Sally Quigley

Seraphic Fire celebrates the release of its newest recording, Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum, with a performance of the work in a new production by lauded opera and Broadway stage director Francesca Zambello. The women of Seraphic Fire portray the struggle of the sweet-voiced Virtues against the songless, shouting Devil. Written in 1141, the Ordo virtutum has survived nearly 900 years through plagues, wars, schisms, reformations, and the dissolution of Hildegard’s convent. Celebrate as the women of Seraphic Fire bring this nearly millennia-old masterpiece back to life.

Pianist, David Quigley, performs a selection of traditional airs and dances from his native Ireland in imaginative arrangements by a diverse group of composers, from John Field to Amy Beach. Also included is a newly commissioned work by Irish composer, Philip Martin. Many of the tracks appear on disc for the first time while others are re-introduced to the catalogue after an absence of several years. The release will appeal to a broad range of listeners including those interested in the music of the British Isles and piano aficionados alike.

The sister of the Tubular Bells composer Mike Oldfield, Sally Oldfield had contributed to many of her brother's recordings before releasing her solo debut in 1978.
Though Sally Oldfield's second album still contains some of the prog rock elements that made her debut so memorable, it also includes its fair share of pop gems, such as the ethereal, silvery harmonies of "You Set My Gypsy Blood Free" and "The Boulevard Song," which both conjure a distinct, romantic European atmosphere. The title track, with its shimmering vibes, is pure laid-back easy listening, and the darkly mysterious "Hide and Seek" is a rare experiment in folk-disco.

X-Legged Sally (XLS) is a Belgian avant-garde rock/jazz-band founded in 1988 by composer Peter Vermeersch, and disbanded in 1997. They were one of the first bands from Belgium to combine a set of very different musical styles (jazz, rock, improvisation and classical), becoming a starting point for the Belgian indie music scene that developed in the nineties. Initially, X-Legged Sally was formed to compose and perform the music Peter Vermeersch wrote for dance productions, such as Immer das Selbe Gelogen (Always the Same Lies), released as a live cd in 1991. Vermeersch' composing style was becoming too demanding for the constraints of sheet music such as was used in his earlier band Maximalist! From the beginning, improvisation played an important role in XLS' songs. The first X-Legged Sally concert took place in November 1988. Soon, XLS became a band in its own right, although there would be cooperations with dance ensembles throughout the existence of the group.

The sister of the Tubular Bells composer Mike Oldfield, Sally Oldfield had contributed to many of her brother's recordings before releasing her solo debut in 1978. Celebration (1980) is her 3rd studio album.
An euphoric collection of songs from Sally Oldfield, the soprano voiced, new-age trailblazer, and she even plays many of the instruments herself. Masterfully produced by Tom Newman, who also worked on Sally's cult-classic Waterbearer record, here is an exquisitely detailed tapestry of sounds. To start, a spell is cast with the steadily rising incantations of Mandala. This rhythmic style returns with Blue Water, which soon takes flight for a progressive folk epic - eight minutes of swirling bliss, a tribal pulse made for dancing ( love those conga drums ) and virtuoso vocals. Meanwhile, Woman of the Night is slow-tempo, aural seduction. A timeless album from Sally Oldfield.

This double-disc is a very solid collection of Sally Oldfield's recordings for the CBS subsidiary Bronze (don't laugh, Uriah Heep was on there too). Before her brief resurgence in the '90s, Oldfield's recordings were new age before there was such a term. She brought not only a songwriter's sense of elegance to tape, but also an instrumentalist's sense of silence and dynamic. Brother Mike Oldfield helped out on "Waterbearer," perhaps he best-known offering here, as well as on some of the subsequent tracks on later records. Oldfied was the real precursor to people like Enya and Loreena McKennitt, marrying a classicist's sense of arrangement and dynamic to a mystic's heart and a Celtic woman's abiding folk history, myth, and legend. These two discs are impeccably remastered and offer a wonderful introduction to a talent who, at least on this side of the pond, never got her proper due.