'Serenata Tropical' was only an study orchestra without public performances, launched by the Brazilian label Plaza during the 60s and composed of musicians who met in the studies to make the recordings. Their performances of Latin music were very successful, showing an instrumental conjunction that was and continues delighting devotees of Latin music. This album, together with the instrumental group Violins Pego, offers twenty timeless Latino issues.

Review from the Moscow Tribune:
The composers Bonnen and Schilling mix together street traffic noise, lush strings, art-rock, electric circuit, weirdly twisted popsongs and beer-drinking sing-alongs.

The Polish composer Wojciech Kilar has made a particularly distinguished contribution to film music. He attended the summer courses at Darmstadt and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris after his earlier musical training in his own country. He has won a number of awards for his work. Influenced at first by Szymanowski, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Kilar went on to make use of serial techniques, often in conjunction with more traditional forms and techniques, ………..

My final Ragna Schirmer post is an interesting combination of Chopin's Etudes Nr. 1-12, with the Etude Fantasy and the Fantasia on an Ostinato (Theme form Beethoven's Symphonie Nr. 7) by John Corigliano. Enjoy

Given that Leonard Cohen's recent international concert tour was prompted by the fact his former manager purportedly made off with his life's savings, only a curmudgeon would blame the man for trying to make the enterprise as profitable as possible. Roughly 14 months after releasing Live in London, which preserved Cohen's July 2008 performance at London's 02 Arena, the venerable singer and songwriter is presenting to his fans Songs from the Road, featuring 12 tunes (on both CD and DVD) from his 2008 and 2009 concert dates.

Those wondering where to begin when buying their first Sun Ra album, this is it! Since Sun Ra never had any actual hits, the 18 tracks from 15 Sun Ra albums, plus two singles and a soundtrack excerpt, were chosen because they were fan favorites, because they displayed the artist's development over the years 1956–73, and because of their musical accessibility – relatively speaking of course.

Soapkills was an indie electro-pop band based in Lebanon. The group was formed in October 1997 when Zeid Hamdan and Yasmin Hamdan, both born in Beirut in 1976. Currently a cult group in Lebanon, Soapkills got inspiration both from classical Arabic song and music and from the new electro scene blossoming in the Middle East. French media have described them as "Trip hop à l'orientale".

Frank Zappa - Does Humor Belong In Music? (2003) [DVD5 PAL] {EMI}
DVD5 -> 3.88 Gb | All Regions | PAL 4:3 | LinearPCM, 2 ch | ~ 57m | ISO Image
5% repair rar | Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 23 Mb | originally released on VHS in 1985
© 2003 EMI Records / Pumpko | 07243 490892 9 7
Rock / Experimental Rock / Jazz Rock

For longtime fans and un-Zapped neophytes alike, Does Humor Belong in Music? presents the late, great Frank Zappa at his mischievous best. Unlike the infamously rambling Baby Snakes, this hour-long, digitally remastered 14-song set (culled from FZ's performance at the Pier in New York City on August 26, 1984) is 95% music, punctuated with brief interview clips (including the inane titular question, and Frank's expectedly affirmative response), and featuring one of the tightest bands that Zappa ever assembled. Everybody participates in Zappa's unique parade of musical fusion, street theater, and defiant anti-establishment sarcasm, with Zappa playing masterful conductor when he's not riffing with nimble-fingered fretwork (notably during "Zoot Allures," "Cosmik Debris," and Greg Allman's "Whipping Post," the set's only cover song).

Dorothee Mields, Hille Perl & Lee Santana - Loves Alchymïe
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 269 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi # 88697704362 | Country/Year: Germany 2010
Genre: Classical, Folk | Style: Renaissance

…Begleitet wird Dorothee Mields auf Basis all jener "Verzierungstechniken, Improvisationsstile und Variationsmöglichkeiten", die Hille Perl und Lee Santana laut Beihefttext gleichermaßen musikalisch wie auch beziehungstechnisch aufbieten, um die Liebe interessant zu machen. Kreativ akkompagnieren sie bald zu zweit, bald allein, immer voller Leidenschaft nach jener Ausdrucksfülle strebend, die Mields' Gesang mit so selbstverständlicher Leichtigkeit zu bieten vermag. Ein Genuss sind außerdem die eingestreuten Solostücke der Instrumentalisten, in denen sie sich noch mehr als Meister des Emotionalen präsentieren, stets getragen freilich von unbestechlich vollkommener Fingertechnik.

MANDALABAND is the third reincarnation of an extraordinary progressive rock band with a long history. The first and original album 'MANDALABAND' was released by Chrysalis in 1975 and created quite a stir with its bombastic 'Om Mani Padme Hum' - a four-movement work for rock band and choir, the lyrics of which form the basis of the Tibetan national anthem. … Chrysalis then asked David to write and produce a second Mandalaband album, making use of all the singers and fellow musicians he had befriended during his time as engineer and producer during the 70s. The result was 'THE EYE OF WENDOR' - a concept album based on a Tolkienesque fantasy set in a world of warlocks, witches, battling heroes, and a magical gemstone of supernatural power.