Gerard Schwarz - Peter Ibbetson - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Smetana / Wihan Qrt - STR QRTS [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/09/2014

PRESS for The Sons 'Comerford and his current bandmates--bassist Matthew Seifert, drummer Steve Kiraly, and fellow guitarist Stephen Howard (Pinebender, Tight Phantomz)--place their faith in the kind of rock-solid attack that relies on an intimate and innate rapport between band members ... Considering how often Kaspar Hauser's lineup has changed over the years, the accomplishment is all the more impressive. The twin guitars burn and surge, moving precisely within the lean grooves.' --Peter Margasak, Post No Bills/Chicago Reader 'Despite the life-altering events that spurned it, 'The Sons,' recorded over the course of a year in a basement studio in Logan Square, remains joyously unvarnished. Songs such as 'Mark of Cain' and 'Macbeth II (In the Morning)' are loaded with ragged blues riffs and drummer Steve Kiraly's loose-limbed kit-work.' --Andy Downing, Chicago Tribune ''The Sons' is a testament to the concept of long-players - records you listen to from end to end, soaking in each and every note, coda and phrase.' --Matthew R. Perrine, Duluth Budgeteer News Description Shortly after the of 2007's Quixotic/Taxidermy, KH frontman Thomas Comerford set about writing songs for a follow up. Using the more bluesy, rock-oriented material on Q/T as a starting point, Comerford crafted a song cycle that explores old mythologies, Americana and some new yarns regarding family and ancestry/progeny. Themes of loyalty, rift, isolation and sometimes hope recur across a set of narrators who would be at home in a Flannery O'Connor novel. The thundering rocker, InchMark of Cain,Inch reinvents the Biblical tale as a confession of sadistic cruelty and self-loathing, injecting an unexpected, sighing chorus -- InchYou won't save me/you won't want to save me ...Inch -- into the proceedings. InchProdigal Son,Inch another Biblical nod with stinging slide guitar work and a Reed-y vocal, off

This collection from the legacy of Jirí Belohlávek was put together during the year after the demise of this outstanding conductor. It is intended mainly as a recollection of this extraordinary musician and person. His life can be briefly described by enumerating the greatest of his achievements (Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, appearances at the MET, Glyndebourne, etc.; holder of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire /CBE/ title). The Maestro himself may have preferred a sharing of memories to recordings; yet the set of twenty-three pieces taken from the almost three hundred pieces from Supraphon archives and recorded in the years 1971 - 2016 is a wonderful illustration of Belohlávek's professional maturing. They capture him as a conductor of several leading Czech orchestras, beginning with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and concluding by the Czech Philharmonic and Prague Philharmonia. In the very centre of Belohlávek's repertoire we find compositions by Dvorák (From the New World), Smetana (My Country), Suk, Janácek and, notably, Martinu, whom he introduced to the world. The collection is enriched by several side-steps into other areas of repertoire including Mozart, Ravel, Mahler and Bartók, which documents the amazing scope of the conductor's focus.