Prima Facie Records

Stockhausen: Stimmung (PFCD153) £12.50

Composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen – performed by Electric Phoenix

Models 1-51

Electric Phoenix recorded in live performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on 6th April 1997, by John Whiting.

A remarkable, live performance of Stimmung by Electric Phoenix, featuring singers Nicole Tibbe, Judith Rees, Nancy Long, Daryl Runswick, Michael Dore and Terry Edwards, and John Whiting (sound)

For more details, please see the CD web page

A Celebration of Conductor and Composer STEPHEN WILKINSON (PFCD147) £12.50

BBC Northern Singers and William Byrd Singers

Late Afternoon in November* Peter Dickinson 11.35
As I walked out Arr: Wilkinson 5.04
Visions John McCabe 10.13
Rowing down the Tide Arr: Wilkinson 3.23
Betjeman's Bells Arr: Wilkinson – Poem by John Betjeman
- Wantage Bells 2.21
- Uffington 2.22
- Bristol 2.18
The Lark in the Clear Air Arr: Wilkinson 4.09
Siberia John McCabe 7.15
The Piper o' Dundee Arr: Wilkinson 2.02
Sequentia in tempore Natali Sancti David Ellis 6.21
That Time of Year (soloist John Powell) Wilkinson 3.54

All titles performed by The William Byrd Singers except *Late Afternoon in November, performed by The BBC Northern Singers.

Our first release of 2021 is 'A Celebration of Conductor and Composer STEPHEN WILKINSON' (PFCD147), which features a collection of previously released recordings – ASC CS CD58 'Best of the Byrds' – of works by John McCabe, David Ellis and Stephen Wilkinson himself, performed by the William Byrd Singers and conducted by Wilkinson. Prima Facie are delighted to add a world première release of a recording of 'Late Afternoon in November' by Peter Dickinson, commissioned by the BBC for Wilkinson and the BBC Northern Singers for their twenty-first anniversary.

For more details, please see the CD web page

Contemporary Piano Soundbites (PFCD140) £12.50

Composers in Lockdown 2020 - Duncan Honeybourne (piano)

John Casken (b.1949) Tempus Plangendi (2.55)
Phillip Cooke (b.1980) The Turtle Dove (3.04)
David Jennings (b.1972) Melancholy. A Fragment (3.31)
Marcus Blunt (b.1947) Prelude to Better Times (1.57)
Clive Jenkins (b.1938) Quicksilver (2.35)
Francis Pott (b.1957) Poem of the Air (4.18)
John McLeod (b.1934) A Dark Waltz (2.10)
David Lancaster (b.1960) Angelus (5.47)
David Power (b.1962) Joy (1.23)
Sadie Harrison (b.1965) In the Air... (3.04)
Simon Clarkson (b.1964) Everyone Sang (3.33)
Adam Gorb (b.1958) After the Darkness (5.23)
Graham Fitkin (b.1963) R Zero (6.12)
Liz Dilnot Johnson (b.1964) A Little Lockdown Lyric (1.57)
Benjamin Oliver (b.1981) From the Sublime to the Ridiculous (5.31)
Hayley Jenkins (b.1990) I hear you Mr Blackbird - Before March 23rd, 2020 (1.10)
Hayley Jenkins (b.1990) I hear you Mr Blackbird - After March 23rd, 2020 (2.36)
Charlotte Marlow (b.1992) Wayfaring (2.52)
Zoe Sones (b.1998) Rona (3.59)
Luke Whitlock (b.1978) Refractions of Light (4.52)
Ludo Geloen (b.1962) Paralysis (3.39)
Paul Henley (b.1959) Adagietto (3.05)
Peter Facer (b.1987) Diabolical Dance (3.33)

"Contemporary Piano Soundbites is a collection of solo piano miniatures composed during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown and premiered on video during the months of April, May and June. The project, which ranked in the top 10% of Just Giving fundraisers nationally during the month of April 2020, has already raised well over £2000 for the Help Musicians UK Coronavirus Hardship Fund, supporting musician colleagues struggling in the current situation. The disc, recorded in July 2020 under conditions of social distancing, presents a representative selection from the online series. It celebrates the diversity of styles embraced by a broad cross section of professional composers working today, and it was an invigorating experience to record an entire disc of pieces which hadn’t existed less than four months earlier! Especially stimulating and exciting is the juxtaposition of several leading senior composers with some of their most gifted younger colleagues. Several young composers make their first appearances on disc." Duncan Honeybourne

For more details, please see the CD web page

As My Harp Sang Out of Darkness (PFCD139) £12.50

Jane Ford performs arrangements for Celtic Harp by Ronald Stevenson

As a pianist, Jane Ford has performed throughout Britain and abroad for solo recitals and concertos, broadcast on television and radio, and won numerous awards in International Competitions. Alongside her performing and recording experience on piano, Jane has performed throughout the UK on her lever harp, celebrating the Celtic History of harp music.

When the terrifying Covid-19 global pandemic hit the Earth in 2020 and Europe entered lock-down, Jane wanted to use her musical experience, talent and imagination to create a very special Harp album, to send out a message of hope and comfort, and to be a light in the darkness during a difficult time.

More details on the CD web page

The Heart Flies Upward (PFCD137) £12.50

Composed by Mark Darvill-Evans – Performed by Siwan Rhys, Simon Mercer, Steve Waterman and Prima Facie Ensemble

The album features jazz trumpeter Steve Waterman and classical pianist Siwan Rhys, as well as several talented younger musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music who make up the Prima Facie Ensemble. It contains several short, discrete compositions and a ‘stream of consciousness’ over eleven tracks, 'The Heart Flies Upward'.

Simon Mercer - organ / piano
Raya Kostova - piano
Sarah McCann - flute
Siwan Rhys - piano
Steve Waterman - trumpet
Mair Molteno - spoken word
Prima Facie Ensemble

For more details see the CD web page.

Out Now

The Beachcomber (PFCD135) £12.50

Music by Lynne Plowman
Performed by Michael Bennett, tenor, Sandrine Chatron, harp, Oliver Cox, percussion, Owen Gunnell, percussion, James Harrison, percussion, Joanna Lam, piano, Jinny Shaw, oboe d’amore, Lucy Wakeford, harp

Two works, both composed in 2017, form the framework for this album - 'A Field Guide to Pebbles' (five short pieces for percussion duo) and 'Songs of the Sea Dreamer', a song-cycle for tenor and harp - settings of four poems by Russell Hoban.

"Huge thanks go to all the wonderful musician friends who have commissioned these pieces and contributed to this recording, with special thanks to producer Steve Plews." Lynne Plowman

Track 12, 'The Owl-Woman', is available as a FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD

• Logs and Shells - Percussion Duo (from A Field Guide to Pebbles) 1.26
• Fred to Samantha - Tenor and Harp (from Songs of the Sea Dreamer) 3.20
• Pedalling Man - Percussion Duo (from A Field Guide to Pebbles) 2.30
• Mermaid - Tenor and Harp (from Songs of the Sea Dreamer) 2.03
• Panjangle - Percussion Duo (from A Field Guide to Pebbles) 2.54
• The Mermaids’ Lagoon - Solo Harp 7.22
• Lullaby for Ianto - Solo Piano 4.08
• Harrison’s Stone - Percussion Duo (from A Field Guide to Pebbles) 2.15
• Another set of footprints in the snow (after Debussy) - Solo Piano 3.45
• Long, Lone - Tenor and Harp (from Songs of the Sea Dreamer) 2.34
• Bell Patterns - Percussion Duo (from A Field Guide to Pebbles) 2.10
• The Owl-Woman - Tenor and Harp (from Songs of the Sea Dreamer) 3.10
• floating turning spinning - Oboe d’amore and Harp 6.44
• Rain - Percussion Duo 3.03

For more details see the CD web page