Sandpaper Ballet Mark Morris

Martin Outram (Viola) and Julian Rolton (piano) play all of the works of Ralph Vaughan Williams for viola and piano. Mark Padmore (tenor) joins them to record Four Hymns for Tenor, Viola and Piano.

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was a highly successful female pianist and composer. As a pianist she toured the European countries, in 1892 making her debut in England, making acquaintance with one of her biggest fans, Queen Victoria. In 1908 she made her American debut, gaining instant and immense popularity. The reason for Chaminade’s popularity is the charm, tunefulness and general accessibility of her music. It touches a ready chord with every music lover, and the fancy titles and not overly virtuosic piano writing made that her works became drawing room favorites of the epoch.

Prolific ambient innovator Steve Roach teams with Ph.D. shamanic practitioner / musician Mark Seelig to create a long-form piece of space-opening sound magic. Like the many fragrant and beautiful night-blooming plants which are host to mind-altering qualities, this 70-minute experience slowly blooms outwards with Mark’s vocal harmonic and Tuva-style overtoning intertwining within Steve’s zones and “terra” grooves. A slow motion magical blend is created in this nocturnal mist-filled realm. The power of the human voice is drawn forth in a primordial understanding and finds a perfect fusion with subterranean heartbeats, drones and zones swelling from the harmonic soil, gently urging the Nightblooming to increase its potency and allure…

Donizetti considered Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal (1843), his final completed opera written for the Paris Opéra, to be his masterpiece. In spite of its relative obscurity, on the basis of this recording, one is inclined to agree with him. The opera has several attributes that in the past have proved to be obstacles to its popularity. The first is its length – it's in five substantial acts and lasts three hours, but that's not so onerous for contemporary audiences accustomed to Wagner and Strauss. Besides, the composer created an abbreviated version for Viennese audiences, who at that time wanted to be out of the theater by 10 p.m., and that version could be used if necessary.

Presto Ballet is a progressive rock band founded by Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof. Their sound is highly reminiscent of 1970s prog rock, as the band was founded chiefly as a tribute to classic progressive bands such as Yes, Kansas, Genesis and Deep Purple. Their debut album Peace among the Ruins, was released in 2005 to general praise and considerable press. Critics consistently commented on the album's warm and organic sound, a feeling created through the use of analogue recorders and vintage instruments.
If you love 70's styled prog with tons of vintage keyboards, crunchy riffs, and memorable melodies, you need to get your hands on this one.

Changing their band name as often as they changed the genre of music they played, Spandau Ballet began as a punk rock band calling themselves The Cut. Shortly after they changed their name to The Makers, and again In 1978 they changed their sound to a more power pop renaming themselves Gentry. Changing their sound once again to a more polished, synth heavy pop with an emphasis on the romantic the band changed their name for a last time to Spandau Ballet after (as the story goes) seeing the name "Spandau Ballet" written on a lavatory wall in a bar in Berlin…

With the new romantic movement they'd helped spearhead on the way out, futurist icons Spandau Ballet began thinking seriously about the future on their second album. The seeds of the group's transition to a slick, MOR soul outfit can be heard in hits like "Chant No. 1," the best song Spandau Ballet had come up with…