The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol

For the four members of the Flash Pig Quartet, 2019 will have a special meaning. It is during this year that they will blow the candles of the tenth anniversary of the creation of the band, with as a gift their third album, "Year of the Pig". More intimate, freer than their previous two opuses, the disc opens on a long sequence where taking the time seems to be the watchword. As a symbol, each part of this suite takes its name from an unknown and rare animal, one of whose main characteristics is slowness. So goes Flash Pig: get off the beaten track, explore other territories but always taking the time to discover, build, and take the listener with them … If slowness dominates this sequel, the last three pieces of the disc For their part, they can see other characteristics of the quartet: the thirst for freedom on the one hand, and above all the concern for the melody.

The last days of the American icon Walt Disney form a powerful and poignant subject for Philip Glass's latest opera, which was filmed at its first performances in Madrid in January 2013. Phelim McDermott's spectacular production is worthy of Disney's own visual imagination and its definitive influence on American culture, while in the pit is the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, an experienced and authoritative champion of the composer's hypnotically beautiful music, which gives wings to Rudy Wurlitzer's operatic transformation of Peter Stephan Jungk's novel, using both fact and fiction to peer into Disney's troubled psyche as illness forces him to confront his mortality.

African Harmonies is the new album from the trio Insingizi and is their 3rd international release following their first two critically acclaimed CDs, Voices of Southern Africa Volumes 1 & 2. African Harmonies is Insingizi’s ‘Thank You’ or Siyabonga in the IsiNdebele language of Zimbabwe, as this CD is dedicated to their friends and fans who have been there from day one.

Dawes' Taylor Goldsmith has always been the kind of insightful singer/songwriter whose lyrics read a lot like poetry. They're like thoughtful journal entries turned into literate, symbol-heavy songs rife with self-effacing revelations and timely insights into the state of the world. So it makes sense that the band's sixth studio album, the aptly titled Passwords, finds Goldsmith investigating notions of communication – with ourselves and with each other, both successfully and pathetically – and the myriad ways our social media-frenzied climate can make the truth feel so elusive. He addresses this theme explicitly on the crunchy midtempo opener, "Living in the Future."