Now From 29 December 2014

The second installment in Sakari Oramo's superb hybrid SACD cycle of the symphonies of Carl Nielsen on BIS presents the Symphony No. 1 in G minor and the Symphony No. 3, "Sinfonia espansiva," two ruggedly independent works that reflect the composer's late Romantic style yet point to the modernism to come. While the Symphony No. 1 was influenced by Brahms and offers a rich harmonic language, propulsive rhythms, and a fairly homogenous orchestral palette, the Symphony No. 3 is striking for its reliance on unfolding counterpoint and long-breathed lines, and most notable for the use of wordless parts for soprano and baritone voices in the pastoral slow movement. These performances by Oramo and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra are exceptional for their stunning power and spacious feeling, though the crisp details and focused sound quality will be the biggest draw for audiophiles.

Re-Mastered using the Original Master Tapes by Sean Brennan at Battery Studio’s New York. Bobbi Humphrey's major-label swan song eradicates the final traces of jazz remaining in her music's elemental makeup. Produced by Ralph MacDonald and William Eaton, The Good Life is a 1979 straight-up R&B record.

Daughter of the famous tenor García, himself a favourite of Gioachino Rossini, Pauline Viardot was originally destined to become a pianist (and was at one time tutored by Liszt) before the deaths of her father and singersister saw her re‐trained as a mezzo‐soprano by her mother. In 1839 she made her operatic debut in London, subsequently achieving renown on the concert and operatic stages of Great Britain, Germany and Russia in particular. Among her admirers in St Petersburg was the young Ivan Turgenev, later to become the best‐known author of his country in Europe and North America.

After two milestone 2013 releases, 2014 is shaping up to be nothing short of extraordinary for the Front Line Assembly camp. FLA is kicking off the year by releasing ECHOES, the follow-up to 2013's long-awaited ECHOGENETIC & critically acclaimed instrumental soundtrack for AirMech.ECHOES is a remix collection of FLA's favorite modern artists reinterpreting the band's now classic ECHOGENETIC. Presented as both a 14-song physical album and an exclusive extended digital release, ECHOES features two new original songs, co-written by Ian Pickering of the Sneaker Pimps, along side remixes from artists such as Comaduster, Sonic Mayhem, Youth Code, Slighter, Rhys Fulber, HECQ, Henrik Backstrom (of Necro Facility), Blush Response (Joey Blush from Scar the Martyr), Liebknecht (Daniel Meyer), Haujobb, Techdiff, Tweaker, Primitive Race, Atiq and Enk, and Cyanotic.

The songs that were taking shape during 2013 / 2014 show an exciting progression of Pocket Size's concept. The recording sessions started out after an initial meeting with producer Tom Van Heesch at Big Island Sound studios. When he had heard the demos there was no turning back. He came up with the ideas how these tunes were going to be recorded and did a blueprint for the recording sessions. The primary idea was to highlight the retro elements of the music without going all the way into nostalgia. Exposed Undercurrents differs a bit from the last record (The Hornplayer…). There are two tunes with lyrics in Swedish, while the rest of the tunes are in English. There is also a stronger coherence within the album since the songs pour from the same well. But it is still not a concept album, all songs are individual entities.

IQ - Tales From The Lush Attic (1984) {2013 Remix 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 439 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 156 Mb
DVD5 -> 3.37 Gb | All Regions | PAL 16:9 | English (Dolby AC3, 2 ch) | ~ 58 min | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 159 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Giant Electric Pea | GEPCD DVD2002
Rock / Neo-Prog / Prog-Rock

The 30th anniversary special edition of ‘Tales’ is a double disc hard back 32 page book with lots of extras, including the complete remix of the album and a DVD featuring live video footage of material from ‘Tales’ along with a host of MP3 files, original mixes, audio commentary and previously unreleased writing/rehearsal/demo material. GEP are set to release the 2013 remix of ‘Tales from the Lush Attic’ on 21st January 2013 (surprisingly enough) in both a double disc CD/DVD format and on vinyl.

If the 32 piano sonatas and the great works in variation form (Eroica, Diabelli) form the weightiest part of Beethoven's legacy to pianists and lovers of piano music, they by no means tell the full story. In his highly acclaimed survey of the complete music for solo piano, Ronald Brautigam has previously recorded the early, unnumbered sonatas, the Bagatelles and the earlier sets of variations. He now treats us to a disc of rondos and piano pieces, spanning from one of the very earliest surviving works – a Rondo in C major composed by a 13-year old Beethoven – to what is often referred to as the composer's ‘Last Musical Thought’, an Andante maestoso in C major.

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

What we have here are Miaskovsky’s 27 symphonies with two overtures, two early tone poems (one after Poe; the other, Shelley), three sinfoniettas, one serenade, one Divertissement, one Concertino Lirico, one Slav Rhapsody and a piece called Links. It’s all the music for orchestra apart from the two concertos and choral works with orchestra (Kirov is With Us and Kremlin by Night). Note that the version of the Sixth Symphony here is the ……

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com

UK act Eden Shadow started out as the creative outlet of composer and instrumentalist Ryan Elliott, instigated while he was still in high school if the official biography is to be understood. While initially revolving around Elliott only, Eden Shadow have now developed into a full fledged band project as well with Alex Broben and Tim Burgess joining the ranks.
Their material is dynamic, passionate, often memorable, tracks are long with multiple sections and the atmospheres are usually quite vital. Again some Porcupine Tree-styled sensibilities and a few surprising jazzy manouvres on guitar are welcome. A nice one to say the least.