Susan David

Russell Mills & Undark - 2 Albums: Strange Familiar (1996) / Pearl + Umbra (2000) [2CD] {Instinct Records} (ft. David Sylvian)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 656 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 318 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 69 Mb
© 2000 Instinct Records | INS-526-2 / INS-501-2
Electronic / Ambient Techno

In 1996, art-design maestro Russell Mills assembled the tremendously impressive Undark collective – both Brian and Roger Eno, David Sylvian, Bill Laswell, the Edge, Kevin Shields, Robin Guthrie, Hywel Davies, etc. – for an LP of guitar-damaged beatscapes and textured invisible-soundtracks. Strange Familiar is an astonishing work, ebbing and flowing better than any other album in recent memory. Mills and his crew don't always wait for the next track marker to introduce a new theme, resulting in a work that pays huge dividends over the course of a full listen.

Conductor Daniel Reuss' splendid new recording of Handel's Solomon expands the extraordinarily broad range of music, including works by Bach, Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Ligeti, Stefan Wolpe, and the Bang on a Can composers, in which he has shown his mastery. His 2006 recording of Martin's Le vin herbé was one of the highlights of the year. Handel scored the oratorio for unusually large choral and orchestral forces, and the sound of this performance, with the RIAS-Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, is warmly humanistic, beautifully paced, and tonally sumptuous, and is sung and played with stylistic assurance and lively dramatic passion.