Ar Re Yaounk

"He will quickly be forgotten." That was Rimsky-Korsakov's unkind but not inaccurate prediction made shortly after his pupil Anton Arensky's death from tuberculosis at the age of 35. His prediction was unkind in the sense that Arensky's stylish and lyrical works rank with those of Liadov, Kalinnikov, and Ippolitov-Ivanov for melodic charm and orchestral color. But his prediction was accurate to the extent that there have been few performances or recordings of Arensky's music in the century since his death in 1906. Indeed, aside from this undated recording with Evgeny Svetlanov leading the Academic Symphony Orchestra, there has apparently been only one other recording of Arensky's symphonies in the past half century – Valery Polyansky's on Chandos – and none before that at all. For die-hard fans of Russian music, this state of affairs is a shame because as Svetlanov's performances demonstrate, Arensky's symphonies deserve to be heard.

Ars Nova: This female keyboard trio started in the next line-up: Keiko Kumagai (keyboards), Kyoko Kanazawa (bass) and Akiko Takahashi (drums). In '92 ARS NOVA released their promising debut-album "Fear & Anxiety", a tribute to ELP with floods of powerful Hammond organ and flashing synthesizer solos, supported by a strong and adventurous rhythm-section. After several album and changes in the line-up, ARS NOVA is still going strong and end 2003 the trio released their new CD entitled "Biogenesis Project": it's loaded with spectacular instrumental prog rock in the vein of ELP, UK and TRACE. The current ARS NOVA includes Keiko Kumagai (keyboards), Akiko Takahashi (drums, voice) and Mika (vocal and chorus)…

This disc is a perfect demonstration of what treasures might be waiting to be rediscovered among Charles Koechlin's huge and still drastically undervalued output. Both the Piano Quintet and the Third String Quartet were begun during the first world war, and the bulk of work on them was completed soon after hostilities ended; the Quartet was first performed in 1924, but Koechlin continued to revise the Quintet for another 10 years before it received its premiere.

Admirers of the string quartets of Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel will be happy to discover the refined string quartets of Charles Koechlin, a contemporary of those composers who wrote in a rather similar vein. These attractive chamber works, like the rest of Koechlin's oeuvre, are quite obscure and had been unduly neglected until the Ardeo Quartet chose to record them for its debut CD on Ar Re-Se. The String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 51, is dated 1911-1913, though it appears to have gestated since 1902, and the String Quartet No. 2, Op. 57, was mostly composed between 1911 and 1916, though its sketches show some material going back to 1909; both works therefore partake of musical styles developed between fin de siècle Impressionism and the later innovations of Erik Satie and Les Six, but these works reveal a stronger emphasis on the former. The sweet, placid music that flows in both quartets is balanced by some jaunty, folk-like elements and occasional flirtations with changing time signatures and polytonality, but the calm atmosphere of these quartets is largely undisturbed by the encroachments of modernism.

Legendary Swedish heavy-progressive band who released 6 albums between 1974 and 1992 (plus a retrospective in 1996) and reunited and released a couple of new albums from 2004 and on. However, the only addition to the normal guitar, bass and drums instrumentation is some mellotron here and there. It's musical excellence with plenty of extended gratuitous guitar jams and very intricate lyrics. In several ways, Trettioåriga Kriget ("The 30-year War" in English) can be compare to Änglagård and Landberk to sense their influence. The first, self-titled is in many ways like Rush circa 1980. "Krigssång" is an album that fans of 70's rock in general will enjoy, and not just progressive rock listeners. In sum, this is one of the defining Scandinavian prog albums. The first two albums are necessary for any serious exploration of the region. The albums released after the reunion show that the band hasn't lost their touch!