On this rendition of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, Tomita takes the Russian composer’s music into the galaxy of component Moog synths, a Roland space echo unit that will surely phase shift you across the universe, along with a guitar and other period electronic gear. As unique as Tomita's idiom has been, this transcription stays a little closer to our solar system with his trademark spacy and phasey treatments working best on the slower pieces. Now “Firebird” has been reissued as a quad and stereo SACD on the Vocalion label, who also recently brought us Tomita’s “Ravel” quad SACD which features one of the most famous classical pieces, “Bolero.” But, I digress, this new release of Firebird… Continue Reading

Alan Parsons has released his latest album “The Secret” on Frontiers Music on multiple formats, including CD, CD+DVD-A Deluxe Edition, or on vinyl LP and digital downloads. For Hi-Res enthusiasts the DVD-A contains both a High Definition Stereo and 5.0 surround audio mix. The Grammy Award Winning musician and producer has return to the pop rock sound with symphonic and progressive rock interludes which the Alan Parsons Project has been so well known for. Collaborating with Jason Mraz, Alan comments they have mutual musical interests and for the track “Miracle,” they each recorded their parts in their respective hometowns of Dallas and Santa Barbara. While Mraz while recorded his vocals,… Continue Reading

We sadly have come to the final two releases in the 40th Anniversary Series of King Crimson albums. This 1 CD + 1 DVD-A edition of their 2000 album ReconstruKction of Light is the fourteenth release to receive the deluxe edition with 5.1 surround sound mixes. However this version differs quite a bit from the previous ones, featuring a "re-imagined" edition of the album with all drums replaced by Pat Mastelotto followed by the entire album remixed by Don Gunn to integrate these changes, thus the updated name from its original “The ConstruKction of Light.” For high resolution and surround enthusiasts, the DVD-A features new mixes both in stereo audio and lossless 5.1 surround sound, the later… Continue Reading