G.E.N.E. (Grooving Electronic Natural Environments) is a Canadian New Age instrumental band. The idea of this world-famous project was born in June 1987, during a conversation under the stars around a campfire and tents on the shore of the lake in the Canadian woods. That night, Cleo de Mallio took the first steps in a musical odyssey that is still not completed. The conversation was carried on the nature and technology, the world and machines, the new digital sound and lofty emotions. Father of the project and the producer is Michael Weisser - founding member of the German band Software, one of the disciples of the legendary Klaus Schulze, the founder of the company's IC/Digit music, on which he produced G.E.N.E. and Software…
G.E.N.E. (Grooving Electronic Natural Environments) is a Canadian New Age instrumental band. The idea of this world-famous project was born in June 1987, during a conversation under the stars around a campfire and tents on the shore of the lake in the Canadian woods. That night, Cleo de Mallio took the first steps in a musical odyssey that is still not completed. The conversation was carried on the nature and technology, the world and machines, the new digital sound and lofty emotions. Father of the project and the producer is Michael Weisser - founding member of the German band Software, one of the disciples of the legendary Klaus Schulze, the founder of the company's IC/Digit music, on which he produced G.E.N.E. and Software…
Best remembered for their 1978 hit "Driver's Seat," London-based new wave combo Sniff 'n' the Tears emerged from the remnants of the little-known Ashes of Moon, which disbanded in 1974 after failing to stir up much label interest…
Here is a package that satisfies intellectual curiosity and is musically delightful. This two-disc set begins with a precise, but still musical, harpsichord performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations by Céline Frisch. Her Aria is clean, with both the melody and the bass line countermelody clear and phrased so that everything comes together well. Her ornaments fit naturally into the melodies throughout the variations, without drawing attention away from the tune, and she always has a sense of direction and forward momentum. The second disc contains the 14 canons on the first eight notes of the bass of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations and the two songs that are contained in the quodlibet near the end of the Variations. The canons are rich and warm performed by Café Zimmermann, a string sextet that includes a double bass, with excellent contrasts in the feel of each canon. The song Cabbages and Turnips Have Driven Me Away is the highlight of the two discs. Period instruments accompany Dominique Visse as he sings about a hunter bringing a girl home to meet his mother. Visse switches from a jolly, idiomatic tenor voice for the hunter to a smooth alto for the girl, and a slightly grating alto for the mother, often in mid-verse.