Ian Carr's Nucleus

Of the major works of Sergei Prokofiev, none (apart perhaps from Peter and the Wolf) have become so well loved by a wide audience as the ballets Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. From the stage productions, to the orchestral suites, to the piano versions, many of these pieces are universally recognised.

Sophie Rosa and Ian Buckle have curated a fascinating recital that partners Montgeroult’s sonata (receiving its world premiere recording) with her duo partner Viotti’s 10th sonata, and the precocious F minor sonata by the 14 year old Felix Mendelssohn. Their recital concludes with Weber’s short and sparkling 2nd sonata written with gifted amateur musicians in mind.

Boddy has often used concert appearances to test out new material and indeed some of the tracks on "Aurora" were first aired at his solo performance as part of the DiN series of concerts at the Buddle Arts Centre in his native north-east England.
"Aurora" sees Boddy creating a seamless mix between the 6 tracks, which covers an enormous amount of sonic territory in its 67 minute running time. The music runs the full gamut from purely abstract, impressionistic pieces such as the darkly oppressive textures of "Gravity Well" to the analogue sequencer driven track "Escape Velocity". Boddy has created a work with an almost orchestral sense of dynamics despite the resolutely electronic nature of its voicings…

At this point in his career, Ian Gillan really has nothing to prove to anyone in the rock world. He's created one of the most successful bands in the history of rock & roll, and has aged with a grace and class few of his contemporaries can rival. So it makes sense that Gillan's Inn is a relaxed affair and offers up a simple set of rock & roll without pretense or a bloated concept. Taking a cue from Santana's latest releases, a nonstop onslaught of guest appearances fills the rooms of Gillan's Inn, including Def Leppard's Joe Elliott, Joe Satriani, Roger Glover, Steve Morse, Jeff Healey, Uli John Roth, Ronnie James Dio, and Goo Goo Dolls pinup boy Johnny Rzeznik. The result is a 14-song session that's as much inoffensive fun as it is straight-ahead blues-tinged rock & roll.

Two years after Thick as a Brick 2, an explicit 2012 sequel to the 1972 prog classic, Ian Anderson embarked on another ambitious journey, this time assembling a concept record called Homo Erraticus. A loose – very loose – album based on a "dusty, unpublished manuscript, written by local amateur historian Ernest T. Parritt (1873-1928)," Homo Erraticus is an old-fashioned prog record: it has narrative heft and ideas tied to the '70s, where jazz, classical, folk, orchestral pop, and rock all commingled in a thick, murky soup.

What I Did on My Vacation is an official compilation album from Ian Gillan, released in 1986 in UK by 10 Records. The album covers Gillan's recordings between 1977 and 1982 and was released in three formats (2LP, CD, MC). All songs from the album had been previously released. Although not credited on the cover, "Scarabus" is preceded by an instrumental piece by Colin Towns, which was used as the intro to "On The Rocks" (from the Glory Road album).

Continuum is a double CD edited down from one seven hour live concert (15 June 1996 Newcastle UK) performed by Ian Boddy. On the CD we are given two very lengthy tracks: Alpha and Beta (one on each CD), each coming in at over 70 minutes. Each CD is broken down into several parts (tracks) but the music flows constantly from beginning to end and is best experienced that way, all at once. Credit must be given to Ian for being able to take such a long span of time and fill it with a slowly evolving composition of sounds and atmosphere. Nowhere along the journey will the listener become disinterested.
Although Ian does provide the listener with a rich atmosphere of original timbres and floating soundscapes, please don't think that Continuum is all drones and swirlies, not at all…

Leading his own bands in the late '70s and early '80s, Ian Gillan continued to embrace music that, not surprisingly, was heavily influenced by his former band, Deep Purple. And he never sounded more Purple-ish than he does on Mr. Universe, which isn't quite on a par with Purple's Burn but is stronger than many of the albums the outfit had recorded after Gillan's departure (some of which were quite disappointing). This is Gillan at his most aggressive and passionately rockin'. Those with fond memories of his work with Purple will appreciate the testosterone-driven energy of "Vengeance," "Roller," and "Message in a Bottle." Headbangers shouldn't overlook this one.

This album explores music by three father-and-son generations of the Tcherepnin family of composers: Nikolai, Alexander and Ivan. Although each wrote a wide range of scores, from solo pieces to operas and ballets, this recording focuses on their chamber music, presenting pieces spanning 95 years. Nikolai’s works for violin and piano reveal a late-Romantic, post-Tchaikovskian sensibility, whereas those of Alexander have a more modern, twentieth-century touch, closer to the style of his friend Sergei Prokofiev (a student of Nikolai Tcherepnin). Ivan is represented by two works — early and late – for flute, clarinet and piano, which have an improvisatory and playful quality.