Philter The Legend of Iya (2014)

Arakne Mediterranea - The Legend of the Italian Tarantella (2014) {ARC Music ‎EUCD 2521}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 392 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 135 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 29 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 ARC Music ‎| EUCD 2521
World Music / Folk / Italian Music / Western European Traditions

The tarantella is an Italian folk dance, characterised by a fast and lively 6/8 rhythm, often accompanied by tambourines. This album presents thethree remaining forms of this ancient musical form: Pizzica-Taranta, Pizzica de core and Pizzica-scherma. Instruments: organetto (small accordion), chitarra battente (guitar), tambourine, violin, vocals. As the package notes ably explain, the tarantella has a long, centuries-old history that includes mass ecstatic trance dancing, originally to dispel the poison of a spider's bite. Eventually, these fast 6/8 meter dances of hysteria from Taranto spread and developed into set folk dances of which three forms remain. One of the ensembles dedicated to keep the tradition is the eight-member Arakne Mediterranea. Instrumentation are a small accordion, organetto, an Italian guitar citarra battente, a violin, and a tambourine.

Between 1958 ansd 1961, the Azerbaijani composer, Arif Melikov brought together the strongest elements within the Russian and Soviet ballet tradition to create the score titled Legend of Love. It was the first large-scale work written by the 28-year-old composer, and eventually brought him worldwide fame. “The Legend helped me see the world”, he remembered.

Opera lies at the heart of Rimsky-Korsakov’s colourful idiom, but performances are few and far between; this realisation of his penultimate and grandest stage work is a very rare and special experience. Kitezh is known as ‘the Russian Parsifal’, which encapsulates its mystical flavour and steady unfolding of a legend of redemption. A largely Russian cast (headed by the stunning Svetlana Ignatovich) and production team works within a set that moves from opulent naturalistic scenery to some startling theatrical coups worthy of Rimsky’s underrated dramatic instincts.

This double-CD set presents a real conundrum, on a lot of levels. For starters, on its face, 55 songs may well seem like overkill to the casual fan who only knows or remembers (or thinks they only remember) five or six big hits by Paul Revere & the Raiders. And there are more modest single-CD collections to be found on this band that seem less daunting. But as it turns out - for those who give this set a try - Paul Revere & the Raiders did have just enough hits, when coupled with a sufficient number of respected album tracks and B-sides, to sustain a double-CD set. And that goes double for anyone who likes plain old rock & roll - even when this band got ambitious and a little bit progressive and serious, they never lost sight of the value of a great beat and carefully placed vocal and instrumental hooks, and they were always fun…

Sun Ra and His Arkestra - In the Orbit of Ra (2014) {2CD Set Strut STRUT109CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 668 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 290 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 75 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Strut | STRUT109CD
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Progressive Jazz

Arkestra bandleader Marshall Allen presents Sun Ra classics and rarities. Includes previously unreleased track 'Trying To Put The Blame On Me' + previously unissued versions of 'Reflects Motion' and 'Island In The Sun'. As the longest-tenured member of the Arkestra (55-plus years and counting as of 2014), there is no one with a deeper understanding of the music of Sun Ra than Marshall Allen, and that's part of what makes In the Orbit of Ra such a special collection. The Arkestra's long history is often divided into musical/geographic periods or spoken of as a progression from inside to outside playing. This set spans from the late '50s to the late '70s but the non-chronological sequencing shows how artificial those stylistic boundaries are.