks things up nicely), and American favorites like Marvin Hamlisch's main theme from The Way We Were bump up against fairly obscure (at least to outsiders) French composers with no feeling of discontinuity. This is an album sure to land on many gift lists in 2022 and beyond, and it is a gift that will be appreciated.© James Manheim /TiVo

Camille and her enthusiastic supporters in the French musical press may be tired of the Björk comparison but, frankly, it is impossible to imagine a record such as Music Hole without the trailblazing work of the tiny Icelandic wonder. Time has abundantly proven than Björk's conception of pop music was a lot more than quirky novelty. Her boundless imagination, particularly in the mixing of organic and inorganic sounds and in the liberation of the human voice as a creative tool (rather than as a lyric broadcaster, or even as a singer), has provided the seeds for some of the most interesting -- or at the very least idiosyncratic -- acts to emerge in recent years. And this is a truly global influence, one that seems particularly attuned to independent spirits the world over, many of multi-ethnic origins: Bat for Lashes, Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Stina Nordenstam, Emiliana Torrini, Cocorosie, Juana Molina, and of course, Camille. Compared to Molina's much acclaimed Un Día, Camille's project of the same year Music Hole is less hypnotic, but certainly more fun. Most tracks develop around a fast beat made up of staccato percussions created with voices, claps, or electronic pulses. In all honesty, it is often hard to tell what one is listening to: this is one of those records meant for headphones. On top of this organic/inorganic groove that only sparsely features traditional instruments (piano, guitar), Camille's vocal inventions are either deployed as a constantly repetitive motif -- as in Juana Molina's album, or prop up in totally unexpected ways -- hence the fun noted above. Perhaps the purest example of this aesthetic is "The Monk," an almost seven-minute wordless tracks (the only one with no lyrics), in which Camille's vocalizing roams from classical opera to Laurie Anderson terrain. According to the listener's sensibility or mood, the results can be fascinating or irritating. Another case in point is "Cats and Dogs," a song that begins as a very French varieté number (piano, languid female vocals, a 3/4 musette tilt) and then, for no apparent reason, midway it suddenly turns into a rhumba that grows increasingly cacophonic, with Camille's voice imitating all sorts of frenzied animal sounds, from barking to nail screeching. Still, for most of Music Hole, Camille's penchant for experimentation is tempered with a definite taste for songcraft, making this album a less challenging experience than it may initially appear. Camille's sense of humor plays a big part on Music Hole's approachability. This is true both of the music as well as her off the wall lyrics, which combine the purely absurd with more personal commentary, as indiscriminately as she switches from French to English. Not exactly your grandfather's idea of pop music, perfectly contemporary, and yet hardly mainstream, Music Hole is a box of surprises that is as intriguing as it is amusing.© Mariano Prunes /TiVo