MUSIC

Kwanza is an album by Archie Shepp, released in 2023. Kwanza includes a.o. the following tracks: “Back Back”, “Spoo Pee Doo”, “New Africa”, “Slow Drag” and more. The album is a jazz LP.

Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent is the follow up to his debut, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent.

From announcing a single via a TikTok live stream during the closing night of his two sold-out London’s O2 Arena shows, ‘Forget Me’ arrived with high anticipation from the start, and was shortly followed by a true spectacle of a music video that saw Lewis re-enact Wham’s 1983 hit ‘Club Tropicana’ shot-for-shot.

So, for album two, the idea is simple but potent: to go in and do the exact same thing. No bells, whistles or starry featured vocalists, and no ruinously expensive stays in distant studios. Like it was on the first album, straight-up, full-force honesty. “I don’t want to create a new sound for myself, or reinvent myself.” says Lewis. “The songs I want to write are emotional songs, about love or loss.”

Higher Than Heaven is an album by Ellie Goulding, released in 2023. Higher Than Heaven includes a.o. the following tracks: “Midnight Dreams”, “By The End Of The Night”, “Waiting For It”, “Just For You” and more.

Mythologies is a full-length score conceived for a ballet of the same name and composed by Thomas Bangalter, known around the world as a member of Daft Punk, the influential French electronic music duo. With Daft Punk, Bangalter fused funk, disco, rock and pop. Here, he again breaks down musical barriers: Mythologies, his first orchestral work, embraces idioms from the Baroque to modern American minimalism. Its movements have names like ‘Zeus’, ‘The Gorgons’, ‘Aphrodite’ and ‘Funeral Dance’.

Ballet, like music, is in Bangalter’s blood. His mother was a ballet dancer, his father a songwriter and producer; and he was taught piano as a child by a music staff member at the Paris Opera. “With electronic music, it’s so hard and it takes so much time to infuse emotion in the machines,” he told the New York Times. “So to write a chord or a melody and have the performers — human beings — play it and have this instant emotional quality to it, is really quite exhilarating.”

Mythologies is billed as exploring “contemporary rituals and the founding myths that shape the collective imagination”. It was premiered in 2022 as a collaboration between the Ballet de l’Opera National de Bordeaux and the Ballet Preljocaj (led by the French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, who invited Bangalter to create the score). Mythologies is performed on this world premiere recording by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under conductor Romain Dumas.

Prokofiev: Violin Concertos is an album by Itzhak Perlman, released in 2023. Prokofiev: Violin Concertos includes a.o. the following tracks: “Violin Concerto No.1 In D Major, Op.19 I. Andantino”, “Violin Concerto No.1 In D Major, Op.19 Ii. Scherzo: Vivaciss”, “Violin Concerto No.1 In D Major, Op.19 Iii. Moderato”, “Violin Concerto No.2 In G Minor, Op.63 I. Allegro Moderato” and more. The album is a classical LP.

Gatefold Sleeve
Roger Waters The Lockdown Sessions is a collection of songs that were home-recorded and filmed during the Covid lockdown between 2020 and 2021. Also included with the release is “Comfortably Numb 2022” which was recorded during Waters This Is Not A Drill North American tour.

The Lockdown Sessions were produced by Roger Waters and Gus Seyffert. The recordings feature Roger Waters – Vocals, Guitar and Piano; Gus Seyffert – Bass, Cellos and Vocals; Joey Waronker – Drums and Percussion; Dave Kilminster – Guitar and Rhythm Guitar; Jonathan Wilson – Guitar and Vocals; Jon Carin – Keyboards and Vocals, Lucius (Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig) – Vocals; Bo Koster – Hammond (on all songs except “Mother”) and Ian Ritchie – Saxophone (“Two Suns In The Sunset”).

The Lockdown Sessions are 5 key tracks from Waters’ time with Pink Floyd/his solo career: “Mother” and “Vera” from Pink Floyd’s The Wall; “Two Suns In The Sunset” and “The Gunner’s Dream” from Waters’ last Pink Floyd album, The Final Cut; and “The Bravery of Being Out Of Range” from his acclaimed solo album, Amused To Death. In addition, Waters’ new version of the classic Pink Floyd song “Comfortably Numb” appears as the final track on The Lockdown Sessions.

Waters commented:

“Our Us and Them Tour lasted three years…At every gig we did an encore after the show ended with Comfortably Numb…the encore was always Mother…I can’t remember why I decided to do other songs…Anyway, at some point after the tour ended…I started thinking, ‘It could be an interesting album, all those encores’… “The Encores”. “Yeah, that sounds good!” Then…I’m in England to do the Ginger Baker tribute gig on a Tuesday night at the Hammersmith Odeon with Eric Clapton and…the next Saturday marching from the Australian Embassy to Parliament Square to give a speech in support of Julian Assange, then damn it, Covid…Schlummmm! For me, it was Friday, March 13, 2020. Lockdown! So much for the “Encores” project. Unless…
We stuck C. Numb at the end of the collection, as a fitting exclamation point to close this circle of love.”

Reissue
The Gold Experience, released in 1995, was the first full-length Prince album to be credited to his unpronounceable symbol and was released at the most public, heated stage of his battle with the major label industrial complex. With the word “SLAVE” written on one cheek, Prince shined on the opulent ballads “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” and “Gold” and the defiant single “[eye] Hate U,” and the album earned widespread critical acclaim. Available as black vinyl double LP.