Conrad Hock

One of the prime figures in the growth of Krautrock, Conrad Schnitzler made important contributions to the early history of Kraftwerk and Kluster. Like many in the Krautrock community, Schnitzler was greatly inspired by influences in the visual artistic world as well as the musical; he studied sculpture with Joseph Beuys, and composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen, also looking to John Cage and Pierre Schaeffer for inspiration. By 1969, he was working with Tangerine Dream, with whom he recorded Electronic Meditation. The album became one of the most distinctive in TD's discography, and Schnitzler deserved much of the credit for its chance-taking approach. …

I may be mistaken, but I think this is Con's first CD, despite more than 30 records and a ridiculous number of tapes. Con, incidentally, was a co-founder of bands like Tangerine Dream and Cluster, although his own music has always been a lot less accessible. It's also nice to see that it's a collaboration with Jörg Thomasius, an East German musician, now getting wider recognition. Tolling Toggle presents 18 tracks of abstract electronic music, mixing analogue and digital synthesis, samples and acoustic sounds, creating slightly bizarre, spartan little worlds, where the conventional sound is shoved face-to-face with the musical outsider. …

The late Conrad Silvert had a rare opportunity to achieve the jazz critic's dream by organizing a concert featuring many of his favorite jazz musicians in unusual combinations. This double LP matches together the pianos of Denny Zeitlin and Herbie Hancock on one fairly free performance, has duets featuring pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi with flutist Lew Tabackin and pianist Herbie Hancock with either vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson or Wayne Shorter on tenor, and four numbers ("Sister Cheryl," "Footprints," "Silence" and "Hesitation") with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (who was then 20), Shorter, Hancock, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Tony Williams. The results are consistently inspired and often memorable.

Barbara Conrad - Spirituals
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 217 MB | Full Artwork: 82 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Naxos # 8.553036 | Country/Year: Europe 1995
Genre: Classical, World, Folk | Style: Vocal, Sacred

The distinguished American mezzo-soprano Barbara Conrad has appeared regularly with the Metropolitan Opera since her début as Azucena in Il trovatore. She has appeared at the same opera-house in Der Rosenkavalier and Les Troyens, both also telecast, in Porgy and Bess, L'enfant et les sortilèges and Aida. A native of Texas, Barbara Conrad has been active with the University of Texas at Austin, where she was awarded the prestigious Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award, and enjoys an international career in opera that has taken her to the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, to Frankfurt and to Cologne, and to major opera-houses in America, with concert engagements in Europe and the Americas and recordings that include her performance as Gertrude in the Hamlet of Ambroise Thomas with Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge.

Premiering to the world at large, Tony Conrad’s gobsmacking quintessential opus Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain is now available to hear for the first time, featuring Laurie Spiegel and Rhys Chatham and arriving via Superior Viaduct just over a year since the death of the iconoclastic avant-garde violinist and composer in 2016.