Lullabies

Previous Grapefruit genre anthologies have shown how the various strands of British psychedelia developed tangentially in subsequent years: I’m A Freak Baby observed how the blues-based, harder-edged element of the genre gradually morphed into hard rock/proto-metal, Dust On The Nettles examined the countercultural psychedelic folk movement, while Come Join My Orchestra looked at the post-“Penny Lane” baroque pop sound. Our latest attempt to document the British psychedelic scene’s subsequent family tree, Lullabies For Catatonics charts the journey without maps that was fearlessly undertaken in the late Sixties and early Seventies by the more cerebral elements of the underground, inspired by everyone from Bartok, Bach and The Beatles to Dada, Dali and the Pop Art movement. Suddenly pop music was no longer restricted to moon-in-June lyrics and traditional song structures. Instead, it embraced the abstract, the discordant and the surreal as pop became rock, and rock became Art.

Bjørn Riis released his first solo album, Lullabies in a Car Crash on Karisma Records in late 2014. The album is a personal statement comprising six songs in the tradition of classic and progressive rock. Lullabies in a Car Crash was met by rave reviews and was ranked among the best prog releases of the year. Bjørn is one of the founding members, the lead guitarist and main songwriter of the highly successful Norwegian band Airbag. Their three releases, ‘Identity’ (2009), ‘All Rights Removed’ (2011) and ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ (2013), all on Karisma Records, have all received great reviews worldwide and all become favourites among fans all over the globe.

March 4th 2013 will see guitar legend Gordon Giltrap and keyboardist Oliver Wakeman (following his years of touring with the classic progressive rock band Yes) release their debut collaborative album 'Ravens & Lullabies' by Esoteric Antenna, a 13 song collection of hard hitting memorable rock pieces coupled with thought provoking lyrics alongside acoustic duets featuring their fine instrumental interplay. Gordon and Oliver spent 2012 writing and recording the album which features a return for Gordon to his rock roots following a 30 year absence and Oliver's first recorded works since his departure from both Yes and Strawbs. The album has been recorded and mixed by 'Threshold' guitarist Karl Groom (who also mixed the Yes 'Live In Lyon' record which featured Oliver on keyboards)…

This collection of vocal and orchestral works by Benjamin Britten span his career, from Two Portraits for string orchestra, written when he was 16, to the solo cantata, Phaedra, one of his last completed works. The music varies in style but even the earliest pieces sound mature and demonstrate the composer's early mastery of his craft. Phaedra, from 1975, sets a selection of monologues from Racine's play that outline the dilemma of the queen who falls in love with her husband's son from an earlier marriage.