David Drake General Iii V Conqueror [2003]

For an album of only seven tracks, Brilliant Trees is an eclectic affair fusing funk, jazz, and ambient. Its best pieces are the moody jazz of "Red Guitar," the dusky atmosphere of "Weathered Wall," and "Brilliant Trees" itself, both of which feature the woozy trumpet of Eno collaborator and fourth-world pioneer Jon Hassell. The record also showcases guest players like Holger Czukay. All in all, Brilliant Trees is an impressive debut and an outstanding achievement.

Pete Namlook was one of the most influential protagonists of ambient music during the 1990s. Inspired by Oskar Sala, one of the pioneers of electronic music, Namlook focused on the untapped potential of analogue synthesizers, often developed or extended in his laboratory. After a nine-year break, the Koolfang series has been resurrected with its trademark "Deep Jazzy Chill-Out" sound, invented long before the current trend of "lounge compilations". This time Pete’s vocals are featured and his voice will go right under your skin and sonically transport you to the beach, the wind, and the salt of Fuerteventura.

No less than the prodigious Meat Loaf once exclaimed of Adiemus (composer/producer Karl Jenkins), "What vibe is that?," but it's likely classical purists will never quite understand this fascinating blend of world music and Beethoven, Chopin, and Rachmaninov (et al.) that creates a musical realm all its own. Jenkins' idea to mix his own compositions - blending orchestral and choral arrangements sung in his own invented language, a truly exotic type of vocalese - with new twists on famous composers is perhaps risky, but will be fascinating to the open-minded. He dives right into the mix with "Rondo," an adaptation of the last movement of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, with the often percussive drama of the orchestra joining or trading lines with the rousing female choral chanting…

Grachan Moncur III - Mosaic Select (2003) {3CD Set Mosaic MS-001 rec 1963-1967}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.16 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 544 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 470 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1963-67, 2003 Blue Note / Mosaic Records | MS-001 | 24bit remastering
Jazz / Post Bop / Trombone

Mosaic Records – that venerable jazz and blues collector's label that issues completely necessary packages by legendary, if sometimes obscure, artists in limited editions on both LP and CD – is a name synonymous with the finest quality in sound, annotation, and packaging, and they are branching out. Mosaic Select is a side label dedicated to bringing to light the work of musicians whose role in the development of jazz was seminal but whose catalog was small, or whose work was neglected or otherwise overlooked. These editions, in two or three CD sets, just like their other boxes, are numbered and limited.

It was The Bach Choir (under Sir David Willcocks) which played an important role in helping rehabilitate the Missa Sabrinensis, and this fine recording with David Hill marks a significant new chapter in the work’s performance history.

Alexander Campkin is renowned as a leading young choral composer who has been commissioned by some of the most prestigious musical organisations in Britain. True Light reveals the energy and majestic sound world that he commands, as well as qualities of reflective intimacy. His Missa Brevis was inspired by seeing a beam of sunlight pierce a cloud of moving incense, the resultant music being built around a sustained pitch, ebbing and flowing. In The First Kiss, he sets two poignant and daring Epigrams by the Greek philosopher Strato.