David Gilbert

This album was released in 1973 following the amazingly original albums 'Back To Front' and 'Himself' released in 1972 and 1971. It seems the 70s are O'Sullivan's vintage era and it is astonishing he could keep writing so many songs of highest quality and originality. Like the previous album, this one includes, not only hit songs like 'Get Down' and 'Ooh Baby', but also heart-warming and memorable songs like 'Where peaceful waters fllow', 'Afriend of mine' and 'They've only themselves to blame'. One of the characteristics of this album is the unabashed sense of humour and striking melodies which go very well with the witty lyrics in the songs like 'I'm a writer not a fighter', 'Who knows perhaps maybe' and 'If you love me like you love me'. This is certainly one of the best albums by O'Sullivan.

This is a superb recording of the Two-Part and Sinfonias (Three-Part Inventions) of Johann Sebastian Bach. Kenneth Gilbert is a wonderful interpreter of Bach's keyboard music and in this recording plays an instrument made in 1671 by Jan Couchet that was subsequently enlarged in 1778. The Two-Part Inventions and Sinfonias consist of 15 parts; they were written as technical exercises and as composition demonstration pieces originally for his son Wilhelm Friedemann. The various pieces were probably written separately and were gathered together by Bach in major/minor key sequence and published in 1723. The recording is clear and well balanced. Kenneth Gilbert plays beautifully; the music is lively without being ostentatious.

Nonesuch Records releases its second album from Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw, Narrow Sea, on January 22, 2021. The title piece was written for Sō Percussion, Dawn Upshaw, and Gilbert Kalish in 2017; they perform it on this recording as well. Narrow Sea comprises five parts, each a new setting of a text from The Sacred Harp nineteenth century collection of shape-note hymns. A composition Shaw wrote for Sō Percussion in 2012, Taxidermy, also is on the album.

While everybody’s been obsessing over his older brother’s forthcoming album, David Knopfler has released a fresh record too. Titled “Crow Gifts” and available for streaming now, with a very limited run of CDs planned for February 8th, it marks the first two-year gap in the annual-issue schedule veteran implemented back in 2019 – but then, 2020 saw him put out a brace of platters, and David also was recently involved in HELD BY TREES’ "Solace" so Knopfler wasn’t doing nothing in the interim. This will be his 23rd solo offering, hour-long and comprised of 18 pieces of which 15 are David’s originals, two of them concert takes on earlier cuts, one co-penned with THE DREAM ACADEMY’s Gilbert Gabriel and two – including Woody Guthrie’s evergreen “This Land Is Your Land” – covers.