Philip on Film: Filmworks by Philip Glass Review by Richard S. Ginell
In conjunction with a fall 2001 touring film festival, in which the Philip Glass Ensemble played the composer's scores live in sync with the films, Nonesuch released this handy, compact five-disc retrospective of Glass' prolific output for the cinema. Perhaps subliminally aware that Glass' large film catalog is wildly uneven in quality, producers and longtime associates Kurt Munkacsi and Michael Riesman have chosen wisely and well, generally giving the best scores complete or nearly complete attention on the first four discs and saving the fifth disc for excerpts from others, as well as a few unreleased new works for the faithful. Of all of Glass' cinematic collaborators, director Godfrey Reggio seems to have brought out the best in this composer.

Tracks 1 to 11 recorded 4/29/94 at The Palladium, London, England. Tracks 12 to 15 recorded 7/29/94 at Raleigh Auditorium, Raleigh, NC, USA.

Jethro Tull’s 1970 classic Benefit will be celebrated in a brand-new 4CD/2DVD set, featuring remixes by Steven Wilson, an abundance of previously unreleased material, packaged within a deluxe hardback book, containing 100 pages of commentary from numerous contributors alongside hordes of images of the band creating and performing their first million-selling album. Benefit (The 50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) will be out on 5th November. Following the successes This Was (1968) and Stand Up (1969), Jethro Tull returned in 1970 with their third studio album in as many years. Benefit (The 50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) contains a copious amount of expanded material, building upon the 2013 Steven Wilson remixes. CD3 contains a previously unreleased Steven Wilson remix of Jethro Tull performing at Tanglewood in 1970. Further to that, CD4 contains a newly remastered version of a concert at The Aragon Ballroom in 1970 in mono.

ZAZ has been a household name in French music since her breakout 2010 hit "Je veux", a jazz-swinging folk ditty about doing things her way. More than a decade later, the singer-songwriter’s style of pop has only become more multifaceted. ZAZ peels away the layers on this fifth album, the title of which is an abbreviated nod to her real name, Isabelle Geffroy. On the peppy “Imagine", she dreams of a gentler world, brighter days and the possibility of writing one's own future, her voice fluttering over strummed guitar with world-weary abandon. "Ce que tu es dans ma vie" is a heartfelt and hopeful ode to her young stepdaughter set against a backdrop of piano, lightly plucked guitars and a minimal electronic beat.

Good News from the Next World is the tenth studio album of original material by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released in February 1995 by record label Virgin. The album garnered moderate commercial success; in the UK, it reached No. 2 and produced the two Top 20 hit singles "She's a River" (No. 9) and "Hypnotised" (No. 18).

Andris Nelsons is the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in fall 2015 he was announced as Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, commencing in the 2017/18 season. With both appointments, and in leading a pioneering alliance between these two esteemed institutions, Andris Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today. The goal is a complete Shostakovich cycle on Deutsche Grammophon with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This recording provides a kaleidoscope of Shostakovichs struggle with historical events and political pressures. The pre-war eclectic but accessible and popular 5th, in which he would seem to bow to political pressure, ensured his temporary rehabilitation. The beautiful but dark and gloomy mid-war 8th provoked yet again his fall from favor and instead of providing the political authorities with a triumphant post-war 9th Symphony, Shostakovich wrote a light Haydnesque work which would not be performed until after Stalins death. Selections from the Hamlet Suite, possibly Shostakovichs best film score, rounds out this 2 CD set.

Britney Jean is Britney Spears' eighth studio album and was released in late fall 2013. The album has been described by Spears as the most personal record from her catalog yet, and features collaborations with numerous producers including Sia Furler, will.i.am, William Orbit, and Naughty Boy. Spears co-wrote each track on the album, which is a concept album about the loneliness of pop life. Two singles have been released thus far, "Work Bitch" and "Perfume".

Albedo 0.39 is a studio album by the Greek electronic composer Vangelis, released in 1976. It was the second album produced by Vangelis in Nemo Studios, London, which was his creative base until the late 1980s. It was his first Top 20 UK album. It is a concept album themed around space physics (the reflection of light i.e. physical truth). Its title is inspired by the idea of a planet's albedo, the proportion of the light it receives that is reflected back into space. The album title refers to the average albedo value of the planet Earth as it was in 1976. From the explanation on the back of the LP cover : "The reflecting power of a planet or other non-luminous body. A perfect reflector would have an Albedo of 100%. The Earth's Albedo is 39%, or 0.39". It was performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1977. The album reached #18 on the UK Album Charts.

Scorpio Butterfly Kisses is essential for Kate Bush aficionados. This ten-year retrospective of live material spends most of its time covering The Kick Inside and Never For Ever periods, but does so quite successfully. Highlights on the disc include performances of non-album compositions: "Do Bears," "Under the Ivy," and two Beatles tunes, "The Long and Winding Road" and "She's Leaving Home." "Do Bears" is a humorous piece, noted for its chorus "Do bears sha la la la in the woods?". The Beatles covers are good, but too brief. And the lesser-known "Under the Ivy," a beautiful, minimal piece, is performed exquisitely here. Bush's voice and piano playing are quite good throughout Butterfly Kisses. The piano really stands out in these fairly spare performances, many of which feature Kate unaccompanied on the instrument. Unfortunately, the sound quality throughout the disc is only so-so, with minimal dynamics and occasional hiss. The instrumentation lacks clarity and is at times muffled and overwhelmed by Kate's voice.

"For Promotional Use Only" “(Out) On the Floor” contains a sample of "I Wonder If I Take You Home" performed by Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. Lyrics include, "I step into another world/ As soon as I start to dance/ Out on the floor/ It's always been the only place/ When I look to escape/ Baby, you can do the same/ Let your troubles go." Recorded in 2000/2001. Samples Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - I Wonder If I Take You Home. Intended for J.Lo album. Sample wasn't cleared. Leaked in 2004 and bootlegged to vinyl.

Midnight Love is the seventeenth and final studio album (that is not a posthumous one) by Marvin Gaye. He signed with the label Columbia in March 1982 following his exit from Motown. The final album to be released before his death, it ultimately became the most successful album of Gaye's entire career. The disc was certified triple platinum in the United States, selling well over six million copies worldwide. It was nominated for a 1984 Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, spawning the two-time Grammy Award-winning smash, "Sexual Healing". It was ranked number 37 on the Rolling Stone list of the best albums of the 1980s decade and the NME named the album as its Album of the Year in 1983. In 1998, Sony Music re-released the album as a two-CD "Legacy" edition set titled Midnight Love and the Sexual Healing Sessions. The same edition would be re-released in 2007, to celebrate the album's 25th anniversary since its release.

Pablo Heras-Casado enjoys an unusually varied conducting career—encompassing the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically informed performance and cutting-edge contemporary scores. He has served as Principal Conductor of Orchestra of St. Luke’s since 2011, now extended to September 2017. OSL began as a chamber ensemble based at The Church of St. Luke in the Fields in Greenwich Village. Today, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble consists of 21 virtuoso artists who perform a diverse repertoire and make up OSL’s artistic core. harmonia mundi are proud to release OSL's debut album for the label featuring two of Tchaikovsky's earliest notable works, both of which are dramatic and vibrant: Symphony No. 1, 'Winter Dreams' and 'The Tempest', a sprawling and turbulent seascape.

CD only subsidiary of Seelie Court , limited 300 copies editions in card Gatefold sleeves, all issued with co operation of the bands/artists, under contract.
Post Arcadium psychedelic folk masterpiece, lost since 1969, just one original acetate LP exists, valued at £7000+, the LP has an intense pagan mood and deals with themes of alienation, notably in Outsider, it sounds very similar to Comus with flutes, violins but replaces the insanity of Comus with dark folked out melancholia. Short at 22 mins. With songwriting and lead vocal by Miguel Sergides who crafted the psych LP masterpiece by Arcadium. Accomplished and meticulous prog folk genius.

The fourth release in Tom Waits' series of skid row travelogues, Small Change proves to be the archetypal album of his '70s work. A jazz trio comprising tenor sax player Lew Tabackin, bassist Jim Hughart, and drummer Shelly Manne, plus an occasional string section, back Waits and his piano on songs steeped in whiskey and atmosphere in which he alternately sings in his broken-beaned drunk's voice (now deeper and overtly influenced by Louis Armstrong) and recites jazzy poetry. It's as if Waits were determined to combine the Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson characters from Casablanca with a dash of On the Road's Dean Moriarty to illuminate a dark world of bars and all-night diners. Of course, he'd been in that world before, but in songs like "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart," Waits gives it its clearest expression…

For the Good Times brings together two early 1970s albums from alto/tenor Rusty Bryant: 1973's For the Good Times and 1974's Until It's Time for You to Go. Both albums find Bryant combining pop and soul-jazz with the aid of electric pianos and funky guitars. Things get started with tepid versions of the title track and Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song," both veering dangerously close to Muzak territory. The pieces are salvaged, however, by Joe Beck and Hugh McCracken's guitar work and Hank Jones' steady hand at the keyboards. Bryant turns in his best solo on a groovy version of "Theme From Deep Throat" that's propelled forward by bassist Tony Levin and drummer Steve Gadd. Musically, things pick up a bit on the last six tracks…