Encounters at The End of The World (2007)

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Francisco Javier - La Ruta de Oriente (2007) [2CD] {Alia Vox}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 740 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 370 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 688 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2007 Alia Vox | AVSA 9856
Classical / Renaissance / Chamber Music / Vocal Music / World Music

The subject of Jordi Savall's latest historical exploration is the life of the 16th-century missionary Francisco Javier, better known outside the Spanish-speaking world as St Francis Xavier. He was one of the founders of the Jesuits, and travelled widely through the east, eventually reaching Japan and the islands of China, where he died. Savall's compilation uses the historical staging posts of Javier's life and times, from his birth in Navarre to the start of his missionary travels as the scaffolding for a typically imaginative and exotic sequence of musics, which begins in the Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella and ends with the traditions of Japan and China. Like its predecessors, which were centred upon Christopher Columbus and Don Quixote, the musical performances by Savall's ensemble Hesperion XXI and his usual lineup of soloists, complemented here by Japanese performers, is packaged lavishly within the covers of a glossily illustrated 264-page book with texts in five languages. The multilingual presentation doesn't make it easy to find one's way around, but the discs themselves are vividly performed, and their variety is beguiling.

Denada, an album of big band compositions by the talented Norwegian trombonist/composer Helge Sunde, is amazingly complex and original music that brings to mind the work of Maria Schneider. In fact, had I encountered this album in a blindfold test, I would have said immediately that it was a new album by Schneider.

Catherine Coulter is the author of the New York Times-bestselling FBI thrillers The Cove, The Maze, The Target, The Edge, Riptide, Hemlock Bay, Eleventh House, Blindside, Blowout, Point Blank, Double Take and TailSpin. She lives in northern California.
FBI Thriller Series: 1. The Cove; 2. The Maze; 3. The Target; 4. The Edge; 5. Riptide; 6. Hemlock Bay; 7. Eleventh Hour; 8. Blindside; 9. Blowout; 10. Point Blank; 11. Double Take; 12. TailSpin; 13. KnockOut; 14. Whiplash.

Friedemann - Echoes Of A Shattered Sky (2012) {Biber 76841 Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 285 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 108 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Biber Records / in-akustik | Biber 76841
Jazz / Contemporary Instrumental Music / Nu-Jazz / Guitar

In the beginning there was the shattered sky. A window – slammed shut. The glass – broken. The view outside – obscured. Inside: destruction. The end. While scenes like these evoke some terrible drama, they are part of our lives. They occur in our individual biographies as well as in the world as a whole. Everywhere. All the time. Guitarist / composer Friedemann Witecka found an impressive account of sky-shattering on a national scale while reading »Stasiland« by the Australian writer Anna Funder. In this book, published 2003, he discovered the phrase: »pieces of a shattered sky«. The collaps of his own sky occurred in 2010. It was the end which marked the beginning of a new album entitled »Echoes Of A Shattered Sky«.