Brilliant

UK two CD collection from the British Indie band. Taking their name from a Thelonious Monk jazz album, they issued ten singles, five albums and various compilations between 1983 and 1993. Many of them made the Indie Chart, from early efforts with hints of Psychobilly and the Cramps to more melodic, C86-flavoured tracks (think the Smiths and the Housemartins) and later tracks with a hint of Shoegazer and Baggy about them. In Davey Woodward, the Brilliant Corners were fronted by a handsome, charismatic singer who was also a talented songwriter - and Davey's cooperated with this long-overdue anthology, helping with the track listing and supplying the entertaining sleeve-notes. This is the most authoritative Brilliant Corners collection to date, boasting all their singles on the SS20 and McQueen labels plus numerous tracks which have never before been on CD and a handful of previously unissued demos and live tracks. Cherry Red.

A singular atlas of 100 infographic maps from thought-provoking to flat-out fun

A singular atlas of 100 infographic maps from thought-provoking to flat-out fun

Demofoonte dates from the early ‘Milan years’ of Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787), long before the radical ‘reform operas’ for which he is most famous and his break with opera seria and the librettos of Pietro Metastasio. Gluck arrived in the northern Italian city in 1737 and was mentored there by composer Giovanni Battista Sammartini. Though Sammartini primarily composed symphonies and music for the church, Milan boasted a vibrant opera scene, and Gluck soon formed an association with one of the city's up-and-coming opera houses, the Teatro Regio Ducal. His first opera, Artaserse, on a libretto by Metastasio, premiered there on 26 December 1741 and opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742. Gluck went on to compose an opera for each of the next four Carnivals at Milan, Demofoonte being the second of these and his third opera overall, premiering on 6 January 1743.