Serbian-Swedish Djuro Živković has quickly established himself as one of Europe’s leading young composers. His musical style is strongly marked by Byzantine Orthodox music – spiritual, mystical and characterized by fantastic narration, virtuosic instrumentation and a stylistic, highly profiled sound. Živković’s music presents a profound and abstract space to reflect on the subject matter of mystery, ecstasy and transcendence.
Although born in Sweden, Klas Torstensson has spent most of his working life in the Netherlands following his studies in Utrecht in the early 1970s. Stylistically, he may call to mind Varèse, Xenakis and – perhaps more distantly – Stravinsky. First and foremost, however, Torstensson’s music is personal and distinctive. It is often nourished by his experiences of nature: rough granite, the sea, ice in the frozen Baltic inlets, the polar ice cap. His Lantern Lectures were composed in the aftermath of his opera The Expedition, about an ill-fated journey to the North Pole. While occupied with the opera he had received commissions from several different ensembles, and he therefore decided to write a cycle of works for these ensembles – compositions to be performed separately or as ‘movements’ forming a greater whole.
Sakamoto's all-star blend of Western and Eastern music styles is a triumphant success for the composer, and a consistently good listen. On the title track he takes a traditional Japanese folk song and blends it into a funk groove provided by Bootsy Collins, Bill Laswell, and Sly Dunbar. Unlike Byrne and Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, this blend of cultures is coming from the opposing angle and stays truer to the source material. But that track is only one of Sakamoto's approaches, and on several other tracks he joins with Laswell to create a crisp, techno-cultural hybrid that sounds like nothing except like pure Sakamoto. On "Risky," a subdued Iggy Pop lends vocals and lyrics, and doesn't come across as an interloper. And on "Okinawa Song," Sakamoto seamlessly integrates the southern island culture into his grand scheme.
Neo Geo is a 1987 album by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The term "neo geo", or "new world", is derived from Sakamoto himself as a way to describe worldwide musical diversity in regard to genre (similar to world music and world beat).
RED SAND comes here to release its 9th album by offering a variation on the sounds of PINK FLOYD, Gimour being one of the masters of SImon. This opus therefore radically changes the sounds of the MARILLION Fish era with which it had quite a few similarities. RED SAND has just released a neo prog wonder quite simply…
Poland can be considered like a second home for current neo Progressive music, along with Italy and the Netherlands. QUIDAM is certainly the main and most appreciated act to have emerged from this field, with ABRAXAS and COLLAGE. Note that female singer Emila DERKOWSKA's vocals and charm add a lot to the whole. As the sophisticated pop-rock melodies of "Sny Aniolow" ("Angels' Dream" for the English-sung version, 1998) contrasted with a first eponymous album (Revelation of the year 1996) extremely appreciated for its instrumental developments, the third opus "The Time Beneath The Sky" (2002) orchestrates a new stylistic change that keeps the characteristical QUIDAM sound.
Supper's Ready is a band from Luxemburg who released only one album in 2000 named "Listen to the Pictures". With a band name like Supper's Ready it's hard to not think of Genesis. And Genesis is where the music is firmly rooted, except for the vocals. Just add some Camel to the formula too, and then you know how this band sounds like. If you have heard the Swedish band Twin Age you're even closer.