Crowded House is a long standing and much-loved vehicle for the song writing talents of Neil Finn. Formed in Melbourne Australia in 1985 out the ashes of New Zealand’s Split Enz by Neil, Paul Hester and Nick Seymour, their eponymous self-titled debut album on Capitol Records went on to global success with the hits ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ and ‘Something So Strong’. Those songs and many that followed are still resonating with audiences today, the former in particular being one of the most covered songs of the last 20 years. The band’s first incarnation lasted from 1985 through 1995 with 4 studio albums and enjoyed much success worldwide, becoming particularly beloved for their freewheeling and interactive live shows. This line-up said Farewell to the World on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 1996 with a now legendary performance in front of 150,000 people.
House Of Shakira are a Swedish rock formed by guitarists Mats Hallstensson and Anders Lundström that started out in Stockholm around 1991 under the moniker The Station. The mid 1990’s saw the band change their name to House of Shakira, named after a London bordello and found a settled line up with Per Schelander (bass), Tony Andersson (drums) and Andreas Eklund (vocals) alongside Hallstensson and Lundström. The band's motto is simply "Try every idea with an open mind", therefore every member of the band contributes with own ideas to make this music unique. House Of Shakira consists of five very different personalities that only have one thing that ties them together – to write and perform good songs. A good song is the key to make this band function, style or sound doesn’t matter as long as the song is good.
Chillout Sessions is a series of compilations released by Ministry of Sound that focus on songs from the chillout genre. Songs on Chillout Sessions compilations vary in style from lounge to electronica and are released by many different artists. The Chillout Out genre of compilations started in the UK and since 2003 Ministry of Sound has released them under different tropes such as "Chilled", "After Hours", "The Morning After…" which has shown MOS to have seemingly ended its branding of the genre as Chillout Sessions.