Closer to The Music

The Pet Shop Boys' collaboration with playwright Jonathan Harvey for Closer to Heaven was a smashing success among the West End in 2001 and a delight for fans around the world. The original cast recording matched the musical's campy appeal and made the Pet Shop Boys accessible again, but on a theatrical scope that's chased their sound for decades. Closer to Heaven is vibrant and brash with lush pop decadence, but also a brazen tale of sex and drugs. What's more inviting is how the overall soundscape is uninhibited. Billie Trix, who's played by Frances Barber, is a vocal vixen. "My Night" is an infectious disco romp, but she sets the mood with the angelically sassy "Friendly Fire." The Pet Shop Boys' own "Vampires" and "Closer to Heaven" from 1999's Nightlife are recast; however, the sheer duet between characters Vic and Shell on "In Denial" shimmies with Hi-NRG breakbeats for something cheeky, yet sensitive…

On 1977's A Farewell to Kings it quickly becomes apparent that Rush had improved their songwriting and strengthened their focus and musical approach. Synthesizers also mark their first prominent appearance on a Rush album, a direction the band would continue to pursue on future releases…

European release of this classic heavy rock album with four bonus tracks! A beautiful combination of Black Sabbath and The Beatles.

Echoes Landing was formed by Allison vonBulow and Gregg Olson in 2002 out of a strong commitment to provide a source of music for people that demand sonic and emotional depth in the music they listen to. Echoes Landing vocalist, Allison vonBulow, has one of the strongest and most intelligible voices in rock, and has been compared to the likes of Ann Wilson and Joni Mitchell. Guitarist, Gregg Olson, is a virtuoso in his own right, and blends his soulful playing with the chops and fire of artists like Eric Johnson and Steve Vai.

On their new album “Closer to Paradise” Spark, the Classical Band, form a unique partnership with the internationally acclaimed countertenor Valer Sabadus to produce, in musical form, a feeling of longing, that wonderful, painful yet bitter-sweet emotional state ’twixt melancholy and happiness. The spectrum of works ranges from the classical masters such as Antonio Vivaldi, Robert Schumann, Gabriel Fauré, Erik Satie and Kurt Weill through to French chansonnier Leo Ferré, Italian cantautore Lucio Dalla, American singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, British synth-rock-group Depeche Mode and the German cult band Rammstein. Rounded off with some compositions by the Spark musicians themselves, the pieces blend into an aural study of emotions, the fruit of an exciting musical collaboration and a consistently thrilling recording project.