Disguised Masters was created more as a sinful pleasure for the die-hard fans, rather then a strange, marketable album, for which the band is usually known. Only a few of the tracks should even be considered metal. Arcturus, being the eccentric bunch they are, instead provide listeners with one new track, "Deception Genesis," which is very similar in style to La Masquerade, and a series of techno/hip-hop/industrial remixes from the aforementioned album. Don't misunderstand, it is an interesting album, just very different. For the most part, it is an instrumental album, minus the new track, the re-recording of Aspera Hiems Symfonia's "Du Nordavind," and the gangsta-rap remix of "Master of Disguise" (who knew Garm had it in him!). This makes a challenging listen for those new to Arcturus and their brand of brain-numbing madness, better known as symphonic metal.
Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952) is among the most prominent names in contemporary music scene today. This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu includes world première recordings of three works by Saariaho featuring bass-baritone Gerald Finley and harpist Xavier de Maistre as soloists. True Fire is a six-movement song cycle that was written to a commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France, for baritone Gerald Finley with an original idea to explore the scope of the baritone voice. The texts conclusively determined what the vocal expression would be like and how the details in the musical material would shape up.
Growing up in the 70s, unless you were a musical aristocrat, Frank Sinatra was simply old. He was a white-haired man, who seemed to spend his days endlessly retiring and singing ''My Way''. There was a vague notion that he had once been young and cool, but that was several lifetimes away. Then, suddenly, in the mid 80s, Sinatra's Capitol recordings were reissued and it slowly dawned on NME readers that he was indeed the man who all the Costellos, McCullochs and Bonos had spent their formative years listening to…