Ben Woods - A Collection Of Thoughts

Artist:Ben Woods
Album: A Collection Of Thoughts
Year: 2008
Genre:Neo-classical, Experimental, Piano
Country:United States

Inspired by nothing other than pure emotion, Ben Woods has turned his deepest, most raw feelings into ethereal piano melodies. The piano swells with heartfelt anguish and absorbs the listener in an atmosphere of brooding sincerity. A Collection of Thoughts is heart wrenching and beautiful.

Ben Woods is a full time student at the University of Plymouth UK, where most of this music is written and recorded. His style is has been described as dense and intoxicating whilst at the same time beautiful and deep. His music is written to audibly represent recent emotions and feelings with regard to situation, experience and circumstance.His latest work is predominantly piano based but Ben is always working on the newest approach he discovers. He has been working on a series of acoustic guitar lead soundscapes and has also been experimenting with turning written acoustic songs into beautifully layered drones.

DOWNLOAD free ( from Wise Owl Records ) here
Wise Owl Records is a free net-based record label whose main purpose is to provide a means for talented musicians to expose their art in a more public venue.

Petrograd In Transit - Lifesize Balloon Animals

Artist:Petrograd In Transit
Album: Lifesize Balloon Animals
Year: 2008
Genre:Post Rock
Country:Russia

Beautiful, inspiring post-rock reminiscent of This Will Destroy You and Sigur Ros, but in a league completely of its own.

"We are Petrograd In Transit. We hail from Russia. We made quite a name for ourselves in the Yelsinky Province and outer Siberia, playing in bread lines and Putin protests. To make money to support our families (each member has no less than seven children, all told) we landed on your democratic shores ala Alexy, our knuckleheaded manager. We tell him all day, “Saint Petersburg, we must play the capitol!” Alexy got us a bargain all right. We landed in St. Petersburg, Florida and we know this because when we got off the flight we didn’t smell organized crime or smoked fish. There were palm trees and people had these strange expressions (which we later learned are called ‘smiles’). Also we still had our яички because of the weather which stays above zero all thirteen months of the year. Please enjoy our music. We make it especially for you. With a little help we will get Visas and tour this great nation. Please don’t generalize us Russians; we are a moody, self-obsessed people who love brooding, literature and ballet, not the fun-loving Europeans you take us for."

DOWNLOAD free ( from Wise Owl Records ) here
Wise Owl Records is a free net-based record label whose main purpose is to provide a means for talented musicians to expose their art in a more public venue.

Dominique A - L'Horizon

Artist:Dominique A
Album:L'Horizon
Year: 2006
Genre: Indie Rock
Country:France

Dominique A’s seventh album, "L'Horizon", was released on 6 March 2006. As demanding of himself as ever, Dominique A – who had since adopted Brussels as his home – produced an album where both the finely-honed lyrics and arrangements and his vocal delivery were even more intense than ever. The overall tone was once again serious and tinged with melancholy. "L'Horizon" was hailed as a masterpiece by the critics, confirming Dominique A as one of the leading exponents of ‘new French chanson.

Mike Westbrook - Bright as Fire (Settings Of William Blake)

Artist: Mike Westbrook
Album:Bright as Fire (Settings Of William Blake)
Lyrics:William Blake arranged by Adrian Mitchell
Year: Recorded January 1980, Issued on CD 1991
Genre: Contemporary Jazz
Country:United Kingdom

Michael John David 'Mike' Westbrook (born March 21, 1936 in High Wycombe) is a highly successful British jazz pianist, composer, and writer of orchestrated jazz pieces..more

Personnel:
Phil Minton - vocal, trumpet
Kate Westbrook - tenor horn, vocal, piccolo
Mike Davies - piccolo trumpet, trumpet
Dave Hancock - trumpet
Henry Lowther - trumpet
Malcolm Griffiths - trombone
Alan Sinclair - tuba
Alan Wakeman - sopranino, soprano & tenor saxophones
Chris Biscoe - soprano & alto saxophones, alto clarinet
Dave Barry - drums, percussion, tympani, tubular bells
Georgie Born - cello
Chris Laurence - bass
Mike Westbrook - piano, speech


*****Reviews*****

"...Arguably the most majestic work to appear in recent years. It's marriage of Inspirational lyrics and uplifting scoring, performed by some of the most talented musicians in Europe, harks back to the jazz suites of Ellington..."
THE GUARDIAN

"Mike Westbrook makes full use of his two striking vocalists, Kate Westbrook and Phil Minton, and coaxes fervent performances from horn men Chris Biscoe and Alan Wakeman. He finds music to snatch the ecstasy of 'I See Thy Form' and desolation of 'London Song', turns 'A Poison Tree' into a blood-curdling tango. and fashions a magnificent anthem for 'Let The Slave/The Price of Experience' , Blake's great paeans to freedom, dignity, and compassion."
THE WIRE

"Perhaps the greatest work in all British jazz"
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY.

"Westbrook's settings are among the greatest British music of the century...bold, optimistic and inspiring".
THE INDEPENDENT.

"Bright as Fire pulls no emotional punches, Blake's visionary words matched by some of Westbrook's most trenchant writing".
THE TIMES

White Stripes - Icky Thump

Album: Icky Thump
Artist:White Stripes
Year: 2007
Genre:Alternative Rock
Country:United States

Icky Thump entered the UK Albums Chart at number one and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 223,000 copies sold. By late July, Icky Thump was certified gold in the United States. By the end of 2007, 1,235,000 copies had been sold world-wide making it the 39th best-selling album of 2007. As of March 8, 2008, the album has sold 725,125 copies in the US. On February 10, 2008, the album won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

more on Wikipedia...

Rome - Masse Mensch Materia

Artist:Rome
Album:Masse Mensch Materia
Year: 2008
Genre: Neo-folk,Industrial,Martial
Country:Luxemburg

After the two successful releases Nera and Confessions d’un Voleur d’Ames, Rome is back at the frontlines with their third studio album Masse Mensch Material. Usually a third album of a band is important for the further direction and development of their music. The sound of this increasing popular martial folk project on Cold Meat Industry on the new album is more accessible than ever before. The songs by Jerome Reuter always had next to the martial industrial, neofolk. and neoclassical dark ambient influences a certain flair which reminds one of darkwave and new wave pop music and it is exactly this element which Jerome has refined further on Masse Mensch Material.

The songs themselves however have too much depth to label them as mere pop songs. The approach is a bit more subtle than before since the bombastic martial industrial has almost completely been removed in favour of the more thoughtful melancholic sounding songs like ‘Wir Gotter der Stadt’, ‘Die Nelke’, and ‘Der Erscheinungen Flucht’; which show a fascinating world of contradicting emotions like cruelty as well as affection, reflected musically with beautiful melodies and an excellent sound. Also when the atmosphere does go more towards martial pop, such as in the splendid track ‘Der Brandtaucher’, it is noticeable that the instrumentation is very varied with the effective use of percussion and bass which create an almost danceable rhythm.

Jerome now has support in the studio from Patrick Damiani, in whose studio the album was also recorded. It is striking to hear that now the approach of the songs go more towards pop; it also becomes clear that Jerome is a really gifted singer. The song ‘Die Brandstifter’ reminds me very much of the work of Tom Waits. ‘Wir Moorsoldaten’ shows in a splendid way (and contrary to the song title it is sung in English!) yet again the martial influence in this remarkable neofolk project. The neofolk song ‘’Neue Erinnerung’ illustrates why Death in June is often mentioned as an influence on Rome, but it actually is not one of the best songs on this album.

Rome proves with this third album that they have become the new face of dark romanticism. Leonard Cohen has found a musical and spiritual heir in Jerome Reuter, who with his original voice in very ingenious songs manages to make the listener surrender completely. Masse Mensch Material is the best Rome album so far."(gothtronic.com)

Puressence - Planet Helpless

Album: Planet Helpless
Artist:Puressence
Year: 2002
Genre:Alternative Rock
Country:United Kingdom

Puressence is an indie band from Oldham, United Kingdom. The band consists of four members.

The band has released three albums: Puressence (1996), Only Forever (1998), and Planet Helpless (2002). Prior to releasing these albums, Puressence released 3 E.P's between 1992-93. First Siamese/Scapa Flow was released through Rough Trade then followed Petrol Skin and Offshore both released through 2 Damn Loud Records.

more on Wikipedia..

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Hush, My Heart, Be Still ... - SECRETA MUSICA Compilation Vol.1

Album: Hush, My Heart, Be Still ... - SECRETA MUSICA Compilation Vol.1
Compiled by: Hail and Alximistis
Year: 2008
Genre:Various
Art:Rachel Ann Austin

This is our very first compilation about the music we love..an eclectic and beautiful collection of sounds, a combination of expressions of love, happiness, gratitude, death, sorrow and ecstasy that resound in the nineteen tracks of this work.We hope enjoy our attempt and we wish this help you stretching your musical wings.Take care, and be well.

Hail and Alximistis..

Track listing

1. Lantern - The Clogs (album:Lantern)
2. Ode To a Friend - Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright (album:Pale White)
3. Opus 23 - Dustin O'Halloran (album:Piano Solos Vol. 2)
4. Farewell/Goodbye - M83 (album:Before the Dawn Heals Us)
5. Last Things Last - Rachel's (album:Systems/Layers)
6. The Longest Night - French Teen Idol (album:Enlightened False Consciousness)
7. Birds - Sidsel Endresen & B Wesseltof (album:Out Here, In There)
8. Hush,My Heart,Be Still .. - Andreas Volenweinder (album:Cosmopoly)
9. The Joys Of Stealth - Rome (album:Confessions d'Un Voleur d'Ames)
10. On The Way - Micus Stephan (album:Athos, A Journey To The Holy Mountain)
11. Sarajevo - Max Richter (album:Memoryhouse)
12. Melodia africana - Ludovico Einaudi (album:La Scala Concert)
13. Alleluia - Odawas (album:Raven And The White Night)
14. Achtung, God - Worrytrain (album:Fog Dance, My Moth Kingdom)
15. My Garden - Yosebu (album:I'll Be Waiting Till Dawn)
16. A Necessary End ft. Sarah Matthews - Saltillo (album:Ganglion)
17. The Well-Meaning Professor - Eluvium (album:An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death)
18. Odi et Amo - Johann Johannsson (album:Englabron)
19. Where At Night The Wood Grouse - Empyrium (album:Where At Night The Wood Grouse)

DOWNLOAD
part 1
part 2

Aldo Ciccolini - E. Satie:Works for Piano

Album: Works for Piano
Composer: Erik Alfred Leslie Satie
Pianist:Aldo Ciccolini
Year: 1986
Genre:Classical,Piano
Country:France

Aldo Ciccolini (born August 15, 1925), is a French pianist of Italian origin.Ciccolini is a
celebrated

interpreter and advocate of the piano music of the French composers Maurice
Ravel, Claude Debussy and Erik Satie.

Listening to Satie's dreamy, timelessly beautiful Gymnopedies, one could hardly imagine that their composer was a man more characterized during his lifetime - and after - by his eccentricities than his music.Erik Alfred Leslie Satie (1866-1925); born May 17, 1866 in Honfleur, Basse-Normandie, France, Erik Satie was a music composer, and a performing pianist, though mainly for café- and cabaret audiences. Satie wrote theatre and ballet music, as well as piano music. His compositions are original, humorous, often bizarre, and very minimalistic. His music is sometimes called furniture music, supposed to be in the background of everyday life. It is evidently anti-romantic and also anti-impressionistic.Satie eventually became a leading figure of the French avant-garde.

Rome - Confessions D'Un Voleur D'Ames

Artist:Rome
Album:Confessions D'Un Voleur D'Ames
Year: 2007
Genre: Industrial, Martial, Neo-folk
Country:Luxemburg

Rome is a Luxembourgian act on the Cold Meat Industry label.Rome is the future of the neo-folk world. It does not fall into the same four chords played with the guitar in a “wanting to live up to Death in June” sound. And it moves enough into post-industrialism to be called experimental and to be misunderstood. This fresh combination of sounds: great guitar work, martial percussion, pop melodies and dark crooning, capture the listener and transport them into a different world.

Or in other words; Rome is about emotive songs that are both catchy and disturbed. The songs awake memories of love and death, with the reoccurring themes of despair and loss, guilt and grief, might and war.

"Only a few months after the release of its first full-length album NERA, ROME is back yet again to show that it's here to stay. CONFESSIONS D'UN VOLEUR D'AMES is a call from a world where love and despair are locked in an embrace. A black craving in the fangs of war, the joys of stealth in a riot of blossoms.
This second album is calmer and rather more personal than NERA. These confessions are often dark and poetic, sometimes brutal, but most of all intimate. Again you will find traces of all kinds of genres of obscure music; ambient, neo-classical, dark wave, apocalyptic folk, martial industrial. ROME couldn't care less about boundaries of genres. However, the tone is less militant, the main themes being treachery and sacrifice, temperance and composure.
With a distinctive slice of military suicide pop fiddled into their sound, ROME has established itself as one of the most lively and interesting "martial" folk acts up and about. These confessions prove that ROME has become a force to be reckoned with."(klicktrack.com)

Movus - Movus

Artist:Movus
Album: Movus
Year: 2007
Genre:Post Rock
Country:Mexico

Dreamy guitars, nostalgic noisy delay layers, pulsating bass lines and jazz influenced drumbeats define what Movus is all about. The band is based in Guadalajara, where a young indie/post rock scene conquering new territories. Fully instrumental productions, sometimes crude, sometimes sad, but always beautiful is what we should expect from their first album.

Efterklang - Parades

Artist: Efterklang
Album: Parades
Year: 2007
Genre:Post - Rock, Electronica, Post - Pop
Country:Denmark

Efterklang are a Danish five-piece currently based in Copenhagen."Parades" is their second album on the Yorkshire-based The Leaf Label Label.Efterklang ('reverberation' or 'sound memory' in Danish) have existed since late 2000, started by childhood friends Rasmus Stolberg and Mads Brauer. The duo decamped to Copenhagen from their pastoral origins in the countryside, but eager Danish ears had to wait until 2004 to sample the band's debut, Tripper.

a secret musical language born of ice winds and sequestered myth

"Parades" is the highly anticipated second album by Denmark’s Efterklang, the follow up to their underground hit of 2004, "Tripper". Comprising 11 majestic, otherworldly pop songs, "Parades" manages to be both magnificently ambitious and engagingly intimate; a breathtaking panorama of sound with few clear antecedents. Music with no boundaries. In a parallel universe, songs like ‘Mirador’ and ‘Caravan’ would be number one forever… Completely focus in on the song structures, multiple pianos, strings, shouting choral arrangements, strange rhythms, all forming this huge sonic web of beauty and power, actually extremely emotional at times.

“Cinematic yet incredibly intimate… This is magical, all scintillating interstellar sparkles and the bubbling up of glorious geysers of sound. It creaks with aged weariness and blossoms brilliantly; it is alien yet welcoming, otherworldly yet on your doorstep wearing a bright smile. It’s music to witness the dawning of new ages and the end of days as we know them, music to lose all perspective on and to fall into like a first love” ( Drowned In Sound)

Hammock - Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow

Artist:Hammock
Album:Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow
Year: 2008
Genre: Ambient
Country:United States

The most challenging part of Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow (61'10") by Hammock is staying awake until it ends. On their fifth release the duo of Mark Byrd and Andrew Thompson offer 11 pillow-soft tracks. From ambient lullabies to panoramic anthems this album rings with music from out of the American Elsewhere.

Layers of reverberating guitar fill the cavernous soundfield, the pluck of the strings truncated to round off any edge. Digital processing extends the range of their instruments and lends the music a symphonic character. The occasional appearance of a string section and cello adds to this mystique. Vast, delicate and majestic, Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow fits in well alongside Lanterna, Jeff Pearce and Robin Guthrie, as well as the instrumental works of Sigur Ros. This kind of music deepens us, extending our feelings through its poetic vision.