Alula is the new album from Brooklyn-based composer and performer Caroline Davis. The record is available exclusively through New Amsterdams Bandcamp subscription as part of the Windmill Series, a new digitally-focused set of releases for subscribers in addition to our existing release schedule.

One of the most exceptional female artists of the 19th century celebrates her 200th birthday in 2019. The acknowledged Clara Schumann expert Ragna Schirmer has devoted a special act of homage to her artistic predecessor, taking two original concert programmes selected from Clara's decades of concert performance and recording them to provide insight into the life and work of this very special woman.

Reto Bieri’s solo album Contrechant, released in 2011, was widely praised for the Swiss clarinettist’s beauty of tone and his uncommon expressiveness with extended instrumental techniques. Quasi Morendo begins with a new exploration of one of the pieces featured on Contrechant, Salvatore Sciarrino’s Let Me Die Before I Wake (1982), with its “whisper-quiet sound world of harmonics, multiphonics and tremolandos” (The Guardian). Bieri is then joined by Finnish string quartet Meta4 for a profound interpretation of Johannes Brahms’s Quintet op 115 (1891).

Only few cellists are as inspiring as Raphaela Gromes: her cello playing is virtuosic and vibrant, full of passion and technically brilliant, versatile and charming at the same time. She fascinates her audience as soloist as well as duo-partner or member of a wind-quartet, her performance being fantastically challenging and extraordinarily light-footed.

Sol y vida is Elīna Garanča’sjourney to the South, from Spain to Italy and Latin America, and is her first album focusing entirely on non core-classical repertoire.

"For me, Mozart’s music is timeless and not linked to any specific instrument. It communicates a sense of pure joy, a lightness based on depth, a feeling of unbridled singing. It evokes images of an exuberant child dancing across a meadow. That’s Mozart’s spirit for me: an unconditional devotion to life, a love for reality, acceptance and ultimately reconciliation."

There’s something about the Swedish city of Malmo that doesn’t add up.

Ternion Quartet’s sophomore album, Invincible Nimbus (available May 10 on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records), which showcases an ensemble of highly-creative, accomplished artists utterly in tune and musically enamored with one another, stretching out their seemingly inexhaustible imaginations, is about selflessness and being open to dialogue. Iversen elaborated that, “In music there is no room for selfishness. Music only lives and thrives when a dialogue is present. Only by giving room to others, by listening and by taking part in the conversation, can we lift ourselves out of the needy, greedy, self-centered orientation that threatens to grab us all. This is evident to all of us who are intimately familiar with music - and this is what we all intuitively respond to and love about music. My hope is that music can inspire more people, and especially people who have the power to make a difference in our current state of the world, to listen, omit selfishness and to respect other ideas than their own.”

Yuko Mabuchi Trio thrills audiences with every concert. Her January performance opening for Branford Marsalis in the 1,800 seat Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall whet international jazz appetites. She next headlined the Arlington Jazz Festival in Texas, and Yuko Mabuchi Trio performed in Blues Alley in April as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D. C. European and Asian stages beckon. Yuko’s debut recording on Yarlung, "Yuko Mabuchi Trio," was a top seller in the Yarlung catalog last year, in all formats. Yuko deserves this success. "The Absolute Sound" published a rave review of her Segerstrom concert.

Gold is the latest from Little Sue. Combining her penchant for pop with her outlaw-country sound and a hint of John Lennon, Sue has again spun her heartbreak into this shimmering fabric with seven originals plus a cover of the ELP classic, From the Beginning. On Gold, Little Sue recalls, "My heart has been broken many times, most recently in a complex and confusing way. Last year, as I sat crying about it, I heard the voice from departed friend and musical hero Jimmy Boyer, sounding as clear as when he said these very words to me over twenty years ago; 'Aw Lily, your heart's broke. Go home and write some songs'. So that's what I did hoping in some way to heal the gaping wound, and I turned them into Gold".

Parachute is the fifth studio album for the band; the album was produced by Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Dawes, Tom Waits, Modest Mouth, Norah Jones, Josh Ritter, Punch Brothers). All songs were written by Will Anderson except "Ocean" and "Talk to Me" by Will Anderson and Jackson Morgan. Fans and critics alike are no stranger to Anderson's impeccable ability to connect as a songwriter, with Billboard hailing that he has a "knack for writing emotionally connecting, hook-laden songs that linger in the brain for days' as well as Idolator calling the band's past songs, "well-crafted and infectious."

'Swimming Lessons' is the full-length follow-up to The Skints critically acclaimed and fan-adored last release, 'FM' (2015). It features a thrilling mix of styles, as well as guest appearances by Grammy-nominated artist Protoje, Jesse Royal, and Runkus. The Skints, have clawed their way up from the depths of the underground punk/ska scene to become a unique fixture on the global reggae stage. Drawing influences as wide as soul, pop, grime, and hardcore, their original brand of "tropical punk" has seen them evolve in to one of the hardest working and most respected bands in UK music. Produced by The Skints in collaboration with Mike "Prince Fatty" Pelanconi, Ben Lamdin, Jack Longman and Pete Miles.

"New York duo discover and deploy the power of subtlety.. In all, a fiery triumph' wrote Mojo of their acclaimed 2014 album Eight Houses. Now, they are diving even deeper. A meditative and endlessly turning clutch of songs, She Keeps Bees' Kinship reasserts the band's elegant power in a stream of loss and regeneration. Death, birth, both personal and in reflection of Earth itself emerge through Jessica Larrabee's focused, empowered voice. With Larrabee and Andy LaPlant's first album in four years, She Keeps Bees peels away their distorted guitars and fills the void with hypnotic organ, keyboards, strings, a tight bed of drum grooves, and a direct lyricism full of with wisdom and intention. "Dominance is a dead end, restore the balance.." Jessica sings in one song…. Kinship is an album that radiates its messages with deft knowledge and immeasurable strength.

Esperanza Spalding has announced an audacious new project called ‘12 Little Spells’ that finds Spalding conjuring in the medium of musical creation, through an exploration of the body, human energy and healing. Esperanza released one new spell per day on her website and social platforms as well as a “Liner Notes Live” hosted on Facebook all resulting in over 3.1 million views. The spells come in the form of new music, which was crafted by Spalding at a castle in Italy last month, and then recorded in sessions completed just yesterday in Brooklyn. Each spell will be presented with song-specific imagery and video spells (short films that will accompany each release).

Swedish hard-hitting alt-rock trio Port Noir blends old-school rock with contemporary pop, r&b and hip-hop in a creative and minimalistic fashion. Inspired by bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Death from Above 1979, The Weeknd, Daft Punk, Queens of the Stone Age this trio makes for a fresh and interesting addition to the rock scene. The New Routine doesn't hold any punches. Its direct, energetic and intense soundscape grips the listener from the first second. "We went back to the music we grew up with and tried to find out what got us into playing in a band in the first place and fused it with the music that inspires us today. The result is our best album yet. It's The New Routine."