Walt Robertson - American Northwest Ballads - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This collection reminds US that the ballad's purpose, first and foremost, is to tell a story. These songs narrate tales of ordinary people-hoboes and lovers and sailors-and their extraordinary deeds. From InchJohn HenryInch to InchLady Margaret,Inch Pete Seeger's expressive style is ideally communicative.

Ormed in 2015, Wetware eased into it's performative role with their live shows around their home base of Brooklyn, NY. Vocalist Roxy Farman, who's familiar voice was last heard on Drew McDowall's InchUnnatural ChannelInch album, stole audience's attention immediately, using her body in tandem with her voice as a weaponized vehicle for the band's anxiety filled performance. Matthew Morandi cut his teeth in the electronic music world through his solo tech-industrial project Jahiliyya Fields and partner to Inhalants. Wetware's live antics and behavior has caused alarm amongst their local audiences, making Wetware the focus on any particular bill that they are allowed to take part in.Wetware stepped out from their live persona and self-recorded a selection of songs that viewers had grown accustomed to and were debuted on the flawlessly curated Primitive Languages imprint. Shortly following their recorded premier was an EP collection of demo recordings on the much praised Bank NYC tag. Once the band reconciled with documenting their work, they set out, with the help of engineer Kris Lapke to formalize their most recent output in the context of their first full length album entitled InchAutomatic Drawing.Inch

New Czech recordings of perennially popular serenades from the pen of Dvorak at a turning point in his career, full of freshness, Bohemian charm and flowing melodies. The Serenades for Strings and Winds never get old, and never lose their appeal, especially in the hands of musicians who feel this music in their bones. The opening of the Serenade for Strings issues the warmest welcome to a world poised between the 18th and 19th centuries, looking back in terms of it's reassuring character as music for nocturnal entertainment, yet also unmistakably belonging to the Czech composer's own place and time - Prague, 1875 - with it's Bohemian turn of harmony and yearning cantabile. Composed three years later as a counterpart, the Serenade for Winds marks a development in the composer's technique - more elegant handling of counterpoint and melodic development - from the earlier work. At the same time, the Mozartian air of good-natured humour is even stronger. Both serenades relax into slow movements of poetry without pathos, and each of them was composed within less than a fortnight's work, testifying to the inspiration felt by the composer as he worked at his material. The melodies seem to come, as Richard Strauss later said of himself, as easily as a cow giving milk. The Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Pardubice has made several albums of Czech repertoire for Brilliant Classics and Piano Classics, most recently the neglected Piano Concerto of Dvorak (PCL10272), as well as the complete piano concertante works of Chopin with Ekaterina Litvinseva, and the Cello Concerto of Dvorak (95696). The recording was made under studio conditions in the orchestra's home concert hall, yielding a warm, transparent sound which is ideally suited to these intimate pieces.