Gemini Suite Live is a recording of Jon Lord's classical/rock piece Gemini Suite featuring the original Mark II band lineup of Deep Purple, recorded live during this one and only live performance in 1970. A follow up to their "Concerto" Project, it featured five movements for the individual members of the band, including a guitar piece from Blackmore.
It's a hard task for a band to stand out from the crowd, especially when the crowd it's attempting to distinguish itself from is a generally homogeneous musical mess of youth-sized T-shirts, strained vocal melodies, and driving chord progressions. But sometimes, for whatever reason, doing things not so differently than everyone else just works…
After the 1969 classical / rock fusion Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Jon Lord was commissioned to write a follow-up. This was Gemini Suite, five long movements inspired by the members of Deep Purple, and performed live in September 1970 at the Royal Festival Hall with The Light Music Society Orchestra…
The 35th anniversary Eye in the Sky collector's box set includes 3 CDs (CD1: Original Album Expanded + bonus tracks, CD2: Eric Woolfson's Songwriting Diaries, CD3: Previously Unreleased Bonus Material and Disc 4: 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo HD version of the original album on Blu-ray)…
Eye in the Sky provided the Alan Parsons Project with their first Top Ten hit since 1977's I Robot, and it's hard not to feel that crossover success was one of the driving forces behind this album. The Project never shied away from hooks, whether it was on the tense white funk of "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" or the gleaming pop hooks of "Games People Play," but Eye in the Sky was soft and smooth, so smooth that it was easy to ignore that the narrator of the title track was an ominous omniscient who spied either on his lover or his populace, depending on how deeply you wanted to delve into the concepts of this album. And, unlike I Robot or The Turn of a Friendly Card, it is possible to listen to Eye in the Sky and not dwell on the larger themes, since they're used as a foundation, not pushed to center stage…