"Brazilian instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti's dazzling virtuosity is enough to impress, but his compositions aren't just showy pieces built around solo turns. Backed by a trio of synthesizer, bass, and cello, Gismonti creates stirring music that...

Egberto Gismonti is such a major talent that it constantly surprises me that more people don't appreciate his work. This is a fine place to begin your appreciation!

"The partnership of Egberto Gismonti and Nana Vasconçelos brought new colours...

Massimo Giuntoli often combines classical and popular music in a way that remains accessible while clearly being avant-garde. On his latest album, he has set poems from American Paris expatriate Gertrude Stein’s 1914 collection “Tender Buttons” to music. Or maybe I should say: to piano. There is really not much else here than a rather harsh sounding piano (although there are a few other keyboard sounds) and Massimo’s voice, sometimes in splendid solitude; sometimes in dialogue with itself.
As I...

"Gizmodrome is the first release by a four-piece who between them have already worked on dozens of albums. They’re a good old-fashioned supergroup, comprising Police drummer and soundtrack composer Stewart Copeland; Level 42’s slap-bassist extraordinaire Mark King; Adrian Belew, the guitar star of records by King Crimson, David Bowie, Frank Zappa and Talking Heads; and keyboard whizz Vittorio Cosma of Italian prog legends PFM.
If this sounds like an opportunity for a whole lot of instrument twiddling..

Frode Gjerstad: alto sax and Bb clarinet
Matt Shipp: piano

“The music is fierce with unexpected evolutions, very much in-the-moment, yet quite expressive and focused, varying between intensity and subdued dialogues. Raw and real, full of depth and substance.”

Electro-acoustic music. [ReR]

Booklets have "teeth marks" from the jewel case, otherwise all good."This album was born out of studio improvisations by Glandien with drummer Chris Cutler (Pere Ubu, Henry Cow, Cassiber), and avant tuba player Michael Vogt (Berlin Symphony Orchestra). Listening back to the tapes, the group agreed that the results were a failure. This did not stop them from ripping through a storming live set at Berlin's Anorak club the day after the studio session, but the general mood was that the recordings...

"Back in the Seventies, the brothers Greg & Jeff Sherman and drummer Jerry Cook had a musical project called Glass. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to sign them, even when they decided to leave for the homeland of Progressive rock: Great-Britain!...

“The origins of The Glass Family start in West Los Angeles. Jim Callon formed a band to play surf music and covers at frat parties to make some money. They went by a few different monikers at that point; the Carpet Baggers and the Soul Survivors amongst them. A few years later when the band members were at Cal State LA for grad school, they changed the band name to The Glass Family. They played all over Los Angeles, gigging at notable venues like The Troubadour, The Topanga Corral and The Whiskey A Go-Go...

“First came Dreaming City (2021), followed by Skallagrim – Into the Breach (2022). Now Glass Hammer returns to the cursed realm of Andorath with Part III of their Skallagrim trilogy, AT THE GATE. The album’s narrative concludes the sword and sorcery- inspired tale of the thief with the screaming sword, a “desperate man” who lost his lover and his memory. “At this point in the tale, our protagonist has searched a thousand years to find his lost love,” comments Glass Hammer’s Steve Babb. “The album’s...

“Glass Hammer returns to the world of The Inconsolable Secret with 2020’s Dreaming City. Perhaps the group’s most powerful musical statement to date, the album tells the story of a “desperate man…as doomed as they come” who must fight his way through a spectrum of horrors to rescue his lover. We find out early in the album that the protagonist has only three days to find her before she dies; a dilemma which sets the stage for all that is to come and guarantees an emotional roller-coaster ride for the...

Zeena Parkins - electric harp/objects
Mette Rasmussen - sax/objects/voice
Ryan Sawyer - drums/objects

“Not too long ago, harpist Zeena Parkins, alto-saxophonist Mette Rasmussen and drummer Ryan Sawyer gathered at a studio in Brooklyn to record their second record as Glass Triangle. Parkins describes the scenario as strange, a three-hour, early-morning session during which they had to work around another band’s recording set-up. “It shouldn’t have yielded results,” she says. “But...

It says this: "Orange Mountain Music's new release of "Philip Glass - Analog" contains three seminal works in Glass's musical history. In the late 1970's, Philip Glass was asked by two film producers, Francois de Menil and Barbara Rose, to write music for a film they were producing. The Film was "Mark di Suvero, Sculptor" and it was Glass's first film score, predating even Koyaanisquatsi. The score took its titles from the names of di Silvero sculptures shown in the film, including Etoile Polaire (North...

Two classics by Glass, Music in Fifths and Music in Similar Motion, as well as another early work that is very rarely heard, How Now, all performed by Steffen Schleiermacher and ensemble.

"Always the same melody, forever the same rhythm...

This is Philip Glass' Piano Etudes No 1-10 as performed on by an ensemble of steel drums! What a great idea and as soon as I heard about it, I knew it would work; Glass' style is perfect for the steel drum and after hearing the album, I am happy to...

“Philip Glass Solo is a collection of Glass performing some of his most enduring and beloved piano works. Recorded during the outset of the pandemic, the storied musician dedicated his new found time to revisiting some of his older piano music, occasionally reacquainting himself with these old friends, playing them for an audience of one in his home studio in New York. It is his most personal record to date, offering a snapshot of his life, and a portrait of daily practice over eight decades through...

"Orange Mountain Music presents the world-premiere recording of Philip Glass' seventh symphony, the Toltec, performed by the Bruckner Orchester Linz conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Written in 2004, the symphony is Glass' dedication to the Toltec...

"Orange Mountain's fourth volume documenting the concertos by Philip Glass features the world premiere recording of the composer's 2010 Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, performed by violinist Tim Fain and cellist Wendy Sutter. The work...

I discovered 'the minimalists' when I heard Steve Reich's "Music For Mallet Instruments, Voice and Organ" on WGTB in 1975 and thought it was the most beautiful music I had ever heard (still do, to a certain extent). As soon as I learned that there was ...

"A delightful album with excellent instrumentation...a great listen."--Peter Cooper. "Philip Glass's serious work in the field of "world music" was recognized long before the term entered popular vocabulary. One of the most fruitful experiences was...

“Itaipu is a place between Brazil and Paraguay and hosts a large hydro-electric dam. This album is a work of massive proportions much like the creation of the Itaipu dam. On this work Glass makes good use of a heavy brass section combined with a large chorus and is around 40 minutes in length, spread over 4 movements. The extensive choral work is written in the language of the Giuranni Indians. Glass often chooses obscure languages for the effect of distance. This is a powerful pair of compositions and...

"'Dieter Glawischnig, born in Graz in 1938, is still alive (March 2015)", according to the short biography that he wrote himself. It should be added that this Austrian musician, composer, educator and musicologist is successful in all four fields. He was already a pianist as a child, a trumpet player as a teenager in addition, band co-founder for the first time at the age of 26 and back on the piano in the meantime. His groups were called Neighbours, with whom he recorded with Anthony Braxton, Fred...

"This group from Genoa made one of the more noteworthy Italian albums of 1970. Gleemen played a heavy brand of progressive rock, with electric guitar in the spotlight. Their music still contained remnants from the late 60s psychedelics with...

“Singer and composer Beverly Glenn-Copeland's hard-to-categorize music is filled with wonder, compassion, and hope. Beginning his recording career in the early 1970s with two self-titled albums of poetic jazz-folk, he spent many of the following decades working in children's television.
This, his second, was issued by GRT in 1971. The album was recorded with an impressive cast of notable jazz musicians, including flutist Jeremy Steig, guitarist Lenny Breau, drummer Terry Clarke, and bassist...