French

French Pop – music so effortlessly cool and hip you can’t help but fall in love, Psychedelia – fuzzy dance floor music to lose yourself too. Put the two together and you have an intoxicating mix that is so lush and so perfect, and a sound that has helped soundtrack recent hit TV series such as The Queens Gambit, Killing Eve, and The Serpent.

Tchaikovsky - almost alone - saw the possibilities of specially-composed music for the classical ballet, which was hugely popular in nineteenth-century Russia. His secret was to work closely with his choreographer and link music and dance routines at the outset: this proved vital to the stage action and the final success of the whole production. Swan Lake was the first, and Nutcracker the last of Tchaikovsky’s three ballet scores. Following the success of Sleeping Beauty came the request for another ballet, which eventually formed a double-bill with his opera Yolanta. Tchaikovsky agreed, unusually, that some of the Nutcracker music could be played at an orchestral concert before the ballet opened in St Petersburg. At the concert, an enthusiastic audience encored almost every number.

French TV is a Louisville, Kentucky based progressive rock band that has been in existence since 1983. Over the years, members have come and gone, but founder, bassist and main composer Mike Sary continues to drag the band into the next millennium. The band deftly nod to prog-masters like National Health, Soft Machine, Zappa, Brudford, Brand X, Happy the Man, and Samla Mammas Manna, among others. The history of French TV is complex, filled with lineup changes, missed opportunities, delays, and disillusions. And yet, a growing body of work testifies to one man's sagacity and stubbornness. Blending elements of progressive rock, fusion, cartoon music, and Rock in Opposition (RIO), the music of his group has been described as being "simultaneously hilarious and highly challenging, making it one of the most original American prog rock outfits."

French TV's newest CD, A Ghastly State Of Affairs is their 15th in their long history. It is also their first album not to be self-released. Headed up by charter member bassist/composer Mike Sary, he is joined again by guitarist Kasumi Yoneda (also from the Japanese band TEE), keyboardist Patrick Strawser (best known for his work in the 90's band Volare), and now by the original drummer from FTV's first three abums, Fenner Castner.

This album contains two suites of music. Tracks I - 4 are concerned with the legend of King Arthur and tracks 5 - 10 are taken from my Castles Suite.

The second instalment in the Trés Chic series gathers together many of the legendary icons of 1950 and 60s French music. Featuring Françoise Hardy, Gilbert Bécaud, Charles Aznavour and Sacha Distel alongside a select number of hip American jazz musicians who spent serious time in France and made music there such as Miles Davis and Art Blakey.

Magdalena Kožená is a remarkable singer. Her voice is a somewhat light mezzo with many colors, and she can shade it to a whisper or impress with a fortissimo high B-flat. Her range is absolutely even from top to bottom and she never switches gears; similarly she refuses to push the voice at either end. Her reading of Eboli's "Veil Song" from Verdi's Don Carlos is seductive and insinuating, with just the right Spanish flavor in the low-register roulades–but they're soft-focused. Perhaps she has no "chest" register, or is afraid to use it?

French TV are back with a snappy 2-cd set. Disc One is a new studio effort continuing the meticulous twists and turns of their last two releases, with essentially the same players. Disc Two is a (mostly) live-in-the-studio affair, BBC-style, containing the set they performed at Chicago's"Protoberfest" in 2018. For music fans who always wondered what if the members of Henry Cow decided to make a fusion record.