Peaks ピークス 8月 2021

Pilgrimage of the Soul is the 11th studio album in the 22-year career of Japanese experimental rock legends, MONO. Recorded and mixed – cautiously, anxiously, yet optimistically – during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020, Pilgrimage of the Soul is aptly named as it not only represents the peaks and valleys where MONO are now as they enter their third decade, but also charts their long, steady journey to this time and place. Continuing the subtle but profound creative progression in the MONO canon that began with Nowhere Now Here (2019), Pilgrimage of the Soul is the most dynamic MONO album to date (and that’s saying a lot). But where MONO’s foundation was built on the well-established interplay of whisper quiet and devastatingly loud, Pilgrimage of the Soul crafts its magic with mesmerizing new electronic instrumentation and textures, and – perhaps most notably – faster tempos that are clearly influenced by disco and techno. It all galvanizes as the most unexpected MONO album to date – replete with surprises and as awash in splendor as anything this band has ever done.

Piano Sonatas by Chopin (No 2) and Hough (No 4) are the twin peaks of a typically stimulating recital which—as always from Stephen Hough—spans centuries and styles with assurance. How often do Liszt’s ‘Funérailles’ and Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria’ share the same programme?Life is nothing if not unpredictable.

First recording work of the duo Gabriele Mirabassi and Simone Zanchini. Disco fun, brilliant, full of a thousand ideas and musical colors. Eight pieces, most of which written by the performers themselves, where the compelling dialogue between the two instruments, alternating atmospheres of popular flavor with other cultured ones, reaches peaks of pure lyricism. The one made up of Gabriele and Simone is a real duo: absolute mastery of their instrument, strong individual imprint, inexhaustible personal creativity, but great understanding and sense of general balance. An album strongly linked to the EGEA tradition, but which explores new and stimulating directions through the use of an absolutely original language.

Recorded live at Alzette Kulturfabrik, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg in February 2006.

The Soul Cages is the third full-length studio album released by Sting and the first to feature longtime guitarist Dominic Miller. Released in 1991, it became his second No. 1 album in the United Kingdom. It spawned four singles: "All This Time", "Mad About You", "Why Should I Cry for You" and "The Soul Cages". The title track won Sting the first Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 1992.