Visual Saidan

Visual Sound Theories is the video complement to Steve Vai's double-CD Sound Theories Vols. 1-2, which finds the guitarist working with an orchestra, the Holland Metropole Orkest, in a concert of his music…

Released in late 1986, "Think Visual" is the first album the Kinks did for MCA Records. Arista Records seemingly sensed that the Kinks period of commercial renaissance was over following the dropoff in sales of 1984's "Word Of Mouth". Indeed, the sales dropoff continued with "Think Visual", but don't let that fool you. "Think Visual" is an engaging, spirited rock record that no Kinks fan should be without.

Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud spent more than twenty years as a member of the experimental and always innovative Kronos Quartet. She left the group in 1999, and has since created an adventurous and captivating body work, including four previous CD releases, including the Grammy-nominated Strange Toys ( Talking House Records, 2008) and 2010's Pop-Pop (Deconet Records), in collaboration with percussionist/multi-instrumentalist PC Munoz.

The visual and aural arts have likely been interconnected since the beginning of human artistic expression. Artists in both mediums utilize similar terminology to describe techniques, processes and aesthetics in their work. Keyboardist/composer Dov Manski and visual artist Erin Parsch began a partnership to explore the ways in which musical performance and painting can communicate. The Hue of Silence is their astounding multimedia project that shows some of their discoveries, centered around their response to color.

New Age composer and keyboardist Øystein Sevåg was born in Norway in 1957, beginning piano lessons at age five. As a teen he played bass in a rock band but returned to his classical roots in time to study piano, flute and composition at the Music Conservatory of Oslo; by the 1980s, however, Sevåg had become fascinated by the possibilities offered by the development of the synthesizer, and he plunged into electronic music with his self-released 1989 debut LP "Close Your Eyes and See". The product of five years in the studio, the album slowly crept into Billboard's New Age charts, and it landed Sevåg on the Windham Hill label to issue the follow-up, 1993's "Link". The pace of this album never falters, from the quiet, ethereal sax work of Bendik Hofseth to the scintillating Latin beat of Carl Stormer on "Afrika Flower" and on the eerie mystery of "The Long Night," produced by Oystein's computer work…

From their earliest days as a band, the members of R.E.M. always had a Keen sense of how they wanted to be perceived visually, even when it sometimes seemed as if they didn’t want to be seen at all…