Fred Thomas

“The woods are still when I look in from the outside. The more I listen, the more I can hear them. My blood is spiked with emerald and I become green, glowing, sprouting new shoots from all over my body…” Diffracting through a greenwood canopy, the poetic words and music of vocalist/violinist/pianist Alice Zawadzki illuminate her unique artistry and the concept behind new album Within You is a World of Spring – the follow-up to acclaimed Whirlwind debut release China Lane. Zawadzki leads an inspiring band of musicians and improvisers in realising her extraordinary, often moving, occasionally droll, original songs: Fred Thomas (piano, drums, percussion, banjo, organ), Rob Luft (guitar), Misha Mullov-Abbado (double bass) and Hyelim Kim (taegum). Integral to the impressive, layered detailing is the Amika String Quartet of Simmy Singh, Laura Senior, Lucy Nolan and Peggy Nolan, and engineer Alex Killpartrick.

Entre jazz, blues et rock, « Desert Highway » possède une dimension visuelle très forte. L’album génère des climats qui ne sont pas sans évoquer ceux des B.O. des films de David Lynch ou l’atmosphère musicale de Ry Coder.

Although her voice is not particularly strong, Thomas does have a knack for creating a gentle bluegrass groove. She is joined here by Seldom Scene, Bill Evans, Dry Branch Fire Squad and others, for a collection of traditional nuggets and a few nice originals.

Rock legends KISS return with Monster, the 20th studio album in their historic career. The 12-track, straight-ahead rock n roll album features collaborations among all four members including co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and longtime members guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer in an album that shows the band at the top of its game. And that s saying something, considering their illustrious, 40-plus year history 28 U.S. gold albums, the most gold records for any American rock band, 40 million sales in the U.S., and a total exceeding 100 million worldwide.