The unrivalled Bayreuth Centenary Ring by Boulez/Chéreau sent ripples through art and society even before the curtain was lifted. Leaflets were distributed, signatures were collected and musicians left the orchestra pit in disgust, all because of disagreements over the bold new interpretation of Wagner's Ring Cycle by conductor Pierre Boulez. The festival hired 31-year-old film and theatre director Patrice Chéreau, a relative unknown. Chéreau's submitted concept for the multi-part, many hours long Ring Cycle had fitted on a single typewritten page. Once hired, he had just four months to prepare the monumental dramatic work.

Japanese original release. Box set release from The Millennium consisting 8CDs featuring unreleased tracks of the band, each member's solo works (Curt Boettcher, Sandy Salisbury, Lee Mallory), the first album "Begin," and a rare album "Pieces."
Influenced by psychedelia and California rock, pop/rock producer Curt Boettcher (the Association) decided to assemble a studio supergroup who would explore progressive sounds in 1968. Millennium's resultant album would find no commercial success and only half-baked artistic success, but nonetheless retains some period charm. Influenced in roughly equal measures by the Association, the Mamas and the Papas, the Smile-era Beach Boys, Nilsson, the Left Banke, and the Fifth Dimension, Boettcher and his friends came up with a hybrid that was at once too unabashedly commercial for underground FM radio…

Given that it is a compilation of rarities and live performances, this double-CD retrospective is not the best starting place for those interested in the back catalog of Wigwam. It is, however, an excellent addition to those already initiated. Wigwam was one of the key players of the Finnish progressive rock scene in the late '60s and early '70s, and an instrumental group in establishing English-language rock music as a viable alternative for Finnish bands. Its ability to work clever pop melodies into their complex and innovative albums should have resulted in a much larger scale success than they achieved, but their attempts at breaking into the British market through a contract with Virgin failed, and as a result they're not well known outside Finnish borders. This retrospective CD opens with their first single release "Must Be the Devil"/"Greasy Kid's Stuff" from 1969…