The Fourth Phase of Water

The key components to every great prog-rock album comprise memorable guitar riffs, punchy immediacy that draws you into the song, ample rhythmic kick, and the imaginative capacity to transport the listener to a place well beyond the confines of reality. Yes’ The Yes Album features all of these rare qualities and more, the 1971 record as significant for saving the band’s career as well as for establishing new parameters in virtuosic technicality and skilled composition. The first set recorded with guitarist Steve Howe, it remains Yes’ grandest achievement and claims a musical vision the British quintet’s contemporaries struggled to match…

Kalevi Aho is one of those rare creatures, a living composer whose self-effacing nature - he looks endearingly owlish in all his publicity photographs - conceals a consistent and enchanting musical talent. After 40 years of large-scale works he has entered a much more intimate phase with Rituals, which consists of three separate pieces designed to be performed as a single concert. The work was premiered and recorded by Storgårds and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra in November 2007.