2016 marks 20 years since iconic ABC TV show Recovery was first broadcast on our screens. To celebrate this anniversary, ABC Music have assembled a very special ‘Best Of’ collection, featuring Recovery’s most memorable performances, courtesy of the finest local and international artists of the era. The release includes performances from a galaxy of local and international stars including Powderfinger, Silverchair, Kate Ceberano, Nick Cave, Paul Kelly, Something For Kate, The Whitlams, Natalie Imbruglia, The Living End, You Am I, Sonic Youth, Spiderbait and many more.
The music on this disc is just incidentally something remotely 'ambient'. Most of the time it's experimental electronic music, vaguely remembering the avant-garde scene from the late 60's and seventies. At first listen, that is. When you listen more closely, you'll hear that this music perfectly fits the 2006 timeframe. It's clicks, cuts, hums and bleeps, but there's something most other recordings in this field mostly seem to lack: emotion. (It's exactly that in which this music resembles Murcof's 'Remembranza')
This beautifully packaged 4 disc (3CD + DVD) box set comprises of the very best radio and TV performances by Richard and Linda Thompson and Richard Thompson solo recorded for the BBC between January 1974 and 2009. These are the first ever collection of BBC recordings sanctioned by Richard Thompson, the first career retrospective DVD ever released by Richard Thompson and the first ever to feature Linda.
For Marsalis Music's second DVD release, label founder Branford Marsalis and his quartet have been captured in a complete performance of John Coltrane's 1964 masterpiece A Love Supreme. This legendary suite, which tenor saxophonist Marsalis included on his label's premier release, Footsteps of Our Fathers, was performed at Amsterdam's Bimhuis during a European tour in March 2003. “We felt that we were pretty much done with A Love Supreme when we went to Europe, but my manager wasn't done with it,” Marsalis recalls wryly. “After hearing us perform the suite at the Bottom Line, she insisted that we had to film it so she approached Pierre about the project and he agreed.”
When Simple Minds released Black and White in 2005, it was obvious they'd been doing some creative soul searching in light of the success of bands clearly influenced by them, namely, the Killers and Manic Street Preachers. 2009's Graffiti Soul saw the return of drummer Mel Gaynor to the fold. He brought a familiar, tight, propulsive foundation to Charlie Burchill's guitar playing and Andy Gillespie's imaginative synths. Jim Kerr's alternately whispering and soaring vocals were still at the fore, but were showcased inside more economical songwriting, and Jez Coad's production celebrated the band's pop identity. Big Music finds Simple Minds coming full circle – going all the way back to 1979 for inspiration. They've rediscovered the urgent, keyboard-driven post-punk futurism of recordings such as Empires and Dance and Sons and Fascination.
Lucky Peterson is definitely a student of the blues. Since Willie Dixon took him under his wing at a very young age, Peterson has been immersed in blues. He has studied and lived it. With the release of Live At The 55 Arts Club Berlin, Peterson and company are at the top of their game. For fans, this release is a treat. For the uninitiated, this is gonna rock your world! This release is packaged as 3 DVDs and 2 CDs. DVD1 is the 1st set performance, DVD2 is the 2nd set performance, and the third DVD is “extras.” The two CDs match the music performed on the DVDs. The packaging itself is first class too; no corners cut here. An included booklet contains great photos, profiles of the band members, and a forward by Andreas Hommelsheim, who opened 55 Arts Club Berlin where this concert was filmed. The whole package is first class all the way.
Zhu Xiao-Mei ranks among the greatest pianists of our times and is one of the most renowned interpreters of J. S. Bach’s music. The Goldberg Variations stood at the beginning of her international career and represent the ‘greatest musical encounter’ of her life. “It is a universal piece of music that knows no frontiers”, this is the message of her extraordinary playing which is being celebrated in concert halls around the world. Her unique interpretation has now been captured on DVD for the fi rst time. The live recording was produced at her critically acclaimed concert at the Leipzig Bach Festival 2014 at J. S. Bach’s final resting place in St. Thomas Church. Michel Mollard’s exquisite documentary “The Return is the Movement of Tao” complements the concert recording. Mollard accompanies the pianist on tour as well as to the reclusiveness of the French Alps and offers profound insights to the mind of a fascinating artist and her vision of the Goldberg Variations.
LEGENDS OF THE CANYON delivers the story of the advent of rock music spawned in the garden of the Hollywood Hills, Laurel Canyon. Many of rock music's legendary artists of the late 1960's brought to life the anthems of a generation in these hills, in a commune-like setting. CROSBY STILLS and NASH, The Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, America,, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds and many others. Adding depth, color and certainly authenticity to the film, famed rock photographer Henry Diltz, (CSNY official photographer) contributes as narrator and with a variety of original photographs, some never before exhibited, and rare footage shot amongst the musicians' tribe of Laurel Canyon. Visually stunning, intensely captivating and musically inspiring, this CLASSIC ARTISTS' film brings us to a time and place where some refused to let go of a dream of a life where harmony ruled the Earth, their music still echoes through the hills of Laurel Canyon to this day.