Epoka Lodowcowa 3: Era Dinozaurów

Founded in 1996, ERA (an acronym for Enminential Rythmn of the Ancestors) is the project of French musician Eric Lévi, whose ethereal, evocative soundscapes began in the tradition of artists like Enigma and Deep Forest. ERA's self-titled debut LP was released in 1998 to widespread success. A mix of dramatic pseudo-orchestral fare and lyrics in a self-designed language similar to Latin and Greek, Era also incorporated elements of world music, electronic, and new age. Following up in 2000 with Era 2, Lévi returned in 2003 with The Mass - whose title track referenced Carl Orff's masterpiece O Fortuna - and sales subsequently hit platinum status in France and Switzerland. The Very Best of Era was released in 2004 and featured all the popular tracks from their previous three records as well as several remixes…

Classics, the fifth Era album by producer Eric Lévi, is similar in style to previous releases but is novel in its new age adaptation of well-known classical works by Giulio Caccini, Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Verdi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Gustav Mahler, George Frederick Handel, and Samuel Barber. The past couple Era albums, The Mass (2003) and Reborn (2008), weren't as well received as the first couple, Era (1997) and Era 2 (2000). Though this didn't prevent them from reaching the Top Ten of the French albums chart, many fans expressed disappointment that Lévi was increasingly running out of good ideas and either repeating himself or, in the case of songs like "Kilimandjaro" from Reborn, making awful music. Rather than come up with fresh material of his own once again, Lévi goes back to the classics for Classics, crafting Era-style new age adaptations of Caccini's Ave Maria, Vivaldi's Spring and Winter from The Four Seasons…

The name of Era's third studio release, The Mass, was a departure from the eponymous titles of their previous albums. "The Mass" was also the name of the album's lead single, a track which differed from Era's previous songs in a significant way: rather than forming the choral backdrop themselves, Era used a sample of 'O Fortuna' (from Carl Orff's famous 'Carmina Burana'). The actual tune is a more upbeat version of "Divano", from Era 2, but the inclusion of the samples is a great idea. Though the track ends slightly abruptly, it remains one of the most wonderfully evocative songs of the New Age genre…

Tim "Ripper" Owens, who had previously sung in a Judas Priest tribute band called British Steel, was hired in 1996 as Judas Priest's new singer. This line up released two albums, Jugulator and Demolition, as well as two live double-albums – '98 Live Meltdown and Live in London…