Sacred Spirit Virgin

Originally advertised on television and then released to stores, Pure Moods could be subtitled "New Age's Greatest Hits." Certainly, it has everything that the mainstream pop audience could construe as new age - atmospheric synthesizers, chants and haunting sonic textures. More importantly, it has all of the songs, from Enigma ("Return to Innocence"), Deep Forest ("Sweet Lullaby") and Enya ("Orinoco Flow") to Angelo Badalamenti ("Theme from Twin Peaks"), Brian Eno ("Another Green World") and Mike Oldfield ("Pran's Escape / The Killing Fields"). In short, it's new age music for the pop music and it's hard to imagine that another compilation could cover the same ground quite as well.

Originally advertised on television and then released to stores, Pure Moods could be subtitled "New Age's Greatest Hits." Certainly, it has everything that the mainstream pop audience could construe as new age - atmospheric synthesizers, chants and haunting sonic textures. More importantly, it has all of the songs, from Enigma ("Return to Innocence"), Deep Forest ("Sweet Lullaby") and Enya ("Orinoco Flow") to Angelo Badalamenti ("Theme from Twin Peaks"), Brian Eno ("Another Green World") and Mike Oldfield ("Pran's Escape / The Killing Fields"). In short, it's new age music for the pop music and it's hard to imagine that another compilation could cover the same ground quite as well.

Claus Zundel, also known as The Brave is a German composer, songwriter, producer and pianist. He has created several worldwide successful musical projects, most notable Sacred Spirit and B-Tribe (sold 20 million. copies combined), as well as more Indie projects such as "Moroccan Spirit", "Classical Spirit", "Divine Works", Ancient Spirit and his latest project "Tango Jointz". His music style is usually called as "The Brave Sound" as it considers a large number of music styles mixed in his special way. He often collaborates with musicians and singers from around the world and creates "The Brave Sound" projects with them.

Joseph and his Brethren, the latest in The King's Consort's mammoth series of recordings of the grand oratorios of Handel, tells the story of Joseph, sold into slavery by his perfidious brothers, winning acceptance at the court of Pharaoh in Egypt by his interpretation of the dreams foretelling seven years of plenty, and seven of famine. His brothers come from drought-ridden Israel to beg for food, and are eventually reunited with Joseph. The work is characteristically full of melodic invention and drama, culminating in the scene between Joseph and his youngest—and innocent—brother Benjamin (here sung by the stunning treble Connor Burrowes) in which Joseph is emotionally overcome and admits his true identity. No wonder the work was so warmly received at its first performance.

Now presented complete, Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion’s exceptional Lutheran Mass performances, in this often unjustly neglected genre, remind us of Bach’s telling psychological shift in the early 1730s from ephemeral duty to collating collections of music for posterity. The four parody Missae breves, comprised of a Kyrie and Gloria only, in the north German way, were compiled by Bach from cantata movements he clearly admired and felt could be productively recycled. Then there’s also the Missa of 1733 – the work which Bach offered to the new Elector of Saxony in search of wider recognition and which was to become the blueprint for that summa anthology, the Mass in B minor – now assembled with the others and strengthening the identity of Bach’s Mass oeuvre further.

Handel's 'Messiah' is one of the most sung oratorios in the world and its great choruses and arias can be heard on countless classical collections. From its premiere to the present day, this great sacred work enjoys almost unbroken popularity and has always fascinated audiences and musicians alike. In the chapter "Resurrection of George Frideric Handel" of his book "Decisive Moments in History", Stefan Zweig provides a particularly colourful description of Handel’s "Messiah". Starting from the fresh spirit of the work, he creates a lively story that lets the reader look over his shoulder as he composes the work. In it, he illustrates the timelessness and special position of this great composition in the context of music history.

Much-awaited has been the new recording of the Machaut Messe de Nostre Dame from Bjorn Schmelzer and Graindelavoix, one of Glossas long- standing artistic family members. Following on from the trio of discs devoted to music in the spirit of the medieval master draughtsman Villard de Honnecourt the Antwerp-based ensemble currently in residence at the Fondation Royaumont in France has now turned to the first-known composer of an integral mass cycle: Guillaume de Machaut, who was a canon at Reims Cathedral in the fourteenth century.