L'opinione 04.01.2011

The eighteenth century is probably the most extraordinary period of transformation Europe has known since antiquity. Political upheavals kept pace with the innumerable inventions and discoveries of the age; every sector of the arts and of intellectual and material life was turned upside down. Between the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the revolution of 1789, music in its turn underwent a radical mutation that struck at the very heart of a well-established musical language. In this domain too, we are all children of the Age of Enlightenment: our conception of music and the way we ‘consume’ it still follows in many respects the agenda set by the eighteenth century. And it is not entirely by chance that harmonia mundi has chosen to offer you in 2011 a survey of this musical revolution which, without claiming to be exhaustive, will enable you to grasp the principal outlines of musical creation between the twilight of the Baroque and the dawn of Romanticism.

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to concentrate further on the band that would eventually become Dream Theater…

Released in 1992, Hollywood Town Hall wasn't a hit, but it received enough rave reviews to considerably raise the Jayhawks' profile, and it certainly heightened expectations for their next album. On 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass, the Jayhawks found themselves in the tricky situation of trying to match the quality of Hollywood Town Hall without simply repeating themselves, and they came remarkably close to achieving that daunting task.

Big Country may never have reached the commercial highs of similarly structured outfits like the Waterboys and U2, but the Scottish rockers had all the ingredients needed for stadium domination. This two-disc U.K. collection from Spectrum dutifully chronicles the underrated Dunfermline, Fife-based outfit’s nearly 20-year career, from the band's classic 1983 debut, The Crossing, to 1999’s Driving to Damascus. Listeners who only know the group’s two big international hits (“In a Big Country” and "Fields of Fire”) will find in Fields of Fire: The Ultimate Collection a veritable treasure trove (as in 35 excellent remastered tracks) of anthemic modern rock with a rural twist, propelled in large part by the late Stuart Adamson’s soaring, bagpipe-inspired guitar leads.

Having recently declared that he's in far better voice than he was in his '70s/'80s heyday, romantic crooner Julio Iglesias gets to put his money where his mouth is on this alternative greatest-hits collection, Vol. 1. His first studio release since 2007's Quelque Chose de France sees Spain's most successful musical export revisit 15 of his most cherished songs from his enduring 40-year career, with tracks spanning from 1973's Un Canto a Galicia (the title track) right up to 2006's Romantic Classics (a Spanish-language version of Elvis' "Always on My Mind"). But other than the inevitable maturity in Iglesias' voice and a slightly glossier production, there's little variation between the originals and the new recordings, which, with the exception of the breezy Gallic lounge-pop of "As Vezes Tu, As Vezes Eu," stick to his trademark orchestral and flamenco-tinged chansons.

Booster IV is in the same tradition as you already know from Booster I, II and III - a compilation of former cupdisc tracks, many new tracks and some older tracks with a new livery. Some tracks you will definitely be familiar with, others are completely fresh and surprising. Booster IV will be especially for those a delicacy who missed out the Purple Diluvial cupdisc which ran out of stock rather quickly in 2008, all three tracks Babylon The Great Has Fallen, Armageddon In The Rose Garden, Part Two and Purple Diluvial (a re-recorded version) are on this compilation.

UK five CD box set containing a quintet of alums from the Industrial legends, all housed in mini LP sleeves. Includes the albums Twitch, The Land Of Rape & Honey, The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (Live), and Psalm 69…

This three-CD box set from Not Now features remastered editions of three important Evans albums originally released by Riverside in the mid- to late ‘50s: 1956’s New Jazz Conceptions (Evans’ debut as a leader, featuring Teddy Kotick on bass and Paul Motian on drums), 1958’s Everybody Digs Bill Evans (recorded upon the pianist's departure from Davis’ landmark Kind of Blue sextet, and featuring bassist Sam Jones and drummer Philly Joe Jones), and 1959’s Portrait in Jazz (featuring his first working trio, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Motian). If introspection became a byword during the latter part of his life, in earlier days Bill Evans did swing with the best of them, his more thoughtful moments carrying much weight as his choice of note/chord and placement thereof became crucial to a composition or solo. He also passed master as an accompanist, not only for what he did play but - almost as importantly - what he didn't.