I listen to nearly all types of music that are out there (and I’m aware of), from black metal to abstract hip hop, ambient to free jazz, baroque to tech trance. There are some genres like blues and county that are virtually absent from my collection, but those are my loss. That being said...

Don’t get too caught up in agreeing with someone. I’d frankly rather disagree than agree. There’s often much more interesting and substantive discussions to be had then. As long as all parties have mutual respect for one another, they can really go all out, clash hard if necessary and then laugh...

I’ve been addicted to this record since discovering it.

State Azure

Yes please, I love to see all of the Anoushka Shankar there is to see. I’m positively addicted to divisive and additive rhythms.

Vicky Chow is one of my favorite female pianists when it comes to contemporary music. Nahre Sol is another great up-and-coming young artist who has her own YouTube channel where she explores various genres of music and tries to learn to understand them in order to broaden her own music...

Janine Jansen is probably my favorite violinist. I can only assume she delivered. I have a cousin who listens to way more classical than me and I believe Mozart is his absolute favorite composer. I on the other hand typically only enjoy very select works from most pre-20th-century composers...

Sōmei Satō is one of my favorite contemporary composers. I believe he is largely self-taught.

This feels like the perfect music for these troubled times.

I may need to check out those Vänskä + Minnesota Sibelius recordings out. I have the complete SACD set of their Beethoven symphonies. I’ve actually heard Vänskä live once, playing clarinet on Mozart’s clarinet quintet with again Jaakko Kuusisto on violin. While I’m not necessarily the biggest...

Aho did indeed study under Rautavaara. He’s incredibly prolific and fortunately BIS has taken upon themselves to document his output as best as they can. I’m personally probably most fond of his concertos, which he has soon composed one for every instrument under the moon, from theremin to...

Cantus Arcticus was the first piece of Rautavaara’s I ever heard. Our music teacher played it to us at school. While I do have a number of his works on CD, outside the violin concerto, I’m not sure if many other of his works have ever made a lasting impression on me. Now might be a good time to...

A lot of people are dealing with sadness, stress and anxiety over the situation in Ukraine. Since most of the releases on Neotantra are geared toward calming the mind and relieving anxiety, they have decided to make their entire discography free/name-your-price for the next 24 hours...

I just heard that Finnish violinist, conductor and composer Jaakko Kuusisto has passed away. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2020. I’ve heard him live multiple times both as a conductor and on violin and jazz pianist Iiro Rantala who is one of my personal heroes also happens to be married...