Anihony Hopkins

57 Tracks/20 Never before on CD/12 Previously unreleased performances. Remastered from Analog tapes. Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins career was both long and fruitful. He performed live for six decades and recorded for over 30 years amassing a catalogue that was larger than almost any of his contemporaries. Not only was he prolific but he was also a great raconteur and a very good live performer with an ‘act’ honed to perfection at pre-war dances and parties. His guitar playing was unconventional, some have even called it ragged, but it is not as a guitarist that he will be remembered. Somehow the way he set his songs seemed totally apposite and it gave everything he did an authenticity that few others were ever able to match.

Aubrey Mayhew, founder of the maverick country label Little Darlin' Records, sought out taciturn bluesman Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins in Houston in 1967 and persuaded him to make some casual field recordings for him at nearby Gold Star Studio and, as it turned out, at two small local bars. The results of these extremely loose and casual sessions were issued as a series of five short albums under the blanket title of The Lost Texas Tapes, and it is those five releases that are collected here into one double-disc set. Intimacy is the operative word for these tracks, as Hopkins (playing solo electric guitar) sounds relaxed and at ease, and while these recordings are hardly the place to start with Lightnin', die-hard fans will find them indispensable for the insight they give into his creative process…

How I Live Now is the big screen adaptation of the award-winning young adult novel by Meg Rosoff, directed by acclaimed Academy Award winning director Kevin McDonald (The Last King Of Scotland, Marley). The original soundtrack is scored by Jon Hopkins, composer, producer and longterm collaborator of Brian Eno and Coldplay. Featuring some of his darkest, most nihilistic work to date, the score is built from two contrasting elements - atonal, sub-terrestrial drones with a backbone of pounding rhythms, and sublimely pastoral acoustic piano. These two opposing musical forces guide the viewer through the film, by turns disturbing and beautifully meditative. The centrepiece of the score is the track The Hawk, a timeless and heartbreaking theme that recurs throughout the film.