Mind And The Cave

Unique 3CD compilation of The Jimmy Castor Bunch. Featuring all of Jimmy Castor’s RnB chart hits.This package is jammed packed full of Funk.With sleeve notes by MOJO and Record Collector journalist Charles Waring.Despite unashamedly injecting an infectious sense of fun and irreverence in his take on funk – as evidenced on early 70s hits ‘Troglodyte (Cave Man)’ and ‘Bertha Butt Boogie’ – Jimmy Castor was a serious musician who more than lived up to his nickname, “The Everything Man”. He could sing as well as play the saxophone, piano, vibraphone, and assorted percussion instruments, and if that wasn’t enough, he was also an accomplished bandleader, arranger and producer.

If, in a parallel universe, Wagner wrote a symphony rather than a sixteen-hour Ring, it might actually resemble my Ring Odyssey.' These are the words used by the new music director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Joseph Swensen, to present this anthology of Der Ring des Nibelungen for soprano, tenor, bass-baritone, male chorus and orchestra, which he composed on the basis of Wagner's monumental tetralogy. The American conductor confesses that, during a performance of Tristan, Wagner was suddenly revealed to him as 'a dreamer' full of 'humility, tenderness, vulnerability and generosity'. Swensen has made a point of following the chronology of the operas and respecting the original music: 'My solemn promise to Wagner was that, aside from the occasional solo timpani roll denoting the passage of time, I would not change or add a single note to his masterpiece.' An enthralling traversal, recorded at a memorable concert and delivered by exceptionally committed singers and instrumentalists.

When people think of the masterpieces of art, painters such as Gauguin or Picasso might spring to mind. But thousands of years before these modern masters put brush to canvas, artists from all over the ancient world, from France to Egypt to South America, created a trove of masterpieces—artwork stunning for its opulence, its realism, its utility, and its visual drama.

People of Celtic culture all over ancient Europe were fascinated by lip reed instruments, and made great horns and trumpets in many forms including the carnyx, a two-metre-long bronze trumpet surmounted by a stylised animal head. One of these was found at Deskford, Scotland, in 1816 and reconstructed in the early 1990s; it is joined here by the magnificent Tintignac carnyx, discovered in southern France in 2004 and reconstructed specially for the current project. A new reconstruction has also been made of the Loughnashade horn from Ireland, with its exquisite decorated bell disc. Recent developments in music archaeology have vastly increased our knowledge and understanding of both the physical construction of these instruments and their likely playing techniques. John Kenny has specialised in their performance for a quarter of a century, and his newly created music explores the voices of these instruments in solo, duo and ensemble textures, drawing upon Celtic mythical characters, echoes of ancient ritual in modern society, and impressions of real places in Ireland, Scotland and France.

Three CD set charting the birth and early development of American hard rock. In the late 60s, the parallel emergence of psychedelia and the blues-based power trio format saw pop evolve into rock. In America, bands became harder, heavier, rawer and louder to a backdrop of the Vietnam War, street drugs and increasingly powerful amps. Commercially successful acts like Vanilla Fudge, Steppenwolf, Blue Cheer and Iron Butterfly spearheaded a new wave of bands whose sound would later be codified as heavy metal. Over three CDs and four hours of music, 'We're An American Band' charts hard rock's evolution during the late 60s and early 70s, culminating in Grand Funk's game-changing, chart-topping late 1973 single of the same name.

If, in a parallel universe, Wagner wrote a symphony rather than a sixteen-hour Ring, it might actually resemble my Ring Odyssey.' These are the words used by the new music director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Joseph Swensen, to present this anthology of Der Ring des Nibelungen for soprano, tenor, bass-baritone, male chorus and orchestra, which he composed on the basis of Wagner's monumental tetralogy. The American conductor confesses that, during a performance of Tristan, Wagner was suddenly revealed to him as 'a dreamer' full of 'humility, tenderness, vulnerability and generosity'. Swensen has made a point of following the chronology of the operas and respecting the original music: 'My solemn promise to Wagner was that, aside from the occasional solo timpani roll denoting the passage of time, I would not change or add a single note to his masterpiece.' An enthralling traversal, recorded at a memorable concert and delivered by exceptionally committed singers and instrumentalists.

On her album “Always On My Mind”, which is set to be released by Sony Masterworks on April 28, 2023, Norwegian singer and songwriter Rebekka Bakken reinvents her favourite songs with the sound of atmospheric Scandinavian Pop and Jazz.