Imagined Villages

The Emerald Duets is a crowning achievement among Wadada Leo Smith's many recorded duo collaborations with drummers/percussionists, that have previously featured such creative giants as Ed Blackwell, Jack DeJohnette, Milford Graves, Louis Moholo-Moholo and Gunter Sommer, among others. The Emerald Duets features four master drummers who have each, in their own unique fashion, contributed to the way modern drumming has developed in the past six decades and how it is now perceived. Pheeroan akLaff, Andrew Cyrille and Han Bennink are each featured on one disc and Jack DeJohnette on two discs, including Smith's five-part composition "Paradise: The Gardens and Fountains" that fills the fifth disc of this boxed set in its entirety.

As the double-disc The Fragile unfurls, all of Nine Inch Nails' trademarks – gargantuan, processed guitars, ominous electro rhythms, near-ambient keyboards, Trent Reznor's shredded vocals and tortured words – are unveiled, all sounding pretty much how they did on The Downward Spiral. Upon closer inspection, there are new frills, yet these aren't apparent without digging – and what's on the surface isn't necessarily inviting, either…

An excellent album, very intense and symphonic. Solid flute lead work (Kollar Attila is one of the greatest flute players), lots of majestic chorus interventions (singers of Hungarian State Opera) and the strong participation of drums, bass, guitar and -specially- the electronic keyboards, makes "Nostradamus" a must. SOLARIS is one of the few bands where, despite the prominent flute role, the listener doesn't think about JETHRO TULL, because the sound is pretty much symphonic and pompous…

Sono Luminus collaborates with the chamber orchestra Inscape to produce the aurally stunning Sprung Rhythm, an exciting collection of works from three composers that express new and diverse voices in American music. All of the music recorded here is for acoustic instruments -- no computers, no electronic processing -- and it is music that is long on harmonic and melodic interest ... without sounding overly neo-Romantic or derivative. The most beautiful examples are pieces by ... Joseph Hallman (b. 1979), beginning with Three Poems of Jessica Hornik, sentiment-laden songs written for the pretty, intonation-sure voice of soprano Abigail Lennox, who sings them here. Showing off Hallman's sure handling of instruments even more are the Imagined Landscapes, miniatures based on the nightmarish dreamscapes of H. P. Lovecraft that exploit all sorts of unexpected sounds.

2nd album from the truly impressive USA Prog Rock band founded by the talented multi-instrumentalist/composer/producer/engineer Shane Atkinson! EVERSHP are a league ahead of much of the new Prog bands we get to hear these days – with influences from the divide that crosses between GENESIS, YES, KANSAS and QUEEN, this band are something SPECIAL! The EVERSHIP sound just oozes quality - The keyboards are melodic and symphonic, yet edgy and dramatic at the same time; the guitars range from powerful to sensitive and the rhythm section – much in the same way as YES – runs the gamut of tight and driving to sensitive and atmospheric. The standard of musicianship is high; the compositions are classy with quality production, ranging through melodic, hook-laden songs with incredible anthemic choruses and gentle ballads, with plenty in the way of bombastic, complex arrangements with extended instrumental arrangements going on in-between.

Marc-André presents a fascinating juxtaposition of two composers who are not obviously musically related, but who are proved on this album to be a felicitous combination. Schumann’s well-loved Kinderszenen (‘Scenes from childhood’) cycle is a masterpiece: each piece is as deftly and exquisitely crafted as anything in his more outwardly sophisticated mode. From the haunting beauty of the opening ‘From foreign lands and people’ (‘Von fremden Ländern und Menschen’), via the spare eloquence of the central ‘Dreaming’ (‘Träumerei’), to the quiet rhetoric of ‘The poet speaks’ (‘Der Dichter spricht’), the listener is taken through nuances of emotion whose effects are heartrendingly poignant.