Shingles

This 28 CD box set includes the Argo jewels from Marriner’s early recording days with the chamber orchestra he founded in 1958, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The edition spans the years 1964-1981, and includes a bonus CD of the first recordings from 1961.The collection concentrates on the Argo years, when the pattern for the Academy’s success was set. Winning performances by soloists such as Alan Loveday and Iona Brown — who in 1974 became Marriner’s successor in directing from the violin – were a key part of the fabric of the Academy’s unique sound.

Chill Collins: An Ambient Tribute to Phil Collins is exactly what you think it is. Twenty artists doing twenty ambient covers of solo Phil Collins songs. It exists in the vague place between Music For Airports and Music From The Disney Motion Picture "Tarzan". Despite the title, this isn't necessarily a compilation to fall asleep to, though some tracks might fit the bill. There's contemplative flugelhorn over the backdrop of distant fireworks (Jesse DeRosa as Shingles); serene tones buried under swaths of tape saturation (Amulets); rhythmic pitched-down Ambient-hop (Angel Marcloid as MindSpring Memories); feedback loops of self-consuming drones (the welcome return of Nicholas Burrage, née Szczepanik); and plain ol' brilliant stupidity (Breakdancing Ronald Reagan).