Introducing Winter Tales – a new seasonal album featuring music from some of the label’s star composers, who were invited to reimagine the music of Christmas and Chanukah, drawing inspiration from their childhoods and homelands. The album, which is due for release on 21 October, comprises 12 very personal responses to that creative challenge, all of which have something fresh and timely to say about winter’s promise of renewal and light’s power over darkness. A new Brian Eno song is a rarity anyway, and can already be heard on youtube.
Michael is sending heartfelt greetings from the Black Forest, and, according to a rather cryptic postcard, he has by now finished his autumnal retreat and found shelter from the stars in a fine hotel at the margins of a small town named Villingen. He is meanwhile lost in season 1 of the wonderful series „Nine Perfect Strangers“ and calls that one his second parallel world experience in a very short time: microdosing LSD seems to be the call of the season, but he prefers the simple illusions of red wine. Or so he says. The books on his night console: „The Hurdy Gurdy Man“, by Donovan, and „Harlem Shuffle“ by Colson Whitehead. Obviously in time traveling mode, the only record he is listening to these days, is „Nancy & Lee“, the one with „Sand“ and „Summer Wine“. Ready now for „Winter Tales“. Or so it seems.