David Sylvian's MANAFON (2009) appeared as a collection of disciplined art songs that relied on his collaborators to inform not only their textures, but their forms. Those players -- Jan Bang, Evan Parker, John Tilbury, Dai Fujikura, Erik Honoré, Otoma Yoshide, and Christian Fennesz among them -- created airy, often gently dissonant structures for Sylvian's lyrics and melodic ideas. Died in the Wool (MANAFON Variations) re-employs these players (with some new ones) in the considerable reworking of five of MANAFON's compositions. There are also six new songs that include unused outtakes, and two poems by Emily Dickinson set to music and sung by Sylvian. The new music here relies heavily on Sylvian's association with Fujikura: he composed, arranged, and conducted chamber strings that are prevalent. Where MANAFON's "Small Metal Gods" was orchestrated by acoustic guitar, laptop, electronics, bass, and cello, this one employs a string quartet that provides greatly expanded harmonics, which underscore the desolate power in Sylvian's lyrics. On "Snow White in Appalachia," strings shift the tune's original sonic gears into diffused, vaporous sonorities. On the title track, Fujikura uses a composed clarinet sample to introduce John Butcher's saxophone, a mixing board, an all-but-unrecognizable guitar, cymbals, and samples to stretch a narrative melody to its ghostly breaking point. Dickinson's poem, "I Should Not Dare," is a standout; its gentle, accessible melody, accompanied by Sylvian's acoustic guitar, is made sharper by Fennesz's electric and samples from Honoré. Parker adds a gorgeous nocturnal saxophone line and Bang provides an unusual string arrangement to create the feeling of deep longing across great distance. "A Certain Slant of Light," also by Dickinson, is less formal but more moodily cinematic with its layers of samples. A delightfully fragmented redo of "Emily Dickinson" completes the sonic re-creation of her image as this set's Muse. On "Anomaly at Taw Head," Fujikura's string abstractions -- introduced by Parker's bluesy saxophone and Tilbury's minimal piano -- add dimension to Sylvian's open field melodic structure. The underlining poetic is tense, but seductive. There is a bonus second disc, too, in Sylvian's 18-minute sound installation "When We Return You Won't Recognize Us." It is a stellar, ambient work featuring Arve Henricksen, Butcher, the Elysian Quartet, Eddie Prevost, Toshimaru Nakamura, and Gunter Muller. It should be listened to on headphones to grasp all of its intricacies. Died in the Wool (MANAFON Variations) showcases Sylvian's restless discipline in expanding his music's parameters, and those of song itself, while offering even greater opportunities for his collaborators to influence its creation.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Reduced to the core trio of McCartney, McCartney, and Laine after the successful Speed of Sound tour, London Town finds Wings dropping the band façade slightly, turning in their most song-oriented effort since Band on the Run -- which, not coincidentally, was recorded with this very trio. And although its high points don't shine as brightly as those on its two immediate predecessors, it's certainly stronger than Speed and, in its own way, as satisfying as Venus and Mars. What London Town has in its favor is Wings' (or, more likely, McCartney's) decision to settle into slick soft rock, relying on glossy, synth-heavy productions as he ratchets up the melodic quotient. This gives the album a distinctly European flavor, a feeling that intensifies when the lyrics are taken into the equation, and this gives London Town a different flavor than almost any other record in his catalog. And if its best moments aren't as strong as McCartney at his best they, along with the album tracks, find him skillfully crafting engagingly light, tuneful songs that charm with their offhanded craft, domesticity, and unapologetic sweetness. McCartney's humor is in evidence here, too, with the terrific "Famous Groupies," which means there's a little of everything he does here, outside of flat-out rocking. It's a laid-back, almost effortless collection of professional pop and, as such, it's one of his strongest albums.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

‘Well, what a surprise – a divine surprise! I have delighted in immersing myself in the world of Handel for more than forty years now. But I must admit that I experienced yet another lesson in strength and joy when I toured and recorded the Dettingen Te Deum and the Coronation Anthems’, says Hervé Niquet. As a lover of large orchestral formations, he has assembled a number of instrumentalists and singers close to the (gigantic) forces used at the premiere, with a large band of oboes, bassoons and trumpets, and assigned the solo arias to the entire ‘chapel’. Niquet speaks of ‘the glittering power of this ceremonial music concocted by a Handel conscious of placing the best of his genius at the service of the crown and of history’, and he in turn invests all his enthusiasm and expressiveness in these works combining ‘grace and strength’. Fans of Champions League football will recognise in Zadok the Priest the theme of that competition’s anthem! © Alpha Classics

Ensemble Caprice and conductor Matthias Maute have gained wide attention for often controversial interpretations of Baroque music that have energy and strong popular appeal. This reading of highlights from Handel's Messiah, HWV 56, will be controversial as well, but it's cleanly executed and succeeds on its own terms. The first unusual aspect is the size, with just 12 singers from the Ensemble Vocal Arts-Québec. This decision was necessitated by Canadian coronavirus-era restrictions, but the performers very much make a virtue of necessity, pointing out that the original performance of the work likely involved only 16 singers. Maute balances his forces elegantly, and the lively performance never feels underpowered. Some of Ensemble Caprice's trademark quirks are here, including quite brisk tempos and some swoopy vocal phrasing (consider "All we like sheep" or the "Hallelujah" chorus), but the coordination between singers and orchestra is impressive. The sound environment of the Maison Symphonique de Montréal works well here, and this is at the very least a fresh Messiah among the dozens that crowd apps and airwaves at holiday time. © TiVo