Belfast Maine 1999

Allan Taylor is one of England's most-respected singer/songwriters. His songs have been covered by artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Don Williams, Frankie Miller, Fairport Convention, Dick Gaughan, the McCalmans, the Fureys, the Clancy Brothers, and De Dannan. Folk Roots praised him for his "ability to crystallize a mood and evoke an era with the ease of a computer memory access, crafting perfect songs with dramatic changes in the spirit of Brecht, Bikel, and Brel." The Oxford Book of Traditional Verse felt as strongly, writing that Taylor was "one of the most literate and sensitive of contemporary songwriters in terms of words and music and one who is capable of exploring more complex subjects than most of his contemporaries."

Though it received little attention at the time of its Swedish/Netherlands-only release in 1967, the album “Them Belfast Gypsies” has long been established as a stone-cold classic of rabid British garage punk/R&B.

By 1997, Crosby, Stills & Nash were without a label thanks to a drastic artistic slump, but they began working on a new album, paying for studio time out of their own pockets. Neil Young expressed interest in the tapes, and suddenly, a new CSNY album was in the works. Even though Young's continual tinkering pushed its release back by months, Looking Forward still feels rushed and half-finished. It's immediately apparent that the record began as a self-financed project; it sounds weirdly muted, as if all the levels weren't set accurately; similarly, it's possible to hear sometimes awkward overdubs added to basically completed tracks. While they may have named the album Looking Forward, CSNY are alternately nostalgic and haunted by the past, which colors their attempts to look toward the future. All four of Young's songs fit squarely within the Harvest tradition, as he tries to balance his restless nature with growing old…

Shaman provides music and titles "evoking images of ancient and non-Western cultures". Conceptually, the album seeks to transport the listener into the mystical past of early civilization. Parsons accomplishes this by using some of today's most sophisticated music gear. Here his synth programming abilities are evident as Parsons creates sounds alien to the acoustic world. Repetitive patterns, reminiscent of '70s Berlin School, influenced by Eastern sensibilities are at the core of this release. Most of the six tracks build from a feeling of anticipation and continue on to sweep us away in a rapid swirl of synth rhythm patterns. The philosophy behind Shaman may be from the dawn of time, but the sounds are that of the 21st century.

The Complete Works for Flute and Clarinet: In both original works and transcriptions, the Ebony Duo explores Scelsi’s use of special sound colors and his coloring of sound. Transcriptions especially prepared by the clarinetist (and pianist) Michael Raster provide the basis for some of the works on the present album. Yet Scelsi’s original intentions incurred no damage as a result of this recrafting. To the contrary! “The formidable technical demands that playing on two strings with in part opposite dynamics places on the solo violinist certainly justify an adaptation for two instrumentalists – all the more so as Scelsi himself had already been concerned with the “third dimension”, the depth of sound, in connection wind instruments before, especially in the piece Ko-Lho for flute and clarinet.”