Last Lingdom

Our fascination with death is universal, but around the world we deal with it in wildly different ways–from the burning corpses that fill the Ganges in India, to the macabre exhibitions of "plastinated" bodies created by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens. In Toraja, Indonesia, dead relatives stay in the house for years, and are worshiped as shrines, and offered food and drink. And in Mexico, witness the ancient Toltec ritual of being buried alive for a night–one that's enjoying a revival as a new-age quest for enlightenment.

Michael and Jenna, having been a couple for three years, want to get married and start a family. These plans seem to be well on their way when Jenna announces that she's pregnant. But Michael is worried that his life and his youth will over for good. At a wedding of a friend, he meets a free-spirited college co-ed, Kim, who opens his eyes and leads him on a dangerous path away from Jenna. Meanwhile, none of the relationships of the people surrounding Michael and Jenna are happy and stable. Michael's friend Izzy is unwilling to let go of his childhood sweetheart Arianna; Kenny is a handsome stud who fears commitment to his latest conquest Danielle; and Chris is a co-worker who is dominated by his neurotic and overbearing wife over raising their newborn son. Even Jenna's parents, Stephen and Anna, are experiencing problems in their long-suffering marriage.

The best way to really enjoy this installment of 20th Century Boys, is to quickly break out the DVDs of the previous two films, watch them to jog your memory, before turning up for this one. Given the myriad of characters and the lag between the local releases, a revisit is somewhat necessary since there's very little recap, and the juxtaposition of timelines through flashbacks also provide that additional narrative challenge, not to mention that memories, being memories, tend to be faulty as well, for both you, as well as the characters in the storyline.

Исторический концерт Джеймса Ласта и оркестра в Дворце спорта Восточного Берлина. 1987 год.

Reviewing the 2015 world premiere of composer Donnacha Dennehy and playwright Enda Walsh's opera The Last Hotel, The Guardian's Kate Molleson was smitten by "a dark drama in which death hangs over every move the titular hotel is a shabby establishment where guests go to kill themselves." That description alone is all the listener needs to appreciate the visceral energy of the performances captured here by Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams, Katherine Manley and actor Mikel Murfi (whose presence as the silent Porter is more implied than directly felt), all ably supported by the agile, dynamic sound of Ireland's renowned Crash Ensemble, conducted by Alan Pierson.

An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene is a fearless work. It focuses on the environment from an auditory perspective, presenting a catalogue of our created world’s sounds by tallying the noises, echoes, reverberations and refrains associated with environmental degradation that leads to climate change. The sequential recordings of traffic, machinery, drilling, fracking and more serve as a backdrop for musical responses and reflections from the piano and percussion instruments, that simultaneously respond, reflect and develop the soundscape journey from one of hostile discord to one of reconciliation and peace.

An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene is a fearless work. It focuses on the environment from an auditory perspective, presenting a catalogue of our created world’s sounds by tallying the noises, echoes, reverberations and refrains associated with environmental degradation that leads to climate change. The sequential recordings of traffic, machinery, drilling, fracking and more serve as a backdrop for musical responses and reflections from the piano and percussion instruments, that simultaneously respond, reflect and develop the soundscape journey from one of hostile discord to one of reconciliation and peace. The audience is faced with the sounds of our man-made environment, stripped bare of visual distractions, and taken on a journey of action and possibility. We see this as a way to reach people on a whole new, visceral level. As humans, we get to decide what sounds we take forward with us into a new era and which ones we resolve to leave behind.