Å

ASIN: B00000I04K

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Steve Tibbetts doesn't make it easy. The innovative Minneapolis-based guitarist has cut some of the most idiosyncratic albums to come out of the German ECM label. Since moving to Hannibal/Rykodisc, he's given them the difficult but critically acclaimed album called Chö, setting the chants and hymns of Tibetan nun Choying Drolma to an abstract ambient landscape. Now there's A, an album of ambient chamber works centered on the hardingfele, or Hardanger fiddle. The hardingfele is a violin with a flat bridge and sympathetic strings like a sitar. Usually played as a solo instrument, it sounds to the uninitiated like fiddler Vassar Clements playing an Indian raga after his dog has died. But once you get past the atonality of the instrument, it opens up a world of hardscrabble tradition and that isolated, forlorn character that goes deeper than a Nordic cliché. Steve Tibbetts has been intoxicated by this sound for years, and on A he teams up with Norwegian hardingfele player Knut Hamre, clearly a Heifitz of hardingfele. Joined by a core group of fellow hardingfele player Turid Spildo, Tibbetts's longtime percussionist Marc Anderson, and jazz bassist Anthony Cox, the guitarist orchestrates ambient improvisations and atmospheres that hark back to his ECM debut, Northern Song. Like that album, A--also recorded in Norway--brims with haunting moods and textures that splinter like the spider-web cracks of an ice-covered lake. This isn't Norwegian folk music. Instead, it's the hardingfele spirit that is steeped in Nordic mythology and legends of trolls. You can just picture the gnarled creatures cavorting to Tibbetts and Hamre's dance. --John Diliberto

Å,Knut Hamre & Steve Tibbetts,Hannibal,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop

Visions & Miracles
Average customer rating:

superb early music

Good, but not as good as Danse Royale

I don't care what anyone says..

Pretty good rendition of the Cantigas

Passionate, exciting, and superbly performed

Visions & Miracles
Alfonso X (el Sabio) , Traditional , Ensemble Alcatraz , Shira Kammen , Peter Maund , Susan Rode Morris , Cheryl Ann Fulton , and Kit Higginson
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Early Music | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
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Danse Royale

ASIN: B000005IYZ
Release Date: 1992-05-28

Tracks:

Cantiga de Santa Maria No. 103: Quen A Virgen Ben Servir
Las Huelgas Codex: Fontis In Rivulum
Cantiga de Santa Maria No. 103: Connosamente Mostre Miragres
Alanvanca De Mudanza
Cantiga de Santa Maria No. 103: Toda Cousa Que Aa Virgen
Cantiga de Santa Maria No. 103: Gran Dereit'
Las Huelgas Codex: Ad Honorem Salvatoris
Cantiga de Santa Maria No.42: A Virgen Mui Grora

Customer Reviews:

superb early music.......2006-06-30

This has been one of my favorite albums since I discovered it, over ten years ago - deeply moving emotionally, and also exciting, invigorating and eye-opening musically, at least for me. I'd never heard music like this, and it changed my ideas and interests regarding 'classical' music.

It should also be of interest to fans of things medieval and of fantasy literature, since this is truly what music sounded like back then I think.

Another reviewer mentioned 'Carmina Burana' - Carl Orff's work is of course not part of this album, but I suppose Orff may have been influenced by this kind of music.

The info on Amazon is woefully muddled. The performer for this album should be Ensemble Alcatraz, and a search under that name should find by this album and Danse Royale credited to them.

Good, but not as good as Danse Royale.......2005-09-05

These performances of Carmina Burana have plenty of gusto and technical brilliance as you'd expect from this professional ensemble. The instrumentals are generally more interesting than the vocals, with some well thought out arrangements. Even so there is an invariably stringent sound that makes the album hard to listen to in one go, not helped by a recording that is a little recessed and on the cool side. Their earlier and very fine Danse Royale is more interesting, and I prefer Australia's Renaissance Players with Winsome Evans on the Carmina Burana.

I don't care what anyone says.........2003-12-11

...this is a fantastic album! I am no "Early music" connaisseur, but this album is the best I've bought in years...It makes me melt. I love the hint of moorishness and the surprisingly rhythmic 6/8's with soulfully rendered vocals...Hmmmm...nice...

Pretty good rendition of the Cantigas.......2003-10-21

This is a pretty sparse rendition of some of the Cantigas, one of the more no-frills performances I have heard. It is superbly performed, make no mistake about it, but it is something of an acquired taste. This album lacks the rich textures found in "Danse Royale," Ensemble Alcatraz' subsequent album.

This is a good album, but because of my personal tastes, it stays on the shelf more than other early music CDs I own. It is strictly a matter of personal taste, so I encourage you to see if this CD appeals to your tastes.

Passionate, exciting, and superbly performed.......1998-09-15

I've been an "early music" fan ever since the 1960's, when I chanced upon an album of recorder music by the Kranis Consort (an offshoot of the New York Pro Musica). Few recordings since then have excited me as much, with the exception of David Munrow and some of the Clemencic Consort's work. So I was delighted to discover this album: not only are all the performers superb musicians (many of them well-known in the San Francisco Bay Area early music scene), but their performances are imaginative, passionate, and lively while remaining true to the music's medieval roots. A pleasure to listen to all the way through, and heartily recommended.

Average customer rating:

Wake Up and Drum
LISTEN TO IT, ADORE IT, AND SEE IT LIVE!!!!
Incredible!

Gaame
Aa
Manufacturer: Gigantic
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Pullhair Rubeye
Fort Nightly
God Save the Clientele
And Their Refinement of the Decline
Tromatic Reflexxions

ASIN: B000NOK0SU
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Tracks:

Deathmask
Best of Seven
Flag Day
Good Ship
Manshake
New Machine
Thirteen
Walk Again
Time In
Fingers to Fist
Uracle
Thumper
Horse Steak

Customer Reviews:

Wake Up and Drum.......2007-06-08

This is the kind of frenetic, heart-and-mind-pounding newness that just might save our sad-sack post-slacker selves. Aa teases with pulsing, yelping, bleeping, blooping...tap-tap-tapping....then actually follows through with pounding pounding screaming release! This album is what music requires of us today: challenging, exciting, awakening. Just when things start to get beautiful, they get vitally noisy again. GAame nearly captures the frenzy of the live shows that've made Aa such a demolishing Brooklyn force: it's an important record, and it's more important to go see these dudes. According to Thurston Moore: "the kindsa sounds that young people should be making and enjoying in bistros from here to Kalamazoo" -ok Thurs, but let's listen to it while we form our first faint cries of revolution, too. WAKE UP and drum, young people!

LISTEN TO IT, ADORE IT, AND SEE IT LIVE!!!!.......2007-05-03

Short and sweet, Gaame has a wonderful atmosphere, with amazing, pounding & chant driven moments, alongside lush, keyboard and feedback filled noise-gasms..... I am amazed that this album posseses the energy that they deliver in live performance (a very hard feat, if you have ever seen them.) AND THE DVD IS INCREDIBLE!!! Supplying a music video for every song and tons .... TONS of live footage, these guys are truly giving the fans everything they could ask for. BUYITBUYITBUYIT!!!!

Incredible!.......2007-05-01

Live, this band is absolutely incredible, fresh & exciting. This disc captures that impact. However I'd hope you can enjoy it either way, with or without the live experience. 3 drummers, 1 keyboardist and semi-gutteral chanting. Tribal, psychedelic, heavy, raw, hardcore, high energy, high impact, original. I personally listened to it 7 times today during my work commute. Recommended!

Average customer rating:

SEMI-SEPHARDIC HEAVEN
Brilliant

Music for Alfonso the Wise

Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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A Dance in the Garden of Mirth: Medieval Instrumental Music - The Dufay Collective
The Dufay Collective:Miri It Is
Cancionero: Music for the Spanish Court 1470-1520
Cancionero
Istanpitta: Musiques de Fête à la Cour des Visconti

ASIN: B0006Z2LLU
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Tracks:

Muit, Amar
Ontre Todalas
Tant Aos Peccadores
Todo Los Santos
Que Muyto Meu Pago
Quen A Virgen
Bailemos Nos Ja Todas Tres
Dansa: Bailemos Nos Ja Todas Tres
Martin Jograr
Macar E Door
Non Soffre Santa Maria
Ondas Do Mare De Vigo
Mandad' Ei Comigo
Mia Irmana Fremosa
Interlude
Ay Deus Se Sab' Ora Meu Amigo
Quantas Sabedes Amar
Interlude/Eno Sagrado En Vigo
Ai Ondas Que Eu Vin Veer

Customer Reviews:

SEMI-SEPHARDIC HEAVEN.......2007-02-15

This record is new to me, as is most music of this type, from this era. I've a taste for middle-eastern music, both Islamic and otherwise -- including Hindu -- and am wild about most Hungarian and Slavic music. The frankly Sephardic music I've heard I find rapturous and profoundly satisfying. This music of EL SABIO fits into that category, easily, and the musicality of the performers is distinctive in the best way.

A new favorite has appeared on my shelves.

Brilliant.......2006-08-02

This compilation is dedicated to the works and compositions of Alfonso X, 13th century King of Castile and Leon, and a Renaissance man long before the concept of Renaissance had even been conceived. Alfonso was responsible for a tremendous period of advancement in learning in medieval Europe, and was a remarkable scholar and composer in his own right. At a time when the Bishop of Paris enjoyed a library of only four volumes, Alfonso had sponsored a library in Castile with over 30,000, collecting the works Christians, Muslims and Jews into one massive complex devoted to learning and freedom of thought. In this latter vein, Alfonso was also a competent astrologer, and, some say, adept of the esoteric Art. Irrespective of this, he was ill favored by the Church, predominantly due to his tolerance of the Muslims and Jews, with whom the Christian residents of Castile lived in harmony in contrast to the balance of the known world of the day.

DuFay Collective are, in a word, brilliant, basically the Pink Martini of the music of the period. Their music never fails to transport you back in time. In this collaboration with the 13th century Castilian King, they have produced a phenomenal, almost mystical album, whose compositions are highly reminiscent of those of Hildegard von Bingen, and the evocative and mystical harmony of the album Diadema, by Vox.

Of all of the works by DuFay to date, this is, by far, my favorite. It takes the mind and soul to other places. It is truly a masterpiece, and a collaborative effort across 700 years between an enlightened King at the end of the Dark Ages, and master performers of medieval music in modern times.

Average customer rating:

SUSAN HAYWARD BELTS IT OUT

I'll Cry Tomorrow

Manufacturer: Film Score Monthly
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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With a Song In My Heart (from the 1952 film)/ Pal Joey (with 1952 cast members)
I'll Cry Tomorrow
My Heart Speaks
I Want to Live!
Valley of the Dolls (Special Edition)

ASIN: B0006SSQ2K
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Tracks:

Main Title
Don't Cry/Bye l'Ums
Sing You Sinners - Susan Hayward
David/How Soon/Help
When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along - Susan Hayward
Trance/Mama's Plea
Confused/Pour Me
Transition/Also/Tony
Stood Up/Shattered/Tortured
Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe - Susan Hayward
Ashamed
String Chord/Real Heel
Down Girl/Ashamed
Home Sweet Home/This Is It/Hold It
Light
Fight to Live/Serenity
Burt/End Title
Ashamed/Home Sweet Home [Original Version][*]
AA Medley [*] - Susan Hayward
End Title [Original Version][*]
I'll Cry Tomorrow [Single Version][*] - Johnny Green And His Quartette, Susan Hayward
Vagabond King Waltz/I'm Sitting on Top of the World [*] - Susan Hayward
Starlight Romance/Presently
Waltz Huguette/Bar Mitzvah Rhumba
Source Music Medley: Good Morning/Ropin'/Beautiful Girl/We'll Make Hay
When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along
Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe

Customer Reviews:

SUSAN HAYWARD BELTS IT OUT.......2005-03-31

This CD is a rare treat for Susan Hayward fans - a chance to hear her do her own singing in the film "I'll Cry Tomorrow" based on the story of Lillian Roth, who battled alcoholism in her life. The sound quality is EXCELLENT and the CD includes extensive notes, and even includes unused tracks, such as the vocal efforts of studio vocalist Sandy Ellis, who was originally going to dub for Hayward. Many people are not aware that the real Lillian Roth was disapointed that her own voice tracks were not used for the film. But, Hayward surprised everyone with her surprisingly goodvocal range. The background music is exceptionally fineas well, and is all included here. This CD is a must-have for Susan Hayward fans - and lovers of fine film score music as well.

Average customer rating:

About Baroque

Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Army of Shadows - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B000L42HT2
Release Date: 2007-02-13

Tracks:

Flekkichta
Bagatelle Trascendentali
Imprint

Tracks:

...Und Folge Mir Nach
Rubricare

Average customer rating:

Sheer Brilliance
Fodt Til A Herske
Seriously Superb
Mortiis Rocks!
wtf?

Født til å Herske
Mortiis
Manufacturer: Projekt Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ambient | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

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The Stargate
Crypt Of The Wizard
Keiser Av en Dimensjon Ukjent
Grudge
Stormblast

ASIN: B000000BE6
Release Date: 1997-09-09

Tracks:

Fodt til a Herske pt. 1
Fodt til a Herske pt. 2

Amazon.com

Hard to tell how seriously we're supposed to take Mortiis. Given his appearance--Viking helmet, pointy prosthetic nose, white makeup, black eyeliner, flowing black hair--it seems as though he's a laugh-out-loud parody of all things goth. That he has a shady background as a onetime member of the anti-Christian black-metal band Emperor only adds to the fun. How jarring, then, that the music he makes is actually...amazing. Totally original in approach, Født til å Herske ("Born to Rule") forsakes song structure entirely and presents two 25-minute suites of beautifully epic keyboard composition. Mortiis calls it "dark dungeon music," but you also get the sense that he's aiming for something aboveground--heroic symphonies that conjure up images of Norse warriors carrying the bodies of their wounded comrades across the fjords. Despite its repetitive structures, it's an immensely satisfying and inspiring listen. At the very least, it's great soundtrack music for reading Icelandic sagas or looting and pillaging small English villages. --Steve Landau

Customer Reviews:

Sheer Brilliance.......2006-09-28

I've known of Mortiis for quite some time. The very first song I heard from him was Parasite God and I fell in love with it. Not only was his appearance intriguing, but his music was something I didn't think would come from someone who looked like that. I started growing an ear for industrial and EBM music, and his albums were perfect. I didn't hear "Fodt Til A Herske" until a while after I heard Parasite God, and when I did hear it, I was taken away. This CD is by far superior to almost everything I own. It sounds so beautiful. Very good to relax to, and it puts the most wonderful thoughts in my head. I'm just still upset I had to miss both his tours due to the fact that he did not come to Arizona. Anyone who is a fan of anything renaissance and medieval, I recommend this album!!

Fodt Til A Herske.......2005-11-09

First off, I must say that this review is coming from a fan of all types of music. I was incredibly fortunate to find this at my local record store. Being a huge fan of Emperor, I was curious to see what Mortiis was all about, so I purchased this without question. This is a very unique album with only two songs that span over 25 minutes each. They are deep, meaningful, and well orchestrated. At first listen, this appeared to be amongst the most depressing albums I had ever heard, but as I listened to it more and more, it's possible to see that there are different emotions put into this kind of music, not just sorrow. The artwork perfectly coincides with the music, as it is very close to what I picture in my head while listening. With the right ear, this album can lead to a very rewarding and blissful experience.

Seriously Superb.......2005-06-05

Oh, I got this CD so long ago...and it sounds like it. This is peaceful music. It so oddly, for the Christian ethos of the film/books, would be the perfect soundtrack for Lord of the Rings. This music seems to talk as verbally as if some medieval spectre were narrating it himself. I play this out the windows on All Hallows Eve to accompany the trick-or-treaters on their, in reality, far more trite plight than this music suggests.

Mortiis Rocks!.......2004-06-16

This album is very good but it's not something that you will hear every day. This is ambient music, very very DARK ambient music.

wtf?.......2004-06-03

TRASH. Want mood music? Get My Dying Bride, Tristania or even Finntroll...anything...I'd expect something better coming from an ex-Emperor member.

Simoun Gaiden CD Drama: Aa Uruwashi No Haken Ol

Average customer rating:

Simoun Gaiden CD Drama: Aa Uruwashi No Haken Ol
Japanimation
Manufacturer: Jvc Victor
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Japan | Far East & Asia | International | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000HA48Q0
Release Date: 2006-10-09

Average customer rating:

Donaueschinger Musiktage 2004

Manufacturer: Col Legno
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Donaueschinger Musiktage 2003
Pierluigi Billone: Me A An - Iti Ke Mi

ASIN: B000EGEJRU
Release Date: 2006-02-28

Average customer rating:

Donaueschinger Musiktage 2001

Manufacturer: Col Legno
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00008ZL6I
Release Date: 2003-04-22

Tracks:

Konzert Fvier, Orchester und Electronics
Polyskopie ) Musik Fes Orchester) - Michel van der Aa
Impolosion (Fhester)

Tracks:

Here (To Be Found) (Fmmen, Kammerorchester und Soundtrack)
Orpheus' B(Fmmen und Orchester)
N.N. (File Kr-Stimmen und Station Instrumente)

Average customer rating:

The Sultan of Madinah
Aa'shiq-al-Rasul
Manufacturer: Meem Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CPGYDU
Release Date: 2005-09-01

Tracks:

The Sultan of Madinah
Jewel of Creation
Intercession
The Journey (Interlude)
The Messenger
Madinah-Tun-Nabi
, Beloved

Product Description

An amazing mix of traditional urdu influences, with inspirational english lyrics, and an amazing percussion arrangement makes the newest release from Aa'shiq-al-Rasul a groundbreaking nasheed album that is sure to revolutionaize the genre. Featuring an english rendition of traditional urdu naat, 'Shahee Madinah', and their own version of Madinah-tun-Nabi, this album is sure to become a classic in the nasheed genre.

Jazz Music:

Jazz Music

Jazz Music