Hello Starling is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. As Ritter's previous albums have done, Hello Starling was compared to other Americana greats such as Woody Guthrie, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen. His voice on the album was described as smooth with sleepy, rough edges. George Graham praised the lyrics and vocal delivery. Hello Starling was reissued on January 17, 2010 as a two-disc Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition includes the complete original studio album and a second bonus disc. The bonus disc contains solo acoustic versions of all the original tracks (re-recorded by Ritter in Nashville of June 2008) as well as four live bonus tracks, an introduction by Dennis Lehane, and a full color lyric and photo booklet with never-before-seen photos.
Vivaldi's first opera, Ottone in Villa (loosely, Ottone's Vacation), is something of an anomaly in the composer's output of largely tragic, heroic works: a pastoral comedy. Written in 1713 when the composer was 35, Ottone demonstrates Vivaldi's instinctive grasp of the operatic form and his gifts for characterization and dramatic development. Naïve continues its admirable series, The Vivaldi Edition, with this outstanding recording of the opera, a real gem. Giovanni Antonini leads Il Giardino Armonico, which plays with gleaming transparency. The performance is wonderfully lively and the opera's dancing energy is conveyed with high spirits and humor. Vivaldi is not a composer usually associated with comedy, so Ottone surprises with its wealth of delightful, sly wit.
Some might say that the Pet Shop Boys have released more live documents than any synth pop band has a right to, but fans would wholeheartedly disagree. Joey Sixpack might not notice, but the duo takes great pride in making each tour’s set list unique, plus there are always some surprises for card-carrying fanclub members. Here, on this document of a 2009 concert at London’s O2 Arena, that means rarely heard live numbers like "Two Divided by Zero" and "Why Don't We Live Together?" plus the long-lost B-Side “Do I Have To?” Well-worn numbers like “Suburbia” and “Being Boring” are delivered as if they were fresh and new, while the triumphant performance of “West End Girls” shows that PSB have, shockingly, not grown tired of the tune. Kick it all off with a fantastic new mash-up of "More Than a Dream/Heart" and it’s a must own for the faithful, but when you add a well-shot DVD that captures the whole stage show…
Paul Ortiz is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work under the pseudonym, or solo project, of Chimp Spanner. He recorded, produced, mixed and mastered in his home studio, both the 2005 album Imperium Vorago and 2009's At The Dream's Edge. Ortiz has also composed for computer games, advertising, television and radio — and for clients ranging from Red Bull to Dolby Laboratories — and mixed and mastered albums for other musicians. At The Dream's Edge is Chimp Spanner's second album, independently released in December 2009. It was re-released by Basick Records in 2010 after Chimp Spanner signed to them. This is the first Chimp Spanner album to feature an 8 string guitar, which was used on the songs "At The Dream's Edge", "Bad Code", "Far From Home" and "Under One Sky". Coming in at almost an hour and one minute, this is Chimp Spanner's longest album to date.
IIn his setting of Orlando, Handel offers us a score of remarkable dramatic power, diversity and originality. Orlando s mad scene and slumber aria are among the composer s most striking creations. Everything in the opera arouses admiration the extremely varied scoring, the exuberant vocal writing, the rhythmic invention and the supple melodies. On this new recording from K617, Jean-Claude Malgoire and La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy are joined by a cast of talented soloists in a fantastic production rivaling the best in the catalog.
Echoing the vintage blues-rock of Chuck Berry and Led Zeppelin, and the timeless soul of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, The Bomb Shelter Sessions is Californian four-piece Vintage Trouble's attempt to re-create the era of vinyl records and juke joints. Produced by Rogers Masson (Daughtry, Day of Fire), and recorded live in just three days at the Bomb Shelter studios in Laurel Canyon, its 11 retro tracks, described by James Brown-esque frontman Ty Taylor as "primitive soul," include the singles "Nancy Lee" and "Nobody Told Me."
Deep Purple were bombastic as hell, but as a template for the next wave of hard rock bands, the group did a pretty good job of showing how it’s done, picking just the right song to cover and also writing one or two rock classics like “Smoke on the Water” to give it all credence. This two-disc set collects all the band’s singles and EPs released between 1968 and 1980, and while it thins out considerably toward the end of that run, the quality here is revealing – this band clearly bridges the British Invasion era with the harder-edged commercial rock era that came later.
"Countertenor Franco Fagioli, an exceptional singer with an even rarer modesty, was equal to the challenge of Handel's music in all its facets – the breakneck coloratura, which he is able to propel powerfully and effortlessly in the highest range, but also the profound melancholy of 'Scherza, infida,' for which he knows how to enshroud his voice in the hues of sorrow." This is what the periodical Opernwelt wrote in the spring of 2010 about the Argentinian countertenor Franco Fagioli, who sang the title role in Handel's "Ariodante" at the Badische Staatstheater in Karlsruhe.