Following releases by Set Fire to Flames, Sylvain Chauveau, and Max Richter himself, Songs from Before is the fifth release on FatCat's 130701 imprint, established as a creative outlet for music of a more orchestrated, instrumental variety. Following 2004's critically acclaimed the Blue Notebooks, Songs… provides a further refined, perhaps even subtler take on Max's narrative landscape, beautifully recorded and cinematic in scope.
The founding of the Berliner Philharmoniker on the first of May in 1882 is annually celebrated with a concert in a European city of cultural significance. For this newly released EUROPAKONZERT Blu-ray Disc all recordings were lovingly restored and converted to High Definition video. Maestro Zubin Mehta was awarded the Presidential Medal of Distinction for his unique contribution to Israeli culture. Sarah Chang has not only received the Royal Philharmonic Award for Young Artist and the Gramophone Award among others, but she was also the youngest person to receive the Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame award. The concert took place at the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
Historically the Torsos' music mixes and mashes guitar driven rock, jazz, hip-hop, funk, soul, r&b, reggae, and drum and bass grooves and concepts, along with future shock percussion, improvisation, acrobatic vocals, and most recently Fiuczynski's eastern, Arabic, and African, microtonal guitar influences. Mad musical scientist David Fiuczynski started Screaming Headless Torsos back in 1984. The band mixed punk-rock and reggae and was fronted by an opera singer based on a model of mixing the vibes of German operatic punk singer Nina Hagen with one of the most vicious punk and reggae bands ever – the Bad Brains!
In 2013, David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label released Who is William Onyeabor?, a compilation of the obscure, but increasingly influential Nigerian musician William Onyeabor. Now (in 2014) follows a 9xCD box set that collects the entirety of Onyeabor’s recorded output.
This trio was formed in the summer of 1998. The mission has to fill the void, evident in prog-genre niche, by creating a "true" retro-progressive sound. Marc Perrcelli on keyboards/synths and lead vocals, Rob Thurman on drums & lead vocals, Michael Soro on guitars and vocals. Influences of the band include ELP, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes and so on from 70-s era. Their first CD "reEvolution" (vol. 1), a concept piece, was released in 2002. Great stuff… Alas, Marc has left the group some time ago. Nevertheless, Navigator goes on.