Everything is real. Olivier Messiaen’s piano cycle, Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds), besides being one of the monumental creations of modern music, is one of the greatest 'cathedrals' among works ever composed for the piano (or any keyboard instrument).
Messiaen's Catalog of Birds for piano is one of the wonders of modern music, a work apart from schools, movement, intellectual constructions, and programmatic declarations concerning the future of music. Perhaps the engaging, enigmatic, spellbinding nature of this music proceeds from Messiaen's unique source of inspiration: birdsong. Non-human, the source of Messiaen's music is nevertheless not alien since Messiaen celebrates the sounds of nature, which he, as a devout Catholic, experiences as a divine creation. It's difficult to imagine a better interpreter of Messiaen's powerful visions than pianist Anatol Ugorski, who plunges himself into Messiaen's spiritual universe with the passionate abandon of a devoted seeker.
On Duets: Re-Working The Catalogue, Van Morrison and the guests selected and recorded some of his songs from the catalog of 360 songs across his career. Deliberately steering away from his more well-known classics, Van enlisted some of the artists he most respects to perform these songs with him to re-craft and re-imagine them. The album was recorded in his home town of Belfast and London in the United Kingdom over the last year, using a variety of musicians and fresh arrangements.
Released to coincide with Kraftwerk's forthcoming June 2017 tour - their first UK dates since the breathtaking shows witnessed at the Tate Modern in 2013 - Atlantic Records is proud to announce the release of Kraftwerk 3-D: The Catalogue on May 26th. This is the ground-breaking 3-D Kraftwerk concert brought thrillingly to life developed using high definition 3-D with Dolby Atmos surround sound and presented to the technological and audio standards one would associate and indeed come to expect from the pioneering Germans led by founder Ralf Hütter…
The seven "books" of Olivier Messiaen's enormous "Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds)" were composed between 1956 and 1958. In all, they encompass two and a half hours of some of the most beautifully evocative music for solo piano ever penned. Peter Hill's epic survey of the complete piano music of Olivier Messiaen splits this particular cycle over three volumes, with the first three books being presented here. (For the other volumes see " Catalogue d'oiseaux, Books 4-6 ", " Catalogue d'oiseaux Book 7 ". This CD is also available as part of the Peter Hill's complete " Catalogue d'oiseaux " set and also within the " Messiaen - Complete Piano Works ".
Catalogue / Preserve / Amass is a live album released in 2012 by British musician and record producer Steven Wilson, known for being the founder and frontman of psychedelic/progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. After pre-ordering this a week or so ago, when I got home this evening there it was waiting for me. No doubt I will carry it around with me for days and days, playing little games, like not looking at it for a whole day, and then…looking at it to see if I still liked it…I'm sure I will. The more I look at it, the more I like it…..hang on, haven't I heard that somewhere before?….