This Old Man: All in Pieces

Sort of a swan song for The Blasters, Phil Alvin's solo album went the direction that "Hard Line" was pointing him to. It was hard to see at the time, but in hindsight it's a bit more clear. Is Phil the Tom Waits of Elvis Presleys?

An earthy, naturalistically erotic and blood-soaked tale of young Martta's ill-fated affair with Oula, a womanizing reindeer herdsman in the Finnish Lapland of the late 1940s. When the 19-year-old girl turns up pregnant, her alcoholic father is outraged and a series of tragic events follows.

This anthology is the second compilation from EM Records of the works of the late Henry Kawahara, a media artist and electronic music producer who was particularly active in the Japanese cyber-occult underground of the 1990s, a scene linked with technologies such as 3D (binaural) recordings, brain machines, sound chairs, computer graphics and compact discs. These tracks, produced 1990-95, include a series of recordings described as “Parallel Data Sounds” and “Sound LSD”, a “new language system that speaks directly to the cerebrum” using “frequency components that are not perceived by the conscious mind”, reflecting Kawahara’s interest in concepts such as astrology, love mantras, and astral projection. Also here are two pieces featuring dolphin sounds and human brainwave feedback, as well as pieces from a recording unit called H Music De-perception (HMD) and a group called Xiaoyun.

Most of this disc is taken up with Liszt's Christmas Tree, an unusually modest suite based on Christmas carols. It also offers charming pieces by Reger, Tchaikovsky, Rebikov, and Lyapunov based on Christmas themes, and a couple of Bach transcriptions. Eteri Andjaparidze, whose first CD was a sensational Prokofiev collection, plays this music truly superb musicianship and the kind of pianistic color that has become a rarity. Her Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is the most beautiful I've heard since Dinu Lipatti's. And wait until you hear her delightful playing of Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride! It's deliciously witty and charming.

Grainger’s mastery of choral textures shines out of this wide-ranging collection of folk-song arrangements, each highly individual and memorable. Plus his friend Grieg’s finely scored religious settings. Superior performances by Stephen Layton and Polyphony.

Thomas Baltzar - Complete Works for Unaccompanied Violin
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 197 MB
Recorded: Sept. 2006, Princeton, New Jersey | Released: 2007
Label: MSR MS 1224 | TT: 33:57 | RS
Patrick Wood - violin

Thomas Baltzar is a little-known German violinist and composer who is getting a well-deserved airing in this new premiere recording […] This CD represents his complete output of unaccompanied violin music, and is also the first-ever recording of this once-innovative music. What’s so striking about the pieces is their early use of polyphony, […] double-stops and scordatura […] British-Mexican violinist Patrick Wood thoughtfully plays the works. His tone is even, pure, and warm, and his intonation is spot-on. His light, gentle playing adds just the right shimmer to the simple beauty of each short piece. (Strings, July 2008)