Lisa Chartwell

In her new project, City Lights, Lisa Batiashvili gathers all the places and memories that have been important in her life and career together with some of the world’s most beautiful music. A journey from her native Georgia to Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Hollywood that features ground-breaking collaborations with artists as diverse as Miloš, Katie Melua and Till Brönner. City Lights shares the beautiful melodies from Cinema Paradiso and Chaplin’s own compositions with all time classics from Piazzolla, J.S. Bach and the late Michel Legrand - all in new arrangements by Nikoloz Rachveli - and last, but not least a new song by Katie Melua about the magic of London.

Rare manuscripts from the library of an Italian abbey, rediscovered and recorded for the first time.

Lisa Lynne Franco has recorded some brilliant material under five different guises. Her earliest work was as Lisa Franco. She recorded three CDs for the German Innovative Communications label. Romantic Dreams might be her best CD. The entire album speaks greatness with every note. Peter Seiler produced the CD and co-wrote four of the nine original pieces. He wrote one of the two bonus tracks. He also accompanies Franco's harp with his keyboards. This CD represents his best work, too. His gentle atmospheres surround her aggressive style like billowing clouds and fluffy pillows. The beauty of the atmospheres is breathtaking. There are no appropriate comparisons for this masterwork. It stands alone - a true sign of greatness.

Lisa Franco, aka Lisa Lynne Franco and Lisa Lynne, recorded four albums for Innovative Communications, a progressive German label. Silken Wings is the fourth and strongest of those discs. This set features Franco's gentle - yet aggressive - harp with very subtle accompanying instruments and atmospheric recording techniques. Those extras, especially the atmospheric enhancements, courtesy of producer and keyboardist Peter Seiler, frame the acoustic timbres of the harp and enhance its exotic - and erotic - textures. This sensuous music is dreamy and seductive. This CD, like all of her discs, is essential. And, like all of the discs on the IC label, it is hard to find. The atmospheric enhancements make this CD just a little extra special and worth the effort to find.

While other musicians mostly vary their repertoire with nuances, every Klaus Schulze performance is hard to predict. His former bandmate Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream) once needed a nice image when describing his way of improvising on stage with electronic instruments, “This is like a parachute jump where one cannot be sure if the parachute will even open.” This was particularly true during the time of the unpredictable, analog synthesizers- but Klaus kept this same work method throughout the years without making any changes. And with this he is one of the few musicians who saved this art of improvising, all during the transition from the analog to the digital era…

Romantic miniatures by a forgotten Italian cellist and composer: the first album ever dedicated to the music of Domenico Laboccetta.