Music Lovage

This Edition presents the “Magnificent Seven” and the “encore” in optimum technical quality. In the mid-Fifties of the last century, with the Cold War freezing relations between East and West, the English record label Decca decided to record a series of Russian operas with the Belgrade National Opera. Belgrade in the Yugoslavia of those days under Josip Tito was more open to “the West” than the Warsaw Pact countries gathered under the wing of the Soviet Union. The deal had been struck by former Decca manager and successful promoter of east European folklore in the USA, record executive Gerald Severn.

Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow are the writers who make up the critically-acclaimed band that formed in New York in 1995 and went on to develop a cult following of faithful fans around the world. They started on a major label but would soon be working outside of the mainstream, early on recording with Steve Albini and then going on to produce themselves for a number of independent labels over the years, including Jet Set, PIAS, and Naive — most recently recording for Vicious Circle and Microcultures in France and Ojet/Diluvian in the US.