Hiroshima 2005

Hiroshima, a group whose music falls between R&B, pop, world music, and jazz, has long had its own niche. The band integrates traditional Japanese instruments into their musical blend and has generally been both commercial and creative within its genre. Hiroshima's founding members are keyboardist Dan Kuramoto (who also played shakuhachi), June Okida Kuramoto on koto (a key part of the group's sound), Johnny Mori on taiko drums, and Danny Yamamoto on drums, percussion, and taiko.

Carlo Gesualdo is one of the most fascinating composers. It is hard to escape the temptation of seeing in his madrigals the tortured reflection of his psyche, beginning with the murder committed in 1590, when he caught his first wife Maria d’Avalos in blatant adultery with her lover Fabrizio Carafa. The madrigals of the Fifth and Sixth Books are to Gesualdo what the black paintings are to Goya: works conceived in a state of solitude, with no fetters on the artist’s imagination, born in enclosed spaces and used to moving around in their gloom. It is a music fitting to resonate in remote and unusual places.

From the opening gong, you know you're in for a treat with Obon. Marking Hiroshima's 25th anniversary, the new disc is the Japanese-American group's first without vocals—save a wordless chant by Shoji Kameda on "Obon Two-Five. Formed by Dan and June Kuramoto (the only Japanese native in the group) in 1979, Hiroshima has successfully blended traditional Japanese sounds with North American pop, soul, R&B, and of course jazz.

Incredible flashback of early 80s Berlin subculture on an amazing CD package featuring output by virtuosos of the city's underground movie scene who rediscovered Super 8 as an adequate outlet for their creative endeavours. Accompanied by a compilation of music, covering a huge range of styles and currents - from punk to ingenious dilettantes, this lavish package recalls the walled in city's unique feel and lifestyle. By no means a nostalgic review of times long gone, but rather an appraisal (with no claim to completeness) of a creative Berlin which to this day exerts its influence on underground culture throughout the world.