Orleans - Live In Harvard Square '75 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2021 holiday . From the desk of Orleans co-founder John Hall The material comes from a various sources, most written internally but not all. Some had previously recorded lives elsewhere and made the cut unaltered. Some had previous starts but underwent major revisions and upgrades. Some were cut from scratch. Some are purely secular, while others center around the Christmas Story. The title cut, 'New Star Shining' was recorded in 1994 for a 'Woodstock Holidays' CD released only in Japan. Our only Christmas song until now, it was cut as a duet by Ricky Scaggs and James Taylor. Our version features shared lead vocals by John, Larry, Lance and Bob. The remainder of album features tracks we wrote during our recording hiatus of 15 years, tracks covered by other artists, now recovered by us.

2021 . In late 1969 young Nick Currie moved to Athens with his family and soaked up the Greek sun for a couple of years while listening to The Beatles' Abbey Road album and the rock opera Hair. Approximately fifty years later - now named after the Greek god Momus, and eager to investigate claims that Athens is Inchthe new BerlinInch - Nick returned to winter in the city with his French girlfriend. When Noémie left - and lockdown dragged on - Nick set about making an album called Athenian. The 2021 album from Momus, then, has a Greek flavor, and keeps getting drawn back to the years 1969-1971. Unlike Vivid, it's predecessor, Athenian is not about confronting the pandemic with a combination of darkness and dignity. This time the emphasis is on lightness and laughter. The same accordion-based sound might drive the record, but vintage British comedians like Frankie Howerd, Ted Ray, Kenneth Horne and Benny Hill keep popping up this time, spreading much-needed laughter and lightness. Much as in his novel The Book of Jokes, Momus slows their routines down, warps them, and fills them up with corpses, clowns, ghosts and zombies. We may be doomscrolling through a horrorworld, but at least we can still laugh. Even when serious names pop up - Karl Kraus, the apocalyptic Viennese satirist, or Wyndham Lewis with his Tyros, those toothy hooligans avid for novelty in the years following the flu epidemic and the First World War - they seem to be playing some of the same games as the comedians inventing characters, testing what you can and can't say these days, and making fun of the prejudices of people who seem to be living life with their values all topsy-turvy.

Debussy / Faure / Bay / Heifetz - Jascha Heifetz Plays French [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/03/2010