James Bernard

James Bernard has been producing electronic music since 1993 under many different monikers. His earliest releases were on the legendary UK record label, Rising High Records, where he was label-mates with artists like Luke Vibert, Mixmaster Morris, The Black Dog, Union Jack and Hardfloor. Some of his releases as Influx such as "Braineater" (on Sapho Records) are considered classics in the early hard trance and acid scenes, but still sound fresh today. His ambient album, "Atmospherics" (originally released in 1994) is considered by some as one of the most ground breaking albums of it's time.

Vertigo represents the summit of the seven-picture, nine-year association between Alfred Hitchcock and legendary composer Bernard Herrmann. Using instrumental and harmonic colour as the main paints in his repertoire, Herrmann deploys brief melodic cells and minimalist techniques to explore the obsessed world of Scotty Ferguson (James Stewart), a retired detective who has fallen in love with a woman from the past. In doing so, Herrmann broke from the post-romantic aesthetic personified by Golden Age masters such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Alfred Newman. Highlights include the hypnotic, dream-like "Prelude", the churning allegro con brio of "Rooftop", the haunting love music in "Madeleine's First Appearance", a memorable habanera ("Carlotta's Portrait"), and the cathartic "Scene d'Amour", which has been compared with Wagner's "Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde. Page Cook, long-time critic for Films In Review, once wrote that Muir Mathieson's performance "remains one of the greatest pieces of film music conducting ever recorded . . . every tempo, every rhythmic nuance, every dynamic inhabits the film." In other words, this is a classic film/music amalgamation that should be in every cinema lover's collection.

This is the movie that gave us the phrase "Klaatu barada nikto!" As befits the film that kicked off the Atomic Age's obsession with flying saucers and giant robots, Bernard Herrmann's score is the last word in 1950s sci-fi. Although many of its elements have become cliches over the years, the original has lost none of its power. Thanks to the many eerie, theremin-drenched passages, it's almost impossible to hear that instrument without thinking about guys in space suits. Other great moments: tinkling space pianos, ominous robot monster chords, and weird, plangent orchestrations. One of Herrmann's most visionary and influential scores.

Oft-recorded Bernard Herrmann masterpiece finally gets complete release in dynamic stereo from new masters! Previous release on Rhino label was spectacular album, albeit several major set pieces (including main title & climactic Mount Rushmore sequence) were transferred from damaged elements, all that was then available. Thanks to Warner Bros., new stereo mixes have been made available for first time ever, revealing spectacular sonics (for 1959) and illuminating new details of magnificent score never before captured. While score has also been digitally re-recorded twice under different conductors, neither version can match crisp, exciting performance of MGM Studio musicians under baton of Herrmann himself. Hear harp arpeggios, castenets, wood blocks, snare drums like never before. Get entire climax with punch of bass trombone, thrilling trumpets amidst swirling variety of tempos that keep tension, excitement of Hitchcock's incredible action set-piece moving at fierce pace.

These London Symphony Orchestra recordings were made at the Barbican in London in 2003 and 2004. The set includes not only the four Brahms symphonies but also the Tragic Overture, Op. 81, the Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102, and the Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16. It adds up to more than four hours of music, but one can make a strong case for this as the Brahms set to own for those who want just one, especially for those who aren't concerned with audio quality. There is much to sink one's teeth into here – over a lifetime.

The revival of Spanish music of the Baroque period continues moving forward into the Classical era with this premiere recording of sonatas for "violin y bajo" – violin and bass – by Juan de Ledesma. The sonatas were rediscovered only in the late 1980s, and they're very elegantly presented here in a package adorned by a reproduction of a marvelous French fan of the period. There isn't anything of earthshaking importance among the five sonatas on the disc, but they're attractive pieces with some challenges for the violinist, and both players of the instruments and those with collections of Spanish music will find the release of interest. The booklet notes by violinist Blai Justo (in English, French, and German, with Spanish and Catalan additionally available online) point to Corelli's influence, but also note the presence of the galant style of the period, and it is the latter sound, with its atmosphere of charm and its relaxed procession of contrasting two-measure phrases, that predominates. The players do well to avoid a harpsichord accompaniment, using either a combination of cello and guitar or one or the other instrument alone.

If there were an international style of conducting Vaughan Williams', Bernard Haitink would be its foremost practitioner. But although there have been international conductors who have taken up Vaughan Williams' very, very English music, virtually all of them took him up with English orchestras. Slatkin, Stokowski, even Rozhdestvensky used English conductors when they led their Vaughan Williams, and Haitink, the most international of international conductors, used the London Philharmonic for his Vaughan Williams. Ultimately, no matter how international Haitink's interpretations may be, his Vaughan Williams performance sounds as English as shepherd's pie.