Compared to the Move's long-gestating 1968 eponymous debut, their 1970 sophomore effort Shazam is unified. It was not culled from sessions from a period of 14 months but instead largely made at one time… but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's any easier to get a handle on the album. The Move changed greatly in the period between their first albums, with original bassist Chris "Ace" Kefford leaving in a cloud of acid in 1968. In his absence, rhythm guitarist Trevor Burton jumped over to bass, beginning an odd period where the group was cutting songs, most penned by Roy Wood but a few written by David Morgan, a fellow Birmingham-based songwriter signed to the publishing company of Move lead singer Carl Wayne…
Music for Alfonso the Wise by redoubtable English period instrument ensemble the Dufay Collective is not a collection of usual suspect Cantigas de Santa Maria, but attempts to re-create the lost heritage of the secular music that surrounded Alfonso X's court during his reign. Utilizing instruments reconstructed from miniatures, paintings, and other iconography dating from Alfonso's time, the Dufay Collective relies on music found within the Cantigas, manuscript sources outside it, remaining old musical practices still held over in "world music," and its own inventiveness to create an album that nonetheless smacks of authenticity.