National Review May 6, 2019

The National's eighth record came from prosaic beginnings. Director Mike Mills – not to be confused with the bassist from R.E.M., as he so often is – invited Matt Berninger to collaborate, a notion that quickly spawned two projects: a short film from Mills and a new album from the National, both entitled I Am Easy to Find. Mills is credited as a co-producer on the album, a bit of a stretch considering how he is by no means a musician, but his contributions did indeed help the album take shape.

Leroy Ellington’s Sacred Hearts is a powerful and soulful group, featuring some of Cincinnati’s most prominent musicians. Leroy Ellington on Lead Vocals and Saxophone, Mike Grosser on Bass Guitar, Marcos Sastre on Guitar and Vocals, Charlie Fletcher on Keys and Vocals, Max Gise on Guitar and Shawn Elsbernd on drums and vocals! In the last 30 years, Leroy has established himself as one of the region’s most proficient and soulful vocalists. A “MASTER SHOWMAN” with the “on stage” confidence to please ANY CROWD! Leroy has been nominated for 5 Cammy Awards (Cincinnati Music Awards). In 1999 he was nominated for Best R&B Instrumentalist, for his saxophone work, and again in 2000 & 2001 when Leroy received nominations for Best R&B/Funk Vocalist as well as Best R&B/Funk Band, and in 2013 Leroy was nominated as “Best Musician.”

Regarded as pioneers of the folk & Americana genre, Ian & Sylvia, The Lost Tapes features over 20 unreleased recordings.
Collectively as individuals & as a duo Ian & Sylvia Tyson have sold over 400K albums in the US alone during the Soundscan era. Regarded as pioneers of the folk & Americana genre, Ian & Sylvia first came to prominence in the early 60's folk scene in Greenwich Village and Yorkville performing alongside Bob Dylan (they were also managed by Albert Grossman), Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot (who they made famous by being the first to record Early Morning Rain) and were a headliner on the now famous 1063 Newport Folk Festival. Ian's composition ''Four Strong Winds'' is now considered a standard and a CBC poll in 2005 named it the ''most essential'' piece of Canadian music. Ian & Sylvia were one of the first artists to explore an electric Country Rock sound recording with both New York and Nashville musicians. In early 2019 Sylvia discovered a box of old 1/4 inch analog tapes in her attic that were professionally recorded in the early 1970s in front of a live studio audience. Over 20 previously unreleased recordings, included many of Ian & Sylvia's classics, but also enough to have a full CD of recordings of songs never before included on any Ian & Sylvia album.

2LP set is strictly limited to 500 copies worldwide in a gatefold sleeve on white vinyl. 'Cats in Space, with their love of the 70s and their superb hummable choruses are here to remind us of better, more innocent times…' Classic Rock magazine - CATS in SPACE have caused quite a stir since landing in 2015.

Recorded by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and various soloists and ensembles in churches in Tallinn as well as the Estonian Concert Hall, the five compositions heard on Arboles lloran por lluvia (Trees cry for rain) give deeper insight into the unique sound-world of Estonian composer Helena Tulve, into music that is nourished by both contemporary and ancient currents. Tulve draws upon a wide-range of inspirational sources. She explores the raw fabric of sound and the nature of timbre in both analytical and instinctive ways, in compositions that are unmistakably her own, yet her work is inclusive - here incorporating aspects of Gregorian chant, melody from Yemenite Jewish tradition, and texts from Sufi, Sephardic and Christian mystic poetry. Reyah hadas 'ala (The Perfume of the Myrtle Rises) unites the ensemble of the Gregorian chant and the early music instruments. This is the only work in which Tulve has used a pre-existing melody, a song of the Yemenite Jews. Extinction des choses vues (The Extinction of the Things Seen) is an orchestral piece in which the musical ideas are derived from a text by the Jesuit thinker Michel de Certeau called Extase blanche (White Ecstasy).

With two fine soloists in the Concerto grosso, this is a must for collectors of Chandos Schnittke series, and a welcome reminder of one of the later 20th-centurys most distinctive and troubling musical voices. (Gramophone)

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