Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound

The Paradise Edition added a second CD for a total of 23 tracks. Even after selling nearly three million copies of her debut album worldwide, Lana Del Rey still faced a challenge during 2012: namely, proving to critics and fans that Born to Die wasn't a fluke. In that spirit, she released Paradise, a mini-album close to Christmas, one that finds her copying nearly wholesale the look and feel of her vampish Born to Die personality. The sound is also very familiar. Strings move at a glacial pace, drums crash like waves in slow motion, and most of the additional textures in these songs (usually electric guitar or piano) are cinematic in their sound and references. Del Rey is in perfect control of her voice, much more assured than she was even one year ago, and frequently capable of astonishing her listeners with a very convincing act, even while playing nearly the same character in each song.

This new release is a vast leap into an ocean of space and sound, a quantum leap into cybernetics, biology, anti-gravity, time travel, dream speech and transfiguration. A seriously next step release!

Russian duo Iamthemorning have been quietly issuing recordings since 2012. Their "chamber prog" sound came into focus on their Kscope debut, Belighted, in 2014. Gleb Kolyadin (piano and keyboards) and Marjana Semkina (vocals) recorded Lighthouse in London, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. They are joined by a cast including bassist Colin Edwin and drummer Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree, guitarist Vlad Avy, strings, winds, reeds, and even a choir on "Sleeping Pills." They even got Riverside's Mariuz Duda to contribute a vocal to one song! Lighthouse is a conceptual narrative about a female protagonist's struggle with mental illness. It's strikingly poignant, with a somewhat eerie ambience that is never indulgent…