German band Crystal Palace are one of the many bands that have been around long enough to merit a description as veterans. This band has been an ongoing venture for more than 25 years at this point, and in the last few years it would appear that they have started to gain more recognition as well. "Scattered Shards" is their eighth studio production, and was released through German label Progressive Promotion Records in 2018…
Some records aren’t as simple as they seem. Most are capsules of beauty and creative vision, or sublime objects of expression which occupy the abstract realms. But the rare few are also discrete philosophies, realized in sound - a truth brought to the forefront by Mexican Summer veteran, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s, latest venture, Tracing Back The Radiance. A radical departure from pop drenched melodies which have defined his recent efforts, its experimental forms offer a dynamic rethinking of the terms and possibilities of discourse and collaboration - a vast ambient landscape of abstraction, texture, and tone, beneath which lingers a veiled vision, addressing the challenges of our increasingly disassociated age…
Homer's "The Odyssey" is one of the most beautiful stories ever written. The Odyssey-like venture of the French label Musea and the Finnish magazine Colossus was therefore bound to come across the road of the famous Greek poet of Antiquity. The triple album presented is made up of nine symphonic pieces lasting about 25 minutes each, and recorded by the most exciting gathering of international talents you may imagine: Nathan Mahl (Canada), Nexus (Argentina), Glass Hammer (USA), XII Alfonso (France), Simon Says (Sweden), C.A.P. (Italy), Tempano (Venezuela), Minimum Vital (France) and Aether (Brasil). Jointly inspired by Homer's masterpiece and the best works of the masters of Progressive rock, the nine bands have been able to give the best they could…
The 200th anniversary of Haydn's death arrived in 2009, and this mammoth box boasts one CD for every year that's passed! Well, not quite, but only a composer as prolific as this Viennese-classical master could even come close: 150 CDs of symphonies, concertos, operas, chamber music, oratorios and more beautiful music that have challenged performers and inspired composers for centuries.
Parallel Dreams, the Canadian harpist/songwriter's quietly moving sophomore release, finds the mystical red-haired siren in true balladeer form. By far McKennitt's most romantic venture – the liner notes describe the project's central theme as a "yearning toward love, liberty and integration" – Dreams is more ambitious than her sparse, impeccably recorded debut, Elemental, tripling the amount of players and laying the groundwork for the immense scope she would go on to attain on future recordings. The heartbreaking trio of "Standing Stones," "Annachnie Gordon," and "Dickens' Dublin" – the latter features an effective radio-show sample of an unnamed Irish school child detailing the birth of Christ – stand among the artist's finest works, and the range and clarity of her voice is undeniably powerful. Parallel Dreams was an emotional and career-turning point for McKennitt, as her next recording would be the major-label spectacle The Visit.