Pipistrelle Music is a new CD label founded by Alison in 2009 with the goal of bringing innovative artistic collaborations of diverse kinds to the listening world. Pipistrelle’s developing catalogue includes Baroque and Renaissance music, outside-the-box classical, and world music with a twist. Currently carrying titles by the genre-bending Ensemble Polaris and Melville herself, discs from this catalogue have earned international critical acclaim, from a BBC Music Magazine’s Disc of the Month nomination, to Toronto Star reviewer John Terauds’s “Prepare to be enchanted.”

Pipistrelle’s catalogue, now available for digital download through most on-line digital vendors, will be physically distributed across North America by Naxos of America beginning in October 2010. Check your local CD vendor in the United States or Canada.
For sales outside Canada and the USA, write to pipistrellemusic@gmail.com.

Click here for Naxos website.

Or you can purchase digital downloads at your preferred online vendor.

The latest release on Pipistrelle!

Windermere String Quartet: The Golden Age of String Quartets.
A critically-acclaimed first release by Toronto’s Windermere String Quartet, featuring quartets by Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart played on period instruments. Engaging, intense and thoughtful peformances!
Released May 2012. Available in stores across North America, and digitally worldwide.

‘Playing period instruments, Rona Goldensher (violin), Elizabeth Loewen Andrews (violin), Anthony Rapoport (viola) and Laura Jones (cello) transport listeners through time to the aristocratic halls of 19th century Austria, where many of classical music’s most celebrated works were first performed. The quartet’s choice of repertoire is impeccable, demonstrating taste and technique….A delight to hear.’

‘Persuasive care went into the Windermere’s choice and preparation of classical period quartets they accord “historically informed performance on period instruments.”… The Windermere’s approach has an attractive, earthy honesty…Well engineered and recorded, this disc will reward repeated listening.’

Ensemble Polaris: UNCHARTED WATERS

Drawn from sessions recorded in April 2009 and January 2011, Uncharted Waters offers 18 tracks running the gamut from evocative laments to sizzling dance tunes, and includes several new charts by members of the band. This is Polaris’s much-anticipated fourth CD.
The whimsical artwork for the cover, tray card and booklet was created especially for the disc by Toronto-based artist Loree Ovens (www.loreeovens.com), and the elegant design is by Yesim Tosuner (www.backyarddesign.ca).

Released February 2012. Available in stores across North America, and digitally worldwide.

In truth it’s not how far afield we’re taken by Uncharted Waters that reflects Ensemble Polaris’ particular genius. It’s how the group leads us to rediscover what we’ve loved all along — a heartbreaking melody, a snappy dance beat — in the guise of some unexpected form.’

‘Wonderful music that refuses to be pigeon holed. Exotic instruments, accomplished players and great ideas come together for something quite unique.’

‘The musicianship is outstanding and the Ensemble plays with joy and wit. Even my children like this one.’

The Business of Angels

The Business of Angels - Cover

The Business of Angels - Booklet

The Business of Angels explores recorder music from the cosmopolitan and eccentric musical world of early 18th-century London.
Sonatas, divisions and other tunes by Corelli, Händel, Wm. Topham, Paisible, Daniel Purcell, Mercy and several others come enthusiastically to life as played by Alison and Lucas Harris, guitar and archlute; Borys Medicky, harpsichord; Joëlle Morton, bass viol; and Nadina Mackie, baroque bassoon.

Available in stores across North America, and digitally worldwide.

 ‘Si l’angélisme est une entreprise, alors celle de ces musiciens de Toronto est promise à une belle prospérité… les pièces sur ce disque constituent de beaux exemples de musique profane anglaise du 17e siècle…jouées avec brillance par les musiciens torontois. Alison Melville est une interprète de premier niveau…’

‘Alison Melville is one of Canada’s leading recorder players; her performances here combine scholarship, elegance and vitality, and capture the spirit of the music with authority and conviction. The four continuo players enable various combinations to be selected that provide both substance and transparency. Deserving of special note is the bassoon playing of Nadia Mackie Jackson…a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable disc.’

Alison can be contacted at alison@alisonmelville.com.

Photo Credits: Paul Orenstein (banner); Colin Savage