Edo

It was in Benin City, in the heart of Nigeria, that a new hybrid of intoxicating highlife music known as Edo Funk was born. It first emerged in the late 1970s when a group of musicians began to experiment with different ways of integrating elements from their native Edo culture and fusing them with new sound effects coming from West Africa ́s night-clubs. Unlike the rather polished 1980's Nigerian disco productions coming out of the international metropolis of Lagos Edo Funk was raw and reduced to its bare minimum.

Born in Perth in 1954, Vine is one of Australia's most prolific and versatile composers. Carl Vine's six symphonies trace concisely the evolution that brought him back to the original symphonic tradition that modernity temporarily curtailed. Carl Vine's metaphor for his own symphonic practice is drawn from the natural sciences: composition begins with a 'crystal', a musical idea whose characteristic angles and planes are explored and transformed in the course of the work's creation. This process of transformation, of presenting material in varying lights, coupled with the composer's sense of timing, makes for a series of works whose inherent drama is considerable. Performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and featuring the Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir and Synergy under the direction of Stuart Challender and Edo de Waart.

A stunning Wagner collection featuring all the major overtures and preludes (including the very rare and very beautiful ‘Die Feen’ – The Fairies), this collection is also noteworthy for other reasons. For a start, it brings together in a single collection the complete Decca Wagner recordings of Zubin Mehta and the complete Philips Wagner recordings of Edo de Waart. It also features two further rarities – Wagner’s early Symphony (with the San Francisco Symphony and Edo de Waart) and a tiny choral piece – ‘Kinderkatechismus’ – an absolute Decca rarity and much sought-after by collectors.

A stunning Wagner collection featuring all the major overtures and preludes (including the very rare and very beautiful ‘Die Feen’ – The Fairies), this collection is also noteworthy for other reasons. For a start, it brings together in a single collection the complete Decca Wagner recordings of Zubin Mehta and the complete Philips Wagner recordings of Edo de Waart. It also features two further rarities – Wagner’s early Symphony (with the San Francisco Symphony and Edo de Waart) and a tiny choral piece – ‘Kinderkatechismus’ – an absolute Decca rarity and much sought-after by collectors.