It's Christmas time which means that although I rarely go as far as playing any Christmas Carols (see last year's Christmas log where Eddy famously described all Christmas music as tripe) I do make some concessions towards Christmassy type music in the form of choral works which represent half the magazine here.
Pierre Bensusan - Intuite
Kate Bush - Aerial
Palace Brothers - Days In The Wake
Various - Twentieth Century Choral Music
The King's Consort - Essential Purcell
Charles Stanford - Anthems and Services
Henry Purcell was an English baroque composer (1659 - 95). This series of choral works sung by the King's Consort sounds like opera music although most of the tracks are individual songs. You will probably think you've never heard any before but some are more famous than you realise particularly When I Am Laid In Earth (Dido's Lament) which does indeed come from an opera; (Purcell's only) Dido and Aeneas.
Sad, but very beautiful.
Charles Stanford (1852 - 1924) was an Irish composer best known for his choral works. Teaching from Cambridge he was responsible for inspiring a number of 20th Century English composers who subsequently became more famous than himself including Vaughan-Williams, Bliss, Elgar, Bridge and Holst. This 18 track Naxos compilation probably contains the nice track I once heard on the radio which encouraged me to buy the record but I can't remember or recognise which one it was now!
Finally in this section we have the Vasari Singers performing works by Tavener, Part and Gorecki. These three 20th Century minimalist composers (the John Tavener here not to be confused with the 16th Century John Taverner with an extra 'r') are often grouped together. The modern John Tavener (1944 - 2013) is probably most famous nowadays for his piece Song For Athene performed at Princess Diana's funeral, a song originally written poignantly for another young woman who died in a traffic accident.
French solo acoustic guitarist Pierre Bensusan specialises in laid back easy going jazz and celtic flavoured instrumentals using lots of single note lines and harmonics. This sense of space allows the musicality to come to the fore in contrast to some of his contemporaries where demonstration of frenetic technique tends to overshadow the actual music.
The track featured here is his tribute to fellow guitarist and friend the late Michael Hedges (I am disturbed to find I don't appear to have any of his albums in CD form - an oversight you must rectify with Aerial Boundaries asap Ed.):
Lead album this week is Kate Bush's Aerial double LP. Coming out in 2005 it was her eighth album and first for 12 years. This ambitious rock album is a beautifully presented, produced and performed affair. The whole package reminds me of David Sylvian's classy solo works (and believe it or not there is even a track that reminds me of Who's Next).
The tracks merge into a satisfying whole - in fact the whole of the second half entitled A Sky of Honey is a concept piece based on a single summer's day embellished with birdsong (the cover art shows a birdsong sound waveform, not a silhouetted mountain range reflected in water).
Finally, although there are one or two songs that recall the vocal histrionics of Wuthering Heights such as Mrs. Bartolozzi, wary listeners should not be put off. Over 25 years on from Kate Bush's breakthrough hit this record demonstrates a very mature and assured vocal perfectly in keeping with the music.
Finally, although there are one or two songs that recall the vocal histrionics of Wuthering Heights such as Mrs. Bartolozzi, wary listeners should not be put off. Over 25 years on from Kate Bush's breakthrough hit this record demonstrates a very mature and assured vocal perfectly in keeping with the music.