Nature January 2010

Nature / Existence is the impressive debut album from this Venezuelan collective who are based around a sextet of musicians which is further expanded by four guest vocalists - Carl Webb ('Oceanworks'), Tobias Jansson ('The Law', 'Silent Scythe'), Nick Storr ('The Third Ending') and Pedro Castillo ('Tempano/Aditus') - a smattering of saxophone and, on one composition, a Chamber String Quartet. And in keeping with the bands Latin origins they also incorporate traditional folk music, backed up by the appearance of a cuatro (a traditional Venezuelan folk instrument similar to a ukulele, apparently). Emerging back in 2005 and being welcomed in their prog-starved homeland, Echoes have taken their time in crafting their debut opus and, without the burden of expectation that can hamper releases by established artists, it proves to have been well worth the wait…

Androcell is the enveloping, electronic dub infused music project of producer and artist, Tyler Smith. For almost two decades he has been at the controls of music production, experimenting with different styles and emotions in sonic art form. Having a deep passion for blending a multitude of music styles, instruments, and cultures, he continues with his studio-as-instrument approach in creating emotional and immersive sound productions.
The debut Androcell album "Emotivision" (2004) reveals the first downtempo offerings from Tyler Smith. Nine dub-enriched, sonic, soul stories for the universal traveler, these melodic tales tell of beautiful scenes and moody dreams…

Since (at least) the Greeks, humorists, moralists and satirists have been fascinated by the artistic game of inversion, of “the world turned upside down”, which is how one might translate the title of this largely forgotten opera by Salieri. It here gets its first ever recording. Present an image of society turned on its head and you enable your audience/reader/viewer to see the actual way of things in a whole new light. Your aims may be to expose the follies and errors of the actual, to propose a better way of doing things, or simply to get some laughs from the resulting improbabilities and surprises - or, of course, a mixture of all these motives and more.

The key components to every great prog-rock album comprise memorable guitar riffs, punchy immediacy that draws you into the song, ample rhythmic kick, and the imaginative capacity to transport the listener to a place well beyond the confines of reality. Yes’ The Yes Album features all of these rare qualities and more, the 1971 record as significant for saving the band’s career as well as for establishing new parameters in virtuosic technicality and skilled composition. The first set recorded with guitarist Steve Howe, it remains Yes’ grandest achievement and claims a musical vision the British quintet’s contemporaries struggled to match…

Evan Bartholomew, under the moniker Bluetech, produces his unique style from San Diego, CA. Classically trained on the piano for public performing, Bartholomew deviated from the traditional sounds and began to express the rhythms that sprouted from within him, and Bluetech was born. This resulted in his interpretation of nature's expression of being, a sound that is Ambient, Downtempo, Improvisational. He devoured the electronic potentials for musical expression and conveyed it in IDM, Dub, and Deep Techno.

After tackling old-school R&B, country-roots, and Memphis soul on his previous three releases, Australian rock veteran Jimmy Barnes returns to more familiar territory on his 16th studio release, Rage and Ruin. Produced by longtime collaborator Don Gehman, the back-to-basics affair sees the gravelly-voiced rocker, the most successful home-grown recording artist in his country's history, battle his demons on 12 tracks inspired by a book of notes he wrote while struggling with drug and alcohol addiction – hence the biblical titles like the driving country-rock of "This Ain't the Day That I Die," the Eagles-influenced AOR of "I've Seen It All (Rage and Ruin)," and the self-described "raw rockin' stomper" "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."

A good mix of classic Southern fried rock with space/psych prog.
Hypnos 69 was founded in 1994, Diest, Belgium. When Steve and Dave Houtmeyers decide in the summer of '94 to found a band with Tom Vanlaer, also the story of a band that would bring new life to the '60s and '70s psychedelic underground rock-scene of today began: Hypnos 69. The name was appropriately taken from the ancient Greek god of Sleep and Subconsciousness. The number 69 stands for equilibrium and stability; properties that can be retrieved in the marked sound of the band. Thanks to the cooperation with Orange Factory, Hypnos 69 developed a very powerful live-reputation, which placed them at the top of the contemporary psychedelic rockscene…

Born in Liège, Matheo Romero was in the service of the Spanish court; his secular works show that he had perfectly assimilated the characteristics of his adopted country’s music. Composed at the very beginning of the baroque era, these romances, folias and canciones also show the influence of the Italian madrigal style and of its effects; just as in the madrigals proper, Nature is the prime inspiration for the texts’ professions of love and amorous deceptions. For the first time, the talented Argentinean conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón brings together his two ensembles: the voices of Capella Mediterranea and Ens. Clematis. This combination revives the tradition of Spanish chapels around the reign of Charles V in Madrid. A meeting of the Capilla Flamenca and Capilla Spagnola.