CD 2004 29

Andrea Bocelli's work in this Il Trovatore is remarkable. Power, nuance, accuracy, rich emotional range: his Manrico has all of these. If you take the word of those who for whatever reason want to see Bocelli fail (Jealousy? Inability to change an opinion? Ignorance of his current work? The mistaken notion that one person's success hurts another's chances?) and you miss this Il Trovatore, you are missing something phenomenal -Amazon-

Fortunately, this particular Faust , given live in Philadelphia in 1985, has both strong soloists and an idiomatic conductor. It´s one of the best live recordings I´ve heard of the opera, and if the stage production matched the audible level of intensity, it must have been a thrilling theatrical event, as well.Alain Vanzo was 57 at the time of this performance. He was the premier French lyric tenor of his generation, and probably had no match for tone or phrasing in this repertoire. -Arkiv Music-

This "two-fer" couples two of the very best examples of the "New Conniff" sound of the seventies and early eighties that provided masterful rearrangements of popular hits of the time. Following on the heels of the breakthrough Conniff LP, "Theme From the Godfather…," "I Can See Clearly Now" was a new classic for Conniff. It firmly established the "sound," and other highly successful, and eminently listenable LPs followed. As a single continually played on radios across the world, "Harmony" was a logical partner for this reissue. These two CDs reflect Conniff "as good as it gets!"

Anthrax is an American heavy metal band from New York City, formed in 1981 by rhythm guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Dan Lilker. The group was considered one of the leaders of the thrash metal scene during the 1980s and is one of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands with Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer; Anthrax is the only one of the four from the East Coast. As of April 2017, the band has released 11 studio albums, several other albums, and 26 singles, including collaborating on a single with American hip hop group Public Enemy. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Anthrax sold 2.5 million records in the United States from 1991 to 2004, with worldwide sales of 10 million…

Drawing influences by the romanticism of vintage Italian Progressive Rock, Randone present a work of deep melodies, grandiose musicianship and intense emotions. This is pure Symphonic Progresive Rock filled with splendid vocals, superb guitars (both electric and acoustic) with nice breaks and harmonies, great classical piano passages and full-blown synthesizers with at times an Ambient/spacey feeling. There are also undenieable elements of bands playing theatrical and lyrical progressive rock like Genesis, Ange, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso or Marillion, though all are nicely refined under Nicola's own personal way of approaching music.

Virus, from the Bielefeld area in Westphalia, were the best and most famous local progressive group there in the early seventies. In 1970, they won the well-known competition in the Recklinghausen Vestlandhalle - still under their old name of Man’s World. The first prize: Recordings for their first own LP, under the direction of sound magician Conny Plank. That LP, “Revelation”, was released in 1971 and is partly reminiscent of the early Pink Floyd, e.g. in the final part of “Endless game”. On the CD edition on Garden of Delights, the two songs of the first Virus 7” single have been added as bonus tracks. The second and final Virus LP, 'Thoughts', was recorded with a different line-up, again under the direction of Conny Plank, and it was released on the legendary Pilz label at the end of 1971…

Eulenspygel 2 (1971). This album released in 1971 and called "2" because the same band had already released an album under the name Royal Servants. When they decided to write the lyrics in German instead of English they thought they better change their band name to a German one as well. Eulenspygel carried that certain underground German 70's vibe with homemade organ grinds, heavy bass and guitar overlays with heavier vocals. With careful mix of jazz, fusion, prog and rock this album were pretty cleverly arranged and mixed with great imagination, color and tempo shifts…