Karol Szymanowski spent his early years in Ukraine (where many affluent Polish families still owned land at the time). An injury to the leg forced young Karol into a life of relative inactivity, and, from age seven on, attendance at school was replaced by rigorous musical studies (first under his father's tutelage, and then, from 1892 on, at Gustav Neuhaus' music school in Elisavetgrad). Although early training focused on the piano, Neuhaus was quick to observe his young student's potential as a composer. While in Elisavetgrad, Szymanowski was introduced to the German classics as well as to Chopin and Scriabin. After studies with Noskowski in Warsaw from 1903 to 1905, Szymanowski lived for a time in Berlin, helping to found ……

All Music Guide

Album released in Europe with a collection of 20 German folk songs, instrumental or sung, without identification of the sets of performers. The CD includes popular and well known international songs. It is a good example of the sound, the soul and the Germanic musical tradition for the disco.

18 albums, 21 albums, really depends on how you count, but who's counting and who cares? All that matters is that Rage is still going, and they not only remain prolific but of a super high quality at that! '21' finds Wagner/Smolski/Hilgers returning with one of the fastest, most vicious and most aggressive albums in their impressive discography! This limited edition digipak versions adds a second CD, 'Live In Tokyo.'

Dutch doom death metal legends ASPHYX have completed work on their new studio album, "Deathhammer", for a February 27, 2012 release in Europe and February 28, 2012 in North America via Century Media Records.The cover artwork for "Deathhammer" was created by ASPHYX's longtime partner in designs, Axel Hermann. Hermann not only worked on all of the early ASPHYX artworks and most recently on their "Live Death Doom" release, but is also responsible for many of the classic Century Media artworks by bands like MORGOTH, UNLEASHED, SAMAEL and GRAVE.