The Last Three Minutes

Award-winning world beat guitarist Lawson Rollins ponders the last three minutes of his day, concentrating on the urgency of the moment, the exhilaration of the speed of sound, the poignancy of the remaining time and the mystical power of the number three. Rollins wrote these dozen multicultural compositions, all in the three minute range and illuminated by his prodigious fingerstyle guitar play. The recording is stripped down, punchy and concise, a radical departure for an artist usually known for creating elaborate, lavishly produced tracks that are at least twice as long.

Award-winning world beat guitarist Lawson Rollins ponders the last three minutes of his day, concentrating on the urgency of the moment, the exhilaration of the speed of sound, the poignancy of the remaining time and the mystical power of the number three. Rollins wrote these dozen multicultural compositions, all in the three minute range and illuminated by his prodigious fingerstyle guitar play. The recording is stripped down, punchy and concise, a radical departure for an artist usually known for creating elaborate, lavishly produced tracks that are at least twice as long.

Sometimes God Hides: The Young Person's Guide to Discipline Review by Mike DeGagne
Sometimes God Hides is a musical stew made up of guitar-laden progressive and jazz-rock tracks, mainly from King Crimson and their solo members. With the likes of Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp leading the way, this sampler from the DGM label offers a kaleidoscopic journey through the amazing guitar craft of these talented musicians, along with some excitingly vivid excursions from Trey Gunn and the California Guitar Trio and a peculiar mix of new age and ambient from the Europa String Choir. Subtitled "The Young Persons' Guide to Discipline," these 23 tracks open up a whole new world of guitar and string manipulation, fusing familiar techniques with aberrant rhythms, electronic pastiches, and appealing yet incongruous string arrangements. Cuts such as Belew's "Burned By the Fire We Make" and King Crimson's "Red" (from an official bootleg album out of Argentina) tread on cordial rock ground but are still entertaining while, at the other end of the spectrum, tracks like Peter Hammill's haunting a cappella entitled "A Better Time" and "Voices of Ancient Children" from Los Gauchos Alemanes swoop and soar with a blend of new age mystery and modernized ambience. While the focal point of most of the songs is the guitar, the surrounding atmosphere of trancelike keyboard runs and unique string applications creates a multi-dimensional effect throughout each track. Moody and eccentric, this sampler makes for a truly peculiar instrumental journey.

Sometimes God Hides: The Young Person's Guide to Discipline Review by Mike DeGagne
Sometimes God Hides is a musical stew made up of guitar-laden progressive and jazz-rock tracks, mainly from King Crimson and their solo members. With the likes of Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp leading the way, this sampler from the DGM label offers a kaleidoscopic journey through the amazing guitar craft of these talented musicians, along with some excitingly vivid excursions from Trey Gunn and the California Guitar Trio and a peculiar mix of new age and ambient from the Europa String Choir. Subtitled "The Young Persons' Guide to Discipline," these 23 tracks open up a whole new world of guitar and string manipulation, fusing familiar techniques with aberrant rhythms, electronic pastiches, and appealing yet incongruous string arrangements. Cuts such as Belew's "Burned By the Fire We Make" and King Crimson's "Red" (from an official bootleg album out of Argentina) tread on cordial rock ground but are still entertaining while, at the other end of the spectrum, tracks like Peter Hammill's haunting a cappella entitled "A Better Time" and "Voices of Ancient Children" from Los Gauchos Alemanes swoop and soar with a blend of new age mystery and modernized ambience. While the focal point of most of the songs is the guitar, the surrounding atmosphere of trancelike keyboard runs and unique string applications creates a multi-dimensional effect throughout each track. Moody and eccentric, this sampler makes for a truly peculiar instrumental journey.

Sometimes God Hides: The Young Person's Guide to Discipline Review by Mike DeGagne
Sometimes God Hides is a musical stew made up of guitar-laden progressive and jazz-rock tracks, mainly from King Crimson and their solo members. With the likes of Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp leading the way, this sampler from the DGM label offers a kaleidoscopic journey through the amazing guitar craft of these talented musicians, along with some excitingly vivid excursions from Trey Gunn and the California Guitar Trio and a peculiar mix of new age and ambient from the Europa String Choir. Subtitled "The Young Persons' Guide to Discipline," these 23 tracks open up a whole new world of guitar and string manipulation, fusing familiar techniques with aberrant rhythms, electronic pastiches, and appealing yet incongruous string arrangements. Cuts such as Belew's "Burned By the Fire We Make" and King Crimson's "Red" (from an official bootleg album out of Argentina) tread on cordial rock ground but are still entertaining while, at the other end of the spectrum, tracks like Peter Hammill's haunting a cappella entitled "A Better Time" and "Voices of Ancient Children" from Los Gauchos Alemanes swoop and soar with a blend of new age mystery and modernized ambience. While the focal point of most of the songs is the guitar, the surrounding atmosphere of trancelike keyboard runs and unique string applications creates a multi-dimensional effect throughout each track. Moody and eccentric, this sampler makes for a truly peculiar instrumental journey.

„Soul Steps“ is the second album by Berlin and San Diego based band The Everettes, who have been an insider tip in the soul landscape for a few years now. On the one hand, the title alludes to the musical footprints they follow, as their danceable music is rooted in Northern Soul, Stax and Motown and with their three female singers they carry the magic of the 60s girl groups into the present. On the other hand, the songs are also about personal development steps and the paths and decisions one has to take in life with oneself and others.

Benjamin, for your new CD recording you have selected Beethoven’s and Schubert’s very last piano sonatas. Why have you chosen these works specifically, just now, in 2014?

For pianist Victor Rosenbaum's fourth CD on Bridge Records; the artist turns to the last three piano compositions of Johannes Brahms. Rosenbaum's Schubert disc was described as a “powerful and poignant record of human experience”, and much the same can be said of these profound readings of Brahms's late masterpieces.