Masters of The Air

I got this 10 cd set from a friend last christmas. This is truly a wonderful collection of works from very well known composers. The 10 cds cover a wide range of classical eras and styles, and they come in excellent packaging. Each disc is in its own seperate case, and all ten cases are put in a small yet sturdy cardboard box. The length of playing time on each disc varies from ~57 min to ~67 min, with most discs lasting longer than an hour. In addition, the inner flap of the cover case also provides a short yet informative biography of each composer. This disc set serves as a great way to begin for new classical music listeners. All the composers are well known and also new listeners of classical music may have even listened to a few pieces of the works.
J.W. "thak007" – Amazon

You can expect a successful mix of great rock and pop hits in a new guise. Breathtaking! In Gregorian, everything fits together, forms a unity and abducts the listener with famous melodies in a completely new sound in the timeless world of Gregorian chant. Experience the audio-visual spectacle of your live shows now at home! The Platinum Collection by Gregorian featuring: Nothing Else Matters, Tears In Heaven, Close My Eyes Forever, Brothers In Arms, Blue Monday etc.

The album is taken from the Trident Studios 1/4” stereo tapes dated 15th December 1971, which were created for the then-provisional track listing of what would become THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS album. The tracklisting for Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) runs differently from the Ziggy Stardust album and features four songs that didn’t make the final album.

Firmly rooted in the style of the masters of the Berlin School (most notably TD), these ten tracks certainly manage to retain their own identity and are good for more than an hour's listening pleasure. The somewhat macabre opening of "If I Have To" is quickly filled with one of his many wonderful sequences that, in turn, evolves into a more complex whole. Flowing over this come a couple of delicate melodies and then the piece settles down for a stately and peaceful end. The deeper personal emotions of Mac himself are often audible - as is the case in "Blade of Loneliness"; the pain and the will to heal, along with the desire to rediscover the good things in life are beautifully portrayed here. The build-up of "All Wrong" also matches the best of TD at the beginning of the eighties. Of course this isn't quite the same level of originality as TD, but "Black Light" is absolutely no 'dumb copy' and is a breath of fresh air in today's market.

From Out Of The Vast Comes Nearness, Paul Ellis‘ first release on the Lotuspike label, is a purely electronic expression of five long-form pieces that blend ambient sound design with rhythmic electronics, recalling the classic works of genre masters like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze or Vangelis; but with a restrained modern air.
With a mixture of synthesized sonics, both melodic and cerebral, the music brings to mind the unfolding expanse of the cosmos, stated with a graceful patience that propels the steadily evolving, constantly moving synthscapes to a highly personal level…

Follow-up volumes appeared in 1993 and 1996, extending the time period to 1979 and with additional songs from the 1972-76 period, available on cassette or CD (ALL 25 volumes were issued in both formats). Each volume has twelve songs. Despite the greater capacity of compact discs, the running time of each of the volumes is no longer than the limit of vinyl records in the 1970s, from 38 to 45 minutes long.