Ben Astrachan (He/Him) is a musician based out of Chicago, IL. He plays in three other bands: Berta Bigtoe, Astro Heart, and Porkomorph. He was the Cofounder of all three! It's pronounced "Astra-Can."

Feminine Voices celebrates the female voice and the Christmas season, with a kaleidoscopic selection made up of the Magnificat, Ave Maria and carols, each of which is more wonderful than the last. Eight female composers feature in the programme that Christopher Lowrey and the singers of the Altera ensemble have devised, with works by Hildegard von Bingen, Imogen Holst, Germaine Tailleferre, Cecilia McDowall, Joanna Marsh, Barbara Strozzi, Elizabeth Poston, and a world premiere by Kerensa Briggs.

For their 2nd album, “United”, while searching for a creative way to combine both modern- and traditional jazz music, Dutch Jazz Collective (DJC) invited trombonist Ilja Reijngoud and tenor saxophonist Paul Heller, who both composed and arranged the charts for this album. It turns out to be a match made in heaven. It proves once more how effortlessly DJC combines both the modern and traditional styles of big band music. Unity is an essential part of making music - and society as a whole. In times like this it seems to be more relevant than ever.

Dudok Quartet Amsterdam’s catalogue continues to grow with the addition of another brilliant recording, delving into the music of Shostakovich and Saariaho. Shostakovich regarded his 3rd String Quartet as one of his best works and initially gave each of the movements titles such as ‘blithe ignorance of the future cataclysm’ and ‘Forces of war unleashed’, but then withdrew the titles shortly after completing the work. Why he did this we do not know, maybe he was wary of the Soviet authorities reading unpatriotic meanings into them. Whatever the reasons, the 3rd is a powerful statement containing the composer’s dry humour, with a good dash of sarcasm, the sinister and the passionate.

What’s a flutist to do when they love Ravel? Though Ravel gave the flute some of its finest orchestral moments, he wrote little for it as a solo instrument… Alas! Julien Beaudiment and Célia Oneto Bensaid answer this question by borrowing from the repertoire ten of the composer’s greatest works.

As Penderecki himself admitted, it was no easy task for a Polish composer to write a piano concerto in the shadow of Chopin. Yet in 2006 he completed his Resurrection Concerto. Bound to Penderecki by a long-standing friendship, Mūza Rubackytė presents a live recording with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Keri-Lynn Wilson. For nearly a decade, the pianist has championed this monumental, powerful, and tormented score, whose melodic richness, bell-like sonorities, and dramatic intensity reflect the unique imagination of a composer marked by war, inspired by faith, and guided by humanism.

Once upon a time there was an uncommon, little blue planet, upon which was living a species fascinated by the beauties of the universe that was home to it.

Dive into the electrifying world of DARTH MARLEY. Featuring the raw energy of Jülz from Rev Theory, this groundbreaking collaborations together is a fusion …

The motet for solo voice and two dessus, usually two violins, and the cantata with instrumental accompaniment originated in Italy at the dawn of the 17th century. The genre was introduced to France by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and by travelling Italian musicians and rapidly became one of the key showpieces of Italian taste and style. The genre was deployed superbly in the early 18th century by two magnificent composers who were practically contemporaries: André Campra and Nicolas Bernier.

Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich present the second volume of their complete Mahler Symphonies, with his First Symphony, known as the "Titan" in reference to the eponymous novel by the poet Jean-Paul that Mahler greatly admired. Although he abandoned this title three years after the symphony's premiere in 1893, the symphony has, like many of Mahler’s works, "a clearly programmatic character" according to Paavo Järvi: "Mahler was a composer who was truly able to explore the inner world of human beings and to question what goes on inside us.”

This anthology of sacred works - all of which could be used in the liturgies of the Christmas festivities - features some of the leading musicians active in Venice in the 16th and 17th centuries. They range from the earliest, Andrea Gabrieli, who died in 1585, to the most recent, Francesco Cavalli, who died almost a century later, in 1676. At the centre of this broad chronological span we encounter not only veritable giants like Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi, but also prominent musicians connected to them, such as the Saxon composer Heinrich Schuotz, Giovanni Bassano and Alessandro Grandi.

Tenor Richard Resch presents a moving Christmas album that explores the season's deeper meaning through sacred and folk music. Named after Jochen Klepper's powerful Advent hymn, the album traces the symbolic journey from darkness to light, weaving together Baroque masterpieces, traditional carols, and lesser-known gems from across Europe. With works by Rosenmuller, Briegel, Graupner, Buxtehude, and others, the recording offers a musical meditation on hope, faith, and the light born at Christmas. Highlights include the mystical Maria durch ein Dornwald ging, the Byzantine chant Miladuka, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Von guten Machten–a testament to trust in the darkest of times.

It is a great pleasure that OUR Recordings is releasing this exceptional work by Peter Navarro-Alonso, featuring the Grammy-winning ensemble Theatre of Voices and Ensemble Stralo under the direction of Paul Hillier.

Delos is thrilled to announce a new collaboration with GRAMMY® Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer. Famed for its “accuracy of intonation, purity of blend, of color and swagger of style” (Boston Globe), the group makes its label debut with Joy to the World. This new Christmas collection blends tradition with innovation, combining Renaissance motets and fresh arrangements of classic carols with contemporary compositions, including two new commissions from Joanna Marsh. Showcasing the ensemble’s extraordinary ability to move seamlessly and expertly between styles, Chanticleer’s first Delos release conjures a wintertime world of magic, light, and wonder.

Like his flute-playing uncle Frederick the Great, King Frederick William II (r. 1786–1797) was a keen musical amateur. An avid cellist, he studied with the virtuosi Ludwig Christian Hesse, Carlo Graziani, and Jean-Pierre Duport, the latter of whom he appointed his principal cellist in 1773. He commissioned chamber music from notable composers across Europe, received the dedications of string quartets by Haydn and Mozart, and sometimes performed as a member of his own court orchestra. Months before acceding to the throne, he hired perhaps the finest cellist of his age, Luigi Boccherini, as his court composer. Boccherini served the court in absentia from Madrid, dispatching twelve new works per year to the Prussian monarch. Given the king’s insatiable appetite for cello music, it is no accident that Beethoven composed his first two sonatas for cello and piano during his brief but rewarding stay in Berlin.