Lofofora la Distance

Progressive rock bands stumbled into the '80s, some with the crutch of commercial concessions under one arm, which makes the Moody Blues' elegant entrance via Long Distance Voyager all the more impressive…

The soprano voice occupies a central place in Robert Groslot’s vocal music, and in The Intimacy of Distance he has created his most ambitious composition yet for voice and orchestra. Exploring how elements of life can only be realized through the experience of distance, this concerto for soprano and orchestra moves through various contrasts to huge transformative effect. The calm sounds of nature alternate with melodic lines and dissonant chords in My Green Shade Forest, while Trittico incantevole is a radiant piece composed in honor of the painter Peter Paul Rubens. Composer Robert Groslot is 70 this year; an appropriate anniversary disc with three more premiere recordings. He is one of Belgium’s leading living composers – his catalogue consists of large orchestral works, 50 concertos, three multimedia works and many solo and chamber music works.

Jordi Savall - Erasmus von Rotterdam: Eloge de la Folie (2013) {6CD Box Set Alia Vox AVSA9895A+F}
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© 2013 Alia Vox | AVSA9895A+F
Classical / Renaissance / Vocal Music / Chamber Music

This new project is a Tribute to Erasmus (1466-1536), a Dutch Renaissance scholar, known as the 'Prince of the Humanists'. Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament and also wrote 'In Praise of Folly', 'Handbook of a Christian Knight' and many other works. Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation; but while he was critical of the abuses within the Church and called for reform, he kept his distance from Luther and Melancthon and continued to recognise the authority of the Pope. His middle of the road approach disappointed and even angered scholars in both camps. Jordi Savall regards him as a model of wisdom and tolerance.

André Campra's "Tancrède" is something of a "missing link", connecting the 17th century stage works of Jean-Baptiste Lully and his frustrated rival Marc-Antoine Charpentier with the late baroque works of Jean-Philippe Rameau. "Tancrède" was given its premiere in 1702 and was repeated again and again on the Paris stage. Even in the 1760's, when Rameau's "Les Boréades" had to be abandoned because of the death of the composer, it was Campra's "Tancrède" that the directors of the Paris Opéra chose to put back on stage because of its popularity.

US act Proximal Distance is a collaboration between Jeff Hamel and Gregg Johns, two composers and multi-instrumentalists that each have their own one-man band projects - Majestic and Slychosis. They have been guest musicians on each others latest productions, and as their relation formed it became clear that they had a need to work together on a full length album production too. The work with what would become Proximal Distance started in 2008, and with some of the regular guest musicians from each of their own projects participating, a CD took shape, and was finalized an released in early 2010.

The Distance was hailed as a return to form upon the time of its release and, in many ways, might be a little stronger, a little more consistent than its predecessor, Against the Wind. Still, this album has the slickest production Bob Seger had yet granted, and the biggest hit single on The Distance wasn't written by him, it was a cover of Rodney Crowell's "Shame on the Moon." Now, this wasn't entirely unusual, since Seger had been an excellent interpreter of songs for years, but this, combined with the glossy sound, signaled that Seger may have been more concerned with his status as a popular, blue-collar rocker than his music…

One of the songs on that tells listeners a lot about Walter Trout is "I Don't Want My MTV," a humorous rock & roll number that finds the blues-rocker railing against MTV for -- as he sees it -- making image, looks, and physical appearance more important than the quality of the music itself. Trout even rewrites a line from Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven," singing, "Roll over, Martha Quinn, and tell Kurt Loder the news." The tune is a defining moment for Trout because it tells you a lot about him. "I Don't Want My MTV" expresses, without apology, Trout's impatience with slickness -- and whether or not you share his opinion of MTV, it is his down-home earthiness that makes an honest blues-rock/roots rock outing. Trout's sincerity is one of his strongest assets, and it comes through on gritty offerings like "Message on the Doorway" and "Lookin' for the Promised Land." This CD isn't for blues purists, however; has as much to do with roots rock as it does with the blues. But regardless of whether or not a song has 12 bars, Trout brings the feeling of the blues to everything he does. falls short of remarkable, but it's a solid, enjoyable effort that succeeds because Trout is willing to be true to himself.

Yo La Tengo - Extra Painful (2014) {2CD 30th Anniversary Matador OLE 1063-2 rec 1993}
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© 1993, 2014 Matador Records | OLE 1063-2
Rock / Indie Rock

This year (2014) marks Yo La Tengo’s 30th anniversary, and they’re celebrating it by reissuing their sixth album, Painful, released nearly a decade into their career. The cardigan-cozy sound of the record effectively established Yo La Tengo as indie rock’s great romantics, and featured a couple of significant firsts for the trio.