Gheorghe Zamfir - Two Suites for Pan Flute & Orchestra - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Voices from a Fathomless Realm is the first full-length from CAVERNOUS GATE. The German death doom outfit is a solo-project of multi-instrumentalist Sebastian InchS.K.Inch Körkemeier. Sebastian has co-founded HELRUNAR under the alias Alsvartr and he also supports Markus InchSchwadorfInch Stock's black metal project SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS as well as EMPYRIUM live. CAVERNOUS GATE and InchVoices from a Fathomless RealmInch are quite obviously musical works of love. Sebastian is successfully channelling his penchant for British doom and death acts such as earliest PARADISE LOST and CATHEDRAL as well as Swedish death metal in the vein of early ENTOMBED and DISMEMBER into a dark, depressive, and massive monolith of ultra-heaviness. On InchVoices from a Fathomless RealmInch, Sebastian's granite-grinding and abysmally low growls clearly dominate, but are on rare occasions beautifully contrasted with Jenny Kalbitz' female voice. Lyrically InchVoices from a Fathomless RealmInch explores a grimdark fantasy world of twilight and it's ghostly inhabitants, which Sebastian evokes in ways similar to the descriptions of paintings and by the creation of vivid dreamlike images. InchVoices from a Fathomless RealmInch is crafted with all the experience of a veteran metal musician and his audible love for the dark heavy style makes the difference. Let CAVERNOUS GATE drag you into a nightmare abyss of classical doom death interpreted in a contemporary way that paints musical pictures of an unexpected beauty lurking in these unexplored depths of pain and utter sadness.

This is the eleventh of Jan Lehtola's musicianship on Toccata Classics. Friedrich Lux (1820-95) was one of those musicians who formed the fabric of musical life in nineteenth-century Germany though he worked away from the major cities, as conductor, teacher, organist, organizer and composer, he was an indispensable element of the communities in which he worked. His large body of organ music, as good as unknown before now, brings together elements of the musical language of Bach, Mendelssohn and Schumann, in works that range from the intimate to the grandiose.

Gheorghe Zamfir is the great international exponent of the pan flute. A virtuoso of the nai or Romanian pan flute, his sound is so particular, so recognizable, that everyone has heard him play, either on one of the million records he has sold worldwide, or else on the cult soundtracks he has recorded for film-composers like Vladimir Cosma and Ennio Morricone, and directors like Quentin Tarantino. On this recording, far from the great symphony orchestras, Zamfir appears in duo with pianist Christiane Gugger performing his own repertoire. Here you can discover a more intimate vision of his music that reveals all it's powers of meditation and serene strength. Recorded by Jean-Claude Gaberel, a goldsmith in sound with an international reputation, this album translates all the force of Zamfir's music, which lies at the crossroads between genres classical, folk, international pop, new age and crossover.