Jelena Ćirić, Snorri Hallgrímsson, Cécile Lacharme, Oliver Patrice Weder - Tramuntana Tapes II (2026)

The four artists started collaborating as a group in 2023 "at an old shoe factory in Mallorca". Since then, they released an album in 2025 that is now being followed up by a second release. The improvised neoclassical music they create together has the charm and the beautiful energy that inspires the audience with so much ease.

The two releases are characterized by delicate neoclassical soundscapes joined by magical vocals that only boost the soothing and slightly mysterious atmosphere. This all is a result of creating music freely, without a plan or expectations, just fueled by the energy of the group of artists being present in one place in one moment and filled with the need to create something together. Jelena Ćirić sings, Snorri Hallgrímsson and Oliver Patrice Weder play piano and Cécile Lacharme accompanies all of them on viola. I love this multi-instrumental neoclassical team joining forces like some sort of Avengers to save the souls of us, mortal music enjoyers.

Tramuntana Tapes II costs 4 EUR (6 CAD).

Check: Wave

Country: Serbia, Iceland, France, Switzerland

Genre: neoclassical

Label: Moderna Records

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Ole-Bjørn Talstad - Ferd (2023)

The Norwegian pianist and composer Ole-Bjørn Talstad released his debut album via Moderna Records last month. Ferd is filled with delicate piano compositions that make your mind roam freely for those 20 minutes.

The album's title refers to the journey through life that every human being has to attempt. With his piano compositions, the artist expresses the more hopeful and optimistic view on this journey (quite unlike what I would consider the average take in Scandinavian music), with his notes saying that "we've all suffered some hardship, but together we can lift each other up and move on to better days". And so the music here is far from being melancholic: the compositions are calm but also lively and quite high-paced. I appreciate that, but being a sad guy myself, I still like the most melancholic ones on the short album.

Ferd costs 5.5 EUR (8 CAD).

Check: Moltys

Country: Norway

Genre: piano neoclassical

Label: Moderna Records

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Hiroco.M - Still (2021)

Hiroko Murakami creates her music as Hirocco.M and has been releasing singles all over the last year. There's still no longer album but this year's super short EP called Still gives us the taste of what it will be sometime in the future.

Released by Moderna Records, the EP is filled with the most impressive piano-based beauty. The short compositions are like tiny pictures with their own structures and thoughts but short and illusive. This may be the strength of the release: the short tracks make you want to focus more and appreciate them while they last. And it's absolutely worth doing so, not only for the piano music fans. Still the track, but perhaps the whole album as well, was meant to catch the feeling of 2020's stagnation, as the artist states: "yet calm and somehow uneventful, the lack of change created a yearning for excitement, for meeting loved ones and friends I could not. Still, stalled, stuck". If this is a result of this year, perhaps it had its brighter sides.

Still costs 5 CAD.

Check: Still 

Country: Japan

Genre: piano-based neoclassicism

Label: Moderna Records

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Josh Alexander - Bright Morning Jetlag Blues (2020) EN

Bristol-based Josh Alexander is a neoclassical artist whose works are based on piano sounds. Two years ago, he released a great album called Hiraeth and is now back with a charming EP Bright Morning Jetlag Blues.

As the title suggests, the music here makes a seeping ans quite dark morning landscape. The piano keys are exceptionally slow and drizzling like an autumn rain while sounding on the background of mawkish, melancholic strings, so beautiful in After All. And the album goes on like this until the first optimist notes of Winter Garden, for me, this is the moment when the Sun finally rises and the day begins. If this is not a perfect music interpretation of a morning, I don't know what is.

Bright Morning Jetlag Blues costs 6 CAD.

Check: After All

Country: UK

Genre: piano-driven soundscape

Label: Moderna Records

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Josh Alexander - Bright Morning Jetlag Blues (2020) PL

Pochodzący z Bristolu Josh Alexander to artysta neoklasyczny, którego twórczość bazuje na dźwiękach pianina. Dwa lata temu wydał on znakomity album Hiraeth, a teraz wraca z urokliwą EP-ką Bright Morning Jetlag Blues.

Tak jak sugeruje tytuł, muzyka na niej to sączący się i dość mroczny pejzaż poranka. Klawisze pianina są tu wyjątkowo niespieszne i pokapujące jak jesienny deszcz, a wybrzmiewają na tle rzewnych, melancholijnych smyczków, tak pięknych w After All. I tak jest aż po pierwsze optymistyczne nuty Winter Garden, to jest dla mnie moment, w którym słońce w końcu wstaje i zaczyna się dzień. Jeśli to nie jest idealne muzyczne przedstawienie poranka to nie wiem, co jest.

Bright Morning Jetlag Blues kosztuje 18 złotych (6 CAD).

Sprawdź: After All

Kraj: UK

Szufladka: piano-driven soundscape

Label: Moderna Records

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