David Piña

Acclaimed American composer Mark Abel’s sixth album for Delos extends his growing command of chamber writing while also delivering three major new vocal works. Celebrated sopranos Isabel Bayrakdarian (four times a Juno Award winner) and Hila Plitmann (a pair of Grammys and a longtime Abel collaborator) are joined by mezzo Kindra Scharich in presenting the song cycles Trois Femmes du Cinema and 1966, and debuting Two Scenes from “The Book of Esther,” a provocative excerpt from an opera in development. The album’s impressive array of instrumentalists includes pianist Carol Rosenberger (making the final recording of her epic career); fellow pianists Dominic Cheli, Sean Kennard and Jeffrey LaDeur; Alexander String Quartet violist David Samuel; Pacific Symphony concertmaster Dennis Kim and young cello star Jonah Kim.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY AWESOME MIX VOL. 1 is the collection of songs featured in the film. Music plays a major role in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY as the 1970s songs featured in the film are part of the storyline in a unique way. Explaining how the songs come to play in the story, director James Gunn says, 'One of the main story points in the movie is that Quill has this compilation tape (Awesome Mix #1) that he got from his mother before she died that she made for him. It was of songs that she loved, all songs from the 1970s, and that's the only thing he has left of his mother and that's the only thing he has left of his home on Earth. He uses that as a connection to his past and to the sadness that he feels of having left all that and lost all that.'

Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album for the Marvel Studios film of the same name. Featuring the songs present on Peter Quill's mixtape in the film, the album was released by Hollywood Records on July 29, 2014. A separate film score album, Guardians of the Galaxy (Original Score), composed by Tyler Bates, was also released by Hollywood Records on the same date, along with a deluxe version featuring both albums. The soundtrack album reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, becoming the first soundtrack album in history consisting entirely of previously released songs to top the chart. The album topped the Billboard Top Soundtracks for 11 consecutive weeks and 16 weeks in total. As of January 2015, it has sold 1,003,000 copies in the United States, and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. The album was the US's second best-selling soundtrack album of 2014, behind only the soundtrack to Frozen.