25 years after his first album, NATURALLY, J.J. Cale created GUITAR MAN, an album made up of hypnotic grooves forged out of elegantly simple components. The album is largely a solo affair, with only scattered additional accompaniment, such as on the incredible opening tune, "Death in the Wilderness." Otherwise, Cale plays every instrument, adding particularly strong guitar work to the mix.
Remarkably, Cale's easygoing front-porch character is no less warm when he utilizes subtle keyboards and electronic percussion. With the exception of his arrangement of the traditional "Old Blue" (popularized by the Byrds in one of their later incarnations), the songs are all Cale originals. Besides songs that mine the familiar thematic territory of love, longing, and taking it easy, there's a handful that address world ills such as the environment and crime. He manages to tackle these issues without ever being didactic. However, he was sufficiently impassioned to include the lyrics to all the songs this time out. The title song and "Low Down" are two Cale classics that contain familiar lyrical and musical phrases that sound completely timeless when he sings and plays them.

Sounds organized in such a fashion are pretty much guaranteed to be aesthetically pleasing, and that's why "Symphony No. 3" (1972-1975) is a veritable triumph. Since the entire work is ingenious sculpted out of these perfect shapes, then I would even dare to say that if someone doesn't enjoy this, they lack a certain humanity. - Christopher Culver, Amazon reviewer

Where The Wild Things Are is a 2 DVD set recorded live and filmed in high definition at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, MN during Steve Vai's recent Sound Theories Tour. Where The Wild Things Are features a world-class group of musicians, unlike any other band Steve has ever assembled.

Steve Vai широко известен неповторимой, не имеющей аналогов техникой игры на гитаре и своим собственным уникальным дизайном гитар серии Ibanez Jem. Steve Vai совместно с лейблом Favored Nations Records 29 сентября выпустил свой концертный DVD и live-CD под названием "Where The Wild Things Are". Шоу, на которое все билеты были распроданы, записано и отснято в Государственном Театре Миннеаполиса, штат Миннесота, в рамках успешного мирового турне Вая "Sound Theories".

For the most part this is good old party music. Such melodies and "dances" were widely heard throughout the old Austrian Empire where composers such as Biber had the opportunity to shine, serving their patrons and their Court. (Miguel Kertsman)

Pianist Bill Evans was one of guitarist John McLaughlin's early heroes so this Evans tribute seemed like a logical idea. Sticking to acoustic guitar, McLaughlin is joined by four other guitarists (along with the acoustic bass guitar of Yann Maresz) to create an unusual instrumentation that often sounds as full as a keyboard. The leader arranged ten of Evans's compositions and his own "Homage" for a largely introverted set of music that has a strong classical feel. McLaughlin lets loose a few times but more mood and tempo variations would have kept this from being such a sleepy and overly respectful session.

Until recently it was believed that the only extant copy … was permanently lost during the Second World War, but a surviving example was recently located by the undersigned. It is extraordinary music, perhaps the best of Schenck's works. These twelve sonatas demonstrate an astonishing variety of affects through which the composer displays a noteworthy sensitivity for the different keys, lending each sonata its own particular character.

Nowhere else in Schenck's works is the influence of Italian instrumental music so obvious; the clearest influence is the trio sonatas of Arcangelo Corelli but there are also traces of Giovanni Legrenzi's style as well as allusions to contemporary German and Dutch publications. (Pieter Dirksen)

The first volume of Urbal Beats is a solid sampler of the British electronica and American breakbeat scene circa 1997. with Americans DJ Icey, Rabbit in the Moon, Crystal Method, Keoki and Wink alongside Brits like Prodigy, Goldie, Orb, Orbital, CJ Bolland and Underworld.

The Smetana G minor Trio here makes an ideal pairing for the Tchaikovsky and helps to seal the deal for a winner of a disc. The Vienna Piano Trio encompass both composers’ changing moods with a flowing naturalness to rival much starrier versions. The sound from Dabringhaus und Grimm is also terrific – there’s a real flair to the instruments.

– Gramophone [2/2009]

"Rhythmic firmness was combined with freedom in the declamation of his melodies…" These words describing Frédéric Chopin's piano-playing by his close friend, the German pianist and composer Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) could as well describe the playing of Chopin's "grand-student" Raoul von Koczalski (1885-1948)- One of the last pupils of Karol Mikuli (1821-1897) a favorite student of Chopin himself and one who aspired to pass on Chopin's teachings as purely as possible, Koczalski was groomed as a pianist by Mikuli from age seven to eleven. Indeed, Mikuli seems to have chosen the child prodigy Koczalski to be his successor in carrying on the Chopin tradition.

DJ's compilation of new and hit tracks from two divas.