Grace & Favour

Understanding Grace and Faith. Grace as the undeserving favour of God and Faith being the substance of things hoped for.

A tribute to the music of AC/DC: Hard rock becomes lyrical chamber music dimmed down to impressionist ballads which are fully improvised right down to their framework. It’s the comeback of the year - after eight years, pianist Jens Thomas is presenting a new album on ACT, and a very unusual one at that: “Speed of Grace” – a tribute to the music of Australian hard rockers AC/DC, featuring not their typical loud rock, but rather music which is more reminiscent of intimate ballads. That the name Jens Thomas needs to be explained to young jazz fans also shows how short lived the jazz industry can be, as it was only a decade ago that this same Jens Thomas had one of the most rapid career ascents in German jazz history.

Look Blue Go Purple blossomed in Dunedin, New Zealand alongside many of the seminal Flying Nun bands (The Chills, The Clean, Bailter Space, etc.) of the mid-'80s. This quintet featured an impressive line-up of eccentric-pop ladies some of whom earned considerable credibility in their other projects.

The poetic travelogue A Sixth Part of the World and the "visual symphony" The Eleventh Year mark the beginning of Dziga Vertov's most creative period, which peaked in the canonical film Man with the Movie Camera. This 2-disc set presents the two rare masterpieces in a new transfer and with new soundtracks by British composer Michael Nyman. The bonus features offer materials on the methods of the filmmaker, as well as an introduction to the Vienna research project on Vertov, "Digital Formalism."