House of The Year Canterbury 2023

The name 'Chandos anthems' is most frequently associated with Handel, but he was not the first, nor the last, composer in the extravagant household of James Brydges, the Duke of Chandos from 1719. Working concurrently with Handel at Cannons was the Berlin native, Johann Christoph Pepusch?nearly 20 years Handel's senior?who took over as Director of Music by early 1719 whereupon he adopted a distinctly Venetian approach to sacred music, in the manner of Lotti and Vivaldi.

Exciting accounts of eight anthems spanning nearly two hundred years, with a welcome emphasis firmly on recent works.

Manna/Mirage is the ongoing project by former The Muffins mastermind Dave Newhouse. While he’s obviously working towards different ends and also with a variety of different people as he explores these different ends, it’s still very much coming from his pen, so fans of the band should also greatly enjoy this release.
Autobiographie features nine all-instrumental tracks at just over 46 minutes of playing time. The music is roughly a third Canterbury jazz, a third avant-prog and a third various ethnic folk music styles all mashed up into a cool stroll into the world of instrumental prog. The album also finds a cameo of two early members of The Muffins, Michael Bass on drums and Michael Zentner on electric violin. This album is well paced with each track sounding distinct whether it's the Canterbury dominated opening "Phantosmia" or the tango-fueled "Practicing Tonglin In A Time Of War"…

A year and 5 albums after he has brought the Manna/Mirage project to a close, ex-Muffins musician / composer Dave Newhouse has produced a new album under the moniker of 'Dave Newhouse', this one titled “Natura Morta”, Latin for Still Life. Many of the same musical suspects (guest musicians) from around the world are involved, this one is a bit longer than the aforementioned Manna/Mirage albums clocking in at around 43 minutes. It still has that signature AmeriCanterbury / Muffins compositional ethic as well as fast and furious examples of fusion / jazz rock, RIO, World Music, Americana, and alt-jazz. Even John Greaves (Henry Cow / Kew Rhône / National Health) makes a lovely appearance here. as does Guy Segers (Univers Zero / Eclectic Maybe Band).

22 tracks, double CD collection of all aspects of the Gong Family. Solo tracks, unreleased and live tracks. Selected by the musicians themselves and compiled by Daevid and all wrapped in one of the best Gong covers he has ever produced. Even if you have everything by the Gong Family you will not have over half these tracks.