Jason Lindner Ab Aeterno (2006)

Sin City author Frank Miller's sweeping take on the historic Battle of Thermopylae comes to the screen courtesy of Dawn of the Dead director Zack Snyder. Gerard Butler stars as Spartan King Leonidas and Lena Headey plays Queen Gorgo. The massive army of the Persian Empire is sweeping across the globe, crushing every force that dares stand in its path. When a Persian envoy arrives in Sparta offering King Leonidas power over all of Greece if he will only bow to the will of the all powerful Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), the strong-willed leader assembles a small army comprised of his empire's best fighters and marches off to battle.

Avishai Cohen - Devotion (1999) {Stretch SCD-9021-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 355 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 145 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 16 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1999 Stretch Records / Concord | SCD-9021-2
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Post Bop / Bass

Bassist Avishai Cohen, best known at this point for his work with Chick Corea, on his own projects mixes together adventurous jazz with influences from world music, original folk melodies, and his own creativity. He composed 12 selections on his second CD, including tributes to Horace Silver and Chick Corea (which do not really sound that close to either of those pianist/composer's styles). The music is consistently unpredictable, with Cohen being joined by pianist Jason Lindner, drummer Jeff Ballard, Jimmy Greene on reeds, trombonist Steve Davis, guitarist Amos Hoffman, a string quartet, and up to five singers (who are mostly used in the background). An intriguing set by an up-and-coming composer who is also a very fluent bassist.

Anat Cohen - Luminosa (2015) {Anzic Records}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 323 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 143 Mb
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© 2015 Anzic Records | ANZ-0050
Jazz / Post Bop / Clarinet / Saxophone

The seventh album from Israeli-born saxophonist and clarinetist Anat Cohen, 2015's Luminosa showcases the N.Y.C.-based artist's eclectic mix of acoustic post-bop and Brazilian choro-influenced jazz. The album follows up her similarly inclined 2012 effort, Claroscuro, and provides a further showcase for her adroit improvisational skills and layered, sophisticated arrangements. Joining Cohen here is a bevy of equally gifted musicians, including keyboardist Jason Linder, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Daniel Freedman. Luminosa also features a handful of guest artists including guitarist Romero Lubambo, percussionist Gilmar Gomes, and accordion player Vitor Goncalves. As with most of Cohen's recordings, Luminosa is a highly engaging, sophisticated, and romantic album.

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.

The challenges and rewards of performing early music are here vividly illustrated by The Binchois Consort, as creative scholarship comes to the aid of two substantial—but fragmentary—works by Jacob Obrecht, and an audacious recorded sound attempts to recreate the experience of the original performers 500 years ago: an album set to attract huge interest from critics and Renaissance scholars alike.