Reason July 2020

Metal legend U.D.O. will release their new album “We Are One” on July 17th, which was written in collaboration with the official Concert Band of the German Armed Forces (Musikkorps der Bundeswehr) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Christoph Scheibling and is a wholly unique worldwide musical project. The album contains 15 new songs that have been developed and arranged by U.D.O. together with Christoph Scheibling. The two former Accept musicians Stefan Kaufmann and Peter Baltes have been part of the songwriting too – as well as the German Armed Forces´ composers Guido Rennert and Alexander Reuber. 'We Are One‘ is one of the most elaborate concept albums the market has ever seen, not to be compared with the `rock band meets orchestra‘ collaborations that already exist in the music world.

The album that essentially kick-started the U.K. glam rock craze, Electric Warrior completes T. Rex's transformation from hippie folk-rockers into flamboyant avatars of trashy rock & roll. There are a few vestiges of those early days remaining in the acoustic-driven ballads, but Electric Warrior spends most of its time in a swinging, hip-shaking groove powered by Marc Bolan's warm electric guitar…

Angel In Disguise, showcases a more experimental side to his production. Traversing through musicality, progressive synths and introspection, this first single unveils the producer’s distinct sound with disorientated vocals; speaking of the interplay between reason and emotion, the lyrics repeat “Wise old man in my brain, soul bursting through my veins”, opening the gates to this captivating electronically steered opus.

In an effort to arrange the first performance of his Seventh Symphony, Gustav Mahler declared it to be his best work, preponderantly cheerful in character. His younger colleague Schoenberg expressed his admiration for the work, and Webern considered it his favorite Mahler symphony. Nevertheless, it remains the least performed and least written-about symphony of the entire cycle, and has come to be regarded as enigmatic and less successful than its siblings.

Griot tells a story about Elisabeth, exploring her journey in search of something grand, new… A Journey about something more.
Elisabeth, the second album by the portuguese Griot, is a very interesting conceptual work, an impeccable production, where progressive and jazz styles are merged, but which give them their own space to make them recognizable. There is no musical instrument that is in excess, each one has a reason to be and add value to the compositions.

Although it’s fair to say that Ken Hensley, as a musician, a songwriter and artist, is probably best known for the decade he spent in Uriah Heep, from 1970’s “Very ’Eavy… Very ’Umble” through to 1980’s “Conquest”, as the band’s keyboard and organist, guitarist, and often their principle songwriter, Ken has forged a varied and exciting musical career over the past 50+ years. From stints with bands as wide ranging as southern boogie merchants Blackfoot, to shock rockers WASP, it’s as a solo artist, and with the band Ken Hensley & Live Fire, that Ken has secured his enduring legacy. Following on from last year’s “The Bronze Years 1973-1981” collection comes “Tales Of Live Fire & Other Mysteries”, a 5CD set that revisits two prolific years for Ken, with albums released in 2012 and 2013.

Max Bruch has never made things easy for fond listeners or performers of music; his contemporaries found him hard to handle, and so have later generations. The reason behind this has nothing to do with the superlative, worldwide renown of the first of his violin concertos, or with his musical language, which had already fallen out of fashion when he died exactly a hundred years ago. Instead, Bruch himself much too quickly and all too often lost his faith in his "musical progeny" because he did not have the patience to let them mature in peace and to secure a place in the broader public consciousness. This applies to the opera Die Loreley, which offers a rewarding listening experience, as well as to his three symphonies composed between 1868 and 1882 and originally intended as a series of works forming a trilogy.