[esperanto Film] Incubus Leslie Stevens (1965)

Esperanto were an European progressive rock outfit of somewhat unusual origin. Belgian violinist Raymond Vincent, pianist and musicologist Bruno Libert, and a pair of Italo-Belgian brothers, bassist Gino Malisan and his brother drummer, Tony Malisan. The core of the band was Belgian but it was on a trip to England that the original Belgian unit found the remaining members that would give Esperanto their unique sound.
After experiencing success in his native Australia with the Twilights and later Axiom, Glenn Shorrock decided to travel to England in a bid for international success. He was struggling and finding little or no success in England. The Belgians got in touch with producer David Mackay who knew of Glenn Shorrock and bada-bing Esperanto had a lead vocalist…

Cat Stevens’ 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat will be reissued in November across five physical formats, including TWO super deluxe editions. The classic album includes songs such as ‘Moonshadow’, ‘Peace Train’, ‘Morning Has Broken’ and ‘The Wind’. It has been remastered at Abbey Road Studios, overseen by original album producer, Paul Samwell-Smith and as with previous reissues, an extensive super deluxe edition is the premium offering.

The Ascension is the eighth studio album from singer, songwriter and composer Sufjan Stevens and is the long awaited follow-up to Stevens' Carrie abd Lowell. In the time between Carrie and Lowell and The Ascension, Stevens also released Oscar-nominated music for the Luca Guadagnino film Call Me By Your Name; a collaborative album entitled Planetarium with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner (The National) and James Mcalister; The Decalogue, a solo piano work performed by Timo Andres; and scored several works for ballet: Reflections (Houston Ballet) and Principia (NYCB). The Ascension is musically expansive and sweeping in thematic scope.

John Barry's musical sixth sense is legendary. Though he eschewed the wishes of director Sydney Pollack to score Out of Africa with indigenous tribal sounds (and garnered an Academy Award in the process), it wasn't from lack of musical range, as Barry had previously demonstrated so effectively on this score. The composer's work for the gritty World War II Japanese POW camp drama features a jaunty, if typically Barry-idiosyncratic, march and a string-dominated title theme unusual for the genre. The composer infuses his distinctively adventurous arranging skills with percussive elements that give the music a sense of place. It's a score that cuts against expectations and traditions in much the same way as Hans Zimmer's score for The Thin Red Line would 30 years later.

Esperanto had a sound that was uniquely theirs. With violinist Raymond Vincent there are hints of American prog-rockers, Kansas but Vincent's violin playing is in more of a classical European vein than that of Kansas.
Shorrock, Yates, Slater, and Dudoit gave a glimpse of what was to come later when Shorrock would join Mississippi with Graeham Goble and Beeb Birtles and morph into Little River Band. Their vocal harmonies are tight and contribute to the uniqueness of Esperanto's sound. Another preview of Little River Band would come in the form of Statue of Liberty which Glenn would re-record with LRB on their debut album.
For Esperanto's last album ("Last Tango", 1975), gone is singer Keith Christmas (and to a lesser extent 2nd violin Tony Harris) and in comes the duo of Kim Moore and Roger Meakin…