Fata Viam Invenient ad Astra

Astra is the third studio album by British rock band Asia, released in late 1985. It was the final studio album to feature original member John Wetton until 2008's reunion album Phoenix. The recording of the album took place at several studios in London during 1984-85. It reached #67 in the US on the Billboard 200 chart and #68 in the UK Albums Chart. Strangely, although Astra itself didn't make the top 50, two songs charted well on the US Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, receiving radio airplay in various markets: "Go" (#7) and "Too Late" (#30), and the video of "Go" (based on the futuristic heroine on the album cover) received airplay on MTV.

This delightful disc of Viennese fluff contains some marvelous tunes, plenty of enticing waltz music, and heaps of what Gerard Hoffnung referred to in one memorable sketch as “flagellated cream”. The outstanding items are: Zigeunerfest, a ballet scene that doesn’t sound especially Gypsy-like (but who cares?); the extensive and really cute ballet music from the children’s play Peter and Paul in Schlaraffenland; A Tale from 1001 Nights that’s about as far from Rimsky-Korsakov as you can be while remaining on the same planet; the echt-Viennese Suite de Danse; and finally, an imaginatively scored if only marginally oriental-sounding Chinese Ballet Suite.

Trillian is back with a slight name change and a slew of new features. It's keeping the beta code-name Astra as part of its official title, but more importantly it's been updated for the modern IM world. Skinnable but not modular, the chat client now supports Google, MySpace IM, Skype, and Facebook, as well as AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC. Both POP3 and IMAP e-mail checking see some love here, too.