Operators - Radiant Dawn - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In this exciting new disc, Virgin Classics countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic breaks the 200-year-old tradition of female mexxo-sopranos incarnating male characters. Paving the way for countertenors to sing what were once exclusively Inchtrouser rolesInch, Cencic and director Michael Hofstetter offer arias and overtures from Rossini operas spanning from TANCREDI, Aurelliano in PALMIRA, DONNA DEL LAGO, until the climax of the composer's Neapolitan Era with Semiramide. The results are fresh and revelatory, making a strong case for more men taking on these parts.

Christmas is constant, says Ben Folds. InchAllowing you to take stock of what's different, to understand who you are and all the ways you've grown and changed.Inch That notion lies at the heart of Folds' brilliantly titled new holiday collection, Sleigher. Built on an eclectic mix of originals and reimagined classics, the album examines the passage of time through the lens of Christmas, reflecting on memory, loss, and longing as it explores the variety of ways the yuletide season marks the chapters of our lives. The songs are playful here, full of humor and cheer, but they're also laced with an inescapable sense of melancholy, a looming darkness that always seems to hover around the periphery of those late December nights. Folds' performances, meanwhile, flirt with the standards while stretching the boundaries of tradition, at times offering up flashes of Vince Guaraldi and Burt Bacharach while still remaining true to Folds' singularly virtuosic brand of off-kilter indie pop. The result is not so much a Ben Folds Christmas record as it is a Ben Folds record set at Christmas, a meditation on the inexorable turning of the calendar and our ever changing selves as observed at the most wonderful-and challenging-time of the year.

Ivan Pavlov aka COH characterizes his latest solo work, 'Radiant Faults', as Inchthe recording of a dialogue,Inch rather than a set of compositions. Crafted using a rare new synthesizer, the Silhouette Eins, Pavlov's first encounter with the instrument across a long, late night session resulted in a continuous set of textures, patterns, and subliminal melodies. At some point during the process, he realized he was not alone InchIt was as if something was speaking to me through the gear - the feeling was very intense. No matter how determined and specific I attempted to be, the results were something else. They felt like 'responses.' This instantly reminded me of ELpH.InchELpH is the name coined by Coil for a Inchcelestial entityInch that emanates from electronic equipment at mysterious moments, altering the creative process in unforeseen ways. They devised the term during studio sessions back in 1994, during which sustained software accidents ultimately seemed possessed of supernatural intelligence, spawning it's own mythos. As a longtime member of Coil's inner circle, Pavlov is steeped in ELpH's ideology and influence - and highly qualified to identify an encounter of his own. 'Radiant Faults' offers a compelling addition to the ELpH canon, at the threshold of music and manifestation, embracing the Inchdivine quality of error.InchThe Silhouette Eins is a unique instrument combining the 1920's concept of an Inchoptical soundtrackInch with a hardware synth interface to Pure Data a visual programming language for producing interactive music, using real- time video signal in it's synthesis of sound. Pavlov's attempted manipulations were answered by indecipherable transmissions from some distant, unknowable place. Stark waveforms drone and bend against skeletal metronomes; murmured pulses flicker down empty corridors; high fluorescent tones gleam and glitch in zero gravi