Comus

As this expansive (though not entirely as "complete" as promised) anthology reminds us, Comus' frightening musical visions surely represented the darkest side of England's late-'60s folk-rock movement. Like a Fairport Convention from Hell, the group pushed folk boundaries into alien progressive, psychedelic, and acid rock realms, capping it with desperate and macabre subject matter and warping all the genres involved (and numerous minds) in the process. 1971's disorienting, often terrifying debut, First Utterance, could have doubled as (and may have well inspired, in part) the soundtrack to Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man a few years later, given its recurring pagan themes and varied blend of voices (some male, some female, some…?) and instrumentation (flute, oboe, strings, etc.).

Comus' first album contains an imaginative if elusive brand of experimental folk-rock, with a tense and sometimes distressed vibe. At times, this straddles the border between folk-rock and the kind of songs you'd expect to be sung at a witches' brew fest, the haunting supernatural atmosphere enhanced by bursts of what sound like a theramin-like violin, hand drums, flute, oboe, ghostly female backup vocals, and detours into almost tribal rhythms.

Forty-two years. That's how long it has taken Comus to follow up their long legendary First Utterance debut, and you cannot even ask if the wait was worthwhile. A less than stellar second album, back in 1974, followed by a 35-year silence essentially rendered the hiatus redundant, and falling into Out of the Coma today is akin to rediscovering a priceless manuscript that should have been in our hands decades back. Yes, priceless. No matter that the album features just three new songs (all of them familiar from the band's current live show); no matter, either, that the rest of the disc is consumed by "Malgaard Suite," a rough live sketch of a song that would have made the next album, had the original band only stayed the course…

According to Christopher Hogwood, in his marvelous biography of Handel, "In the winter of that year [1750], Handel received what was for him an unusual commission. Although closely associated with the London theatre, he wrote very little incidental music for plays. A request from John Rich to provide airs and dances for Smollett's 'Alceste' was undertaken, according to Hawkins, in repayment of a debt to Rich."

In 2015 our most recent Charpentier recording to date, La Descente dOrphée aux Enfers with young soloists and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble, received the Grammy Award for the »Best Opera Production« of the preceding year and Gramophones »Editors Choice.« Our new CD featuring two »mini-operas« by Charpentier again offers enthralling performances of this court music of charming dance character and elegance. In contrast to Charpentiers other operas, Les Plaisirs de Versailles is directly associated with Louis XIV.