Easy Virtue (2008)

The performance here of Samson is definitive. It is lively, colourful and highly dramatic. There is no comparison with the tedious performance by the Sixteen on Coro. The performance of the Messiah with limited modern instrumental forces of the English Chamber Orchestra and Chorus with very good soloists doesn't sacrifice grandeur nor does it go to the other extreme of over-blown pomp. It is a very good performamce on modern instruments under the direction of the Baroque music specialist conductor Raymond Leppard.

While a lot of guitar heroes sling their axes for the sole purpose of proving that they are the fastest shredder in the showroom, picking their Mixolydian scales to the nth degree, on the ridiculously named Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock Satriani shines in his ability to hold back and write tasteful verse/chorus songs with memorable hooks…

Riccardo Eberspacher is an Italian composer, producer, and arranger whose music has previously appeared on some of the Buddha Bar and Chill Out compilations. Information on him is scarce, but this would seem to be his debut recording. If you've been puzzled by the term lounge music, or if you ever idly wondered whatever happened to the new age music movement, this CD will give you some meaningful answers. In short, it will tell you that the best of the much-maligned new age genre has become sophisticated, cosmopolitan, and international, and has evolved into what is now called lounge. The 16 generous tracks on Voices are creamy, elegant, and hip…