Trevor Rabin: Jazz Fusion Album "Jacaranda," featured on "The Score"

Yes, that's right. It's jazz fusion. And it's very good. This is what Trevor playing a guitar with no pop influences with a bit of jazz thrown in can sound like, and I must say I love it! I'm not a big fan of his 80s pop tunes, but I really liked parts of Talk—especially "Endless Dream." When I found out he had done a new solo album I must say I was a bit skeptical, but I was also a bit excited; after all, his film scores have been sounding pretty exciting. And then I heard reviews that said the new album leaned toward jazz fusion, and I was even more intrigued.

It definitely doesn't disappoint (well, it might if you're looking for "Owner"—no repetitive pop riffs here!). The CD is a nice ecclectic mix of jazz and rock guitar playing, along with one track, "Rescue," featuring very nice female vocalizations and orchestrations remixed from one of his soundtracks, and a very nice piano solo as well (yes, you heard me right—a very well played, nicely composed 4 minute piano piece!) that leans more toward classical. I've really enjoyed this CD! 

After listening it again today I went and found a nice video Trevor has made for one of the tracks. Check it out:



Also, Trevor was recently featured on "The Score," A weekly radio show from Portland Radio station AllClassical.org exploring film music. It's an hour-long show featuring interview snippets, segments of his movie scores, and the Jacaranda track "Rescue" almost in its entirety. AllClassical.org doesn't have the show archived on their site, but you can find it on google; here is one radio station that has it as of the writing of this post: A Conversation with Trevor Rabin 12-27.

Kotebel - Concerto for Piano and Electric Ensemble

I recently learned of this very talented Spanish band with strong modern classical influences. I'll just let this amazing feature video containing excerpts from the recording of their newest album speak for itself (The DVD comes with the full version of this DVD, which is the studio recording of the full Concerto).



In addition, here is a very nice live video from the 2007 Gouveia Art Rock festival:



They've released 5 albums since their formation in 2000. Learn more at www.kotebel.com.

Amarok - Progressive Rock / World Music from Spain

Just found a great live video from the 2005  Gouveia Art Rock festival of one of my favorite bands that I wanted to share. Amarok is a band from Spain that plays music combining instruments and influences from all around the world with a bit of progressive rock and classical flavoring. On their most recent CD, Sol de Medianoche (2007) they even did an excellent rendition of Keith Emerson's Abaddon's Bolero! Perhaps this music appeals to me so much because I enjoy playing my Native American flutes so much and play with a couple friends that play instruments like djembes, didjeridoos and cellos. In any case, enjoy the video! Be sure to watch it to the end—there's a great didj solo!

New Anglagard Album: Viljans Oga

The Swedish band Anglagard made a big impact in the prog rock world with their debut album Hybris in 1992, and its followup Epilog in 1994. Both albums contain mostly instrumental, dense music heavily influenced by compositional techniques typically found in classical music, and feature woodwinds in addition to rock instrumentation. Unfortunately, apart from a live album released a few years later, the band went silent.

Until now.

In 2012 Anglagard released their long awaited third studio album. Entitled Viljans Oga, It contains 4 lengthy, beautifully composed tracks and is a worthy successor to their earlier albums.

The have also been performing live at a number of venues. Here is the best live recording I could find of them on YouTube. Enjoy!

Magma: Felicite Thosz

Felicite Thosz is released! And it's absolutely beautiful. Don't expect to find the heavier, darker side of Magma here; as the title would imply, this is an incredibly joyful piece of music. The title track is 28 minutes in duration, subdivided into sections. The CD also includes one additional track, for a total duration of 32 minutes—so as CDs go, it's short, but very sweet. Here are some video clips of live performances of the piece:





And a special treat, for me, was finding this clip of Christan Vander playing his composition at the piano, rather than sitting at his drum kit where we usually see him:

New Barock Project album: Coffee in Neukolin

Barock Project's new CD is out, and it's amazing. I just finished my first listen after purchasing the MP3 album from Amazon. Lyrics this time are in English; I miss the Italian, as its a much more beautiful language, but it is nice to know what they're singing about. Two YouTube videos released by the band so far: a full 8-minute song, and a compilation. Enjoy!

New Renaissance Live DVD released

The band Renaissance, led by founding members guitarist Michael Dunford and vocalist Annie Haslam, have released a DVD/2CD package from their 2011 tour of the eastern US. The recording features the classic albums "Turn of the Cards" and "Scheherezade and Other Stories" in their entirety, with over 2 hours of music. It also features an interview with Dunford and Haslam.

In the 70s, the band recorded and performed with full orchestra (arranged/orchestrated by Dunford), but their performances were never captured professionally on film. This performance features a 6-pience band, but thanks to modern electronic keyboards they're able to recreate many of the lush orchestrations of the original works.

Official video trailer: