Cloud Nothings - The Shadow I Remember - VINYL LP

Shura Cherkassky was introduced to Nimbus by Wilfred Stiff, then a director of the London agent Ibbs & Tillett. Wilfred recognised a young tag pushing ahead fast at the transition point between LP and CD, one with a fondness for artists whose careers were waning. Accordingly, he dispatched one of his most prestigious names to the Nimbus Studio. Cherkassky was at that time acknowledged as one of the 'great' generation whose undoubted king was Horowitz, but after a long, notable career that began in his mid-teens, his popularity in the concert hall and recording studio had fallen. Shura's late career was in need of a final boost.Cherkassky's first visit lasted four days-31 January to 3 February 1981. He immediately settled in the unusual setting. He stayed in the big house, not in a hotel, and walked into a studio so completely unlike the characterless spaces he had famously grown to decry. Here there was no sterile barrier to his inspiration. The grand Victorian reception room at Wyastone Leys served as a spectacular performance space, it's full-height windows framing commanding views down the Wye Valley. Shura loved it, signing a copy of his Pictures at an Exhibition LP, 'To everyone in Nimbus with love and the most wonderful feeling of inspiration'.The recordings made during these four days are all presented on this . Most of them enjoyed only a brief on LP. Because of their 'analogue' origin they have been denied subsequent re-issues. © Adrian Farmer

2015 from the Canadian folk/country harmony trio. With the long-awaited Burn The Plan, The Good Lovelies are both fulfilling and defying their so-called musical destiny as a 'folk trio.' What makes this Burn The Plan special is that the band's considerable strengths - winsome songwriting, impeccable vocals, and triangulated charisma - don't tell the full story. There's a new spirit of adventurousness that gives Burn The Plan an extra spark; the album is permeated with textures and tones from musical worlds away.

If discovering your favourite new band via a 'Best Of' feels a curious premise, then 'Bismillah' does more than hint towards the promise of Peter Cat Recording Co's future. Blending gypsy jazz, psychedelic cabaret, space disco, bossa supernova, Bollywood and uneasy listening with kaleidoscopic ease, in many senses, the band's knack hasn't altered. Always different, paradoxical, unpredictable yet somehow familiar. The new album opens to the strains of bird chatter, the whisper of a city's soundscape and the first few notes from an instrument which seem to be calling us to the departure lounge, a fore-shadow of the flight 'Bismillah' launches it's listener on. Suryakant sings with the detached, rueful elegance of Sinatra marooned on a desert island, whilst his band create small space-time capsules which navigate their way through genres and eras - including the future - and between nostalgia and eccentricity. A cat might have nine lives, but on 'Bismillah' and beyond, Peter Cat Recording Co. Are hinting towards an un- knowable multitude of dimensions. Throw them all together, and it equates less to a listening experience and more to an out-of-body experience.