Like velvet underwear, The Bottle Collector's Lounge is smooth. With songs like "King Louis" and "Esquire Lounge," The Dino Martinis remember their Las Vegan roots, but they also strike out with everything from jump blues to gospel. The CD's production quality is also quite astounding.
Over a period of five years, Swiss directors Norbert Wiedmer and Peter Guyer documented the activity of legendary producer Manfred Eicher, the founder and driving force behind ECM Records, whose advocacy of progressive jazz and of classical composers like Arvo Pärt, Meredith Monk, Valentin Silvestrov, and György Kurtág changed the landscape of contemporary music in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The film Sounds and Silence: Travels with Manfred Eicher was released in 2009 and this 2011 soundtrack album is made up largely of tracks taken from previously released ECM albums that Eicher produced, some from as early as 1980. Most of the pieces are low-key and understated and feature chamber ensembles, although there are several piano tracks and several featuring orchestra or chorus. The album has a mix of selections from ECM's classical and jazz repertoire, and from the label's specialty, the many pieces that lie somewhere in between the two.
Good to Be Bad is the tenth studio album by Whitesnake released in April 2008. This is the first album of new studio material in a decade, since 1997's Restless Heart, not including the four new tracks recorded for the 2006 live album Live: In the Shadow of the Blues. The album charted at number 8 on the Top Independent albums, number 23 on the Top Canadian albums, number 62 on the Billboard 200 charts, and number 7 on the UK Albums Chart. After the release of the album, a tour began on 23 March 2008 in Wellington, New Zealand. The Australian concerts were followed by concerts in South America, Europe, Japan and North America.