Eva's Story: A Survivor's Tale by The Step Sister of Anne Frank by Eva Schloss, Evelyn Julia Kent

"Better by far" falls outwith the classic Caravan Deram label years of "Land of grey and pink", "For girls who grow.." etc., which were indeed better by far than this album. That said, the music here is enjoyable if relatively unchallenging…

In aftermath of their successful American debut at the Monterey Pop Festival on June 18, 1967, San Francisco promoter Bill Graham offered the Experience an extended, five show booking at the Fillmore Auditorium. The gigs were critical to the group, as they had come to Monterey with nothing booked in the U.S. apart from their festival appearance. The Experience initially came on the bill as a support act, along with Gabor Szabo, for the Jefferson Airplane. That arrangement unraveled when the Jefferson Airplane backed out of the gig after one show and let the Experience take over. During the week-long stint in June when the Experience were performing at the Fillmore in San Francisco, co-manager Michael Jeffery had secured a position for the Experience to serve as an opening act for the Monkees on their summer U.S. tour.

Rachmaninoff’s tone poem The Isle of the Dead was composed in Dresden in 1908 – 09, inspired by the 1880 painting of that name by the Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin. The painting depicts a ferryman rowing a coffin towards the Isle of the Dead, and Rachmaninoff, unusually setting the piece in five beats to the bar, captures the atmosphere and the motion of oars in the water in the most extraordinary detail. Dedicated to the outstanding Ukrainian-born coloratura soprano Antonina Vasilyevna Nezhdanova, the ‘Vocalise’ was first performed, by her with the composer, in January 1916. After creating a version with orchestral accompaniment, Rachmaninoff then produced the version heard here, for orchestra alone. Following the Russian revolution and his exile to the USA, the compositional output of Rachmaninoff declined dramatically. In great demand both as a virtuoso performer and as a conductor, he toured extensively, but struggled to incorporate ‘modern music’ into his compositional style. In the mid 1930s he acquired a holiday villa in Lucerne, and surprised the world with his ‘Paganini’ Rhapsody, quickly followed by the Third Symphony. Sinfonia of London and John Wilson demonstrate exceptional ensemble playing throughout, and their glowing string sound suits this repertoire perfectly.

The Woodlands of Old is a 2008 album by the Future Sound of London under the alias of their "engineer" "Yage". It is an electronic record foremost but using more traditional drums and percussion, ex-Propellerheads member Will White contributes drums, along with a number of ethnic sounding instruments, which tie in with the band's description of the album suggesting "the deserts of the middle east to the rain forests of Brazil".